Stop the War on the Poor
|
Stop the War on the Poor |
* Read the Latest News on this site or get news at
The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee The Housing Again Site The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty Tenant Help
Residents Return to the Pope Squat
– Nov.2.2002
- read
the report with photos
--------
| At the STAR |
Cathy Crowe
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Police Army Demolishes Tent City Toronto-
Sept.24.2002
Report and Photos by Gary Morton
The long hot summer at Tent City on Toronto’s waterfront ended today with a police raid. Home Depot, owner of the land, moved in aggressively and by surprise. A hired security firm came with dogs, bulldozers, banks of spotlights and an army of police (on cycles, horses, in cars and paddy wagons) for backing.
By sunset the residents and supporters were protesting outside. Cops lined the fence, security people and a lot of cops roamed the property, and a huge goon was setting all the surrounding fencing with barbed wire toppings. Some evicted residents had puppies and dogs. Cats and kittens remained locked in some of the small houses while a huge bulldozer remains parked until tomorrow. A security chief told me that any remaining animals would be turned over to the humane society if found. Otherwise they will be bulldozed under with the tiny houses.
Under a deal with the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, residents were allowed in to claim some belongings. Councillor Olivia Chow announced arrangements to move the people to shelters and hotels for the time being.
Some of the squatters were weeping
over the loss of their homes. And it really looks bad on the city, province
and the feds, that people find tents on contaminated land preferable to
the overcrowded city shelters. The message really is that people squat
because they want housing. None is being created by the feds, rents are
out of control and the province hasn’t come through with its promise to
provide rent aid. All of it meaning that the issue is really only beginning,
and not ending through this cruel eviction … they can’t bulldoze all of
us under yet … though they would if they could.
Photos by Gary Morton
Before Raid:
(Aug 2002 - Visitor Poses in Front of Tent
City House
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent.jpg
During Raid:
At the Gate
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent1.jpg
Bulldozer and Cops Wait to begin Demolition
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent2.jpg
Security Guard Inside Tent City
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent3.jpg
Police Line and Spectators
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent4.jpg
Police Horses
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent5.jpg
Pope Squat Banner
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent6.jpg
Cops Behind Fence
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent7.jpg
Homeless Man and Dog
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent8.jpg
Homelessness is a National Disgrace Banner
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent9.jpg
Homeless Dog
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent10.jpg
Big Security Guy Setting the Fence for Barbed
Wire
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent11.jpg
---------
The Pope Squat
- News, Articles
& Photos on the Pope Squat Toronto - July/August.2002
- OCAP
Update Page on the Pope Squat
--------
KIMBERLY ROGERS WOMYN’S BRIGADE
On April 25, 02, BC Liberal
MLA Jeff Bray’s office was occupied by ten womyn from the Kimberly Rogers
Womyn’s Brigade (part of the Victoria Anti-Poverty Coalition).
Full story
http://www3.telus.net/bcwomen/Womyns_Brigade_Statement_April_02.html
--------
The Age of Inequality-
May 2002
Here's the latest evidence of the startling growth
of income and wealth inequality, in the United States and around the world:
The Washington Post's Ceci Connolly
reports this week on the development of a new innovation in healthcare
delivery: "boutique" or "concierge" coverage for the world's super-elite.
Leading medical providers like the
Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore are establishing special
programs to give platinum service to the well-heeled. Depending on the
program, the super-rich customers may receive massages and sauna time along
with their physical, housecalls, and step-to-the-front-of-the-line service
in testing facilities.
Using these services are a worldwide
elite class of business executives and royalty -- the "winners" in a system
of corporate globalization that is generating morally repugnant economic
disparities.
Here are some other measures of the gains of
the wealthy:
* Executive pay at top U.S. corporations climbed
571 percent from 1990 to 2000.
* There are presently nearly 500 billionaires
worldwide.
* U.S. corporate tax payments are slated to drop
to historic lows as a result of the tax bill enacted into law earlier this
year. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, corporate taxes will plummet
to only 1.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product this year, the lowest
since fiscal 1983, and the second lowest level in the last 60 years.
* More than half of the tax cuts enacted last
year that are scheduled to take effect after 2002 will go to the best-off
1 percent of all U.S. taxpayers.
