About this Site

Funding
None. Nada. Zip.
[Except for that advertisement above that I added in June 2010]
Cuz ya gotta dance wit de one dat brung ya.
Offers of unconditional funding are welcome, though...

Site History
When I launched Canadian Social Research Links in November of 1997, the site was a way for me to share my collection of 1,600+ Netscape bookmarks with others in the social research community who had Internet access - in government, non-governmental organizations and academia. I enjoyed it enough to keep working at it, like the model railroad builder or the stamp collector, adding bit by bit to the collection. The total number of pages in the site has since expanded to 300+ and there are now over 50,000 unique links on the site, although I can't say exactly how many, because I copy some links to more than one page. On the home page of this site, the number that follows each link (in parentheses, under Jurisdictions and Themes) is the number of links on that page.

- See my Web Authoring Tools page for more detail on my web experience and links to sites that I use.

Focus on Welfare Programs
From 1975 until October 2003, I worked for the federal government, starting at Health and Welfare Canada and then moving over to Human Resources Development Canada in 1994.

In my work, I focused primarily on the field of provincial and territorial social assistance programs, so that's why the site has a special focus on welfare in Canada; I still tend to update welfare-related links more regularly than the other sections in in this site. It's a pretty broad field, though, so I do eventually get around to updating most of the theme pages once in awhile, just to stay on top of things. If it's links to provincial/territorial welfare information you're looking for, go back to the main page and click on the name of a jurisdiction in the left column.

If you want critiques of welfare reforms, from both sides of the ideological fence, you'll find plenty of those here - links to government departments and to non-governmental organizations - everything from the Fraser Institute to the National Anti-Poverty Organization. You'll just have to poke around...

What You Won't Find Here
As a rule, I try to focus on the information side and refrain from commenting on content and ideological issues, so you won't find long diatribes about social issues.
That may change over time...
- Click on the link to see my wish list for this site --- subjects, features and enhancements --- if I can ever get around to it

My Bias
Everyone's got a bias.
I'm concerned that the Canadian public is over-exposed to the biases of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank* and those who read from the same songbook, and under-exposed to the views of the CCSD, the CCPA, CPRN and the National Council of Welfare. Given my life and work experience, I am unequivocally and proudly supportive and biased in favour of the views of the and the in matters relating to social policy in Canada. I do, however, set those views aside when it comes to sharing information -- you're welcome on this site no matter what side of the ideological fence you're on...
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*but that does not mean that I won't link to their sites. The World Bank's website, for example, is among the top three I'd recommend for anyone interested in international poverty information - check them out...

Canadian Social Research Links offers links to organizations from the Left and the Right.

For example...

Not because I support the views of social conservatives - au contraire.
But I do think it's important for people on the Left to understand the views and the arguments of the Right - and vice versa.

My purpose in creating and maintaining this site is to provide a comprehensive, current and balanced* collection of links to Canadian social program information for those who formulate Canadian social policies and for those who study and critique them. It's also my passion.
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*I wrote these words ("comprehensive, current and balanced collection of links") back in late '97 or early '98.
When I re-read this recently and I looked back at how my site has evolved over the past 10+ years, I realize that I haven't really gone for "balance" in my collection of links at any point in time; rather, I've tried to help redress some of the imbalance. You'll still find links to the Conservative Party, the Fraser Institute and the Taxpayers Federation, but I'm proud to say that there's much more content on my site and in my newsletter from "leftie" organizations whose views I support...

So why do I do this?

See Top Ten Reasons I Created This Site

©Copyrights, credits and ripoffs

( R.S., 1985, c. C-42 ) - from the

- The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency
(Updated to January 2005) - from the
- from
- from

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I know it's pointless to try to prevent people who want to copy parts of my links collection to their own site. This is not necessarily a bad thing - I've borrowed a few links in the past few years myself to enhance my own collection. For example, when I felt the need to add links to political parties pages to my site, I went to the (creator of a great site on Canadian political parties and elections), grabbed a bunch of his links, adapted them to suit my needs in my own Political Parties Page. It saved me a lot of work, and I included a link back to Alex's site. We've since exchanged a few e-mail messages of the "mutual admiration society" type. This is how the Internet should work. If you want to use some of my links on your site, go for it. I ask only one thing in return -- a link back to the main page of this site.

Directory/Launchpad Links vs Deep Links
I don't want this site to be just a gateway to the home pages of government departments and non-governmental organizations, so I pick and choose some meaningful content  links (press releases, reports, etc.) for the site. I always try to provide a link to the home page and encourage visitors to go explore the sites of those government departments and NGOs offering online reports and studies - there's a wealth of information out there...

An ongoing controversy on the Internet is whether links to a particular site must always be to the home page, or whether they can point directly to specific content.
is a directory of websites on the net organized by category - it always points to the top page or home page of each site in its index [...but even Yahoo now offers links to content, as you can see in the Yahoo! News and Sports sections]. My site, like many in countless other areas, is a guide to what you'll find behind those home pages, like a specific program or a particular study, report or manual - even a provincial regulation.

See - a website created by David E. Sorkin, Associate Professor of Law (Illinois) - to see how ridiculous some organizations' deep-linking policies are...
"Don't Link to Us! links to sites that attempt to impose substantial restrictions on other sites that link to them. The Linking Policy for Don't Link to Us! precludes us from requesting permission to link to a site, and compels us to link directly to the targeted page (i.e., a "deep link") rather than to a site's home page. (...) On occasion a web site will modify its linking policy in response to public ridicule."

