Wednesday, August 25, 2010
POLITICAL SPORT:
SOCCER WITH A DIFFERENCE:
There's the World Cup and then there's the 'Homeless World Cup'. The latter is soccer played by homeless people, street soccer if you will, and it has its own events designed to draw world attention to the plight of the homeless. This year the Homeless World Cup will be held in Rio De Janiero Brazil from Sept. 19 to 26. this alternative world Cup is sponsored by numerous organization worldwide, including the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The following announcement of a fundraiser on September 1 out in Vancouver comes from CUPE.
HSHSHSHSHS
Support Team Vancouver in the Homeless World Cup 2010
Aug 23, 2010 07:26 PM
Team Canada is holding a fundraiser on Wednesday, September 1 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Doolins Pub at Granville and Nelson in Vancouver. Tickets are $15 and include a burger and a beer. The event will feature special guests, a silent auction and live entertainment.
This is a benefit and send-off for Street Soccer Team Canada which is going to Rio De Janiero, Brazil on September 15 to represent us in the 64-nation Homeless World Cup. Players have recently been homeless, are homeless, or are at risk for homelessness.
Most of Team Canada’s players were originally recruited from shelters run by the Portland Hotel Society Community Services Society (PHS).
CUPE 15 and CUPE 1004 members work for both PHS and the Carnegie Community Centre and both locals are supporting the team financially and as volunteers.
For more information call Leo Cooper at (604) 831-8412.
Watch the ad promoting the series.
For more information, visit the Homeless World Cup website.
Support Team Vancouver in the Homeless World Cup 2010
Aug 23, 2010 07:26 PM
Team Canada is holding a fundraiser on Wednesday, September 1 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Doolins Pub at Granville and Nelson in Vancouver. Tickets are $15 and include a burger and a beer. The event will feature special guests, a silent auction and live entertainment.
This is a benefit and send-off for Street Soccer Team Canada which is going to Rio De Janiero, Brazil on September 15 to represent us in the 64-nation Homeless World Cup. Players have recently been homeless, are homeless, or are at risk for homelessness.
Most of Team Canada’s players were originally recruited from shelters run by the Portland Hotel Society Community Services Society (PHS).
CUPE 15 and CUPE 1004 members work for both PHS and the Carnegie Community Centre and both locals are supporting the team financially and as volunteers.
For more information call Leo Cooper at (604) 831-8412.
Watch the ad promoting the series.
For more information, visit the Homeless World Cup website.
Labels: Canadian labour, CUPE, events, Homeless World Cup, homelessness, poverty, soccer, sports, Vancouver
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS:
SUPPORT OCAP ARESTEES:
Last July 21 11 members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) were arrested at a demonstration at the Liberal Party headquarters in Toronto. The cases are now coming to court, and OCAP is asking for solidarity with its members. Here's the story and appeal>>>
OCAPOCAPOCAP
2 Events to support OCAP Arrestees
-This Thursday court support, Fundraiser This Saturday,
Please See Below
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**We would like to also add - that court dates are also coming up for G20 arrests - info about that will be sent out as soon as we have it
1. COURT APPEARANCES FOR OCAP MEMBERS AND ALLIES CHARGED AT LIBERAL HQ JOIN US:
Court Support for Anne and Lenny:
Thursday, August 19th, 9 AM @Old City Hall (60 Queen St. W)
Rally @ Attorney General’s (720 Bay St.):
Monday, August 30th, 9AM
On July 21, during an OCAP rally against the McGuinty Government's cutting of the Special Diet, eleven OCAP members and supporters walked into the offices of the Liberal Party to deliver an 'invoice' outlining how much money is owed to poor people on assistance in this Province. They went to a window, put out a banner and addressed the crowd outside. Police soon arrived and, rather than issue warnings and provide any opportunity for the protesters to leave, they handcuffed them, announced they were under arrest for trespass and that they would be taken to the 52 Division.
One of the people who entered the office, Anne Abbott, uses a wheelchair and had her communication assistant with her, Lenny Olin. Clearly at a loss over how to deal with a disabled person, the police declared their intention to arrest Lenny and 'drop Anne off at a hospital'. When this was obviously strongly objected to by Anne, they decided to give them both summonses to appear in court for trespass and, eventually, released them. In the wake of the G20, where a deaf man was arrested and denied access to an ASL interpreter on the grounds that 'he can read our lips', this episode points to the shocking level of ableism that exists amongst the Police in the City of Toronto.
The remaining nine people were taken to 52 Division. As they were loaded into the police wagon, they were told that the charge was being elevated to mischief. At that point, 'the arresting officers' assumed that the group would be released from the station. At 52, however, detectives informed them that the charge of forcible entry was being added and that everyone would be held overnight because each accused person would need to line up a surety to put up money for them. After more than 24 hours, everyone was released from the courthouse. Only through the efforts of lawyer, Mike Leitold, were we able to prevent massively restrictive bail conditions being imposed.
These charges are a sign of the times. The massive police operation around the G20 was not an isolated development. They are ready for resistance to social cutbacks and austerity and want to silence it. A matter that the cops would have previously dealt with by asking the participants to leave is now the basis for criminal charges that carry two year jail terms.
While one of the ironic expressions of the ableism Anne faced is that she and Lenny are not facing such serious charges, their situation is not at all trivial. The fact that the cops used summonses on them means they run the risk of having serious and restrictive conditions imposed on them if they are convicted.
All eleven people charged will soon make court appearances to set dates for trial. However, the Crown Attorney's office and the Attorney General of Ontario can’t be allowed to drag this matter out and have these severe and ridiculous charges hang over the accused for months still to come. We demand that they be dropped now.
Anne and Lenny have to appear in Old City Hall on Thursday, August 19 at 9.00 AM. The injustices that flow from the treatment Anne and Lenny received are best demonstrated in their own words.
Anne:
"I was truly horrified by the ableist attitudes and actions of the police. First they separated me from my communication assistant, which is against the human rights code. When I objected and indicated that I needed my assistant, they told me "don't worry, we will put you in a hospital." They questioned everybody except me, and I felt they thought I was incapable of giving any valid information. With the examples of the abuse on disabled people during the g20 and my recent experience, it's obvious that ableism is running rampant through the Toronto police."
Lenny:
"The police made it obvious that they don't even think of disabled people as human beings. We were there to draw attention to a provincial government that doesn't think that people deserve to be able to eat, and they responded with harassment and threats that were very blatantly ableist. We will continue to fight together for the rights of all people to live a life free of state violence and harassment, and to live a life where our basic human needs are met."
The other nine defendants are to appear at College Park at 10.00 AM on August 30. However, on behalf of all those facing charges, a rally will beheld at the Attorney General’s office at 9.00 AM to oppose the criminalization of social mobilization and to demand the dropping of these charges.
The threat of jail won’t stop the fight to defend the Special Diet or to oppose other austerity measures. We’ll defend those they try to criminalize and the struggle will continue regardless of their attempts to intimidate and silence it.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
http://www.ocap.ca/
416-925-6939
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Please join us at a fundraiser hosted by the Latin Solidarity Network and Barrio Nuevo, in support of Ilian Burbano and the 11 Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) activists/allies arrested for peacefully protesting cuts to the Special Diet benefit by the McGuinty provincial government.
Express your solidarity and acknowledge the valuable efforts of these activists to serve the community and to further social justice.