Even in the United States -- the nation that
is supposed to be the biggest winner from globalization -- the average
person has watched skyrocketing executive compensation and wealth accumulation,
but has not been able to climb even a few steps up the economic ladder.
Average real wages in the United States are at or below the wage rate of
1973.
Meanwhile, poverty remains pervasive in both
the United States and around the world.
* One in six children in the United States live
in poverty.
* In 2000, a full quarter of the U.S. population
was earning poverty-level wages, according to the Economics Policy Institute.
* Around the world, 1.2 billion persons live
on a dollar a day, or less.
* Tens of millions of children worldwide are
locked out of school because their parents are unable to afford school
fees.
* More than a million children die a year form
diarrhea, because their families lack access to clean drinking water.
---------
At the Star
- May.21.2002
- Secret
video shows shelter overcrowding
--------
At Eye -
May.2002
- ID
hassles for the homeless
--------
At the Star
- May.12.2002
- A
day to tidy Tent City
--------
HungerCount 2001: Food Bank Lines in Insecure
Times Canada's Annual Survey of Emergency Food Programs
Report Available in English and French at: www.icomm.ca/cafb/hunger_count
Food Bank Facts 2001
* 718,334 people in Canada received emergency
groceries from a food bank during the month of March 2001 - a 90% increase
in food bank use since March 1989
* 632 food banks with 2,123 affiliated
agencies operate in Canada
* while Ontario and Quebec assisted the
greatest number of people, Newfoundland continued to show the highest
rate of per capita food bank use at 5.4%
* 41% of food bank recipients were children
and estimates suggest that almost 60% of households accessing food banks
were families with children
* almost 65% of food bank recipients received
social assistance, 12% were working poor and about 7% received disability
support
* most food banks provide a 3 to 4.5 day
supply of groceries on a monthly basis
* over 1.2 million hours of labour, including
more than 800,000 volunteer hours, contributed to the operation of food
banks in Canada during March 2001
* since this study was conducted, economic
conditions have worsened and food bank use has increased substantially
with further intensification following September 11
* through United Nations' international
agreements, the Canadian Government has committed to ensure the right to
food for all people of Canada – yet they have left the responsibility for
fulfilling this human right to the volunteer sector
--------
Toronto families got poorer over last Decade
– Apr.2002
Lean times came to Toronto in the 90s says a study prepared
for the United Way by the Canadian Council on Social Development.
Toronto families went from being better off at the start
of the decade, when compared to all Canadians, to worse off at the decade's
end.
Despite the economic recovery in the last half of the
90s, poverty rates in Toronto got worse. The boom was a bust for many Torontonians,
especially the poor. At the decade's end, the distress among Toronto's
most vulnerable was evident everywhere -- in the growing number of people
living on the streets, in rising evictions and use of emergency shelters,
and in the increase of hopelessly long waiting lists for assisted housing.
The number of Torontonians considered poor was 23.3 per
cent of the population in 1999. For one-parent families, the poverty rate
rose to 42.0 per cent in 1999.
The median income of one-parent families living below
the poverty line in
1999 was just $10,100 a year, which means that their entire monthly
income was $82 less than the average rental cost of a two-bedroom apartment.
---------
Ontario Common Front Opposes the Tory Convention(Toronto,
March 22nd & 23rd 2002)
Page of Complete Reports Includes
Photos:
During the holiday week at least two homeless deaths occurred in a three day period. These deaths could have been prevented as the TDRC and other groups have lobbied the Mayor's office for years with recommendations for more shelter beds, warming centres, health measures and harm reduction shelters.
Tuberculosis is spreading at the crowded shelters as the city fails to heed health warnings. Though space is available at the empty Princess Margaret Hospital and the Armory the city is again playing a game of rationing shelter, acting on a questionable emergency basis and rules that leave people on the streets in freezing temperatures or in disease-ridden shelters.
After a talk on the deaths at the Coroner’s building, angry protesters marched across downtown to the Princess Margaret Hospital to demand that it be opened for shelter space … and later found that it wasn’t completely empty as a gang of police officers emerged through the doors. Horseback police and a number of cruisers were also present to hinder the protest.
We have a city that doesn’t want to pay for more shelter space yet has plenty of cash for unessential policing and heating an empty building … which seems to be part of a general trend toward a misguided form of security. Billions are being spent to prevent terrorism in a federal security budget, though there haven’t been any terrorist attacks in Canada … and likely won’t be.
