Deconstructing Dinner
"Deconstructing Dinner" is a hit radio show by Jon Steinman at Kootenay Co-op Radio (CJLY) in Nelson, B.C. "Most discussion of food by media focuses on health and diet, a very individualistic connection to food," explains Steinman. "Deconstructing Dinner looks at the well-being of all people involved in the process of growing and preparing and enjoying food." This week's offering, for example, examines the debate over genetically modified foods (GMOs).

100 Years of Homelessness
January 9, 2008While homelessness may seem like a relatively new issue for Vancouver, homeless people have long been a part of Vancouver's history. Local First Nations were the first homeless. By the late 1860s, nearly 100 years of smallpox epidemics had reduced the native population of B.C. from an estimated 155,000 to only 20,000. Approximately 700 indigenous people lived on Burrard Inlet along with 500 non-Aboriginals.

Canadian financial firms offer investors role in global microfinance lending
Kamil Ramazanov is looking for a loan. The Azerbaijani butcher wants to buy two calves and is looking for US$950. He's offering to repay the money monthly over the next 12 months. His profile on Kiva.org says he's 49, lives in the town of Khachmaz with his wife and three children and owns a butcher shop.

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Speaking notes for the Right Honourable Paul Martin P.C., M.P., Toronto, Ontario It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you this afternoon and a great honour to have been invited by the wonderful and formidable Janice Stein to give a lecture at the Munk Centre. Before I begin however – one exculpatory caveat! How I came to be a proponent of social enterprise, I will explain in the course of my remarks.

$2.6 M goes to eight Québec social economy enterprises - The Chantier de l'économie sociale Trust announces its first investments
In the presence of numerous social economy stakeholders gathered for the occasion at the Cinéma Beaubien, the Chantier de l'économie sociale Trust (The Trust) announced the names of the businesses that will receive its first investments. The sum of $2.6 million will be divided among eight social economy enterprises that operate in different sectors and regions around Québec.

Social Entrepreneurship Summit Participants Unite in Next Steps for The Sector
Over 250 participants attended the Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Summit, an interactive gathering of non-profit, academic and social thought leaders from the social entrepreneurship sector in Canada.

Former Sask ministers take on critic duties as NDP moves to Opposition
Former finance minister Pat Atkinson is taking on a new role as the New Democrats move to the Opposition side of the Saskatchewan legislature.

Thank you to all who participated in our most recent telelearning session, especially to Kemlin Nembhard and Margie Mendell for their wonderful presentations! For more information, please click here:

We've Broken Faith with the Poor
There's not much we can really do about Iran, George W. Bush or the sabre rattling of North Korea but surely that doesn't absolve us from the obligation our poet placed upon our shoulders. Perfection is always the enemy of improvement and so it is here. For we should look at our own society and see the people with whom, in John McCrae's words, we've broken faith. Why is anyone impoverished in a country as rich as we are?