05Jan 2016 by johnastapleton

Life and Fun in 2016

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There are a lot of fun things to do in 2016: Here are my top four, highly idiosyncratic entries,  all from watching evening television on Netflix or CBC Praise Keith Richards – Rock Historian: Tune into Netflix and go to the music documentaries. It takes a while until you realize that Keith Richards is in almost all of them. He has raised the halting carefulness of the intoxicant trying to keep it together to high art. But don’t let the highly practiced ‘stoned’ style (and a 70+ year old wearing a headband) distract you or make you think that this isn’t serious. Keith Richards is THE historian of rock and roll. He traces it – he spins it. He plays it. He takes you from Muscle Shoals to clubs in Chicago.…
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05Jan 2016 by johnastapleton

On self exemption, framing and location: a meditation on race and other elements of personal biography that cannot be changed

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What can we not change? I want to use the word ‘racism’ in its broadest sense – much broader than it is currently used. The reason is that race is only one aspect of our humanity that no one can change. We can’t change our place of origin. All of us were born in one of about 200 nations on earth. We can however, change our nationality through immigration. We can renounce our place of origin. We can’t change our ethnicity. Ethnicity is a part of our personal biography that none of us can change. We can change our proclivities, however. Each of us can orient ourselves towards other ethnicities through dress, the food we eat, and social behaviour. We can’t change our race. Race is also an element of…
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03Jan 2016 by johnastapleton

Social Assistance in Ontario: Periods of Tumult and Calm

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For the first time in over a year and without much fanfare, the Ontario Government has begun to publish monthly social assistance caseload numbers. One guesses that the reason for the hiatus was the much-reported troubles with their new social assistance computer system called SAMS. The newest figures are for November 2015 and the new charts on the MCSS website include caseload figures going back two years including  the 13 months from November 2014 to November 2015 that were missing. They are here for Ontario Works: http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/documents/en/mcss/social/reports/OW_EN_2015-11.pdf and here for ODSP: http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/documents/en/mcss/social/reports/ODSP_EN_2015-11.pdf This has allowed me to update an excel file which many readers have seen in the past that includes reliable data for the last 35 years (since 1981) for caseloads (payments) , beneficiaries (men women and children receiving assistance), unemployment, and population. Some…
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27Dec 2015 by johnastapleton

Time to look at income security for low income older adults with disabilities

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One of the long term goals I have for Open Policy is to cover all aspects of income security for all age groups for low income people with and without disabilities. This year, Open Policy managed to add a critical piece with the publication of Every Ninth Child in Ontario: A Cost-Benefit Analysis for Investing in the Care of Special Needs Children and Youth in Ontario with my colleagues Alexa Briggs, Celia Lee, Brendon Pooran and Rene Doucet. Children and youth with disabilities and their income security needs are extremely important and I hope there will be more contributions from my colleagues and I on this front in the future. The following is a chart that I have had in my head for years but I never sat down and…
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25Oct 2015 by johnastapleton

Hunter Gatherers in Toronto: “What a long strange trip it’s been”

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 “As soon as the rent is paid, first thing I do is stock up on food, which generally means I've got three days’ worth of food. For the rest of the month I hit soup kitchens, food banks. And I'm allowed to hit the food bank four times a month.  The clothes exchanges provide the clothing, but the problem is, because I haven't been eating healthy for the last ten years, I'm pretty underweight. So finding clothes that fit, pants especially, I'm currently taking like a 26/30 which is almost impossible to find.” - 59 year old single male social assistance recipient in Toronto   A hunter-gatherer is defined as follows by dictionary.com: “A member of a group of people who subsist by hunting, fishing, or foraging in the wild.”[1]…
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08Oct 2015 by johnastapleton

Scarborough Wants In!

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Toronto Tourism growing in importance In the afterglow of the Pan/Parapan Am Games, Toronto residents have fixated on tourism revenue and city building as important dividends arising from our successful hosting job. And now that the Games’ success has bolstered support for other hosting opportunities, new infrastructure projects and unprecedented levels of tourism are now within sight. Torontonians recognize the benefits of drawing visitors to the various attractions, businesses and neighbourhoods that define our city and showcase its unique character.   Toronto is home to an enviable array of urban and natural enclaves, diverse cultural experiences, food, entertainment and world-class retail. Tourism Toronto guide is the official guide but shortchanges Scarborough That’s why visitors and locals turn to the Official Toronto Tourist Guide produced by Tourism Toronto, the official destination marketing…
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23Jun 2015 by johnastapleton

A reply to Martin Regg Cohn’s column: “Gambling on Horses hasn’t paid off”

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It’s hard to know if Toronto Star columnist Martin Regg Cohn is trying to use horse racing as a way to ‘spank’ the Provincial Liberal party. Maybe he is showcasing what he believes to be a “dying Liberal brand” through the Ontario government’s attempts to revive horse racing in Ontario. Regardless, Cohn’s column in the Toronto Star[1] of June 16, 2015 fails at both. I won’t take the time here to retell the story of the rise and fall of the Slots at the Racetrack Program (SARP) or the Wynne’s government’s work to breathe life back into the industry. We all know the story and we have heard it countless times before. So let me tell a bit of a different story. When the McGuinty government pulled the plug on…
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22Apr 2015 by johnastapleton

We are the 61%

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In the May 2011 federal election, voter turnout was 61%. In the same election, all other parties except the winner received 61% of the vote. In other words, of the 61% of us who voted, 61% of us voted against the majority government that took power. Usually 61% runs the show; but not now. And it looks like it will happen again. Why? To quote ABBA: “The winner takes it all!” The Conservative strategy is a 39% strategy. They need 39% of Canadians not to vote in 2015. And they need 39% of the popular vote to get a majority again. These are modest goals. They also need progressives to split their vote as equally as possible between the other two mainstream parties. The Conservative government has announced a Budget with…
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27Mar 2015 by johnastapleton

The plight of low income hardworking seniors

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This is the year that I become a senior citizen for the first and only time. I wrote a blog when I turned 60 for an online newspaper called ‘The Mark’ on what it means to turn age 60 when you are poor[1]. I spent the next four years on a self-motivated project called ‘Retiring on a low income’. I know from my ‘Google analytics’ that it is very popular as the material has been accessed about 45,000 times, mostly from new users. My blog on the subject, written in 2013, was the most popular blog on the Vibrant Communities website in 2014. I now want to set my sights on the issues that beset those who have already turned 65 but continue to live on a low income. Catherine…
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22Mar 2015 by johnastapleton

A funny thing happened on the way to the middle ages: Boethius and the ‘Identity of Indiscernibles’

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It takes a long time following retirement from the public service after which you realize that you can write about anything you want. I had always wanted to publish a limerick that I wrote with a friend (now deceased) over 40 years ago.  In this blog, I take another item off my intellectual bucket list. I was reading PhD level courses in philosophy in 1973 at York University (Social and Political Thought) when the course material required that the class read the Consolation of Philosophy by the mediaeval philosopher Boethius[1]. Boethius, born in 480 A.D., was an influential sort who reported directly to Theodoric the Great. But he got himself imprisoned for trying to navigate the difficult and treacherous process of bringing Constantinople and Rome closer together. Theodoric eventually had Boethius…
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