Believers in security should perhaps consider that genuine security arises from a person first having a home. Homelessness is really a form of economic terrorism where those that fall through the cracks of the rat race are left to the mercy of the streets, to be victimized by harsh conditions and ignorant social forces that thrive on using or bashing the poor.
Housing really has to be part of social policy and programs. People are homeless and dying now when the economy is fairly strong, and the lack of affordable housing grows each year in so-called prosperous times.
For many people insecurity is growing, and elected officials need to change their outlook. Working people lack stable housing solutions and the unemployed quickly hit the streets. The roots of our fears and suffering aren’t foreign terrorists. Stupid or stupefied city, provincial and national governments are the source.
Contact the TDRC
http://www.tao.ca/~tdrc
steve@v-r.net
cathy.crowe@sympatico.ca
--------
Washington Post -
Dec.2001
- Homeless
Surge In N.Y. Symbol Of New Crisis
--------
Toronto Tenants
- Dec.2001
- New
Rental Statistice Paint Damning Picture of Harris Government - Dec.2001
---------
OCAP in 2002 - Thu,
8 Nov 2001
From: "John Clarke" <johnclarke@sprint.ca>
HELP BUILD THE ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY
IN 2002!
OCAP NEEDS 1,000 FUNDRAISERS TO FUEL OUR FIGHT
BACK
Fundraising is no place for false modesty so we’re going to come out and say that OCAP has won its place on the cutting edge of the fight against the Tories in Ontario and the neo-liberal agenda they are implementing. In 2002, we plan to play an even greater role in fighting Harris’s replacement than we did him. We want to put down deeper roots in several poor neighbourhoods and to forge links throughout the Province, including and especially amongst First Nations. We will confront the attack on immigrant communities that some think they now have a pretext for getting away with. We will increase our capacity to defend individuals and families facing denial of welfare, eviction, deportation and other injustices. We will raise the level of resistance in Ontario.
The growth of OCAP is linked to a more general development that has seen people in struggle starting to question and challenge the rituals of token protest that have rendered us passive in the face of attack. We are part of an emerging trend that seeks to end the retreat and fight back effectively. There is no doubt that this approach has influenced many rank and file activists and some organizations within the Labour Movement but it is also true that approaches based on passivity and accommodation are holding back the bulk of trade unions from playing anything like the role they could and should be playing in the fight against the Tories. In this situation, some union leaders are hostile to any force that wants to spread the notion of fighting to win and this has been expressed by the closing of some doors on OCAP in the last while. While CUPE and CUPW have continued to support our work, the leadership of the CAW has openly denounced our tactics and withdrawn all funding. This convinces us (since we are not prepared to give up waging a serious fight) that we must rely on the backing of local organizations and individual supporters to win the resources needed to expand our fight. Where once we looked to a big name union leader to approve a donation of $10,000 we must now, if we are to carry out important work, ask dozens of sincere and dedicated supporters to step in and demonstrate their solidarity.
IN 2002, OCAP PLANS TO RAISE $100,000 IN DONATIONS IN ORDER TO EXPAND ITS WORK AND WE ARE ASKING ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUAL ALLIES TO PLEDGE SUPPORT FOR THIS EFFORT. That’s a very modest amount for an organization that plays the role that OCAP does. It is only a fraction of the money that we will win for people facing denial of social benefits and it is a tiny sum relative to the impact we will have on the regressive political agenda we are fighting back against. It is also a minuscule portion of the resources that cops, courts, columnists and capitalists put into trying to destroy us. We ask that you consider taking on the role of an OCAP fundraiser and commit to finding at least $100 during the course of next year. If you can give that much right away, that’s great but we can also accept post dated cheques. We stress that the amount you pledge doesn’t have to come out of your own pocket. You can take up a collection amongst co-workers or friends or hold some fundraising effort like a yard sale. Amongst our many supporters, we are looking for 1,000 people who will undertake to raise at least $100 in 2002.
