Raise the Rates March to the Ontario Liberal Party Convention

Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

Assemble at Metro Hall, King and John, 1.00 PM

Meal, rally and march

Our Pots and pans are empty, bring yours to bang!!!!!!!!!!

*Buses coming in from Sudbury, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo and more -
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Stay Tuned for More Info!

Kathleen Wynne is every inch a Liberal. She talks about poverty reduction while imposing deeper poverty on communities. She has been a leading member of the Government all along while social assistance (OW and ODSP) rates have lost even more of their spending power. She was a cabinet minister while the minimum wage was frozen, while the Special Diet was slashed and while the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit was being eliminated. There is no question that the Liberals added their own misery to the brutal cuts that the Harris Tories imposed in 1995. Today a single person on Ontario Works is expected to survive on just $626 a month, while rent and cost of living continues to rise beyond reach.

As we head into another round of provincial elections in the spring, we will not be swayed by fake gestures and empty rhetoric from any politicians.

Shawn Brant Gives Harper Until The End of February for an Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Dear Stephen Harper,

I am writing in regards to a mandate issued from the Mohawk Community of Tyendinaga, dated October 27th 2013, requiring your cooperation for the facilitation of a national inquiry into the circumstances of murdered and missing First Nations Women.

Strawberry Ceremony with Wanda Whitebird begins at
12:30pm
Police Headquarters
40 College Street at Bay, Toronto

Community Feast catered by NaMeRes at the 519 Church Street Community Centre; 519 Church Street following the rally.

Please leave your agency banners and organization signs at home and make some in honour of women who have died instead.

Tokens will be available at the rally.

Video of Rally for Dr Wong Just Uploaded:

Dr. Roland Wong's patients, medical allies and community supporters gathered outside the College of Physicians and Surgeons

Dr. Roland Wong's patients, medical allies and community supporters gathered outside the College of Physicians and Surgeons to challenge his unjust suspension for helping low income people obtain the Special Diet. Despite the driving snow, his patients, many of them injured workers, came out to show solidarity. Following the rally, a delegation accompanied Dr Wong and one of his patients to the offices of the Minister and Community and Social Services where her application for the Special Diet was left with McMeekin's staff.

John Bonnar was also there to document the event. Please contact John before using any of his pictures.
http://smu.gs/1itpKNO
Also see for more info: http://ocap.ca/node/1131

CUTS COST LIVES: Housing Stabilization Fund (HSF) Must Be Saved!
*OCAP takes action at City Council Budget Debate
*See pictures here: https://twitter.com/OCAPtoronto

When: Wednesday, January 29th, 10am
Where: Toronto City Council

OCAP has come to the Council Chambers at Toronto City Hall to demand that plans to gut the Housing Stabilization Fund (HSF) in the 2014 budget be overturned. A cut of $4.3 million has been proposed.

The HSF, the City’s replacement to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) that the Ontario Liberal Government eliminated, plays a vital role in our communities. Through it, people who are homeless, people who are coming out of institutions, or women leaving situations of domestic violence, are able to obtain
housing. By accessing this fund, people facing the loss of their housing are able to save themselves from being dumped on the streets. Individuals and families who have suffered fires and floods or who lack basic household items are able to access the HSF.

To City of Toronto Council Members:
cc.  Shelter Support and Housing Administration

(You can download a PDF of this letter here!)(Also, see petition at bottom to stop cut to HSF!)

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014. In the lead up to the 2014 Budget.
 
We, the undersigned represent community agencies and organizations in the City of Toronto who are concerned with the ongoing homelessness crisis in our city.  We are writing to you to urge you to take action now.
 
As you are aware, City Council voted to bring shelter occupancy rates down to 90% more than 9 months ago, but have failed to keep their promise.  Capacity for all shelters remains well over 90% in almost all sectors, even with the use of the flex beds, and the overall overcrowding or worsening conditions have not been adequately addressed.
 
We call on you as City Councilors to support the motions and directions set at the December 4, 2013 Community Development and Recreation Committee. 

