Chapter 2: Reading Flashcards
What is the Canadian welfare system historically based on?
the British model
Why did welfare grow in the 20th century? What happened to welfare following the great depression and WWII?
as a response to the demands of workers and farmers for a share of the country’s wealth.
Following the Great Depression and World War II, a consensus was reached that led to an extensive social welfare system that aimed to ensure a minimum income and provide social services for people in Canada.
What are the 6 phases to the evolution of social welfare hat coincide with major political, social, and economic changes in Canada?
Phase 1: the colonial period, 1600–1867
Phase 2: the industrialization period, 1868–1940
Phase 3: the welfare state period, 1941–1974
Phase 4: the rise of neoliberalism, 1975–2005
Phase 5: retrenchment and recovery, 2006–present
Phase 6: COVID times
What sparked the change from feudalism to capitalism in the early 1600s?
This change came about over time as result of three factors that started in the 1300s: international demand for wool, soil erosion, and population decline.
What led to the Elizabethan Poor law of 1601? What did it do?
Near the end of the feudal system, after labourers were expelled by landlords, the labourers rioted. The authorities recognized that the long-term maintenance of law and order required some means of satisfying those unable to find work during periods of economic crisis, while at the same time reinforcing earlier laws that required all able-bodied workers to take whatever work was offered to them.
The Elizabethan Poor Law refined earlier versions of the Poor Law and defined the principles for worthiness of state aid.
what is the statute of labourers? When was it passed?
after the Black death, many labourers who survived tried to use this as an opportunity to demand decent wages and look for new employers. In response, the king and Parliament passed the Statute of Labourers in 1351, which required workers to return to their former feudal masters whenever possible; if their former master had died, leaving no heir to employ them, they were required to take whatever employment others offered.
What was the general feeling towards poverty in Britain when the Elizabethan Poor Law passed? how long did the Elizabethan poor laws remain in place in Britain? Was it only in Britain?
poverty was considered necessary and inevitable since, it was believed, only fear of poverty would make people look for work. The principles behind the Elizabethan Poor Law stayed in place in britain and its colonies (including Canada) until the 1900s
What did the Elizabethan Poor Law distinguish between? What provisions did it set out?
the “deserving poor” and “undeserving poor” and set out provisions for deciding on the worthiness of state aid.
Who were considered the deserving poor under Elizabethan Poor Law
The deserving poor were those unable to work, and those who were fit for work and willing to take any job on offer at rates determined by the employer.
Who were considered the underserving poor under Elizabethan Poor Law?
The undeserving poor were those who were deemed able to work but did not do so for whatever reason. They were thought to be of bad moral character and not deserving of help.
How were the underserving poor treated under Elizabethan Poor Law?
The state recognized no responsibility for the undeserving poor and made provision to place them in Houses of Correction that would attempt to change their attitude toward work, or in prisons if they appeared unruly.
how were the deserving poor treated under Elizabethan Poor Law?
The state recognized only limited responsibility for the deserving poor. The thinking was that to provide the deserving poor with more aid would discourage them from ever seeking work again and would encourage others not to take jobs that offered low pay and unsafe or otherwise unbearable working conditions.
What was the principle of less Eligibility and what was the idea behind it?
In determining the bare minimum that poor relief recipients could receive, the state would always ensure that the minimum was lower than the minimum wages that day labourers were receiving. This principle of less eligibility ensured that those in work would always be terrified to lose their employment and forced to live an unspeakably miserable life.
How did “indoor relief” and “outdoor relief” work under the elizabethan poor law?
Local authorities were empowered to build workhouses for recipients of aid. They were empowered to offer “indoor relief,” which involved forcing poor individuals and families into a workhouse. Individuals were expected to earn their aid by working in the workhouse or by working for employers with whom the workhouse had contracts. Local authorities could also provide “outdoor relief” (e.g., money, food, clothing) to those who remained in their own homes. In practice, outdoor relief was common because it was cheaper than building more workhouses.
under the Elizabethan Poor Law, how was the govt responsible for people with families vs people with families
Families, regardless of income, were made responsible for the care of indigent parents or children so as to relieve the state of that responsibility. That meant the state only had responsibility for those without blood relations who could be forced to help out.
What was the role of Parish under the Elizabethan Law? (2 roles)
The parish had the right and the duty to separate children aged five to fourteen from destitute parents and find jobs or apprenticeships for them.