Toronto’s Chief of Police, Julian Fantino, has described us as ‘domestic terrorists’ and the ‘worst kind of organized crime’. The Mayor of the Toronto calls us ‘thugs’ and ‘animals’. Both of them recently held a meeting with Ontario Attorney General, David Young, and other Tory Cabinet ministers to discuss ‘putting [OCAP] out of business’. A recent National Post advertisement sought to convince potential readers that they should subscribe to that paper because its hatred of OCAP is more genuine than that of the Globe and Mail. Last year, a Crown Attorney described OCAP members as ‘a cancer that needs to be removed’. At the risk of boasting, who else fights the Tories and their agenda and earns such an impressive set of bitter enemies? Does NATO have to declare war on us before you realize we must be doing something right? We are asking that you pledge your support to-day.
To sign up as an OCAP fundraiser please mail, fax, e mail or phone in your pledge of $100 or more to the OCAP office as soon as possible.
In Solidarity,
OCAP Fundraising Working Group
--------
Stop the Tory Clawback of Disability Benefits
-
Nov.6.2001
from the NDP -
MPP WANTS A RAISE - FOR OTHERS - Sault Ste. Marie MPP Tony Martin reminded
the Conservatives that families on Ontario Works or recipients of disability
supports have had their benefits frozen since 1995. Meanwhile, the
cost of living has increased by 9.5 per cent. Martin has spearheaded a
drive to stop the Conservative government from clawing back the child benefit
allowance that Ottawa sends to Ontario's poorest families. He has
also introduced a bill to provide people on disability allowances a cost
of living increase every April 1 to keep pace with rising costs of food,
clothing, housing and necessities. "Children are suffering.
Families can't put food on the table, can't afford the winter clothing
they need, and are terrified by the upcoming stresses of Christmas. Stopping
the claw back would give back almost $100 per child every month to families
who need it most. Surely Minister, you don't think children should
be penalized for being born into poor families," Martin said in the house
today.
---------
Heart Health and Poverty report released on
Nov. 1
This report shows that poverty itself has a direct effect on
the heart health of low income communities. The full report can be downloaded
from the web site
http://www.york.ca/wellness/heart.pdf.
Hopefully the report can be an important advocacy tool.
--------
The Other Side of Policing -
Oct.28.2001
Relatives of police shooting
victims and a number of citizen groups held forums, workshops and a
march and rally as a Toronto Alternative to the International Police Convention
at SkyDome.
- read
the full news article with photos.
--------
Flag Burner gets beaten in Jail
- Oct.2001
After burning the American Flag
I was jumped by under-cover cops who made sure to act in the most violent
way possible.
- read
the full article at Indy Media
--------
NDP Calls for Increase in Ontario Minimum
Wage - Oct.25.2001
AT A MINIMUM - At the very least, the Conservative
government should increase Ontario's minimum wage to $7.50 an hour immediately,
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said in the Legislature today. A
new poll just released in the US shows that 81 per cent of Americans favour
raising their minimum wage again to stimulate the economy. The American
minimum wage is already higher than Ontario's. Hampton's proposal
makes Ontario's lowest hourly wage, frozen since 1995, equivalent to the
current American minimum wage after conversion.
--------
O16 Reports -
Oct.2001
At the Varsity
- Thousands
demand help for Ontario’s poor - Students join anti-poverty demonstrators
for march through financial district By Kelly Holloway
At NowToronto
- Invasion
on Bay OCAP Action By Tom Lyons
--------
TARGETING THE INTOLERABLE - Oct.2001
An interactive slideshow on the global problem
of child labour
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/ratification/
---------
from the Globe and Mail
Top court dismisses bid by media on riot tape-
Friday, September 7, 2001 – Page A8
Ottawa -- A group of media companies has lost its bid
to stop police from retaining confiscated photos and videotape of a riot
outside the Ontario legislature.
The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an
application by CBC, CTV, Global Television, ONtv and The Globe and Mail
seeking to appeal a ruling that upheld the police's right to confiscate
and view footage from the riot of June 15, 2000.
Last November, the Ontario Superior Court
of Justice rejected an application to quash a search warrant used to seize
the film. CP
--------
Death Due to the Harris
Cuts
In memory of Kimberley Rogers
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 14:47:47 -0400
From: David Starbuck <starbuck@cyberbeach.net>
Society must recognize the rights of all to a
livelihood
Last spring, 40-year old Kimberley Rogers graduated
from the social services program at Cambrian College here in Sudbury.
Also last spring, Kimberley was convicted of fraud for failing to declare
student loans while receiving social assistance.