August 21, 2010
8pm-Midnight
Live music, spoken word, dj's
Location: 22 Wenderly Drive, Toronto
If you can not attend the event and would still like to donate, please click below. http://www.cupe3393.ca/
Cheques can be made in the name of: CUPE Local 3393 and mailed to:
Att: Judi Snively
CUPE Local 3393 co-president
248 Ossington Ave.
Toronto, ON, M6J 3A2
Indicate "Ilian Burbano legal defence fund" in memo line
Labels: Canadian politics, court dates, demonstrations, legalities, OCAP, Ontario, poverty, special diet, Toronto
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS TORONTO:
SOLIDARITY WITH ELEVEN ARRESTED IN TORONTO:
Today the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) held a rally to protest the cuts to the 'Special Diet' in Ontario. When the delegation from the protest entered the Provincial Liberal headquarters to deliver their petition all 11 delegates were arrested. OCAP is calling for a solidarity rally tomorrow. Here is the story from OCAP.
CPCPCPCPCP
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 21, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 21, 2010
Eleven People Arrested:
OCAP Rallies Against Cut to the Special Diet
COME OUT TOMRROW IN SUPPORT!
WHERE: College Park Courthouse (south-west corner of Yonge & College)
WHEN: 10:30 am (Thursday, July 22nd, 2010)
Today, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) demonstrated against the devastating cut to the Special Diet benefit and to demand that the Liberal Government raise welfare rates by at least 55% - the minimum amount required to restore rates to where they were before the cut by Harris in 1995. During today's rally, over 300 people took to the streets, while a smaller group of people went in to the Liberal Party headquarters, to deliver an ‘invoice’ to the Liberal Party – demanding full re-payment of benefits taken from people living on social assistance.
The delegation of people who entered the Provincial Liberals HQ went to deliver a message about the impact of the cuts on poor people. Rather than receive this message, the powers that be chose to enforce their austerity measures with police action. Shortly after the group entered, Toronto Police arrested all 11 people, OCAP members, allies, and labour activists.
Two people were released, while the other 9 remain in custody tonight.
"I went to the demonstration to demand the the special diet not be cut and that welfare and ODSP rates be raised 55% for those of us on social assistance. Instead, I was arrested and the police called me "a pawn"because I am disabled. I am not a pawn. Disabled people fight against governments that make and keeps us poor every day, and we will fight until we win enough money to eat healthy food and pay our rents," said Anne Abbot, an OCAP member who was released with a trespass summons rather than being charged, because she uses a wheelchair.
This latest arrest and detention of activists comes only a few weeks after the mass arrest of over 1000 anti-G20 protesters.
“The G20 leaders met in Toronto to call for austerity measures just like the cuts to welfare in Ontario,” said OCAP organizer Liisa Schofield. “Nobody should be surprised when the police are once again called in to crush public outcry against these kinds of policies.”
Come out on Thursday morning to support those facing charges.
We demand the immediate release of all people being held and the dropping of all charges.
We demand that the Liberal government raise welfare rates by at least 55%.
Media Contact: 416-826-4796
COME OUT TOMORROW IN SUPPORT!
WHERE: College Park Courthouse (south-west corner of Yonge & College)
WHEN: 10:30 am (Thursday, July 22nd, 2010)
**
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
10 Britain St.
Toronto, ON
M5A 1R6
416-925-6939
**
Labels: arrests, Canadian politics, demonstrations, OCAP, Ontario, poverty, protests, solidarity., Toronto
Sunday, July 18, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS TORONTO:
RAISE THE RATES RALLY:
The following is a callout from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) for a demonstration in Toronto on July 21. The issues are saving the Special Diet and "raising the rates".
OCAPOCAP
JULY 21st
STOP THE SPECIAL DIET CUT, RAISE THE RATES!RALLY NEXT WEDNESDAY:
------------------
STOP THE SPECIAL DIET CUT - RAISE WELFARE/ODSP RATES NOW!
Meal, Rally and Action
Wednesday, July 21 @ 12 noon
Ministry of Community and Social Services, 900 Bay St @ Wellesley (Poster here: http://update.ocap.ca/node/896)
////////////////////////
On June 26th the G20 met in Toronto with the government spending over $1billion on the summit. The $1.2 billion dollars wasted on the G20 summit in Toronto could have:
-Funded the Special Diet Allowance for OVER 5 YEARS
-Housed everyone who is currently homeless in Toronto (10 000 people)
PLUS everyone on the waiting list for social housing (70 000) for OVER A YEAR!
When governments choose to spend money on a weekend of meetings and policing instead of housing and social services – it sends a message loud and clear of what their priorities are. On June 25th – 27th, we demonstrated not just against the cost of hosting the G20 meetings in our city, but against the plans and decisions that were being made behind the security perimeter inside that armed camp.
At the Toronto meeting, G20 leaders agreed to cut deficits in half by 2013. They have called for ‘austerity measures’, code for massive cutbacks. This agreement is going to mean a major attack on our communities in the way of huge social cutbacks, criminalization, and more.
In Ontario, austerity measures have already begun – a key example of this is the McGuinty Liberals’ decision to cut the Special Diet Allowance in the name of ‘reducing the deficit’ in this year’s Provincial budget. This government chose to cut a food benefit for people who live on shamefully inadequate welfare (OW) and disability (ODSP) rates – rates that were cut by Harris in 1995 and have never been restored.
People today are forced to try to survive on welfare rates that are 55% below what they should be!
What the Special Diet cut means:
-Poor people lose $200 million for food: the entire Social Assistance program will be cut by 3%-Single people on OW getting the full Special Diet lose 30% of their income, on ODSP, its 19%
-Dalton McGuinty has cut welfare for only the 3rd time in Ontario’s history
-We will see a rapid increase in homelessness, hunger, illness,and desperation
The Liberals have said they will put in a new program. They have not told people what this will be, but we do know that it will be very difficult to access and less than the Special Diet amount if anything. We also know that this Government has done nothing since 2003 to reverse the brutal 22% Harris cut to welfare (that today is worth 55%). The time to negotiate with the Liberal Government has come to an end, the time to challenge them is now.
G20 leaders, the Federal Tories, and the Provincial Liberals think that they can offload deficits on to poor people by cutting funding to programs that we need and gutting the public sector. They are trying to force us to pay for a crisis we didn’t create.
At the same time that the Liberals are making this cut, they are giving corporations a $4.6 billion dollar tax break over the next three years! As the government begins to implement austerity measures on the local level, we have to resist them every step of the way. We need to keep our Special Diets, and we need to force a raise in welfare and disability rates now so that people can live with health and dignity.
When they say CUT BACK– we say FIGHT BACK!
Get involved in July 21st: Contact OCAP to organize outreach in your neighborhood or to build for a bus or contingent on the day.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
http://www.ocap.ca/ /
416-925-6939
Labels: Canadian politics, demonstrations, events, OCAP, Ontario, poverty, Toronto
Monday, May 17, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS - ONTARIO:
DAY OF ACTION FOR THE SPECIAL DIET:
This Thursday the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) will be holding a day of action to pressure the Ontario government to keep the 'Special Diet'. Here's the details from OCAP.
◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘
Thursday, May 20th: MPP Day of Action!
