Abstract In this article, the writer discusses the employmentprospects of university graduates. Among some of the applicable data addressed are overall employment figures related to unemployment rates, characteristics of the labor force and employment by sector. The conclusion is that while technology is one of the most promising prospects to take university training in, it is also one of the most susceptible to the global employment strategies of offshoring and outsourcing. However, the writer points out that the majority of industries in the Canadian economy rely on sectors that typically require university training or graduation. The writer concludes that while there are certainly other avenues towards developing valuable skills applicable in the marketplace, increasingly, one of the best places to acquire those skills is in the university setting and certainly through graduation from a structured academic program in a given field or industry.
Outline:
Overview
Employment Trends
Prospects by Industry
Employment Outlook
Conclusion
From the Paper "Recent trends in the Canadian employment sector reveal an active employment market for university graduates who are graduating from certain fields and concentrations. The inverse of these observations is that university graduates who graduate in fields or concentrations that have little relevance to the economic activity driving the overall market, are at a disadvantage and quickly develop a detachment from the workforce as research at the University of Alberta has indicated. However, simply having completed a university program through graduation does seem to imply that the employment prospects for the individual doing so are more promising than those who have not."
Abstract This paper examines the issues that affect persons with criminal convictions when they attempt to enter the labor market, whether it be by acquiring a job, doing voluntary work, or seeking further qualifications. It outlines some of the personal and practical problems such an individual could come across and how these could impede his way forward. It also explores some of the anxieties that prospectiveemployers may have in employing someone with a criminal conviction and discusses what effect this has on the prospective employee.
From the Paper "There are many barriers to be faced by individuals with criminal convictions and they could come under three groups, employers attitudes. Lack of skills and qualifications and other practical or personal problems inherent to that individual. Employers have anxieties about employing anyone with a criminal conviction, the most significant of these being that the person could subsequently offend against the employer or his staff. This could also give the employer worries about his legal liabilities in the case of employing an ex-offender. These anxieties persist even though reports and studies have shown that ex-offenders who work are much less likely to re-offend if employed."
Abstract This paper examines Canada's Employment Insurance (EI) program, which has been largely negative for Canada's economic growth but relied upon by workers. It explains how employers are often penalized for their participation and receive little in the way of financial incentive to generate new jobs or higher salaries. The paper also shows that the Canadian government should equalize the contribution limits of the EI by the employer and the employee, because then employers would receive some reprieve from the financial severity of supporting the majority of the EI programs and services. The writer concludes that the EI is counter-productive to robust economic performance as well as to long-term, stable economic growth.
Outline:
Abstract
Overview
Foreign Labour
Economic Impact
Elevating the EI
Conclusions
From the Paper "Canada, as most other leading economies in the West, offers a comprehensive employment related insurance program that provides for work related payment benefits in the event of layoff, job loss or other employment related issue that results in a covered inability to work. Previously, this system in Canada was referred to as the Unemployment Insurance but since 1996 has been simply termed the Employment Insurance (EI) and is a government program overseen by the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada or the HSSDC (Employment, 2006b). EI is very important to the Canadian economy and social services system because Canada relies on a large population of seasonal workers due to the harsher climates in some of its Provinces as well as to some of its seasonal industries."
Abstract This paper discusses how the Canadian labour market is currently experiencing a perfect storm of circumstances that is creating an environment conducive to some of the best employment data in decades. The paper further discusses how analysts point out that the low unemployment figures, between 4 and 5 percent, have fuelled housing related spending as well as benefited from the high prices of natural commodities where those industries have greatly expanded operations over the last 5 years. Yet, in spite of such strong economic support for continued employment strength, analysts are also quick to note that continued inflationary pressures combined with global market related factors related to competitive labour practices are sure to affect an overall increase in unemployment figures over the next several years
Abstract The agricultural industry represents a significant fraction of the overall Canadian economy in terms of both employment and most economic measures. However, as this essay shows, this is a sector of the economy that feels under considerable pressure and is in need of government assistance. The paper also demonstrates that government assistance can be supported by the ideology of capitalism and, in particular, the type of capitalism known as mercantilism that advocates government assistance to business to compete more strongly in the international marketplace.
Abstract This paper examines the history of the entitlement of women in the Canadian old-age pension system. The paper points out that, although at first limited, the scope of Canadian women's enfranchisement in the successive public pensions schemes instituted between 1928 and 1985 did gradually widen, allowing more and more women to receive pensions. The working premise of the paper is that this progress was foremost the fruits of women's own labors, literally as well as figuratively.
Women in effect earned the right to a pension by earning a living in increasing numbers. The paper concludes that, in order to do this, women had to overcome the prevailing social mores, prejudices, institutional resistance and male-dominated cultural stereotypes.
From the Paper "Data from the 1901 Canadian Census records a total male population of 2,066,000 and a total female population of 1,957,000. Out of this 1,618,000 men but only 215,000 women were gainfully employed; in other words, 78.3 percent of Canadian males earned their living by working whereas only 14.4 percent of Canadian women did. (Series D107) Some thirty years later, on the heels of Canada's first full-fledged public pension, 78.5 percent of Canada's 4,206,000 men and 19.4 percent of its women were gainfully employed. The raw numbers are particularly revealing: 3,296,000 men but only 752,000 women reported having a job. Yet, even if these results are skewered by the Great Depression, there were still over three times as many women working in 1931 than 1901."
