Unwelcome companions.

Being poor is more than not having enough money. For the 3.8 million Canadians living in poverty in 1990 it was likely to mean poor nutrition, poor health, lower education, substance abuse, family violence, and crime. And, raising children in poverty can lead to a never-ending cycle.

The effects of poverty start at birth. Infant mortality is twice as high for poor people as for more affluent people. For those who survive birth, a difference of just a few hundred grams in weight can mean the difference between a healthy baby and a sick one. If a pregnant woman is poor, stressed, underweight, or undernourished, the chances are high her baby will have a low birth weight -- less than 2.5 kilograms. The baby then could face months or even a lifetime of related health problems. In 1994, the federal government announced it would give $85 million over the next four years to programs across the country that will offer pre-natal support to low-income, pregnant women. The Montreal Diet Dispensary has been providing pre-natal nutrition to needy mothers for decades. According to the Dispensary's executive director Marie-Paule Duquette, "A disadvantaged woman will never give birth to an advantaged child unless we intervene."

And, as children develop, those from poor families are 2.5 times as likely to die from infectious diseases and twice as likely to suffer accidental death. Accidents are the leading cause of death in children older than one, with motor vehicle accidents the major type, followed by drowning and fires, according to the Canadian Institute of Child Health. There are fewer car accidents among the children of more affluent people because they tend to have better policing and live in areas where their kids are less likely to play in the street. But Statistics Canada reports that studies of child mortality by income group have generally shown that poorer children take more risks. The rate of childhood disability is also twice as high for many poor children and the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and school-related problems in children on welfare is double the reported rate in non-welfare families. In addition, respiratory illness, the third leading cause of death of children under five, is more common among children of low-income families.

Health problems often plague poor people throughout their entire lives. A 1990 report by the National Council of Welfare (an advisory body financed by Health and Welfare Canada) concluded that low-income earners suffer more from poor health and die significantly sooner than people with much higher incomes. One survey, which covered more than 500,000 people over nearly 25 years and dealt with individual incomes, showed that earnings before retirement are linked to death: rates at the lower end of the income scale were about twice as high as the rates at the upper end of the scale for men between 65 and 70. Another study found that high-income earners enjoy an average of 1 1 more years of good health than those with low incomes. Also, health problems incapacitate poor people longer than the rich (5.4 years compared with 0.8 years).

Conditions such as obesity, which can lead to heart disease and diabetes, often are poverty-related too, as is malnutrition.

To add further to their troubles, poor families also tend to experience more domestic violence. As more people lost their jobs during the recession, the number of stories of abuse rose and more and more children went into state care in the harder-hit parts of Canada, including Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec. In Halton Region, for example, just west of Toronto, there were about 44% more children placed in the care of the Children's Aid Society (CAS) in 1991 than a year earlier. As the head of one social service agency pointed out, recessions place more families under more pressure and that's often a climate that produces family violence.

Also in 1991, 83% of the families who became clients of the Children's Aid Society in Toronto were poor, and another 11% were just above the poverty line. In one case reported to the CAS by school officials, the father lost his job, became despondent, and spent his days watching television. The mother took on part-time work to supplement her full-time job. One night the stress got to her; she exploded and beat their three children.

However, child abuse is not restricted to poor families. Halifax's CAS reported that younger children in state care tend to be from lower income homes but families having difficulties with their teenagers are from all walks of life.

A Halifax study also linked poverty to crime. It found, for example, that most offences committed by women in the city in 1992 were crimes of poverty and only a small fraction of w o m e n s crimes involved violence. The most frequent crime was theft under $1,000, which accounted for nearly 42% of the 4,373 charges laid against women in the city between 1984 and 1988. The study found that the number of such charges generally starts to increase in August December, times when mothers could be under unusual pressure to supply school clothes and Christmas presents." December was the month with the highest number of thefts, with an average of 43 charges being laid, compared with 31 per month for the rest of the year.

The poverty of these women also showed up in the courts, where 49% of them used provincially financed Legal Aid lawyers, available only to people with incomes below the poverty line. As many as 43% of them had no lawyers at all. And the story doesn't end there: those not represented by lawyers had less chance of being acquitted, given a conditional discharge or probation. In about half the cases women without a lawyer received fines, more than twice the rate for women who were represented by private lawyers or received Legal Aid services. Inability to pay the fines could lead to a jail sentence between 1984 and 1988 but the law since then has been changed and women cannot be j ailed if they are too poor to pay a fine. That's one small improvement, but many more are needed before poor people can enjoy equally all that life has to offer more affluent Canadians.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. For detailed statistics on poverty write to: The Canadian Council on Social Development, Box 3505, Station C, Ottawa, Ont., K1Y4G1. The national anti-poverty Organization, 256 King Edward Ave., Suite 316, Ottawa, Ont., K1N 7M1. The Fraser Institute, 626 Bute St., Vancouver, B. C., V6E 3Ml.

2. Does your school system have any programs in place to help students from poor families, such as free breakfasts? If not, do you think such programs should be introduced? Would you be willing to organize a fund-raising drive to help pay for programs to assist poor students?