Pregnant, Kimberley was sentenced to six-months of house
arrest, confined to her sweltering second floor apartment except for three
hours per week and for medical and religious reasons.
Punished for her crime of being poor once, Kimberley was
then punished a second time by the Harris government as she was cut off
social assistance benefits, although five months pregnant, for a period
of three months. Not only was she faced with no way to pay rent or
buy food, she was also cut off her prescribed medication.
Now, Kimberley Rogers is dead. Whatever the immediate
cause of Kimberley’s death is ultimately found to be, it is incontestable
that her death is intimately bound up with Mike Harris’ “common sense revolution”
and the entire process of neo-liberal globalization.
Born in poverty and growing up in poverty, Kimberley lived
in poverty and died in absolute poverty. But Kimberley was also a
fighter. She fought to procure a living for herself and her unborn
child. She completed two college diplomas and was ready for employment.
Upon realizing the seriousness of the terms of her confinement, she found
the resources to launch a Charter challenge to the denial of her benefits,
a challenge that resulted in a temporary injunction in a Charter case for
the first time in Canadian history.
Kimberley Rogers was denied the right to a livelihood.
This is totally unacceptable in a modern society. People are born
to society and live in society. As such, they possess inalienable
rights by the very virtue of their existence as human beings. Significant
amongst these rights is the right to a livelihood, the right to useful
and gainful employment or to a pension for the aged and the otherly-abled
commensurate with what society is able to provide.
The denial of Kimberley’s right to a livelihood is the
cause of Kimberley’s death. We will not forget! We will not
agree with this tragedy happening again. Society must recognize the
rights of all.
We urge all Sudburians to participate in the memorial
service for Kimberley Rogers on Monday, August 20 at 12 noon at the Provincial
Government Building at Tom Davies Square (Larch and Paris)
Sudbury Coalition for Social Justice Friday, August 17,
2001 scsj@noront.net
***************************
IN OUTRAGE WE PROTEST
The death of Ms. Kimberly Rogers was received by the Sudbury
community with outrage and disgust.
On, Monday, August 20th, 2001, we will be gathering in front of the Provincial Government Building on Larch Street @ 12 noon to mourn the death of Ms. Rogers and her unborn child. We are demanding an end to the war on the poor launched by this government and are seeking;
- A Full Inquest Into The Death Of Ms. Rogers and Her Unborn Child
- Rescinding of All Legislation That Would Permanently Disqualify the
Poor From Receiving Social Assistance If Found Guilty of a Crime
- Policies Directed at Creating Employment & Affordable Housing
not Punishment and Social Stigma
- An Abolition of House Arrest in These Circumstances
---------
Globe - Aug.2001
- 13
convicted under Ontario anti-squeegee law
---------
At Montreal Indy Media
- Aug.2001
- "Historic"
Victory for Squatters Amidst Police Intervention
--------
Psyche Survivor Pride Week Begins
– July 14.2001
Psyche Survivor Pride Week kicked off today with
A Rant In Trinity-Bellwoods Park! put on by The Committee To Stop Targeted
Policing. This event took the form of a picnic with a skit under the banner
and trees. Don Weitz wore a judge's robes while others dressed as police
officers and the public laid charges … Anna Willats directed as the Toronto
Police were put on trail by the crowd for such things as the deaths of
Edmond Yu and Wayne Williams and the brutal treatment of people with and
without psychiatric problems.
A couple small photos of the survivor judge and a survivor cop
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/psurviv1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/psurviv2.jpg
Committee To Stop Targeted Policing (416)760-2133
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Harris's Ass Saved! -
June, 2001
Anti-poverty and labour activists
rejoiced when Mike Harris's Ass was handed over to the people. After being
captured on June 15th and spending the weekend in custody. Mike Harris's
ass was returned to the hands of the OCAP allies, who will be taking it
on tour for a good kicking to raise money to support the OCAP-initiated
campaign of economic disruption set to begin on October 16th, 2001.
