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Dignity for All

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Having initially conceived the idea in the summer of 2008, Canada Without Poverty through the CWP Advocacy Network is a campaign co-lead of this significant movement calling for vigorous and sustained action by the federal government to combat the structural causes of poverty in Canada. Dignity for All is a signature initiative for Canada Without Poverty.

The campaign has three high-level goals:

  • Goal 1: A federal plan for poverty elimination integrated with provincial and territorial plans;
  • Goal 2: A federal anti-poverty Act that ensures enduring federal commitment and accountability for results; and
  • Goal 3: Sufficient federal investment in social security for all Canadians, “social security” being an umbrella economic and social right under international human rights declarations and treaties to which Canada is signatory.

Dignity for All is a collaborative project formally launched by Canada Without Poverty and partners in May 2009, in Calgary. Currently, over 530 groups – grassroots, local, provincial, territorial, national – and 78 federal parliamentarians have endorsed these goals. The campaign is moving towards higher endorsement milestones – 750 and then 1,000+ groups, and 150 and then 200+ parliamentarians – to further demonstrate massive public and political support for federal leadership on poverty issues.

Progress towards the campaign goals, beyond the endorsements, is being made, for example:

  • Goal 1: The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA), in its landmark 2010 report on the federal role on poverty, made as its first recommendation that “the federal government immediately commit to a federal action plan to reduce poverty in Canada that would see, during its first phase, the implementation of the [other] recommendations in this report”. Through Dignity for All, Canada Without Poverty and partners are identifying specific policy measures that must be included in such a plan;
  • Goal 2: Bill C-233 An Act to Eliminate Poverty in Canada (formerly introduced as Bill C-545 in June 2010), drafted with significant input from Canada Without Poverty, was re-introduced at First Reading in June 2011, by New Democrat MP Jean Crowder.   The previous Bill was introduced by former New Democrat MP Tony Martin with support from (now former) Liberal MP Michael Savage and (now former) Bloc Québécois MP Yves Lessard.  Its passage into law as perhaps the single most important piece of anti-poverty legislation ever introduced in Canada;
  • Goal 3: A national conversation is growing about social security in Canada, influenced by such factors as the ageing population and the need for greater security in retirement years. An initial broad structure for social security policy– encompassing children, youth, working-age adults and seniors – is being developed. Canada Without Poverty is working with partners on aspects of this architecture, such as the possibility of an expanded system of guaranteed income, building on the guaranteed income pieces already in place for children and seniors.

Dignity for All is a multi-faceted initiative, involving policy research and analysis, pan-Canadian public outreach and engagement, mass communications, government consultations and political advocacy. To date the campaign has received financial support from about 30 organizations, all of them between $100 and $10,000, except a single legacy gift of $1,000,020 over five years (to January 2015) from an institutional donor who wishes to remain anonymous.