Important update: series of assaults, lack of police response, fighting for - and winning - shelter and drop-in space.

Over the recent December holidays, there were multiple sexual assaults against women reported to police in the Downtown East, allegedly done by one man. Once again, like the case earlier in the fall (http://update.ocap.ca/node/1115), there has been no media attention and no public warnings to women. So once again, OCAP women organized a community based response. We made and put up over 300 posters, canvassed, and talked directly to many people in the neighborhood. (See Here for a copy of the more recent poster - please feel free to print and post).

We know that when women live in low income communities the response for our safety is of even less importance. There are multiple ways in which women can be alerted to sexual assaults in their neighbourhoods and these continue to not be utilized. We are already vigilant, we are forced to be, and when we know there is a predator in our neighbourhoods, and especially when there is an image and description of them, we can be even more so. Police over-police our neighbourhoods when it comes to drugs or ways that they criminalize us - they have a billion dollar budget and can't find the "resources" to canvass our neighbourhoods? Can't find the resources to alert women and agencies in the neighborhood when sexual assaults are occurring? They don't care about our safety and they demonstrate this every time sexual assaults occur and they do nothing to alert us.

Communities united in fighting attack on Disability Benefits!

*See the Resolution to fight the ODSP/OW merger, Adopted by the Raise the Rates assembly, here: http://ocap.ca/node/1107

*See the joint Statement with Mamaweswen here: http://ocap.ca/node/1108

OCAP was proud to participate in the Raise the Rates Week of Action with a range of community and union allies. Linking up with the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage, we held actions in a range of Ontario cities and towns. People mobilized to demand living wages, decent income, a Raise in the Rates of Social Assistance, and the reversal of austerity based cuts like the elimination of the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB). Through determined community mobilization last year, we forced $42 million out of the government in what was meant to be CSUMB funding. That funding runs out at the end of this year, and so the call to restore CSUMB is timely and vital.

Above all, we challenged impending measures to attack disabled people on ODSP through the government’s proposal to merge ODSP with Ontario Works (OW).

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OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union) Joins on to the Raise the Rates Campaign!
http://www.opseu.org/notices/raisetheminimumwage/raise-the-rates-campaig...
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The Raise the Rates Campaign represents a broad and growing consensus amongst community groups, unions and anti-poverty activists about social assistance in this province. Together we reject attempts to divide poor people on assistance between those on Ontario Works and those on Ontario Disability Support Program.  We are united in this fight and building alliances with all those living in poverty, people working low-wage precarious jobs, and unionized workers.

As little as $10 a month can help us maintain our work across this city and it just got easier to give.

For close to 20 years the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has been at the forefront of community based resistance to regressive social policy from all levels of government. We have helped inspire numerous groups across this country and continent, been studied in universities and college programs and most importantly we have time after time organized poor communities to stand up and take what’s theirs. To fight for their dignity and for justice.

Today we are engaged day to day in the fight against City Hall, Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill. Making sure that repairs are done in community housing, fighting for each and every entitlement on welfare and disability and working to win fundamental changes that will mean better housing, more to eat and better social programs.

All of this continues to be carried out on a shoestring budget. Year after year we scrape by on the generosity of our members and supporters, primarily by those who answer our emergency appeals for cash when we are on the brink of laying off staff or closing our office. Our monthly expenses are by no means outrageous. We pay our staff what we can, cover basic bills and operate a small office. Every month we are thousands of dollars short of covering our expenses.

Our goal is to change all of that by the end of this year. We are looking for all supporters of our work to pitch in and help support the struggle by becoming a part of our monthly sustainers program. Please only donate what you can. Five dollars helps. Ten dollars helps. And if you can afford to give more please do.

To become a monthly sustainer, send a void cheque with amount and which date of the month you'd prefer it to be processed to:

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
157 Carlton, # 206,
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2K3

For more information call us at 416-925-6939 or email ocap@tao.ca.