After a media storm of criticism following his callous remarks in the media last week that feeding hungry kids is not his problem, Minister James Moore apologized. CWP’s Executive Director, Leilani Farha responds on Rabble today explaining why poverty, and feeding hungry kids, is indeed the responsibility of the federal government:
“In a media interview this past weekend, Minister Moore brashly questioned whether it’s his job to feed the hungry child of a neighbour (um, yes federal Mr. Minister!), and then, like a child himself — presumably a well-fed one — he pointed his finger across the jurisdictional divide at provincial governments, suggesting they are responsible for dealing with poverty.
Once the heat was turned up, Minister Moore did a 180, issued an apology and stated that, as a matter of compassion, addressing child poverty is perhaps everyone’s responsibility.
In the event that Minister Moore declines my twitter invitation to take a human rights course, he needs to know this: The Government of Canada is legally required to address poverty as a matter of human rights, not personal compassion. This is because it signed and ratified a number of international human rights treaties that are concerned with child poverty including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). When it did so, in 1991 and 1976 respectively, it legally bound itself to certain obligations, including ensuring that children wouldn’t have to live in poverty and go hungry in one of the most affluent countries in the world.
To meet this obligation in a federal state like Canada could very well mean sharing responsibility with the provinces and territories to accommodate Constitutional jurisdictional matters. But the division of powers does not absolve the federal government of responsibility. At a minimum, it means the federal government is responsible for monitoring and ensuring provinces and territories meet their international human rights obligations. And when they don’t, the federal government has to step in and do something to fix the problem and uphold human rights.
After blaming-the-victims and shirking responsibility in his interview, Minister Moore defended the government, stating that the Feds are helping out on the poverty file by — wait for it — creating more jobs. (It would only have been more predictable if he’d actually mentioned the Economic Action Plan.) The government’s insistence on job creation as a panacea to poverty is foolhardy at best.”
Read the full piece on Rabble.ca.
Some other links to media:
“Poverty costs Canada billions of dollars every year” – The Hill Times
CBC’s Q with Jian Ghomeshi “Feeding our neighbour’s child”
CBC The National – featuring Laurel Rothman of Campaign 2000
