February 23, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Chances are a woman in Canada will be sexually assaulted while you’re reading this and never tell police.
Why don’t women report rape? Because most get no justice when they do
Author: amp
Retirement lost: More Canadians are cashing out RRSPs early
February 23, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Lianne Paul had to empty her RRSP in September.
Not because she’s retiring – far from it: The mother of three is in her 40s. And a year after crippling health issues, including PTSD, forced her out of her job, she’s still unemployed. Openings for the same administrative work she’d been doing for years require skills that didn’t exist during her original diploma program.
Before she could qualify for income assistance to help her get by while she looks for a job, Paul had to liquidate all her savings – including the retirement nest egg to which she contributed for a decade.
‘Canadian families are tapped out’: Tories out of touch with economy, opposition says
February 19, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Canadians are struggling in today’s economy far more than the federal Conservatives realize, NDP and Liberal opposition critics say.
They point to analysis in a Global News series on Canada’s financial instability trapas proof the post-recession recovery is, for many families, an unfulfilled promise.
What the feds had to say about Canadians’ labour instability trap
February 18, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Global News asked to speak with newly minted Employment and Social Development Minister Pierre Poilievre to get his thoughts on our investigation into the labour and financial struggles plaguing Canadians.
He declined: “The Minister is in briefings all day for the next few days,” we were told last week.
So we sent questions via e-mail, instead, and received an e-mailed statement from his office in response.
Canada’s instability trap: Life in the temp work lane
February 17, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Julie Linkunatis loves to work.
Halifax plot: So what is ‘terrorism,’ anyway?
Feb. 14, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Justice Minister Peter MacKay surprised many when he said the threat of a foiled attack that would have killed multiple people in Halifax was real, but it didn’t count as terrorism.
It wasn’t “culturally motivated,” he told reporters Saturday morning.
Chequed out: Inside the payday loan cycle
Feb. 11, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny and Patrick Cain, Global News
Jillane Mignon just needed cash to pay for day care.
Her job with the City of Winnipeg’s 311 program covered the bills, but not the $1,000 a month it cost to care for her son while she was at work.
“When there are [child care] subsidies, there are no spaces. When there are spaces, there’s no subsidy.”
So it started with a small loan from a payday lender. That took care of that month.
Instability trap: Canadians want work. Why have so many stopped looking?
Feb. 10, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
The percentage of working-age Canadians who aren’t working – who aren’t even looking for a job – is at a historic high years after the economy supposedly bounced back from the recession. The labour participation rate for Canadian men in their working prime – ages 25 through 54 – is the lowest it’s been since Statistics Canada started collecting that data.
Reservist inequality persists months after Ottawa promised action
Feb. 9, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
The federal government has yet to live up to a months-old promise to remedy the multi-million-dollar inequity facing the families of reservists killed in the line of duty.
Canada’s Instability trap: When you’re income-rich, but asset-poor
Feb. 9, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Canada supposedly got off easy after the global recession. But a months-long Global News investigation has found the reality for many Canadians isn’t nearly as rosy as the headline figures suggest. Increasingly, families across the country find themselves in an instability trap, facing labour uncertainty and an eroded safety net. The social and economic implications are real — and serious.
- More than half of Canadians make enough to get by from one month to the next but lack the financial cushion in easily available funds to shield them from the unexpected.
- Canadians in their working prime are dropping out of the job market altogether or have simply stopped looking: Participation rates for men reached a historic low last year; women, whose job market participation rose for decades, has stagnated since 2006.
- People are turning to cheque-cashing services to make ends meet only to find themselves in cycles of debt. And our analysis finds these businesses clustered in low-income, high-social-assistance areas. But who’s stepping in to fill that need?
- More Canadians are working temp and contract jobs — and more of them are doing so when they’d rather not. This means lower wages, greater uncertainty and has serious impacts not only on their health but on their families, their communities and the local economy.
- More Canadians are prematurely cashing out their RRSPs — not for education or home-buying purposes, but because they need the money, tax penalty or no.