TELL YOUR LOCAL LIBERAL MPP TO LEAVE THE SPECIAL DIET ALONE AND RAISE THE RATES INSTEAD
Day of Action at Local Members of Provincial Parliament Offices:
Thursday,
May 20th
*See below for a list of confirmed locations*
See below for sample letter to MPP’s
*Email ocap@tao.ca for a copy of the May 20th Flyer (or soon to be uploaded to the website)
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is challenging the decision to eliminate the Special Diet for people on welfare and disability. We are demanding this vital benefit be left alone and that the Government Raise the Rates now. Coming out of the momentum of April 15th, we are organizing a series of actions to build up resistance to the attack on the Special Diet.
To ensure that the fight is taken into as many communities as possible, we are calling for a day of action at local Liberal MPPs' offices on Thursday, May 20.
Want to participate on May 20th but don’t know how? Get involved in one of these locations OR organize your own in your area – get in contact with us. Locations that are confirmed so far: *Toronto Centre: 11am on Thursday, May 20th, Meeting @ Gerrard and Parliament (Pigeon Park) Liberal MPP Glen Murray
*Etobicoke North: 11am on Thursday, May 20th, Meeting @ Food Basics at Albion and Thistledown (near Islington) Liberal MPP Shafiq Qaadri’s
*Etobicoke South: 1pm on Thursday, May 20th, Meeting @ 701 Evans Ave (Just south of Sherway Gardens, Queensway and The West Mall ) Liberal Minister of Children and Youth Services and Women’s Issues, Laurel Broten
*Davenport: 4pm on Wednesday, May 19th @ Davenport and Dufferin Delivering messages from the community to Liberal MPP Tony Ruprecht’s Office
*York-West (Jane and Finch): TBA
*St. Pauls: Join Health Providers Against Poverty @ Liberal MPP Dr. Eric Hoskins Offfice TBA *Peel/Brampton: TBA
*St.Catherines: 11am on Thursday, May 20th @ 2 Secord Dr. Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, James Bradley
*Ottawa: 1pm on Thursday, May 20th, Meeting @ Park at the corner of Montreal Rd and Begin St (Vanier) Liberal Minister of Community Social Services: Madeleine Meilleur
*Hamilton: Demonstration on Thursday, June 17th (TBA) +More to come soon!
We leave it up to people to decide the kind of event that is right for them. Some may choose to occupy an office. Some may think it better to rally outside. Others may want to bring a delegation and call for a meeting. Please let us know what ideas you have for ways to drive this issue home at Liberal offices so we can share them with people in other communities.
Whatever tactic you think is possible and works best for you, we are calling on people across this Province to make May 20 a day when the cut to Special Diet is put before the Liberals in a way they can't ignore. The loss of the Special Diet means people will not have a healthy diet. Some will be made homeless, many will suffer ill health and lives will be shortened. We don't just want to protest this attack but intend to defeat it. If you want to be part of this fight back and the May 20th Day of Action, email us at ocap@tao.ca or call us at (416) 925-6939
---------------------------------------------
*SAMPLE LETTER TO MPP’s May 20th, 2010
Dear Ontario Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament,
We, the members of your community, are disgusted by the decision of your Government on March 25th in the 2010 Provincial Budget to scrap the Special Diet Allowance. The Special Diet is money that people on Welfare (OW) and Disability (ODSP) rely on in order to buy healthy food and pay the rent.For years people have been forced to choose between two essential needs: housing and food, as a direct result of inadequate OW and ODSP rates.
On March 25th, 2010, this Government put forth the most anti-poor budget since Harris in 1995. In cutting the Special Diet you have chosen to be only the 3rd Government in Ontario’s history to CUT Social Assistance. This is a brutal move that will make hundreds of thousands of people hungry, sick, homeless or at risk of being evicted.
In 1995 the Tory Government cut Welfare by 22% and froze Disability rates.Today, that cut in income is equivalent to approximately 55% with inflation and cost of living increase for the last 15 years. The Liberal Government campaigned against the Tories on a platform of ‘Poverty Reduction’ and reversing the Harris cuts. But since 2003, little has been done to account for inflation let alone reverse the Harris cuts, and in fact people on Social Assistance today are worse off than they were in 1995.
This is shameful. Today we have visited your office to say loud and clear: how dare politicians like you knock on doors in this neighborhood, asking for our votes and then take away the money we need to eat and feed our families. It is a disgrace that you can force families to turn to food banks and send kids to bed hungry yet maintain a public office in the very community you are inflicting misery on.
We are here to demand that you give back the Special Diet Allowance immediately, and that you finally reverse the 1995 Harris cut by raising OW and ODSP rates to where people can live with health and dignity.
Sincerely,
Your constituents.
Labels: Canadian politics, demonstrations, OCAP, Ontario, poverty, protests, special diet
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS-TORONTO:
SAVE STREET HEALTH:
Molly has blogged about the campaign to save the Street Health services and to reinstate Gaetan Heroux before. Here's a last minute appeal from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) for a demonstration at 12 noon on Wednesday May 12 for both causes.
TOTOTOTOTOTOTO
May 12th: Defend the East Downtown Neighborhood:
Bring Back Street Health Services, Re-Instate Gaetan!
Wednesday, May 12th
12 Noon
Allan Gardens (Carleton and Sherbourne)
*FREE BBQ in the PARK!
On Wed. May 12 we will gather in Allan Gardens at 12noon for a Community BBQ and Rally. We will then march on Street Health and remind Laura Cowan, Mary McCowan, and Eleanor Lester that they are accountable to the community and that the needs and demands of this community will not be ignored. Bring back the services to Street Health and Re-instate Gaetan at his job in East Downtown Toronto!
The Downtown East-End is experiencing rapid transformation, as are many poor neighborhoods in Toronto. In this transformation, poor people and services for poor people are being displaced. It is important that we defend the need for public services and access to these services within our neighborhoods; that we confront this process of displacement. Street Health began as a project by homeless people and has been an important space in this neighborhood for over 20 years. Gaetan Heroux has been a dedicated and much loved anti-poverty activist within this neighborhood for over 20 years as well. We need to send a message loud and clear: Street Health belongs to the community and NOT to corporate consultants!
Four months ago Street and Neighbourhood Link moved the administration office of the PAID I.D. Project out of Street Health, where it had been for the last ten years, and relocated 5 miles away from the Dundas and Sherbourne neighborhood, where most of the identification clinics were located. Making people travel five miles to access the administrative office is cruel and harmful to people who don’t have the money for TTC tickets needed to get all the way out to Danforth and Victoria Park.
On December 8, a petition with over 500 names was given to Laura Cowan, Street Health’s Executive Director, and Eleanor Lester, Chair of the Street Health Board. The majority of the people who signed the petition were homeless men and women who had used the I.D. service.They demanded that the administration office be returned to Street Health and that Gaetan be reinstated at his job in the downtown core. On December 29, a dozen people walked for over three hours from Street Health to Neighbourhood Link and delivered another petition with over 850 names on it to Mary McGowan, the Executive Director of Neighbourhood Link, again demanding that the administrative office be returned to Street Health and that Gaetan’s job be reinstated in the downtown core.
Many times the community has rallied outside of Street Health to voice our concerns and our demands. Despite these numerous demonstrations, several public meetings, and two petitions signed by homeless men and women, community workers, and anti-poverty activists, the people who run Street Health and Neighbourhood Link continue ignore the demands of the community. Defend your neighborhood and services:
JOIN EAST DOWNTOWN FIGHTBACK on May 12th, 12Noon at Allan Gardens Park.