Tax collection and administration of poor relief occurred at the parish level, with overseers of the poor appointed to weed out deserving from undeserving applicants for relief.
What year was the UK’s new poor law established? What is the famous novel that depicts it? What were the conditions?
In 1834, the UK’s new Poor Law created a system of workhouses likes what Charles Dickens described in his 1838 novel Oliver Twist.
The new Poor Law required that the destitute could receive welfare assistance only while inside a workhouse.
When was the Industrial Revolution? What did it cause?
from about 1760 to 1840
produced a great deal of social dislocation and a higher number of poor people.
What was the purpose and attitude towards social welfare during the Industrial Revolution? How were the unemployed treated?
At the time, the purpose of social welfare was to provide the minimum assistance necessary to keep the non-dissolute unemployed alive.
The unemployed were tacitly blamed for their failure to find work, and maximum pressure was placed on them to take whatever jobs became available.
Only members of society deemed unemployable and without relatives to support them were exempted from such pressure.
However, they too received only modest state aid and were often placed in institutions.
What do we mean by the state institutions in the 1800s remained undifferentiated?
the mentally ill, orphans, the unemployed, and the frail elderly were often placed under one roof.
What were the dominant beliefs on Poverty during the Industrial Revolution? What were they rooted in?
anchored in Reformation Protestant theology. Pauperism was thought to be a result of family defects, and individuals were considered to be responsible for their own poverty. Idleness, worldly temptations, and moral decline resulted in poverty. The thinking was that people could lift themselves out of poverty through discipline and hard work.
What was the model that became the basis for the social welfare system adopted by British North American colonies?
The Elizabethan Poor Law
What does the first phase in the emergence of social welfare in Canada span?
the arrival of settlers to New France and English colonies to Confederation and the signing of the British North America Act of 1867 (also called the Constitution Act, 1867).
What was social welfare like in the first phase of Canada’s welfare evolution?
What was the states role during this time?
In this era, social welfare was local and private, and economic security was a matter for the family first and the community second.
The state’s role, whether or not a Poor Law was in place in a given colony, was initially limited to supporting charities. However, it gradually expanded to include building workhouses and implementing public health measures. Both the state and charities approached poverty by regulating and providing aid to the poor rather than by addressing the causes of poverty.
What were the 2 different but parallel models used for welfare before and after confederation?
the French and English models. Québec adopted a church-based model that had its origins in France. English Canada adopted the English Poor Law model supplemented by private charity.
What was social welfare like under the Quebec model?
The Québec model, in which the church rather than the state provided social services, included an array of institutions, from schools to hospitals to shelters for the poor, orphans, prostitutes, and elderly. However, it had a Poor Law ideology to a large degree and placed more importance on the cause of need than the fact of need.
The church defended inequalities of wealth because they had benefited from land sales. Single mothers were forced to give up their babies to the nuns
What was welfare like in English Canada before the 1800s? How does this contrast with Quebec?
In English Canada local charities took on many of the same responsibilities that the church assumed for Catholics in Québec. Although Nova Scotia introduced a Poor Law in 1758 and New Brunswick introduced a Poor Law in 1786, charities rather than the state provided most of the assistance for those in need.
outsiders were jailed or sold.
What did the Soeurs Grises do in the beginning of 1858?
opened daycares in working-class areas to care for children of working or ill mothers.
What created the growing underclass dependent on wages in Canada? What problem accompanied this?
population increases and immigration
The rise of industry created many of the same problems that had occurred earlier in Europe: charities were overwhelmed, and the state (which often provided subsidies to charities) was forced to play a bigger role.
What is the history of the establishment of Work houses in the Colonies?
Saint John opened the first in 1835, and Montréal, Québec City, Toronto, and Kingston opened workhouses within the next two years. Families were often separated in a workhouse.
How were children treated at the beginning of work houses in the colonies?
There was no supervision to ensure that the children were safe at work, not overworked, and free of physical and sexual abuse. At times, children were hired out to whatever employer was willing to provide room and board in return for work.
At the beginning of workhouses in the colonies, what were “workhouse tests”
In a workhouse, all men had to perform a “workhouse test”: physical labour that proved that they were not in the workhouse as a means of avoiding the search for paid work.
