Occupy Wall Street, Bay Street and the street nearest you.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a study in early January highlighting the growing income disparities between the richest and poorest Canadians. Income tax files from 2007 show that the average income of the top 1% of income earners was over $400,000 compared to about $44,000 for the average Canadian, almost a tenfold difference. Those who laboured at the minimum wage earned an average of less than $20,000. As expected, at the upper extreme of the distribution the discrepancy is even starker: the 100 richest individuals (0.01% of income tax filers) earned 189 times more than the average Canadian in 2010. Between 2009 and 2010, total average compensation increased by 27% among these 100 individuals compared to 1.1% for average Canadians. Incomes have grown over 80% among the 100 richest compared to about 5% for the rest of Canadians since 1998.1 Income inequalities in Canada decreased after the Second World War for over 30 years, but between 1987 and 2007, according to the same report, one third of all income gains went to the richest 1% of Canadians. Rising inequalities and the economic recession led in the fall of 2011 to a protest movement against income inequalities and the influence of large corporations on governments, the so-called “Occupy movement”. From Wall Street to Bay Street and in cities in the United States, Canada and Europe, mostly young people camped out for weeks asking for policies favourable to the “99%” of society. Although disorganized and lacking a coherent plan, the movement made headlines for weeks and gave hope to those concerned with improving the well-being of the poor and decreasing income inequalities. Unfortunately, the movement was unstructured and it appears to be fading away since cities evicted the protesters from the public spaces they were occupying. No one who reads this Journal ignores the tremendous health, social and psychological tolls that income and social inequalities enact on Canadians. Reduction of health disparities due to these inequalities is a priority of public health throughout Canada. In the current challenging political environment, Public Health has a unique opportunity to engage not only with the social, economic and policy disciplines, but also importantly with younger generations of Canadians who were at the forefront of the Occupy movement and who share the values of justice and solidarity to develop long-term strategic approaches to promote social and economic equality. It is a difficult proposal, not always perceived as central to the legal mandates of public health, but there are very few things any of us could do in our careers that could have as much impact on the long-term health and well-being of all Canadians.