FOR MORE INFO, CONTACT THE DOWNTOWN EAST FIGHTBACK CAMPAIGN
416-760-6579 eastfightback@gmail.com
Labels: Canadian politics, demonstrations, Gaetan heroux, OCAP, poverty, Street Health, Toronto
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
POVERTY:
MOTHER AND BABY DENIED ASSISTANCE IN TORONTO:
The following appeal for solidarity with a Toronto mother and her child is from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). The support demonstration is tomorrow.
◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘
MOTHER AND BABY DENIED INCOME BY TORONTO SOCIAL SERVICES FACE HOMELESSNESS
MOTHER AND BABY DENIED INCOME BY TORONTO SOCIAL SERVICES FACE HOMELESSNESS
MOTHER AND BABY DENIED INCOME BY TORONTO SOCIAL SERVICES FACE HOMELESSNESS
MOTHER AND BABY DENIED INCOME BY TORONTO SOCIAL SERVICES FACE HOMELESSNESS
Please Help them Keep their Housing
Meet at Doors of Toronto City Hall, Wednesday, April 28 at Noon
Basra is a young mother who has been denied any income by Toronto Social Services. Her husband lives in the US and was applying to live in Canada. At this point, his intentions are unclear and Basra has not had contact with him for some time. Social Services is demanding that he come to Toronto before they will provide income. Basra is in no position to compel him to do this but is being denied basic income and faces eviction from her housing.
OCAP is in the process of challenging this outrageous decision but the family is now in crisis and must cover the cost of rent and groceries. We are asking for help in two ways. If you are able to make any contribution to help his woman and child, mail a cheque to OCAP at 10 Britain St, Toronto M5A 1R6, payable to OCAP but earmarked 'Help with the Rent'. Alternatively, you can show up at City Hall on the 28th and give your support then.
There is one other way to help. This kind of abuse is dished out to people by the Toronto welfare system all the time. It happens without public knowledge because the poor don't have an Auditor General at their disposal. Toronto City Council, with its 'progressive' majority, could intervene and order its senior staff to respect peoples' right but they don't. They let the welfare bureaucracy deny people income and then pocket the cost savings without having to witness the messy details. Janet Davis is Chair of the Community Development and Recreation Committee of Council. Her Committee oversees the Social Services Division. We have sent the details of this case to her without any response. Please call her at(416) 392-4035 or e mail her at councillor_davis@toronto.ca and call on her to make sure Basra and her baby are given basic income and are not made homeless.
Thanks for your support
Labels: appeals, Canadian politics, demonstrations, OCAP, poverty, solidarity., Toronto
Friday, April 23, 2010
EVENTS- TORONTO:
PEOPLE'S HISTORY TOUR OF TORONTO EAST END:
Here's an interesting event coming up next Wednesday down Toronto way. From the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) ...
TOTOTOTOTOTOTOTO
People's History of Downtown East End:
People's History of Downtown East End:
Wednesday, April 28th
**Next Wednesday:
**Next Wednesday:
Historical Walk of Downtown East End
with anti-poverty activist Gaetan Heroux
Wednesday April 28, 2010
6pm to 8pm
Meet in front of 51 Division (South East Corner of Parliament and Front Streets)
East Downtown Toronto is home to one of the city's oldest working class neighbourhoods. East Downtown Toronto was once the home to some of Toronto’s wealthiest residents. Today, Toronto's "skid row" is located in the heart of East Downtown Toronto, and the area has one of the largest concentration of social housing in Canada. The current gentrification of the area threatens the very existence of this working class neighbourhood. During the Great Depression and in the mid 1990's East Downtown Toronto became a staging ground for some of the most militant anti-poverty demonstrations in the country.
How did this transformation happen? What was the relationship of Toronto's wealthy philanthropist and the various church organizations to the"vagrants", "tramps", and "unemployed" who were flooding the city in the 1830’s and onward? What role did the House of Industry, Toronto’s first poor house, play in the lives poor people and the unemployed? How did this poor house come to dominate the lives of Toronto's poor for over a hundred years? What was the city's response to slums which emerged in East Downtown Toronto shortly after the industrialization of the city? How did a local church, All Saints Church, which at one time claimed some of city’s richest citizens as its parishioners, come to open its doors to Toronto’s poorest residents? How did a local park, Allan Gardens, go from being the playground of the rich to being the staging ground for some of the most militant anti-poverty demonstrations in the country? Why are the poor now being displaced and from their own community by the city?
Come and walk in East Downtown Toronto with Gaetan Heroux and find out how the poor survived, organized and fought against relief policies that often left them destitute. Gaetan is an anti-poverty activist with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. He has worked in East Downtown for the last twenty years. Over the last five years Gaetan has been researching the history of how the poor in East Downtown Toronto have resisted and organized.
More information?
Contact the Downtown East Fightback Campaign
416-760-6579
Visit: http://www.ocap.ca/
Labels: events, Gaetan heroux, history., OCAP, People's History of Downtown East End Toronto, poverty, Toronto
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS-TORONTO:
HEALTH, JOBS AND RESISTANCE:
Another day, another last minute notice. This came in late last night from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).
CPCPCPCPCPCPCPCP
Reminder- TOMORROW:Poverty and the Provincial Budget - Public Forum, April 6
~~~Reminder~~~
~~~TOMORROW~~~
-----------please forward widely----------------
******************
Poverty and the Provincial Budget
************************
_______Health, Jobs and Resistance_______
The Ontario 2010 budget, released on March 25th, confirms that the McGuinty government's "poverty reduction" efforts are all pretense. Poor and working people are being forced to pay for the economic crisis. New cuts to social assistance are the most devastating since Mike Harris slashed welfare rates in 1995. We saw this coming and we need to respond. How can welfare recipients,labor unions and social justice activists organize together ? Join us for a discussion about current conditions and strategies forward.
*Tuesday, April 6
*7pm
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
252 Bloor St. West, Room 5260
Featuring:
*John Clarke*, Organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
*Michael Hurley*, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and Vice-President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario.
*Dr. Roland Wong*, Occupational and Community Medicine Physician.
Sponsored by:
Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG-Toronto) www.opirgtoronto.org
University of Toronto Health Studies Students' Union
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) www.ocap.ca
Health Providers Against Poverty www.healthprovidersagainstpoverty.ca
OISE is an accessible location. For more information about this event, contact OPIRG-Toronto at opirg.toronto@gmail.com .
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104934856208964
Labels: Canadian politics, Dalton McGuinty, events, OCAP, poverty, public meetings
Friday, April 02, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS-ONTARIO:
MORE PROTESTS AGAINST THE ONTARIO BUDGET:
The recently released Ontario provincial budget is fully in line with the neo-conservative plan of making ordinary people pay for the financial crisis, but there is opposition outside of the political maneuvers in the provincial legislature. Here, from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is news of three upcoming events to oppose this attack on poor and working people in Ontario.
CPCPCPCPCPCPCP
Restore the Special Diet, Raise the Rates!
Upcoming Events.
Important Upcoming - please forward far and wide!
1) Poverty and the Provincial Budget Forum:Tuesday, April 6th
2)Public Meeting- Testimony on the Special Diet:Friday, April 9th
3)Raise the Rates - Rally and March on the McGuinty Government:
Thursday, April 15th All details below.