The ass was seized when over 30
officers of the law surrounded a small house in the Annex, blocked all
exits, and swarmed the 4 or 5 puzzled revolutionaries who were relaxing
on the porch enjoying the day. Officers were quick to identify the bouncy
buttocks warming in the sun as dangerous instruments of violence, and fearing
the buttocks might be deployed at the (OCAP June 15) public assembly that
was to take place that evening, the officers grabbed them and whisked them
into a nearby van. Inside sources said that Metro Police abducted
the ass to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Police Riot at Queen's
Park and their ongoing tradition of completely absurd, unaccountable and
pointless use of force.
The hindquarters were returned without
comment when the detectives concluded their weekend-long investigation
of them.
You can see the ass and kick it
(for a small donation to OCAP) at upcoming rallies, fundraisers, GMM's
and direct actions.
Now that the Retreat is Over, let's kick Mike
Harris's Ass!
It's good for your health! It's good for your
workplace!
It's good for your education! It's good for your
conscience!
It's good for society as a whole!
In solidarity,
Neil :)
Neil Braganza <braganza@YorkU.CA>
--------
June.15th in Toronto – OCAP Economic Disruption
Meeting
- read
the full report with Photos:
---------
OCAP'S Picnic and Condo Disruption
(Ontario Coalition Against Poverty at Allan Gardens
June.9.2001)
Photos:
Going down the road
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag1.jpg
Inside Noble Star Condo Sales
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag2.jpg
At Radio City
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag3.jpg
Inside Radio City Condo Sales Office
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag4.jpg
Fight to Win Banner
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag5.jpg
Strange Characters
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag6.jpg
Undercover Cops Study Faces at Picnic
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag7.jpg
OCAP held a picnic for the homeless today and later decided to do a surprise march and economic disruption action … the sort of event that will happen across Ontario in the Fall.
At the picnic John Clarke and Shawn Brant spoke on the bad situation for the poor and homeless in Toronto. John said the local community centre has been shut for the last five weeks, the homeless shelter at the empty Princess Margaret Hospital has been closed, the Street City shelter is set to close in the fall and another homeless person just died on the street.
At the same time local property is being converted to condos that poor and low income people can't afford. Rents are also high – almost as costly as buying a condo.
Marching thru the park, people took over the road and chanted … and the first destination wasn't all that far. It was Noble Star Condo Sales – one of those cheap sales trailers you see everywhere in the city.
The inside was spacious and had nice couches. There was a model of the condo development and a skylight allowing sunlight to highlight it. Some people felt it would make fine housing for some homeless people.
Once the chanting died down Shawn Brant addressed the crowd on the housing and welfare cuts issue. He said there is a visibly bad situation in the city, and out of the city on native lands as many as 15 or 16 people must often live together in the same small house.
Noble Star's sales lady went so far as to interject from the back while Shawn Brant was speaking. She claimed that even homeless people can afford condos. And perhaps we should take her up on the offer.
Leaving Noble Star the march continued over to the old CBC headquarters where the rusted tower rises above Radio City – another condo sales outfit with a huge trailer and model.
Radio City became a different story altogether. People chanted and drummed on the walls and walk outside while others went in and were confronted by a salesman and his assistant. These chaps did not want to sell us condos, but saw us as a group of unglamorous outcasts. They got in scuffles with people and the guy in charge ran around in a state of general hysteria that became amplified when he discovered that people would fight back and not be bullied out. At one point he was screaming, "We're under attack! Call the police! Call the fire department!"
When we finally did leave I noticed Henry using graffiti in an educational manner on the wall. He notes that "Radio City was promised for 100 units of Social Housing. So where are They?"
Probably the guy at Radio City didn't care. He was wondering where the police were … and we were on our way back to the park by the time they came racing around the corner.
Police used to send a lot of uniforms to all OCAP events. This time they sent two spotters in civilian clothes. Their photo is listed above. Apparently they study all of the faces, document who is present and do identification if police want to make arrests after the event.
This is to protect condo people that might be under protest attack. But what about the homeless, the poor, tenants? We are under attack every day in Mike Harris' Ontario for the wealthy. We can't call the police or the fire department … and there aren't any undercover people at large, spotting affordable housing for us.
Report by Gary Morton
Links
The OCAP Web Site is
http://
http://www.OCAP.ca/
--------
New in May.2001 - A website for socially excluded
Torontonians
- http://www.ourlives.ca/
--------
OCAP - call for Youth
- Wed, 16 May 2001
Youth in Ontario are robbed of
their dignity. We are bored and unstimulated by school, we have
little access to things we need to enrich our lives and better our selves.
