Decades of social policy by different levels of government in Canada have kept people in poverty, making it nearly impossible to escape a life dependent on welfare, according to a new report by the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology.

“The Committee does not believe that these outcomes are inevitable,” said the report.

“In fact, the federal programs designed to bring older Canadians out of poverty have proven to be enormously, if not completely, successful, lifting many seniors out of poverty, and ensuring that none are in deep poverty.”

Mounting job losses in the manufacturing sector have forced many Ontarians back to school in order to transition to a knowledge based economy, according to a new report by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

But rising tuition fees, heavy student debt loads and chronic provincial under funding are major obstacles for those wanting to further their education.

A sombre memorial vigil marked by both song and silence commemorated three more homeless deaths in Toronto during the monthly vigil held Tuesday outside the Church of the Holy Trinity.

More than 30 people cupping candles that flickered in the cold morning air gathered in the courtyard of the Eaton Centre at noon, as they do on the second Tuesday of every month.

Homeless people, affordable housing advocates and others stood below the steps near a small wooden structure at the south entrance of the church that now contains over 600 names of men, women and children who have lived and died on the streets of Toronto as a direct result of homelessness since 1990.

Every year on December 7, Tehran campuses mark the 1953 killing of three students by the armed forces, just months after a US-backed coup toppled popular prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq.

Ensuring the future of the province’s creative economy will require a serious, well-planned and well-delivered investment in post-secondary education by the Ontario government, according to a new report on higher education.

The report released Monday by the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) said that in order for Ontario to play a leading role in the knowledge economy, the government must first create an affordable, accessible, post secondary education system.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is under fire from community and labour groups who gathered outside his regional office in Toronto Wednesday to protest his proposed changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program and what they called the failures of the immigration system.

A few hundred protesters waved union flags and held signs demanding justice for migrant workers and fairness in the workplace.

People who have experienced homelessness or inadequate housing are the experts in what is needed in a housing strategy, according to a new report from the Housing Network of Ontario (HNO).

Those living in poverty should, said the HNO, “be consulted on an inclusive basis throughout the development of the long-term affordable housing strategy, and be involved in the evaluation of its implementation.”

Alberta, Nova Scotia and Ontario recorded the highest increases.

More than 72,000 people visited a food bank for the first time in their lives. Thirty-seven percent of those helped are children; half of the households are families with children.

While Canada is not alone in grappling with the problem of youth homelessness, the report said, “Canada has not succeeded in either quantifying the issue or in responding with comprehensive, lasting solutions.”

With Ontarians losing jobs, increasingly reliant on food banks, and swelling social assistance rolls, now is the crucial time to invest in an anti-poverty strategy, a new report said on Tuesday.

Campaign 2000 said 317,900 children and youth under age 18 (almost 1 in every 9) were living below the poverty line in 2007, when Ontario was experiencing strong economic growth, adding the current recession means that Ontario’s child and family poverty rate will have since increased.