This is the second in The Fraser Institute series on crime in Canada. The purpose of this primer is to describe the kinds of crime to which Canadians are exposed, who is at risk for those crimes, who commits them, some of the costs the victims face, and some of the expenditures we make to prevent crime. To understand what changes we may want to make in our criminal justice system, it is important to see the overall patterns of crime and punishment, how they have evolved and what they have cost.

This well-documented analysis traces the effects of Ontario's 10-year liberalization of welfare benefits and eligibility. The liberalization was intended to give recipients a sense of independence, thereby helping them move into the workforce. However, as Welfare-No Fair demonstrates, rather than reducing caseloads and encouraging independence, Ontario went from being the province with the fewest recipients per capita to the province with the most. As caseloads grew dramatically, more and more families became entangled in the so-called safety net.

The distinguished authors in this volume address key issues facing policymakers in the Americas since the advent of NAFTA - the most important of which is to bring about monetary stability so that market reforms can proceed. Economic liberalization under NAFTA is being threatened by monetary instability in Mexico. If that instability spreads to other Latin American countries, the opportunity for economic integration in the Americas will be weakened.