We are viewed as criminals and it makes us targets of harassment from the
police and other authorities. These problems aren't new, but since
the Mike Harris government has taken office the problems of youth have
gotten significantly worse.
The Mike Harris government has made
a series of attacks on youth in this province. There has been increased
criminalization of youth through changes to the young offenders act, laws
attacking squeegee kids, and by creating privatized youth "boot camp" prisons.
The Tory government has drastically
altered the education system, slashed billions from its budget, and created
conflict between students, teachers and the boards of education. At the
end of the day school is an even worse place.
Through the cuts he has made, the
Harris government destroyed many of the social services that were meeting
the needs of youth.
In partnership with a broader campaign
to defeat Harris, we are organizing to take action this fall. We
intend to disrupt the economy and infrastructure of the province.
At the same time we will have some of the needs of youth met through our
actions.
Our emphasis will be on high school
walkouts, but students will take on other actions, some will block highways
and intersections, others take over classrooms for teach-ins or start food
fights in cafeterias. We will confront politicians, school bureaucrats
and those particularly heinous teachers. In some communities we will
distribute condoms, in others we will put up basketball nets, and throw
parties.
As high school students and youth
we are making a call. We call on the youth of this province to take
a stand, to better their lives, and to attack the interests of a common
enemy.
To get involved or endorse the campaign
contact
the Toronto High School Student Flying Squad:
fighting_kids@hotmail.com
Or phone us care of O.C.A.P.: 416-925-6939
--------
A SMALL MIND FOR A SMALL WORLD -
May.2001
Mike Harris and the Political Agenda of Globalization
By JOHN CLARKE, ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY
(OCAP)
- read the full article
--------
FEED THE HOMELESS - TORONTO
- May.3.2001
"I'm starting a group called "FEED THE
HOMELESS - TORONTO. I don't think people are doing enough!!! Anyone
interested contact me at feed_the_homeless@hotmail.com
--------
Transit too Expensive - TTC
out for needy - April.19.2001
--------
DEFEAT HARRIS! Fight to Win. Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty – Mar.28.2001
OCAP people filled the Hall at 519
Church Street last night as they outlined new cross Ontario Actions and
their campaign against the FTAA.
Details of this meeting and upcoming
meetings plus their flyers and sound files appear at the new OCAP web site
at http://www.tao.ca/~ocap/
or http://
http://www.OCAP.ca/
--------
International Monetary Fund Water Privatization
Kills Millions each Year - 9 Feb 2001
(IMF Forces Water Privatization on Poor Countries)
info from: Sara Grusky Globalization Challenge
Initiative
A random review of IMF loan policies
in forty countries reveals that, during 2000, IMF loan agreements in 12
countries included conditions imposing water privatization or full cost
recovery. In general, it is African countries, and the smallest,
poorest and most debt-ridden countries that are being subjected to IMF
conditions on water privatization and full cost recovery.
Ironically, the majority of these
loans were negotiated under the IMF's new Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility (PRGF), a reform announced with great fanfare in 1999 when IMF
officials claimed that the new loan facility would re-focus the IMF's controversial
structural adjustment measures on activities that borrowing government's
would identify as leading to poverty reduction. Rather than contributing
to poverty reduction, water privatization and greater cost recovery make
water less accessible and less affordable to the low income communities
that make up the majority of the population in developing countries.
The most immediate impact of reducing the accessibility and affordability
of water falls on women and children.
More than five million people, most
of them children, die every year from illnesses caused from drinking poor
quality water. When water become more expensive and less accessible,
women and children, who bear most of the burden of daily household chores,
must travel farther and work harder to collect water - often resorting
to water from polluted streams and rivers.
--------
Anti-Poverty Activists Celebrate Victory
Criminal Charges dropped against Allan Gardens
Protester - Tuesday, January 23, 2001
From: ov@campuslife.utoronto.ca
(Oriel Varga)
TORONTO - Toronto’s activist community is celebrating today as criminal charges against U of T graduate student and anti poverty activist Elan Ohayon were dismissed. Ohayon faced criminal charges of assault police with intent to resist arrest and received tickets for trespassing on public property and erecting a tent structure without a permit. The charges stemmed from an October 21, 2000 incident where police officers assigned to the Special Taskforce Division of Metro Toronto Police Services assaulted and arrested Ohayon while he was involved in a protest against the increasing levels of homelessness in the city.