What did the House of Industry do? How did it operate? How did it treat unemployed men?
provided lodging to the needy and assisted abandoned or orphaned children, often placing them as indentured servants in homes and farms
provided both temporary and permanent accommodations.
Residents were often required to do chores in return for help — similar to the old Dickensian workhouses of England.
Unemployed men were given food and shelter for the night and expected to move on.
To deter “casuals” from taking advantage of the system, trustees introduced a new law: breaking “two yards” of stone in order to qualify for relief
Why was the “House of Industry” created before the second world war? Where was it created?
Up until the Second World War, waves of newcomers migrated to Toronto — Irish, Jewish, Italian, Black American, and Chinese, among others. Many landed in “The Ward,” an area crammed with rundown housing and immigrant-owned businesses. Fearing that UK-style workhouses would be introduced in Toronto, in 1837 a group of reformers and dissenting ministers founded the “House of Industry,” modelled on somewhat more humanitarian principles.
What eventually caused both Ontario and Québec to rely more on outdoor relief? How did this influence the “workhouse test”?
the cost of building and maintaining traditional workhouses, along with a growing unease about large institutions
The workhouse test was replaced by the work test, which meant that an applicant, unless he had a medical exemption, could stay at home but would be required to cut wood or break rock in order to receive financial aid
Which 2 provinces resisted the transition from indoor to outdoor relief? Why? In what years did they switch?
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which experienced slow economic growth after the 1850s, resisted the move to outdoor relief. They did not shut down their workhouses until the second half of the 1950s.
After what year did Canada industrialize rapidly? How did this lead to the second phase of social welfare in Canada? What period was this?
1867
This drew both people from abroad and people from rural communities into towns and cities. Many people left the security of the family to look for greater economic opportunities, sometimes ending up with insecure factory or mining jobs. The second phase of the history of social welfare in Canada covers the post-Confederation period roughly until the beginning of World War II.
What was the sentiment of welfare in post-Confederation period roughly until the beginning of World War II in Canada? What was the political climate? What caused a shift from this thinking?
favoured a residual approach in which charity and local volunteer decision making closely scrutinized the allocation of aid to the help-worthy. Most poverty was still seen as the product of individual failings, and relief was minimal and carried stigma. The numbers of both reformers and socialists grew, but conservative ideology largely held sway until the severity of the Great Depression caused a massive shift away from the idea that individuals were the cause of their own poverty.
What concerns were brought about from the industrialization of Canada?
concerns over the mounting toll of workplace injury and death, the need for safety equipment, and the limiting of children’s employment.
What did Factory acts established for? what did they not address? what phase were they introduced?
Although Factory Acts were established to improve the conditions for children, they did not address the financial insecurity associated with workplace accidents.
phase 2
What year was the Québec Workers’ Compensation Act introduced? What was its main flaw?
1909
Act was not compulsory and did not have an independent administrative board.
What was workers compensation supported by? How did it work?
How did this practice differ from the previous practice?
Why did many employers prefer the new practice?
supported by many employers and by the rising labour movement. It was paid for by employers’ contributions and provided both short- and long-term financial support to injured workers and their families without assessing blame for injuries on the job.
Previously, workers who were injured on the job had to depend on charity or attempt to sue the employer in court for liability for the injury.
The occasional generosity of courts in awarding huge damages to injured workers caused many employers to prefer a no-fault, state-run system of compensation.
When was the first Workers compensation legislation introduced in Ontario? What did it embody? How did this contrast the previous residual system?
In 1914, Ontario introduced its first workers’ compensation legislation. It embodied the doctrine of no-fault liability and ensured that workers would receive benefits regardless of their employer’s financial position. In contrast to the prevailing residual system of poor relief, the benefits would be paid in cash and as a right
How many provinces had legislated workers’ compensation programs based on the Ontario model by 1920?
6
Which provinces introduced worker’s comp programs after 1920? In what years?
Québec followed in 1928 (to mandate employers and to establish an independent board), Saskatchewan in 1930, and Prince Edward Island in 1949. In 1950, one year after joining Canada as a province, Newfoundland and Labrador also legislated workers’ compensation. Yukon did so in 1958. The Northwest Territories joined the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada in 1974 and in 1999 created a joint board with Nunavut.
What is the social gospel and reform movement?
FILL OUT LATER
