Stop Liberal Austerity and the War on the Poor!

Rally at office of Glenn Murray, MPP
120 Carlton (at Jarvis)
Thursday, May 21
12.30 PM

Free meal served!

Image description: a man with a small child on his back holding a sign reading "Hands off my Special Diet!" with a red hand print in the middle

In 2005, OCAP took up the fight to access the Special Diet for People on Ontario Works and ODSP. Our hunger clinics and actions to demand access to the benefit spread and huge numbers of people in poverty won additional income to protect their health and feed themselves and their families.

Despite all the efforts to limit the Special Diet, which have caused a great deal of hardship to many in Ontario, we suspected that access to the benefit had not been driven back to the point it was at in 2004. Now, figures we have obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, more than confirm this.

In 2004, average monthly Special Diet cases in Ontario numbered 44,774 with expenditure on the benefit for that year running at $57.6 million. The following year, as the OCAP initiated campaign got underway, monthly SD caseload rose to 75,628 and the expenditure went up to $128.5 milliion. The Liberal Government's efforts to crush these gains continued but, by 2010, monthly SD cases had risen to 140,733 and expenditure to $209.9 million. With all the brutal measures to restrict access that took effect in recent years, we might have assumed these gains would have been rolled back but the last complete year we have figures for, 2013, shows monthly cases at 148,258 and expenditure at $257.3 million. Only partial figures have been obtained for 2014 but average monthly cases comes in at 155,269.

Raise the Rates Week of Action Against the Liberal Government’s ‘Invisible Austerity’ War on the Poor

The Raise the Rates Campaign is calling on local communities to challenge MPPs during the week of May 18. During that week, they will be in their constituency offices and this is an ideal time to challenge the austerity and growing poverty that is being imposed in this Province.

Click here to download the poster

Pictures from Today's Action

We are circulating the statement below for endorsement by agencies, anti-poverty groups, unions, and other allies. Please forward it widely.
To add your name to the list of endorsing organizations, please contact Parkdale Community Legal Services 416-531-2411 ext. 248 or webberc@lao.on.ca

We are encouraging groups to take up this issue as part of the
Raise the Rates provincial Week of Action, Oct. 13-17
For more information:
email raisetheratescampaign@gmail.com
visit raisetherates.ca
like Raise the Rates on Facebook

Stepped Up ODSP Medical Reviews Will Mean Improper Denial and Needless Hardship