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1) Poverty and the Provincial Budget
Health, Jobs and Resistance
The Ontario 2010 budget, released on March 25th, confirms that the McGuinty government's "poverty reduction" efforts are all pretense. Poor and working people are being forced to pay for the economic crisis. New cuts to social assistance are the most devastating since Mike Harris slashed welfare rates in 1995. We saw this coming and we need to respond. How can welfare recipients, labor unions and social justice activists organize together? Join us for a discussion about current conditions and strategies forward.
Tuesday, April 6
7pm
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
252 Bloor St. West, Room 5260
Featuring:
John Clarke, Organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and Vice-President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario.
Dr. Roland Wong, Occupational and Community Medicine Physician.
Sponsored by:
Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG-Toronto)
www.opirgtoronto.org
University of Toronto Health Studies Students' Union
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
www.ocap.ca
Health Providers Against Poverty
www.healthprovidersagainstpoverty.ca
OISE is an accessible location. For more information about this event, contact OPIRG-Toronto at opirg.toronto@gmail.com .
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=525599031#!/event.php?eid=104934856208964
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2)PUBLIC MEETING: Restore the Special Diet, Raise OW/ODSP Rates Now!
Friday, April 9th
6pm @ Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre
1499 Queen St. W, Toronto
*snacks and drinks to be provided
*childcare to be provided
Are you struggling to make ends meet on OW or ODSP?
Are you angry at the Liberal government for taking away the one thing we had left to try to put food on the table?
Come out to hear testimony, or give testimony, on the importance of the Special Diet money and the need for a total raise in Welfare and ODSP rates.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
www.ocap.ca
416-925-6939
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3) THE SPECIAL DIET HAS BEEN CUT!
Rally and March on the MGuinty Government
WE DEMAND:
-Raise Welfare and Disability rates by 40% now!
-Stop the attacks: Give us back the Special Diet!
-Defend Public Services
Thursday, April 15th @ 12 Noon
Allan Gardens Park (Sherbourne and Gerrard)
*free meal
*accessibility pick-up @ 11:30 am at south-east corner of Dundas-Yonge
On March 25th, Ontario’s Liberal Government killed the Special Diet in the Provincial Budget. 20% of those on social assistance in Ontario have been getting this vital benefit and will now be thrown into a crisis - robbed of the ability to buy food and pay the rent once again. People on Welfare and Disability live on rates that are shamefully inadequate. Since the 1995 cuts, these rates have been reduced in real terms by more than 40%. For 15 years, people have been forced further into poverty. In slashing the Special Diet now - the government is taking away the one thing that people on Social Assistance had left to try to get-by.
This is the most devastating social cutback since Mike Harris slashed welfare rates in 1995. The Liberal Government has dared to talk about ‘poverty reduction’.
Not only has it cut the Special Diet while huge numbers of people face the impact of an economic crisis, but it has announced that it will increase the rates by 1% at the end of the year. That’s less than inflation and an insulting slap in the face. Governments responded to the economic crisis by giving billions of dollars in bailouts and tax cuts to failed corporations and banks. Now they are looking to get that money back in the way of serious social cutbacks. The Special Diet is an example, but all Public Services are under threat.
If we let the government write our future, it will be bleak. It’s time to challenge this Government and to build a movement to win the right to decent income. We are calling on poor people in Ontario to organize and fight back. We won’t pay for their crisis or their deficit.
We demand the right to a decent income and a future free of poverty.
Raise the Rates by 40% Now!
Join us in this fight: April 9th and April 15th.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
www.ocap.ca
416-925-6939
Labels: Canadian politics, Dalton McGuinty, OCAP, Ontario, poverty, protests, special diet
Thursday, March 25, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS-ONTARIO:
ANTI POVERTY EVENTS UPCOMING IN TORONTO:
The following notices are from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).
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Upcoming public meeting:
Organizing to Defend Poor Communities:
Organizing to Defend Poor Communities:
Organizing to Defend Poor Communities:
Public Meeting
MEAL TO BE SERVED
Friday March 26, 2010 – 6pm
St. Luke's Church – 353 Sherbourne St. (at Carlton)
East Downtown Toronto has a long history of poor people organizing in their communities around poverty. During the depression the unemployed in East Downtown Toronto organized to stop evictions, demanded work or relief, struggled for better hostel conditions, and they fought major battles around free speech.
In the mid 1990’s poor people in East Downtown Toronto organized massive demonstrations against the Harris cuts to social services. During this period poor people in East Downtown Toronto organized to stop cuts to welfare, demanded affordable housing by taking over abandoned buildings, set up special diet clinics in the area so that people on social assistance could get more money to feed themselves and their families, and organized around the gentrification of their neighbourhood.
Today, more and more services are being removed from East Downtown Toronto and the poor are being driven out of the area. The economic crisis and the current national debt will put more pressure on services and on the poor living in East Downtown and other poor neighbourhoods in Toronto over the next few years.
How will people organize themselves today to fight against poverty and to defend neighbourhoods and services? What is the role of social agencies in this struggle? Can poor communities learn from past struggles?
On Friday March 26, community workers, anti-poverty activists, and poor people who live in East Downtown will gather to discuss the various ways in which they can begin to fight for basic needs and services and defend the community. People from other communities will also be invited to share their experiences and struggles in this fight.
FOR MORE INFO, CONTACT
416-760-6579
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Here, also from OCAP are notices of yet more planned meetings and actions in the wake of the provincial decision to axe the 'Special Diet'.
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Province Slashes Special Diet
THE SPECIAL DIET HAS BEEN CUT!
THE SPECIAL DIET HAS BEEN CUT!
GIVE IT BACK AND RAISE WELFARE/DISABILITY RATES BY 40%!
March 25th, 2010
Today, the Provincial Budget has killed the Special Diet and what was the only means that tens of thousands of people in Ontario had to survive has been taken from them. 20% of those on social assistance in Ontario had been getting this vital benefit and they will now be thrown into a crisis by a move that will rob them of the ability to feed themselves and pay the rent. This is the most devastating social cutback since Mike Harris slashed welfare rates in 1995.
The Liberal Government has dared to talk about ‘poverty reduction’. Not only has is cut the Special Diet but, while huge numbers of people face the impact of an economic crisis, it has announced that it will increase the rates by 1% at the end of the year. That’s less than inflation and an insulting extra $10 a month for a single parent with two children!
On April 15th we will be marching against the McGuinty Government. The question we face is ‘who will pay for the economic crisis’. If you’re a bank or big corporation, you get a bail out. If you’re poor, they send you the bill and make you even poorer.
It’s time to challenge this Government’s pretense of trying to deal with poverty and to build a movement to win the right to decent income. In Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario, you work for poverty wages, you live in poverty on welfare or you fight back.
COME OUT!
Public Meeting:
Friday, April 9th @ 6.00 PM
Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre, 1499 Queen Street West
Rally and March:
Thursday, April 15th 12Noon,
Allan Gardens Park (Sherbourne and Gerrard)
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
(416) 925-6939 /
Labels: Canadian politics, demonstrations, OCAP, poverty, protests, public meetings, rallies, special diet, Toronto
Friday, March 19, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS ONTARIO:
SUPPORT THE SPECIAL DIET CAMPAIGN:
The following appeal for an upcoming campaign in support of the 'Special Diet' for poor people in Ontario comes from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). You don't need to be an Ontario resident to participate.
