Privatization in Canadian Society - Essay Example

Privatization in Canadian Society During the last decade, Canada’s welfare has undergone a huge and significant shrinkage (Lightman 85). This is mainly due to privatization that has kept on increasing in Canadian society. The main reason for privatization is costs. Many people believe that private sector is able to deliver better services with less costs (Lightman 88). Privatization of what used to be publicly funded is seen as a way of increasing government revenue at the same time (Lightman 89). Selling public assets provides the government with fast cash that could boost government’s revenue and help balance the budget (Lightman 89). Other than selling the public assets, government shuts down or cuts back on social services programs, in the hope that private sector will choose to pick up what has been cut back or shut down (Lightman 91). However, privatization does not meet the needs of the citizens but instead makes their lives even worse. Privatization brought what used to be public services into commercial market that is used to generate profit (Lightman 93). For example, government terminated the support for social housing causing many housing problems in several major cities (Lightman 92). The private company does not pick up the slack, and rather than building affordable housing, they build massive and expensive apartment buildings or houses because it generates a lot of profit rather than affordable housing. This specific issue is shown by the video in class where the documentary perpetuates the fact that Canadian society is lacking affordable housing, and this prevents the homeless from getting a job. Shelter only provides a one night relieve for the homeless, and at times there isn’t enough space for all of them. Due to the fact that they need to leave the shelter every morning, their only possession is what they normally carry. This is also because government has cut back the social allowances. The allowances for renting a house are not enough to enable the homeless to rent any place. Imagine if you have children. The allowances that the government provides are not even enough to keep themselves alive let alone their children. Social policies are needed to address inequality in the society, and one of the biggest inequalities is race inequality. Race itself is socially constructed category that usually is identified by phenotypes (McMullin 76). The placement of individuals in racial categories corresponds with hierarchy of social relations (McMullin 76). Individuals that belong to the superior race groups have privilege in the society and the ones who belong to the subordinate race group are limited in terms of valuable resources, therefore producing inequality (McMullin 76). Visible minorities have lower income and higher poverty rates than non-visible minorities, due to the racism and discrimination (McMullin 81). Racism prevents some groups from equal access to goods, services, and rights because of their ethnicity and race. Racism itself is seen as a tool that is used by the superior race groups to maintain their power in the society and over the subordinate groups by implementing the idea that there are innate differences between the powerful groups and others (McMullin 77). One of the visible minorities groups that have huge disadvantages in the society is the Aboriginal group. The Canadian government invented residential school to assimilate them. In the residential school, children were not encouraged to strive beyond their social status, because the residential school was structured based on racists, sexist and class based ideologies (McMullin 212). Aboriginal men are mostly taught how to farm and Aboriginal girls are mainly taught about domestic work (McMullin 212). Other than assimilation, the other aims of residential school were to produce new and subordinate working class that would benefit the colonizer (McMullin 212). In the residential schools, many Aboriginal children experience abuse. The abuse leaves long term traumatic effects to the Aboriginal people. Many survivors have difficulties in expressing love or communicating with their children (Campbell 281). Due to stress and trauma, many Aboriginal people, mostly men, turn to drugs and alcohol to release their stress for a moment. As a result, many of them lose themselves due to the effect of the drugs and alcohol, so it is not a surprise that Family violence is more prevalent among Aboriginal household. Family violence occurs when men use force to maintain power and control over the women in the relationship (McMullin 157). Aboriginal women are three times more likely to experience domestic violence than non-Aboriginal women, and mostly the children witnesses the violence (Campbell 283). I have heard many experiences from Aboriginal people through Kwantlen’s truth and reconciliation symposium. One of the guest speakers of the symposium shared his own experiences about his father. His father was the survivor of the residential school and his father had post-trauma due to the abuse in residential school. His father turned to drugs and alcohol for a release. Since then, his father changed, became more aggressive and started being physical towards his mother and him. One day his mother kicked his father out. He never saw his father ever since and later on he knows why. He said that it is all because of the traumatic experiences that the residential school left. He said that because of the residential school, he never knew his father and he never saw his mother smile since then. Because of this after-effect of residential school system, there are high rates of unemployment, poverty, addiction, mental health and disorders and other social problems among Aboriginal people (Campbell 279; Campbell 287). As a result, Aboriginal children are more likely to be born into poverty, suffer health problems and placed in child welfare system (Campbell 286). There are certain measures that the government has taken to address this problem. In 1997, government began to implement a social policy called National Children’s Agenda (NCA). Their aim is to manage and monitor the well-being of Aboriginal children by enhancing their knowledge from early childhood (Campbell 288). One of the programs under NCA is child welfare. Child welfare for Aboriginal children aims to meet the needs of the children and their families (Campbell 290). In 1991, Indian and Northern affairs Canada established Aboriginal children welfare program to develop culturally sensitive child welfare services for all the registered children living on reserve (Campbell 290). The child welfare program’s main rules are; Aboriginal children should not be placed into non-Aboriginal children homes, should be located on the reserve or home community if possible, and the workers should be Native and familiar with the culture and should be able to speak the local language (Campbell 290-291). Other than Child welfare, government established First Nation and Inuit child care. The programs allow on-reserve childcares to expand and better reflect the needs of Aboriginal and Inuit peoples (Campbell 289). Child Care for Aboriginal children allows parents to attend work and school (Campbell 289). Read More