The number of homeless in Ontario is on the rise. So is the enforcement of the Safe Streets Act, which bans panhandling, and various other legislation designed to keep people off the streets. While homeless people are traditionally among society's least politically influential citizens, many homeless people in Ottawa are working to change that.
Working with antipoverty activists and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), homeless people have initiated a panhandlers' union in Ottawa. The union will act as a means of support for individual members who are targeted by police or have difficulties with the government. The union will also provide the possibility of a livelihood by supplying newspapers for panhandlers to sell.
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Independent newspapers such as The Dominion are vital if democracy and true citizenship are to be saved in this age of awful concentration of corporate medias bent on formatting our opinion to serve the powerful interests which control such media. We as Haitians are especially grateful to independent media for having helped disentangle the web of lies in which the corporate media are still trying to smother our struggle for freedom and self-determination.