CBC Maritimes

Parents of severely disabled children face many extraordinary expenses and difficult choices between working and caring for their kids

The latest Wii, a new pair of Uggs, saving for college?
All parents struggle to balance their budget while providing for their children's needs and occasional whims.
But what about families who have to provide for children with disabilities?  
We now have a better idea of the additional costs. We spoke with Shelley Phipps, a professor at Dalhousie University's Department of Economics, who has co-authored an article with Peter Burton entitled "The Economic Cost of Caring for Children with Disabilities in Canada" in the latest issue of Canadian Public Policy.
To read the study, click here.

In an area as bountiful as the Maritimes, it's hard to imagine basic food supplies running short. But what if you went to your local farmer's market or grocery store, and found only a handful of picked over greens and aging carrots, and only a few packets of imported ground beef on the shelves?  
It's a future that Richard Melvin is grimly imagining. He's a farmer from the Canning area of Nova Scotia, and currently President of the province's Federation of Agriculture.
Its annual meeting is underway Truro, and Tuesday, Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter told the group there would be no short-term financial relief for pork and beef farmers.  
The CBC's Jennifer Henderson spoke to Mr Melvin afterwards about the crisis in farming.

It's hard for us to imagine that in any place as chaotic and deadly as a war zone there are rules. But the treatment of prisoners captured in a war zone is covered by rules - specifically, the Geneva Convention.
Since the Canadian military is fighting in Afghanistan, the Convention requires that our government be responsible for ensuring that everyone detained by our soldiers is treated humanely.
The reason that this issue has come to the fore - again - is that diplomat Richard Colvin has testified before a Parliamentary Committee that he notified Canadian officials regarding his concerns about detainees. He believed that every one transferred by our soldiers to Afghan prisons were likely tortured by Afghan officials, and furthermore, that many of those prisoners were innocent.
Beginning with Conservative backbenchers and escalating through the Minister of Defence up to the Prime Minister, the response has been to question the credibility of Mr Colvin's testimony.
Without going into further detail, it's obvious that there are many dimensions to this controversy - at the very least, legal, moral and political - and various ways of sorting out the issues.
We asked about one solution that's been proposed : Should there be a public inquiry into the treatment of Afghan detainees ?
Our guests were Alex Morrison, former executive director of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, and 2002 recipient of the Pearson Medal of Peace for his work in peacekeeping while serving in the Canadian military, and Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, in honour of his human rights work.
To read Amnesty International Canada's open letter calling for a public inquiry, click here.