Written by Amanda on June 23, 2009 – 4:45 pm
What’s News Today in
NAB NEWS
Watching and reading of other countries struggles near and far, it has always made me proud and privileged to be born in a country where freedom and compassion is a word we build on.
That country is Canada, and the history of Canada is built on the strength of so many from First Nations people, our immigration that brought us together as one country and all the Men, Women and children in the past, present and in the future that make Canada who we are today.
As the freedom demonstrations continue in Iran, the voice of the first decade of the 21st Century to rise above the crowds always remembered globally as Neda. One voice who spoke a million words in her dying moments.
It is women like Neda, that give life to countries where women who considered not important enough to listen to, and in Canadian history, our women rose above the challenge to give us the rights and freedoms we have today.
There are many great Canadian women in history you can read in history books or hear the impact they created only takes a minute to listen on Radio Minutes. These women remembered with honour and women of Canada today should build on their strength to change, even when sometimes the task seems bigger, then one-person can can bare.
Great women like Agnes Macphail who became the first Federal woman MP and changed our penal system. Passionate about human rights Agnes Macphail fought for old age pensions and farmers co-operatives but she will always be best known for her work representing women’s issues and founder of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Canada.
Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality
Agnes Macphail is only one of many women in the last century who has made Canada what it is today and if not for the voice of these strong and determined women to make change, where would Canada be now.
Neda, the beautiful 26 year old Iranian woman shot and killed during the protests on the streets of Tehran has been the first step to creating a global voice on human rights of people and women who like in Canada not so long ago, were second class citizens also.
I am proud to be Canadian in a country as wonderful as this.
Kids Book of Great Canadian Women, The
I am proud to be a Canadian woman because of the many strong Canadian women who have paved the way for me and many other women of our country to continue to thrive to make Canada better and stronger.
Neda has made me proud to be a woman in the 21st century as she gave a voice to all women around the world that will speak for decades to come. Women of Iran have been coming out with the truth behind living under the rule of this Islamic regime, Neda has now made those women’s voices louder then ever.
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
ABOUT – “Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people’s lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and “shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color.” Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of “morality guards,” the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became “essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity,” she writes.”
As President Obama continues to fight to reform health care in the United States, I have come across many horror stories of medical bankruptcy that afflicts many people state side. Medical bills can contribute to new medical problems like depression; stress related heart attacks, even suicide.
I have a friend I have know for many years who is an American citizen and worked as a nurse in a hospital in Michigan for many years. I met her when she lived in Canada for a number of years but decided to move back to Michigan and back to work at the hospital she came from.
My friend regretfully passed away in May from cancer, from her diagnosis in October 2008. What was so disturbing besides her young untimely passing was the discontinuation of her health care insurance and benefits through her job she had paid into for so many years and why? Her insurance in January was no longer because of the of the long- term disability claim when she needed to start her cancer treatments and was unable to return to work and because of this, her insurance was no longer. This woman and many other’s like her spent her last months on earth worrying about how she would pay for bills when her concentration should have been on trying to get better and on as stress free time with her two teenage children.
READ Do or D.I.E. benefits Health Care Act
I am sadden to hear so many suffer in this way because of the health care or lack of the United States has for their citizens.
This another or many reasons why I am and always will be proud and grateful to live in a country like Canada where freedom, democracy, peace and human rights means to go above and beyond other material or political discrepancies.
Despite what many think Canada didn’t always have universal health care and it wasn’t until 1946 when Tommy Douglas (Keifer Sutherlands grandfather) who was leader of the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) or as we know it today the NDP (New Democratic Party) passed the Saskatchewan Hospitalization Act in 1946. It was the only province at the time that received any type of health care benefits.
There were communities that offered free medical services to their townspeople with hospitalization that had a cost of $2/day if needed. Myrnam Hospital in Alberta was built by the Ukraine district by contributing what little they had, but together the community raised $8000 dollars and by July 1938, the hospital was completed.
“According to the New Myrnam High School Yearbook: “There is simply no need to go hungry for medical attention or hospitalization in the Myrnam Municipal Hospital District, whether you are rich or poor. This has been achieved because of the people, who have at heart the welfare, not only of their own, but that of their fellow citizens as well.” Other Prairie communities also engaged in cooperative action for the good of the citizenry.”
In 1950, Alberta followed Saskatchewan’s lead and by 1957, the Canadian Federal government implemented the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Act, which continues to be the pillar of our Canada Health Act.
Last night I was one of many proud parents that attended our children’s grade 8 graduations from St. Philomena’s Catholic school and there I watched as young men and women of this community given awards for their academic and community achievements and contributions. This is the children of our future, and because of the many brave men and women of our past, they have paved the way for wonderful teachers as Mrs. Lindberg and for accomplishments now and the future of Canada. This is the generation of our social networking, and will remember Neda and women of other countries who will pave the way so other’s, as those of St. Philomena will have the same rights and privileges one day, God willing.
I could not imagine a citizen in a country where these two human rights one of women and one of our individual health care was something that was such a daily issue in our lives. At one time it was but thankfully to many great Canadian men and women, my freedom and the freedom for my children will continue to progress to make Canada one of the best countries in the world to live.
We can only hope other countries will use Canada as an example that the right to basic human rights is what makes a country a free society to live.
2. Right-Click then Copy
3. Paste the HTML code into your webpage
