Ontario's stance was linked to Canada's top ranking in the human development index, as it was taken to mean the education system was not in need of improvement. Canada's high scores in adult literacy and combined gross enrolments do not disprove religious discrimination in access to public education, and in no way waive the need for Ontario to provide a remedy. Still, the overall human development index ranks Canada first - followed by Norway, the United States, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan and Britain. The four countries at bottom of the index's 174 countries are Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone. We are looking at the overall conditions and the overall successes.
Every country has problems.
The index on gender empowerment ranked Canada eighth among the top 20 countries in the index. Among the countries ahead of Canada are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Canada is, however, ahead of the United States, ranked 13th, and Japan, 41st. The index says Canadian women occupy 22.7 per cent of parliamentary seats, 37.3 per cent of administrative posts and 52.2 per cent of professional and technical posts. Canada has failed to improve poverty and life expectancy for some indigenous groups, they said.