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the newspaper The University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly
Since 1978
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VOL XXXIV Issue 17 • January 26, 2012
A tale of three cities
In cities across Canada, the gap between haves and have-nots has grown steadily over the last two decades; Toronto is no exception. In the fourth lecture in the Toronto In Question series organized by the U of T Cities’ Centre, former mayor David Miller and David Hulchanski, professor of housing and community development at U of T, examined rising socioeconomic inequality between Toronto neighbourhoods. They argued that if this trend is left unchecked, the city risks becoming polarized between rich and
poor. In his study of development trends in Toronto based on census data, Hulchanski describes the GTA as three “cities”—or groups of neighbourhoods—in one: an affluent City #1, middleincome City #2, and poorer City #3 (see map on right). Since 1970, the relatively wealthy and well-educated residents of City #1 have grown richer, while the poor in City #3 have become poorer. “All countries and societies will be unequal in various ways,” Professor Hulchanski said, “the question is how much
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Geoffrey Vandeville
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Former mayor David Miller and Prof David Hulchanski warn of rising inequality between Toronto neighbourhoods.
A storefront in Cabbagetown, with David Hulchanski’s “Three Cities” map superimposed.
Concerns over sex-selective abortion prompt call for a ban on disclosing sex until 30 weeks into pregnancy Aberdeen Berry
A recently published article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) has called for a ban on disclosing the sex of fetuses to expectant parents until the 30-week mark has passed. Behind the controversial proposal is Dr. Rajendra Kale, Interim Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Kale based his arguments on a forthcoming study that uses census data to demonstrate that in Indian families with two girls, it is twice as likely as would be expected that the third will
be a boy, providing evidence of the selective abortion of female fetuses. Kale argues that female feticide is a serious problem in some Asian immigrant communities in Canada and suggests the best response is to forbid doctors from informing expectant parents of the sex of their child until the pregnancy can be considered late-term. While sex-selective abortion is not a widespread problem in Canada and will not produce a demographic crisis, Kale believes that the practice is sufficiently problematic to warrant
intervention on the part of the Canadian Medical Association. Professor Robert Dickens, Professor Emeritus of Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto, offered several criticisms of the proposal and its implications. First, he noted that the parameters of the proposal pose a few problems. As a professional regulation, rather than a law, the policy would not be directly subject to the constitution; however, this could still leave doctors open to charges of professional misconduct if they
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Inside this issue...
NICK RAGETLI
Controversial proposal aims to stop feticide in Canada
The spy who bored me.
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