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The case is aimed at providing students with an overview of the burden of poverty in Canada and the effects of poverty on the health of Canadians. It exposes students to the various definitions of poverty, as well as its measures, including the Gini index, which is an internationally recognized measure of income distribution used to assess overall inequity. While it is challenging to define poverty and identify its multifactorial root causes, the link between poverty and ill-health is stronger. The case exposes students to existing federal, provincial and territorial policies and plans aimed at reducing poverty and supporting low income families. It asks the student to focus on the development and implementation of an innovative poverty reduction plan in British Columbia, one of the Canadian provinces without a provincial poverty reduction strategy.

This study aimed at understanding the meaning of health and the help seeking behaviours, pre and post migration, of refugees who have experienced collective violence in their countries of origin. An interpretative phenomenological approach with a purposive sample of three men and three women was used. Prior to migration, the participants’ meaning of health was deeply influenced by their experience of collective violence, which rendered their embodied experience of life as non-existent and meaningless. Access to health care was limited by the unavailability of sound medical infrastructures and lack of finances. Post migration, the perception of their health and help seeking behaviours continued to be deeply influenced by their past lived experience of collective violence. Participants call for a system that offers well-established interpretation and mental health services for refugees who have experienced collective violence in their country of origin.