U.N. Report: Poverty Still a Major Issue in Canada

VANCOUVER – While Canada claims one of the highest standards of living in the world, with a prosperous and growing economy, the issue of poverty and homelessness remains a subject of major concern that non-governmental organizations and the evangelical Christian community across the country continue to raise.

On Monday, a report from the United Nations committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights claimed that Canada has not been adhering to recommendations from the U.N.’s International Covenant, responsible for upholding these areas of human rights, to improve the lives of Canadians who are poor.

“Poverty rates remain very high among disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and groups such as Aboriginal peoples, African-Canadians, immigrants, persons with disabilities, youth, low-income women and single mothers,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported the committee as saying.

The report has also stated, according to the CBC, that while the percentage of impoverished citizens has decreased from previous years, Canada still had an exceptionally high 11.2 percent of the population living in poverty in 2004.

In response to this concern, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s (EFC) Roundtable on Poverty and Homeless developed the Ottawa Manifesto, a product of the faith-based organization’s Street Level 2006 Conference held earlier this spring, to outline clear principles for taking action on the issue.

“We have witnessed the rise of homelessness as a crisis of disturbing proportions,” states the Manifesto. “The time has come to add to material action a clear, creative and challenging public voice.”

The document expressed that care for the poor and vulnerable is a “central tenet” of the Christian faith, referring to the teachings and model of Jesus, and the biblical testimony that reveals how “God specifically values those who are poor and rejected as having been made in His image, and, therefore, as inherently precious to Him.”

“The church in Canada has a responsibility to provide moral leadership by making a priority of caring for people who are poor,” read the proposal.

The Conference, which brought together hundreds of church and business leaders, ministry workers, Members of Parliament, and individuals, has been considered by the EFC as a potential “national turning point … to understand and act in new ways on our capacity to change the course of Canada - and perhaps other nations as well - regarding homelessness.”

Those who gathered were committed to understanding all sociological, economic, cultural, and spiritual aspects of the poverty situation, and resolved to take action, be a voice and work along side others, in standing up for those in need.

"The manifesto invites us all to these commitments in places of work and service, in communities of faith and in our personal lives," writes EFC president Bruce Clemenger as more and more Christians continue to respond to the call against homelessness and sign on to the Manifesto.