Recent years have seen the retrenchment of Canadian social programs and the restructuring of the welfare state along neo-liberal lines. Social programs have been cut back, eliminated, or recast in exclusionary and punitive forms. Poverty: Rights, Social Citizenship, and Legal Activism responds to these changes by examining the ideas and practices of human rights, citizenship, legislation, and institution-building that are crucial to addressing poverty in this country. It challenges prevailing assumptions about the role of governments and the methods of accountability in the field of social and economic justice.
Preface
Introduction
Part 1: Poverty and Rights: Reading Gosselin
1 Reality checks: Presuming Innocence and Proving Guilt in Charter Welfare Cases / Martha Jackman
2 But It’s for Your Own Good / Diane Pothier