CPCPCPCPCPCPCPCPCP
Mass phone and e-mail:
Meilleur: Hands Off The Special Diet!
Meilleur: Hands Off The Special Diet!
Meilleur: Hands Off The Special Diet!
Yesterday We Crashed Your Office, Next Week We Will Crash Your Phone Lines
Mass phone/email to save the Special Diet: Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
The Ontario Government is looking to balance the budget on the backs of the poorest people in the province. They are intending to slash the Special Diet funding, a crucial source of income to 162,000 people in Ontario. This benefit provides up to $250 a month to those on assistance who are suffering health problems. One in five people on assistance rely on this money to be able to eat at all properly. Cutting this money will lead to a massive increase in hunger in the province, evictions, and long term health consequences for people on social assistance.
Since 2005, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty organized clinics staffed by doctors and nurses who believed that the allowance could provide essential support for people unable to live healthily on current welfare and disability rates. The largest clinic, held on the lawn of Queen’s Park in 2005, signed up 1000 people.
Welfare and disability payments need to be brought back to the levels that they were at before Harris cut welfare in 1995. This requires a 40%increase. Without a raise of that level, the Special Diet funds are the difference between housing and the street. Between sickness and health.
What does losing the Special Diet mean to people's lives?
“There would be no food in the house... there would be a lot of difficulties.” -Ahmed
“I might have to move. My stomach problems will increase because I won't be able to eat as well.” - Marque
“I don't know what I will do if I lose the Special Diet. I might lose my housing. I will definitely have to decide between paying my rent and my health. My condition is greatly affected by diet, if I can't eat healthy food, I get quite a lot sicker. My entire life will be negatively affected if I lose the Special Diet.” -A.J.
“I live on the street and I use the special diet money to buy food because the Salvation Army food is disgusting. I need fresh fruit and vegetables and you'll never see anything like that in the shelter.”-Brian
“They give me $2200. Our rent is $1460. I have 5 kids. Do you think that is enough? We are not saying we need access to luxuries... but at least basic things like food and clothing.” - Khadija
It looks like the provincial government is planning to cancel the special diet. This will mean that thousands of poor people in this province will be pushed into hunger, illness, homelessness and desperation. This is unacceptable – and now is the time to tell your provincial politicians and the City politicians that helped to make this happen. On Tuesday March 23rd, call and email the politicians below.
· Demand that they maintain the Special Diet funding.
· Tell them that they can’t cut costs by attacking those on social assistance and disability support payments.
· Let them know that what is needed is a 40% raise in social assistance rates back to the levels in the mid 1990s.
You can even start now!
Premier Dalton McGuinty
(416) 325-1941
fax at (416) 325-3745.
Madeleine Meilleur
Minister of Community and Social Services
416-325-5225.
Fax 416-325-5191
Janet Davis
Chair of the Council Committee Responsible for Social Services
City of Toronto
Phone: 416-392-4035
Fax 416-397-9289
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Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
10 Britain St.
Toronto, ON
M5A 1R6
416-925-6939
**
Labels: campaigns, Canadian politics, OCAP, Ontario, poverty, special diet
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
GOOD NEWS-TORONTO:
TORONTO HOUSING WILLING TO NEGOTIATE IN YEN TANG CASE:
The other day Molly reported on a planned action on the part of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in support of Toronto public housing tenant Yen Tang. Just this evening we have received news from OCAP that Toronto Housing has expressed their willingness to negotiate in this matter. therefore the OCAP action planned for tomorrow has been suspended for the time being. The notice from OCAP follows. It seems that the City of Toronto really didn't want this publicity. I logged no less than 10 visits to this blog from them on this matter today. I can only imagine how many times they visited the OCAP site. Here's the notice.
TOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTO
TCHC Action for Thursday not needed now~
To those who were planning to come out to support Toronto Housing tenant, Yen Tang, the housing authority has contacted us with an offer to resolve the matter and Yen and an OCAP rep will be meeting with them shortly. Acting on Yen's wishes, we are not going to hold this action but will reset it should it prove necessary.
To those who were planning to come out to support Toronto Housing tenant, Yen Tang, the housing authority has contacted us with an offer to resolve the matter and Yen and an OCAP rep will be meeting with them shortly. Acting on Yen's wishes, we are not going to hold this action but will reset it should it prove necessary.
Although we did not need to mobilize to confront TCH over this case, our preparations to do so are what brought the good result.
Labels: Canadian politics, good news, OCAP, poverty, Toronto, Toronto Housing, Yen Tang
Sunday, March 07, 2010
HOMELESSNESS-TORONTO
SUPPORT YEN TANG:
Here's a communique and a request for solidarity from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in Toronto.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Woman and Children Facing Threat of Violence Left Hanging by Toronto Community Housing
Woman and Children Facing Threat of Violence Left Hanging by Toronto Community Housing
Woman and Children Facing Threat of Violence Left Hanging by Toronto Community Housing
Picket TCH Head Office,
931 Yonge Street,
Thursday, March 11, 11.30 AM
Yen Tang reported serious threats from a male neighbour to the police. The Catholic Childrens' Aid Society took the matter seriously enough that they wrote a letter saying that the children should not be living where they were. TCH staff told Yen that she would be placed on an emergency transfer list, a home in another part of the City was suggested and she was told that it would be ready within three months.
Not able to stay in the place while she waited for the transfer, Yen and her kids moved in temporarily with some friends in another TCH community. However, local staff informed the friend that her rental subsidy would be taken away if Yen continued to stay there. She and her children have now had to move into a place that is far from their school. They are having to double up in a situation that is not sustainable for anyone involved.
After three months, Yen visited the unit she had been promised and saw no signs of work having been carried out on it. She checked in and was told that the male neighbour was denying the threats and the transfer was now on hold. An OCAP delegation went to TCH to deal with this. We explained that the issue was not to decide anyone's guilt beyond reasonable doubt but to act decently and reasonably in the face of a very likely threat to the safety of a family. Yen was put back on the transfer list, with the usual pretense that the decision to remove her was a miscommunication.
Yen and her kids have been waiting much longer than the promised three months and a recent letter to TCH asking when the matter would be resolved has gone unanswered. This family has suffered enough and faced enough disruption. They have a right to a decent and safe home.
Please support our action to win this basic right for Yen Tang and her children.
Labels: homelessness, OCAP, poverty, solidarity., Toronto, Yen Tang
CANADIAN POLITICS-TORONTO:
GATECRASHERS AT THE ORGY OF WEALTH:
It's hard for the average person to even imagine a $950 a plate dinner. That was, however, the cover charge for the recent fund raiser for the Liberal Party last February 25. Like Christ in disguise, however, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) managed to skip past security and remind the assembled top of the pyramid about how the lower parts live. Here's the story from OCAP.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Low Income People Crash Lavish Liberal Dinner Party
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Low Income People Crash Lavish Liberal Dinner Party:OCAP Organizes to Raise Welfare/Disability Rates
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See Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifeyMhTLWU4
On Thursday, February 25th, 2010, diners at a lavish Ontario Party Liberal fundraising event, which cost attendees $950 per plate and $9,500 a table,did not finish their meals in comfort.
Members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) organized to crash the fundraiser, at which Premier Dalton McGuinty was scheduled to speak,in an act of outrage at the fact that rich Liberal Party supporters could spend more on a meal than people on welfare and disability have to live on for a month. While the Liberals feast, literally thousands of people in this city go without food or shelter.