See also:

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox
March 3, 2002

Graphics
The graphics on the site are kept to a minimum to speed up downloads. I did create a text version of the main page some time ago, but came to the conclusion that it wasn't really needed (please let me know if I'm wrong, though), because you can disable the graphics on your browser for your visit to this site without missing anything.

La langue de Molière...
Il existe également une version française de la page d'accueil. , mais le site entier ne compte que quelques pages dont le contenu est entièrement en français; il s'agit des pages de liens au gouvernement fédéral, aux gouvernments du Nouveau-Brunswick, du Québec et de l'Ontario. J'ai également une page personnelle en français où vous trouverez mon apologie concernant la langue principale utilisée sur mon site.

What's New
All new links added to this site appear in the What's New page. Whenever I update any page on the site, I change the date on the page, copy the link to What's New and change the date on the main page. Changes to individual pages aren't always highlighted on those pages, though - pages get even more chaotic very quickly when I do that. And what's new to a weekly visitor isn't the same as what's new to someone who pops by twice a year. As a rule, I try to date any new material I add to this site.

Types of information you'll find here

* Canadian Social Research Newsletter - sign up to receive this weekly e-mail newsletter --- check out the newsletter archive on the same page.

*Launchpads to external sites on a specific subject (like human rights or children) or a particular jurisdiction (e.g., federal government, Manitoba). These are pages located on the server that hosts my site, and I update them myself. You'll also find  links to some external sites directly on the main page. Two of the pages that you'll find near the top of the right column on the main page are launchpads to the What's New page of (a) 100+ Canadian government and NGO websites, and (b) 50+ international government and NGO websites.

*Thematic research guides contain commentary (usually mine) on a particular topic and as well as relevant links and even some text I've scanned and uploaded to my own site, for information purposes. The two largest guides on this site are Welfare Reforms in Canada and CAP / CHST / CHT / CST Resources. You'll also see smaller "guides" to some links on a specific topic, like the Tobin Tax and the Brain Drain.

*Online social research tools are aids to social research you'll find on the Internet, like (five languages, translates words, paragraphs and even URLs). These services are described in some detail in the Tips and Tools page. There's also the Reference Page, with links to the search engines, dictionaries, online translation services and other resources that I used regularly. If you really want to get into this, you'll want to check out the Web Authoring Tools page of this site - and don't forget to visit the Virus and Virus Hoax Resources page...

*Virtual library pages are repositories for texts and web pages that I wanted on my site for their historical value. These are files that I've either saved from a website, scanned from printed text or converted from a word-processing format to HTML and uploaded to my own site's server because I couldn't find them on the net. One example of a virtual library page is the federal government response to the 1998 list of issues of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - it contains some excellent historical Canadian social policy information. Another important text that I posted to my site is an article (January 1988) entitled The Canada Assistance Plan: A Twenty Year Assessment, l966-l986, by Allan Moscovitch of Carleton University. Thanks, Allan!
And don't miss the collection of links to full-text online versions of the 1994 social Security Review and several supplementary papers that were produced during that review - you'll find those on the Canada Assistance Plan / Canada Health and Social Transfer Canada Health Transfer / Canada Social Transfer Resources page.

The Canada Assistance Plan / Canada Health and Social Transfer Canada Health Transfer / Canada Social Transfer Resources Page
A virtual library concerning federal contributions to social assistance and services
- includes links to information about the history of CAP, the "cap on CAP", the 1994 Social Security Review CAP's successor (the Canada Health and Social Transfer) and, as of April 2004, the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer.  I'm highlighting this page and welfare reform page (the next link) here because that's where you'll find the most content from my experience as opposed to what I found on the net - check out both pages, you'll see what I mean...

Welfare Reforms in Canada
This collection of links points to information about welfare programs from pre-Confederation days to the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer, as well as the National Child Benefit.
- includes a special section on workfare.

Poverty Measures
A guide to some of the online information about the measurement of poverty in Canada and elsewhere, and to selected reports about poverty.

Non-Governmental Organizations -- Social Research Organizations
Non-Governmental Organizations includes links (listed sort-of alphabetically) to non-governmental groups whose mission includes advocacy on behalf of disadvantaged people or another group (e.g., Canadian Taxpayers Association).
Social Research Organizations I and II , two separate pages of information about and links to a growing list of Canadian think tanks and social research outfits that have an online presence; the list (so far) includes: Fraser Institute - C.D. Howe Institute - Caledon Institute of Social Policy - Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - Canadian Policy Research Networks - CPRN - Canada West Foundation - National Council of Welfare - Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) - Canadian Council on Social Development - International Development Research Centre - and more...

Frankly, it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between the two types of organizations. A good rule of thumb: read the "About this Organization" page for any given group - if the words "non-partisan", "unbiased" or "pragmatic" appear in the opening paragraph or two, be wary. Check for the source of funding for the organization - as I've noted above in the funding statement for my own site, ya gotta dance with de one dat brung ya. Essentially, both types of organizations are NGO. I've broken them up this way arbitrarily more to keep the filesize down than to make a political statement. I guess you'll just have to check both...

Gilles

At the bottom of most pages on this site (including this one), you'll find a link to my personal page and an e-mail link if you want to reach me.
Please remember this is a one-horse outfit - I'll do my best to help if you're looking for guidance in your online research, within reason...

See also Tips and Tools
 

Site created and maintained by :
Gilles Séguin (this link takes you to my personal page)
 

Site launched November 13, 1997