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Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Thursday, December 8th.

It has been 22 years since the House of Commons voted unanimously to eradicate child poverty.

It seems the plan was to let all the poor kids grow up to be poor adults.

This is The Current.

The 10% have their say - Mail/Response to Friday

We started this segment with Angela from Delta, BC, responding to our program from last Friday: We are the 10 Per Cent, Being Poor In Canada. We received so much feedback about that program that this morning, we opened up our phone-lines for a Special, National Phone-in Edition of The Current -- The Ten Per Cent Have Their Say.

Lorna Crozier was our Friday Host for our program on poverty in Canada. She's an award-winning poet who was named to the Order of Canada last summer and she joined Anna Marira in our Toronto studio. She helped read some of our feedback from listeners. And also in our studio to give his perspective and insight was Rob Rainer, the Executive Director of Canada Without Poverty.

One of the things we heard about last Friday was the sometimes life-long effects of growing up poor. Lorna spoke with researchers who are just starting to figure out how deprivation affects a child's DNA, brain chemistry and stress hormone levels and how all of that can create life-long health problems and behavioural issues.

Four Feet Up - Filmmaker and Daughter/Mother in film

After hearing that, a listener wrote in to tell us about a National Film Board documentary called Four Feet Up. The film looks at child poverty through the eyes of a boy named Isaiah, who was 8-years-old and living in Nova Scotia. Nance Ackerman is the filmmaker and she was in Halifax.

Santana Justason Jackson is Isaiah's younger sister and she was with Nance in Halifax. Jennifer Justason is Santana and Isaiah's mother. She was at her home in New Minas, Nova Scotia.

Related links:

• A letter to Prime Minister Harper from Rob Rainer, Canada Without Poverty Jan 17th, 2011- Peacock Poverty
• Toward a Poverty-free Canada By: Robert Rainer - The Mark News
• Recession stalls progress on poverty; almost one in 10 Canadians poor: StatsCan - The Canadian Press
• Ottawa lacks plan to fight child poverty, coalition says By: Laurie Monsebraaten - Toronto Star
• OECD report finds income inequality rising in Canada - CTV news