At about 7:00 p.m. at the Metro Convention Centre, 50 low income people and OCAP supporters managed to disrupt the fine dining and cocktails, walking past police and security and proceeding right to the front of the banquet hall. Just as hundreds of dinner attendees gathered in the reception area sipping on champagne, OCAP occupied the centre area chanting Raise the Rates and We are hungry, we’re angry, we won’t go away!. The group was loud, energetic and determined despite physical attacks by Toronto Police and Liberal Party members.
While they promise ‘poverty reduction strategies', the Liberals are doing all they can to eliminate Special Diet access, a benefit people can access to limit their poverty, if a medical provider considers it necessary. They have sent memos to welfare and ODSP offices giving untrained staff the right to evaluate and reject the diagnoses of health providers. This is leading to a huge reduction in access to this vital benefit. The loss of Special Diet income for the poor in Ontario will be a major cut in people's income. The reality is that people on social assistance live on incomes that have lost at least 40% of their spending power since 1995.
People are even poorer today than they were under Mike Harris. On Thursday OCAP organized to stop the attack on welfare and disability recipients, and to expose the hypocrisy of the Provincial government and their 'poverty reduction' veneer. Poverty is not comfortable - nor should rich supporters of McGuinty's Liberals be. In the midst of this economic crisis attacks on poor people have increased, and the potential of social cuts in the upcoming Provincial budget is very real and will mean an explosion of Poverty in Ontario.
That's why, On Apr 15, 2010 OCAP will hold a large mobilization against the Provincial Government.
We won’t pay for their crisis or their deficit.
We demand the right to decent income and a future free of poverty.
Raise the Rates by 40% Now!
Join us on April 15 and fight for the right to decent income!
Get Involved:
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
416-925-6939
Fight to Win.
Labels: Canadian politics, demonstrations, Liberal Party, OCAP, Ontario, poverty, Toronto, wealth
Thursday, February 04, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS-ONTARIO:
PRE-BUDGET "CONSULTATION" IN ONTARIO:
Every once in awhile governments get the strange urge to pretend that they are actually listening to the people that they rule. This perverse desire usually passes fast enough, but sometimes it becomes ritualized, with all the all the pageantry and comprehensibility of the Latin Mass. The government of Ontario is now engaged in such a ritual. Here's what the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) thinks of the process.
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On the Provincial Pre-Budget Consultations: Call to Action:
This article is available at:
This article is available at:
And soon to be available on Rabble.ca
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A Call to Action Against the Cuts to Come:
Submission on the Ontario Provincial Pre-Budget ‘consultations’
Liisa Schofield and John Clarke
The Ontario Government’s pre-budget consultations are currently underway at Queen’s Park. The Federal budget is set to be released at the beginning of March (that is unless Harper decides for another spontaneous vacation), with the Ontario Budget, and most Provincial budgets, then set to be released by the end of March or beginning of April.
It will, no doubt, be the same tired old routine. Agencies, services, and organizations will line up to sing for their supper in front of the all-party Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. The committee will be sent the same message that the government has gotten and ignored time and time again – that people in this province are suffering, that the people of Ontario cannot handle further cuts to programs or cuts to jobs, that their poverty reduction strategy is failing and that this province desperately needs to see a raise in funding for social assistance, childcare, and education.
Poor and working class people living in this province have a lot to worry about in this year’s budget. We are in an economic crisis and both the Federal and Provincial governments have made more than thinly veiled threats of cuts to come in the name of reducing bloated deficits.
With so much to lose, we cannot afford to put our faith in the pre-budget consultations process. Instead of playing their game and politely pleading our case behind closed doors, we are making our submission to the poor and working class people in Ontario – the vast majority of people in this province. This is our call to action.
The ghosts of Flaherty’s past:
Dear rest-of-Canada: take it from Ontario, with Flaherty at the helm of Canada’s economy we can be sure that some brutal times are ahead. Our old friend, Mr. Jim Flaherty was the man wielding the ax in Ontario’s Tory Regime in the 90’s – slashing all services and attacking the public sector without blinking. We should be terrified of his plans on the Federal level because Harper appointed him to do to Canada what he already did to Ontario.
Flaherty will be working hand-in-hand with the newly appointed President of the Treasury Board Stockwell Day – a man who is known not only for his belief that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth together, but also for his ‘Say No’ attitude when it comes to social spending. Harper has stated that “it is essential that the government limit public spending,” and that “the provinces will have to make some of the same difficult decisions we are making…”(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-warns-provinces-will-be-cutting-back-too/article1439826/).
Harper, Flaherty, Day: this is an all-star line-up from neo-liberal hell. We should be under no illusions that they will ‘play nice’ this time around. Dwight Duncan fills Flaherty’s shoes: What Flaherty and Harper have called ‘belt-tightening’, is what Ontario Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan calls “difficult choices ahead" (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/714276--ontario-deficit-billions-more-than-expected).
In October, Dwight Duncan announced that Ontario was facing a deficit of $24.7 billion dollars. Immediate speculation began on where cuts would be made. Will it be Healthcare? Will it be the Public sector? Will it be Social Assistance? Will it be ‘Dalton Days’? Clearly, the option of NOT making cuts to the basic needs of poor and working people was never on the table. On December 7, 2009, the Ontario Provincial Auditor’s report was released.
A major section of the Auditor’s report was dedicated to Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. The report launches one attack after another on social assistance recipients from claims of massive overpayments to fraud. These attacks are all too familiar - we see them every time capitalism is in crisis. Nobody is surprised when the governments looks to blame poor people for the Province’s financial woes –it’s the perfect distraction from the fact that the deficit was caused by tax cuts to the rich and bailouts for banks and big business.
The Auditor’s report fits perfectly within this ‘blame the poor’ plan and this supposed ‘external and independent review’ has become the primary tool of the Provincial government to legitimize cuts to services in the name of ‘efficiency’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’ (See: http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/reports_2009_en.htm).
How did we get here?
In 1995, Ontario Works was slashed by 21.6% by none other than Jim Flaherty, then Ontario’s Finance Minister under the leadership of Premier Mike Harris. The Common Sense Revolution in Ontario saw significant tax cuts for the rich while social programs and public services were being devastated. In 2003, the Liberals were elected to power on the promise of an end to the poverty regime. These empty promises have done nothing to end poverty.
The reality is that today people in Ontario in many ways are worse off than 15 years ago. Social assistance rates have been raised by a total of 6% since 2003. The government may try to fool us into thinking they have made positive changes, but the truth is that today, people on social assistance are living on rates that have been reduced by 40% when you take into account the cost of living increase. Six percent is such a small increase that it does not even account for inflation on, say, vegetables. 700 000 people in Ontario live on Social Assistance, the vast majority of that number are children. The basic amount for a single person living on social assistance is $572/month (which is meant to break down to $356 for shelter and $216 for basic needs), for a single parent with one child it is $920/month ($560 for shelter and $360 for basic needs).
Disability income rates are only slightly higher, and ODSP is a purposefully difficult program to qualify for – gaining access usually requires appeal processes and long waiting periods. In 2005, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty launched the Raise the Rates campaign to demand a 40% raise in Welfare and Disability rates and a living wage (See: http://update.ocap.ca/rtr).
