At Home: BC may refuse welfare for alleged criminals
Between Facebook, YouTube, and reality television, it seems that nobody’s interested in keeping anything private these days. A new BC bill may put that theory to the test, though. The province wants to deny social assistance or disability benefits to anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant, and officials plan to rely on applicants to tell the truth.
Rich Coleman, the province’s minister for housing and social development, told reporters that the bill is mainly aimed at those who move to BC from other provinces. But as the CBC reports, the bill would also apply to ?anyone with an outstanding warrant for an indictable offence anywhere in the country.?
To be effective, the bill would require applicants to freely admit that they have outstanding arrest warrants against their names. Officials don’t plan to search the national police database for such details.
Coleman told reporters that if an applicant admits to outstanding warrants, ?they will be advised that they won’t be eligible for social assistance until they clean up the warrant.?
The bill includes a provision that applicants with outstanding warrants will be given transportation to return and deal with them. It’s questionable how well this will work, though. After all, if someone moves to avoid being arrested, a free ride home may not be enough to make them change their minds.
In Foreign News: Auschwitz Museum uses Facebook to educate
It may seem incongruous at first: a connection between a popular social networking site and the location of one of the most disturbing events in history. But when it comes to educating young people about the horrors of the Holocaust, officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum are finding Facebook a surprisingly useful tool.
As the Krakow Post reports, the museum ?recently launched a Facebook page as an attempt to educate younger people about the Holocaust.?
Although the Facebook page only launched this month, it already has well over 10 thousand supporters (the page can located by searching for ?Auschwitz Memorial?). The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is located in Oswiecim, Poland. It’s on a site that has become a key symbol of the Holocaust; two Nazi concentration camps where over a million people perished during WW II.
Some have questioned whether Facebook is an appropriate place for such a memorial. But as a spokesman for the Auschwitz Memorial explained to reporters, ?Facebook is a tool that young people are using to communicate, so if we want to reach them, we should be using their tool.? The page includes discussions, information on visiting the museum, and historical background on the Holocaust and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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