Abstract In recent months, the furor over the release of Karla Homolka has sparked heated debate and calls for a review of the Canadian justice system. The following paper examines three contentious areas of the Canadian legal system that seem in desperate need of a reassessment. The first of these revolves around the growing perception that the Canadian judiciary is arrogant, perhaps even irresponsible, and simply unresponsive to the concerns of ordinary Canadians. The second area revolves around the treatment of aboriginal peoples within the Canadian justice system and the third and last area revolves around the difficulty that Canadian law-makers and justices are having in reconciling the somewhat amorphous multiculturalism they embrace in theory with the fundamental liberal democratic tenets that under-gird the Canadian justice system.
Abstract The paper contends that the treatment of Japanese Canadians by the Canadian government during and after World War II was deplorable. The paper then discusses how the Canadian government acknowledged the racist character of these policies in 1988 and offered redress to the Japanese Canadian population.
From the Paper "Japanese Canadians during the Second World War were forced to contend with a decades-old torrent of racial discrimination that culminated in their internment and forced labor by the Canadian government. The treatment of Japanese Canadians during this period appears particularly cruel-even sinister-when one considers that of the Canadians evacuated from the Pacific Coast of Canada, most were Canadian-born and naturalized Canadian citizens."
Tags: japanese canadians, world war II, internment, deportation, War Measures Act
Abstract This paper reviews the Canadian film industry, one that is said to be a composite of three different unique bodies that have combined to create a dynamic film environment; albeit not a uniquely Canadian one. The paper goes on to discuss how while the indigenous Canadian film industry is still extant it might be described as moribund at best. If not for governmental support for the indigenous film industry, independent Canadian film making might already be extinct. The Canadian film industry is relatively healthy overall but the figures indicate strictly indigenous Canadian films, outside of one or two major production houses, may suffer revenue and market difficulties in the years ahead.
Abstract Summary: This paper introduces a variety of published work pertaining to subjects of the Canadian mass media. A tendency that is noted, in different places, is that of Canadians assuming that their media are free in comparison with the mass media influences of the United States, or the United Kingdom, for example. However, as is mentioned, the Canadian media seem to be shaped by their environment, and the environment beyond Canada to a significant degree.
Abstract The paper studies and compares the education systems and their goals in Canadian and the United States. It shows that these school systems share many aspects, including a striving for better education, a constant drive for better technology and a consistent effort to better educate their students. The paper explains that while the methods of instruction and the funding for the system may differ, each share the common goal of a quality education for all students. It argues that, by learning from some successes of Canadian schools, the United States could further its ability to better educate all students in the system. In today's global economy, and in the age of information, there can be no substitute for education. It shows that if, by learning from other nations, the United States is able to provide a better education to the people, then the sanctioning bodies must come together in unity.
From the Paper "The first of these values is equality of access. This value used to be defined as making public education available to a thin population across an entire continent (Fleming, 1997). Currently, equality of access is seen mainly as the eradication of the barriers to education caused by language, gender, race, or physical or mental disability. In fact, the Canadian Council of Ministries of Education, in their Pan-Canadian Protocol for Collaboration on School Curriculum in 1997 stated, ?The ministers wish all citizens to have a fair and equitable opportunity in education and wish to provide increased accessibility to education.?
Closely related to this fair education policy is the value of equality of educational opportunity. This value is described as the idea that the quality and choice of educational programs should not be lessened by where a person lives (Fleming, 1997). As part of the Pan-Canadian Protocol (1997), the ministry stated that one of the objectives of the Corroboration was the ?application of technology to curriculum and the use of distance education for delivery.?
Abstract This paper addresses this question in terms of both Canadian laws governing child pornography on the Internet, and the role of these laws in terms of wider international legislation and norms in this area. It will be argued that the key problem related to Canadian child pornography legislation and the Internet is not so much a need for stronger laws, but rather the enforcement of those that currently exist.
Abstract The problem for immigrants to Canada is cultural confusion. Immigrants do not know to which culture, that of their original country or that of Canada, they belong. This is the problem discussed by Bannerji in her essays on cultural conflicts for Canadian immigrants. In this paper I argue that Bannerji does not support the Canadian government's policy of "multiculturalism" towards the cultures of immigrants. Yet, while she retains an interest in her original country of India, Bannerji does not seem to have many cultural traditions of her home country. This is, I think, a sign of the cultural confusion that she says immigrants have.
Abstract This paper states that he Canadian health care system is broken. The author compares the Canadian health care system in relation to health care in other nations. The paper concludes that NAFTA has not significantly affected the disparate levels of health care available its three member nations.
From the Paper "The Canadian health care system is broken. This condition is not an unusual one in health care, unfortunately. Similar difficulties exist in countries with similar systems, such as Finland and Sweden. But broken health care systems are not limited to those countries with socialized medicine. Other countries, such as the United States and Mexico, also have difficulty providing consistently adequate health care in a timely fashion to all of their citizens. How do the problems within the Canadian health care correlate with those of other countries? "
Abstract This paper evaluates the meaning and significance of Canadian citizenship to its residents. The author points out that there are a number of challenges to be considered, including cultural diversity and the ability of individuals to accept their citizenship and to expand their role in local communities. The paper stresses that these issues are important to all Canadians.