Not long after, people on Welfare and Disability became aware of the now well-known Special Diet supplement. The Special Diet supplement is extra money (up to $250) that people are entitled to on top of their monthly cheque if a health care practitioner determines that this extra money is required to buy food for medical reasons. Many health care providers were eager to sign people up for extra money because they understand that poverty is a social determinant of poor health. Nobody living on welfare and disability can afford to eat properly and they are therefore all at risk for serious health problems. This has led many health care providers to argue that there should be nothing ‘special’ about the special diet - everyone on welfare and disability needs this money for health reasons. These healthcare providers were determined to push for access to better income levels for people on social assistance.
The Special Diet became a phenomenon – word spreading like wildfire in poor communities resulting in ‘Hunger Clinics’ being held across the Province . Many poor people in Ontario gained access to desperately needed resources and were able to put food on the table using the Special Diet money. Everyone knew, of course that it was only a matter of time before the government targeted this vital program.
It is no surprise that this year’s Auditor’s report took aim at the Special Diet. The Auditor focused on the fact that the Special Diet spending in the Province increased from $5 million in the 2002/03 fiscal year, to $67 million in the 2008/09 fiscal year(http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/reports_en/en09/311en09.pdf).
This is a fact that the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is proud of – advocacy for the supplement forced the government to spend millions feeding poor people in Ontario. Of course, the Province and the City treat the Special Diet increases as an embarrassment – a blight on their otherwise outstanding record of denying poor people access to a decent standard of living. They have seized on the Auditor’s Report and cried ‘welfare fraud’ in order to justify steps that will be taken to ensure that poor people are denied access to the Special Diet.
It is important to understand the Special Diet within the context of the welfare system where people are forced to apply for ‘extra’ funding to cover basic necessities that are not covered by appallingly low OW and ODSP rates. People apply for the Special Diet allowance in order to eat, in the same way that people apply for transportation money to access public transit, for Community Start-up to try to avoid evictions or move after having faced an eviction, and Burial money for a family funeral.
These ‘extra benefits’ are just that – they are extra meaning that not everyone has access to them. For years, many of these benefits were on the books, but were not publicized and therefore not accessed. We have worked hard to ensure that people on disability and welfare are made aware of, and fight for access to all the benefits, however inadequate, that they are entitled to. In the face of the government’s accusations of widespread fraud, we must emphasize that it is not fraudulent for hungry people to apply for the Special Diet – it is a necessity in a system that forces people to live in poverty and to have to decide from month to month whether to pay the rent or put food on the table.
The dramatic increase in people accessing the Special Diet is not an indication of fraud: it is an indication of a hunger problem and a looming health crisis in this province. It should raise alarm bells for the Health Care system that people living on Social Assistance in this Province are living with poor health as a direct result of poverty conditions. There are huge health consequences when people cannot afford to buy healthy and nutritious food, when they cannot afford to avoid the foods that they are allergic to and when thousands are living with the extreme stress of trying to survive and support their family in dire circumstances.
Poor people suffer from poor health – this is a fact that the government ignores at their own peril. The government can either choose to pay the cost of providing proper income levels for everyone on OW and ODSP, or they can pay the higher human and financial cost of the inevitable health care bills that result from forcing people to live in poverty Neither the health nor general well being of poor people in this Province is a line item in the upcoming budget. If anything, their health and well-bring is up on the chopping block.
It is no coincidence that Ontario’s Minister of Community and Social Services, Madeleine Meilleur, is the co-chair of the Treasury Board Panel charged with ‘reducing the deficit’. Who better to determine how to best erode social services than the Minister in charge of providing them? Why such little faith in the Poverty Reduction strategy?
At the time of publishing, the Province has issued a ‘memo’ giving front-line OW and ODSP workers the authority to reassess ‘the legitimacy of any Special Diet claim’ (See www.ocap.ca/rtr for a copy of the memo).
Workers with no medical training are being given the power to
a)second-guess and question the diagnoses of a medical practitioner, and
b)to deny people access to the Special Diet on a totally unaccountable and arbitrary basis.
In what is clearly a move to quietly cut services and save money in the midst of the deficit, Social Services workers are being asked by the Province to, play doctor by overriding medical decisions in order to deny peoples’ legitimate claims. Using the Auditor’s Report as justification, this new provincial directive is laying the groundwork for eliminating the Special Diet, without the government having to explicitly say that is what they are doing.
Already,we are seeing the denial of the Special Diet on a massive scale, along with a general escalation of abuse against people on social assistance. Although no cut to Ontario Works has been officially made on paper, denying thousands of people the Special Diet, is in fact a significant cut to social assistance, or worse, the pre-cursor to more brutal cuts to come. The Province is creating an atmosphere of criminalization, and in the case of the Special Diet, facts on the ground from which to justify very serious cuts. For those of us who lived on social assistance through the Harris days – this atmosphere is all too familiar. It is a return to the days of ‘Workfare’, ‘welfare fraud’, ‘criminals’.
In the City of Toronto, Welfare is administered by Social Services -overseen through Janet Davis’ Committee on Community Development. City officials are playing their part in cutting social assistance by doing the Province’s bidding and denying access to the Special Diet and other programs. They are administering devastating cuts at a time when they should be standing up against the Province. It is under their watch that entire families are being denied the Special Diet benefit.
In this city, the process for applying for all benefits – basic and ‘extra’ – has become so riddled with suspicion and accusations of fraud, that qualifying is almost impossible.
We didn’t create this crisis Politicians and economists alike somehow believe that staying the course of a neo-liberal model will keep their heads above water in this failing economy. Dwight Duncan, Ontario’s Minister of Finance, boasts that new corporate friendly measures “…brings our total corporate tax cuts over the next three years to more than $3 billion.” (Dwight Duncan, State of Ontario’s Economy, March 3rd, 2008http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/media/2008/sp03-economy.html)
When the economic crisis first hit, and as it has deepened, billions of dollars of public money have been poured in to the financial system through the form of bailouts and tax cuts. That is where the deficit comes from, not from ‘overspending’ to create jobs and public services, and certainly not from ‘fraudulent welfare claims’. The government is looking now to get that money back, and we can be sure that it is not the financial elite who will be paying the price.
The method of deficit reduction is clear – to privatize public holdings, and to cut public and social services. When they say that ‘tough times are ahead’, they mean tough times for us. In a climate where the public sector and social services have not even recovered from the Tory era, we know that any further cuts will most certainly be devastating. For people on social assistance it will be a very serious crisis.
We are in a crucial time period where nothing will be provided for the needs of poor and working class people unless we fight and especially unless we fight together. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is renewing our commitment to the Raise the Rates campaign in demanding a dignified and livable income for Unemployed people and working people across this province. We intend to mobilize local communities to take the action necessary to challenge and defeat the abuses they face at the hands of the social assistance system. We will act to defend the right of people to obtain the Special Diet and other benefits that are being held back.
We will also work to bring together this locally based resistance into a general ‘Raise the Rates’ movement that can take up the fight for decent income in this province. This will be taken forward on April 15th, 2010 with a major OCAP mobilization against the Liberal Government that will demand a 40% increase in welfare and disability rates. Governments intend to impose this crisis on us but, through our resistance, we must create for them a political crisis and fight for lives free of poverty.
Liisa Schofield and John Clarke are organizers with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
OCAP can be reached at ocap@tao.ca .
Labels: Canadian politics, economic crisis, Ontario, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, poverty
