As long as the National Child Benefit, as currently structured, remains the major federal income support program for low-income families, women and children will continue to be poor. As long as senior Government officials believe that women actually prefer to raise children on less than a subsistence income for Canadian cities and towns, that they prefer to suffer the incapacitating depression, mental illness and ill health that arises from extreme poverty and inequality , that they prefer to live in substandard housing, Canada will continue to make no progress on reducing poverty among women and children. The eligibility criteria for this credit are so stringent that it is very unlikely that 450,000 caregivers would qualify. Those who are so poor as to qualify are frequently people who do not file taxes, or who do not have a taxable income, rendering this form of income redistribution meaningless. Canada continues to maintain tax and other laws that are discriminatory to those in same-sex relationships, despite clear direction from the courts that these laws contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Legal equality is only the tip of the iceberg.
Many of these problems are interrelated, and stem from an absence of positive role models and the lack of value which is often attached to the lives of lesbians, gays and bisexuals - both by society in general, and by youth themselves. The most tragic consequence of lack of acceptance is the disproportionately high rate of suicide and attempted suicide for young lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Key factors linked with increased suicide rates include feelings of isolation, and low self-esteem. Lesbians and bisexual women who are Aboriginal, racial, cultural, religious or linguistic minorities, are seniors, or have disabilities, face the effects of compounding forms of discrimination. Canada has not developed an approach to dealing with these problems.