I am entertaining ideas for means of keeping the Toornto Charter for a Healthy
Canada in the spotlight.  Any newsletters or other ideas for distribution would
be appreciated. Anyone is most  welcome to publish it together with a commentary
such as the following.

The Charter is available in English, French, and Spanish at::

http://quartz.atkinson.yorku.ca/QuickPlace/draphael/Main.nsf/h_Toc/505538F1EB2B9DBF0525670800167214/?OpenDocument


   In the Winter of 2002 a conference of over 400 Canadian social and  health
policy experts, community representatives, and health researchers met at York
University in Toronto, Canada to: a) consider the state of ten key social or
societal determinants of health across Canada; b) explore the implications of
these conditions for the health of Canadians; and c) outline policy directions
to improve the health of Canadians by influencing the quality of these
determinants of health. The conference took place at a time when Canadian social
and health policies were undergoing profound changes related to shifting
political, economic, and social conditions.
   The conference was funded by the Health Policy Branch of Health Canada in the
tradition of Canadian government action on the determinants of health.  It
brought together representatives from a wide range of sectors: labor, childcare,
food security, social development, anti-poverty, housing, education, and many
others. Ten social determinants of health



? early life, education, employment
and working conditions, food security, health services, housing, income and
income distribution, social exclusion, the social safety net, and unemployment
and job insecurity were chosen on the basis of their prominence in Health Canada
and World Health Organization policy statements and documents.
   The conference was a response to accumulating evidence that growing social
and economic inequalities among Canadians are contributing to higher health care
costs and other social burdens.  Indeed, the recent Canadian Senate Report on
the Federal Role in Health Care points out that 75% of our health is determined
by physical, social, and economic environments.  Evidence was also accumulating
that a high level of poverty ? an outcome of the growing gap between rich and
poor ? has profound societal effects as poor children are at higher risk for
health and learning problems in childhood, adolescence, and later life, and are
less likely to achieve their full potential as contributors to Canadian society.
   As a result of the conference, a Toronto Charter on the Social Determinants
of health was developed and ratified by conference participants.  The Toronto
Board of Health and Toronto City Council have endorsed the Charter. The Charter
and Conference presentations are posted at http://www.socialjustice.org. Health
Canada has prepared summaries and policy implications of the presentations, four
articles appeared in the prestigious Canadian journal Policy Options, and a
volume of papers is forthcoming. The conference served to reintroduce the
concept of the social determinants of health to Canadians at a time of
increasing influence of neo-liberal ideology in Canada and the weakening of the
social welfare state.
     A public relations campaign on the social determinants of health is being
offered. There is now a concerted policy effort on the part of Health Canada and
various civil society actors to raise and address a variety of important social
determinants of health. The cooperation between the labor movement and
university staff is an especially promising development.