Holding charities to business standards

            Just in time for Christmas giving, Charity Intelligence Canada, which compiles an annual list of non-profit organizations that offer donors "the biggest bang for their buck," has released its 2009 recommendations. Twelve Toronto charities made the cut. Most are well-known, deliver quantifiable services and have influential corporate or institutional backers. The twelve winners of the prestigious contest were Second Harvest, Fort York food bank, Evangal Hall Mission, Salvation Army Gateway, Red Door Family Shelter, Babra Schielfer Clinic, Pathways to Education, Junior Achievement of Central Ontario, East York Learning Center, Gateway Linens, Eva's Print Shop, and TurnAround Couriers. The charities have been recognized for doing excellent work in their fields and this award gives them recognition for all of their hard work. These are all high name charities that many of us are familiar with and donate to. There are many smaller organizations out there that do better work, but don't have the resources or the publicity to get noticed. People also need to give their respect to these smaller organizations because what they lack of in resources they make up for with understanding of their clients and perseverance. The Charity intelligence program was created to help make a name for the smaller charities who take large measures to meet the needs of their clients. It searches very hard to find the most influential small charities and gives them the resources they need. This will ensure the most important charities in our communities can stay prevalent.


           I believe that this organization does a great service in recognizing the many charities who have worked tremendously hard to make the lives of people less fortunate than them more enjoyable. Without organizations such as these many small charities such as these would go un- noticed for the great services they provide and all of the people they help. When an organization like this gets recognized it in turn receives a larger amount of money because more people are aware of the cause it is fighting for. This money allows them to reach out to an even larger population and extend the arms of their service to more citizens. By recognizing these small charities we are helping many more people than you could imagine live a more comfortable life. We can make a difference. When we donate to a charity we are saying that we want to help people have the opportunity for a better life; we show that we care about the well being of others. Be a good citizen, a good person; donate money to charities because showing you care goes a long way.

Fiorito: Bedbugs can be beaten

     Bedbugs, many believe they are only a story that parents tell young children before tucking them in for the night. I truth is bed bugs are actually small insects that live in the beds of almost every person on the earth, and cause widespread rashes and even illnesses to the people sleeping in those beds. They have plagued the people since the introduction of mattresses because they can thrive on the bacteria in them. A recent outbreak in a number of old age homes and apartment buildings are causing many people to attempt to find a cure for the bedbugs. Several boards of health have become recently concerned with these sudden outbreaks. One who lived in an apartment building of off Yonge Street showed just how damaging bedbugs can be. She showed us her arms and legs which had hundreds of miniscule bite marks, causing her much discomfort. Several other women in this building have claimed to be bitten several times by these tiny insects. They said that their apartment building is now enacting an anti-bedbug program. This process consists of steaming the mattresses, filling in cracks in wall, washing all clothes, and vacuuming the rugs thoroughly. They said we now know how to beat the bug, its just a matter of consistently paying for these measures. Residents of these apartment buildings and many old age homes are demanding measures to be made so that this bed bug killing procedure can continue. This idea is also backed by the Ontario Ministry of Health; they said it could drop sickness rates down up to 9% from this increased cleanliness. These people have a very important issue that needs to be resolved.


             I found this article very interesting and relevant to St. Andrews College. We live in an environment that can be plagued with illnesses due to the interactive nature of the Andrean Society. At the school we look into every possible measure with regards to keeping all of the students healthy. If there is a new method that will ensure that no one will get a sickness we incorporate that into our life. This helps us fight off illnesses and when someone does get an illness they are treated immediately to limit the spread. This is very much the same as what is happening here. These people have no control over some of the aspects of the cleanliness of these buildings and are just looking to stay healthy. I believe all of the needs of these people must be met in order to maintain a fair society. We have given money for much less important things and shouldn't shy away when people really need it. If this system could be incorporated into many facilities such as this across the country Canada will become a much healthier country.

Caledonia protestors may have had guns, court told

           A Caledonian man is suing the Ontario government for supposedly spying on First Nation's protestors as they unloaded several boxes of what appeared to be full of loaded assault rifles. David Brown, 42, and his wife, Dana Chatwell and their children have filled a $7 million lawsuit against the province and OPP for abuse of power and neglect of duty over a standoff at Douglas Creek Estates, a parcel of land native’s claim was stolen from them 200 years ago. This area is located 20 kilometers southwest of Hamilton and has been a large area of conflict between the town, the police and the native protestors. Since this time the land has been sold back to the town from the original developer because of this dispute, giving the province more control over the occurrences that commence on that land. Brown admitted that he crawled onto the native’s occupied land and saw them unloading crates of what he claimed to be filled with assault rifles. He recognized the type of box and the inscriptions on the side as the type he used to see at the shipyard he used to work for. These boxes were from Russia. "I could see it pretty clearly," said Brown, who was about 20 meters from the men unloading the crates. "I was looking through the grass and my heart was pounding." He first approached the police about this and they said they hadn't seen anything if the sort. Brown knew this to be a lie because he saw an OPP van stationed just off the property observing these activities. Brown feels strongly about this because his family has been put in harms way many times by these natives and the police did nothing to prevent this. Brown is testifying to try and protect his family and assist all other families in his position.


