Browse "Communities & Sociology"

Overdoses from a class of painkiller drugs called opioids are claiming the lives of thousands of Canadians from all walks of life. The death count is the result of an escalating public health crisis: an epidemic of opioid addiction. The crisis is made deadlier by an influx of illicit fentanyl and chemically similar drugs, but it can be traced to the medical over-prescribing of opioids, including oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine.

Canadian Bible Society, was founded in 1904 to publish and distribute biblical scriptures and to make the bible available to all who could read it.

The Canadian Cancer Society is a national, community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is the eradication of cancer and the enhancement of the quality of life of people living with cancer.

A census is a count of a population in a specific region. In Canada, there are two types of censuses: the Census of Population and the Census of Agriculture. Both are conducted every five years by Statistics Canada, a department of the federal government. The larger of the two censuses, the Census of Population, gathers various demographic information, including where people live, as well as their age, sex, marital status and ethnic origin. This information is used by the government to establish electoral boundaries, to make federal transfer payments (money given to the provinces) and to monitor various social programs and policies (e.g. Canada Pension Plan, health care and education). In addition, the data is available to non-governmental organizations and to the general public; some older data is available to individuals interested in genealogical research.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or simply the Charter, is the most visible and recognized part of the Canadian Constitution. The Charter guarantees the rights of individuals by enshrining those rights, and certain limits on them, in the highest law of the land. Since its enactment in 1982, the Charter has created a social and legal revolution in Canada, expanding the rights of minorities, transforming the nature of criminal investigations and prosecutions, and subjecting the will of Parliament and the legislatures to judicial scrutiny — an ongoing source of controversy.

English is one of Canada’s two official languages, spoken as a mother tongue by about 19 million people, or 57 per cent of the population, and by about 68 per cent as a home language (2011 Census of Population).

The Canadian Federation of University Women was founded in 1919 as a Canadian counterpart to the International Federation of University Women, whose purpose was to emphasize women's role in social reconstruction and the prevention of war.

Through its history, Canada has taken a series of increasingly bold steps to develop from a British colony into an independent nation. Both the world wars were turning points, with Canada's military sacrifices giving it the strength and confidence to demand its own voice on the world stage. In the postwar era, Canada has maintained its role in both Western and global alliances. However, relations with the United States – because of its singular importance to Canadian security and trade – have dominated Canada's foreign policy since Confederation.

Foundations are "non-governmental, non-profit organizations with funds (usually from a single source, either an individual, a family, or a corporation) and program managed by (their) own trustees or directors, established to maintain or aid social, educational, charitable, religious, or other activities serving the common welfare through the making of Grants".

In the basketball arena in Kupang, West Timor, the young boy was all kitted out in his L.A. Lakers jersey and shorts. A refugee, he looked about 12 years old, one of the thousands of victims of two weeks of violence in East Timor.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Tribunal Panel were established under the 1977 Canadian Human Rights Act to investigate and resolve individual complaints about discriminatory employment practices.

The question of what it means to be a Canadian – what moral, political or spiritual positions it entails – has been a vexed one, so much so that some people place the question itself at centre of the identity.

Language policy has been a periodic concern of states and other governing institutions in the West since at least the time of the counter-Reformation Church.

Canadian National Institute for the Blind, see BLINDNESS AND VISUAL IMPAIRMENT.

Canadian Parents for French is a national organization of parents dedicated to the expansion of French second-language learning opportunities for young Canadians. Primarily driven by the volunteer efforts of parents, it has been the leading organization in Canada dedicated to the expansion of French immersion programs and the improvement of French second-language learning programs since the 1970s.

The Canadian Political Science Association was founded in 1913. It lost its membership to WWI, but was reconstituted in 1929 and has operated continuously since. It was incorporated under the Canada Corporation Act in 1971.

The welcoming and resettlement of many thousands of refugees from Southeast Asia in the late 1970s and early 1980s represents a turning point in the history of immigration in Canada. It was the first time that the Canadian government applied its new program for private sponsorship of refugees — the only one if its kind in the world — through which more than half of the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian refugees who came to Canada during this period were admitted. In recognition of this unprecedented mobilization of private effort, the people of Canada were awarded the Nansen Medal, an honour bestowed by the United Nations for outstanding service to the cause of refugees. It was the first and remains the only time that the entire people of a country have been collectively honored with this award. But most importantly, this positive, humanitarian response by Canadians reflected a change in their attitude toward refugees. Never before in its history had Canada welcomed so many refugees in so little time.

The ongoing Syrian conflict has catalyzed different responses in Canada. The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, which came into power in November 2015, has greatly expanded the resettlement of Syrian refugees into Canada. However, the policies have also been criticized as Canada continues to fight Islamophobia and negative attitudes about refugees.

Cannabis, also known as marijuana (among countless other names), is a psychoactive intoxicant that was banned in Canada from 1923 until medical cannabis became legal in 2001. The consumption and sale of recreational cannabis was legalized and regulated on 17 October 2018, after Parliament passed Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act. Legalization was supported by a majority of Canadians, despite concerns about the drug’s addictiveness and health effects, especially among young people.