             In my opinion this occurrence could prove to be very harmful to the reputation of the OPP if they are found guilty as charged and lose this case. This man, Mr. Brown, did this for the sake of the welfare of his family. He shouldn't be punished, the ones responsible for the events leading him to do this should be held responsible. If what Mr. Brown is saying is the truth than this situation is one of dire importance for the future of the OPP. These disputes with native Canadians have been prevalent problems for the past couple of years, but the police have always told us they have it under control and the people don't need to take action. If Mr. Brown is telling the truth this proves that the police don't have this issue under control, and the people are being forced to change these problems themselves as a result. Irresponsible is the only word to describe the party that losses this law suit. The OPP have their reputation as a force to help the people at stake, and if Mr. Brown is lying he is irresponsible for putting himself in such danger with no way to protect himself. I believe both parties in this issue have made bad choices that could spite them in the end.

Fast food, coffe to escape new blended tax

              As many of you know the government seemed set on imposing a new HST tax on things like coffee, newspapers, and fast food. This would bring in huge tax dollars for the government, think of how many coffees you drink, newspapers you read, and fast food you eat. Thankfully for us citizens the government has withdrawn from this proposal because they fear the reaction of the people would be much too large for them to handle. Although Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty is very strained about the fact that the province of Ontario has a $25 billion deficit, he feels that he can't follow through with asking for more than the already inflated 13%. Revenue minister John Wilkinson ensures that everything from newspapers, to Tim Horton’s donuts will continue to be charged with the regular 5% GST tax. He also ensures that the 8% HST that is already charged will not increase in the future. The Liberal party was a big decision changer on the subject. They felt that waking up and having to pay a heavy tax on something that used to be so inexpensive could cause a distrust and strain towards the government. They feel these in-your-face taxes are not the appropriate way for the government to get their money. The idea of these taxes was viewed as ridiculous by many members of government. They felt in this time of financial uncertainty any unnecessary taxes will just anger the people. The government made the right decision to abolish the idea of these taxes.


              I believe this is a promising time for the minority government of Canada. This dispute shows the true strengths of having a minority government in Canada. The purpose of having this type of government is to stop a government who doesn't have the majority from making the wrong decision, and it did just that. If a minority government had not been established the Conservatives would have been left without a second opinion and would have followed through with the introduction of this tax. They would have then faced the unhappy wrath of millions of Canadians who don’t want extra taxes on their morning necessities. This would have caused a country wide uproar leaving no positives. I feel this also illustrates the irresponsibly of the Conservative party which currently runs our government. I feel that this issue truly demonstrated the strength of the Canadian Minority Government.

Jobless rate spikes as manufacturing hit hard

                    As everyone knows we are in a time of financial recession in the world at this point in time because of the mortgage crisis, causing a crash in the stock market. This in turn has caused a worldwide manufacturing crisis. People are losing their jobs all over the world because of this recession because companies are closing down at alarming rates. Recently the recession has slowed and has caused many companies to go back into business giving thousands of people who were laid off a second change. Unfortunately this recent prosperity was short lived and the companies are now on the downhill. Over the past few months there has been a 8% increase in unemployment rates across the country, which translates into a loss of over 30 000 jobs. This is caused by companies reopening, but unable to support near as many workers as they did before. With the economy as unstable as it is right now none of the companies want to invest a lot because they know the risk of losing everything is quite prevalent. The United States has also been hit from this dip in the economy and is suffering at a 10.2% unemployment rate, the highest since the depression in the 1930's. Many of the job losses in Canada are the young people of the population working in newer franchise businesses that quickly went under. This is good and bad news. It means our core economic working force is still intact, but at the same time our new and upcoming core is not working. This financial crisis is very serious and needs to be addresses by both the Canadian and U.S. government.


             I believe this financial crisis is becoming a very serious problem and needs to be addresses before it causes any irreplaceable damage. It started off as a small crash in the market and has been blown way out of proportion, which in turn caused the real damage. People became very tight with their money and no money was going back into the economy causing the whole issue. If people were to shake the first sign of trouble off and kept investing as they normally did than the market would have recovered in a matter of days and wouldn't now be a global issue. This entire issue was caused by the sheepish nature of today’s investors and the selfishness of the business men of the world. Money should rule our world, but this is just absurd. The whole world goes into debt because a few greedy billionaires won’t give a million of their fortune up to ensure the stable economy of the entire world. I believe the human race has become much to focused on money and are missing the true values of life.