The Judge dismissed the charges, on the basis that there was no evidence to convince him that Elan Ohayon had committed or had the intention to commit an assault. Six police officers of the public safety unit testified, giving contradictory statements on crucial details of the events, such as the location of the alleged assault and Elan Ohayon’s video camera. Evidence was also provided showing that the police officers were given orders to “sweep the park for protesters” in light of the Tory policy convention which occurred the weekend of October 20-22, 2000.
“This has exposed how the Toronto police
assault and then lay bogus charges. We have been demanding a stop to police
ticketing, harassing and assaulting the homeless. Elan was lucky to have
a great team of lawyers; this is not always available to a homeless person.
The fact that someone can be put in jail for three weeks for putting up
a tarp while protesting peacefully reveals the social conditions which
the homeless endure on a
daily basis.” Oriel Varga, Protester at Allan
Garden’s Park
The protest, dubbed the ‘Allan Gardens Project’, is an ongoing sleep out every Friday night that began in August 1999 to raise awareness around the lack of affordable housing and the increasing levels of poverty in the city. The protesters demand the following : that all levels of government address the homeless crisis by building public housing, putting into effect the 1% solution proposed by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committeeand ending all forms of police oppression against the city’s homeless.
Allan Gardens Project
Members of this group will be holding a press
conference, teach in and celebration party this Friday January 26, 2000
at 8:30 p.m. at Allan Gardens.
for more information, call:
Chris Ramsaroop, (416) 832-4932
Oriel Varga
(416) 894-1290
--------------
COURT SUPPORTS NON-PROFIT HOUSING OVER NIMBYISM
From: Brian Burch <burch@tao.ca>
ST. CLARE'S WINS ON APPEAL - Jan.2001
At
approximately 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23rd Justices O'Leary, Jennings
and Aitken effectively ended the efforts of Gordon Shipley and others connected
to the Kensington Community Action Committee to stop affordable housing
from being developed in their neighbourhood. The justices unanimously ruled
to dismiss the application for judicial review of an Ontario Municipal
Board ruling in support of the conversion of 25 Leonard Avenue to 51 units
of affordable housing. The court also awarded costs of $2,500 for
St. Clare's and $500.00 for the City of Toronto.
Says
St. Clare's president, Rev. Brian Burch, "We are glad that at long last
the legal battle to provide a small number of units of affordable housing
seems to be ending. It has been a long and tiring effort to help
secure the right to housing for some of the most vulnerable among us. We
look forward to working with the community activists who invited us to
share in the ongoing task of developing a new affordable social housing
initiative".
For
more information on St. Clare's, e-mail <burch@tao.ca>, write
to us at P.O. Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, Ontario M6C 1C0 or call us at
416-539-7062.
St.
Clare's Multifaith Housing Society is a registered charity (87305-9192)
that grew out of the work of Toronto Action for Social Change. TASC
can be reached at 416-651-5800 or <tasc@web.ca>.
--------
3.7 Million Canadians below Poverty Line
- Dec.2000
Welfare rates in all the provinces are
well below the poverty line. 3.7 million Canadians live below the poverty
line in Canada. Low-income cutoffs depend on family size and take into
account the varying costs of living associated with different communities
-- rural, remote or urban. In 1998, a family of four living in a
city of 500,000 or more would be counted as low income if its after-tax
income fell below $27,890. For the same family living in a rural area,
the cutoff was $18,285.
The National Anti-Poverty Organization's
updated poverty figures conclude that 16.4% of Canadians -- about 4.9 million
-- are poor.
--------
Canada fails on child poverty -
Dec.2000
The National Council of Welfare's
poverty profile reveals that in the past nine years child poverty has skyrocketed.
"In spite of talk by governments
about putting children first, approximately one in five children in Canada,
or 1.3 million, were poor in 1998," said the report, entitled Poverty Profile
1998.
"This is an increase of roughly
400,000 or 42% since 1989, the year of the House of Commons (all-party)
resolution to end child poverty by 2000.
"Ontario had, by far, the largest
increase in poor children over this time period ... (it) almost doubled
from 254,000 in 1989 to 463,000 in 1998."
- The poverty rates of single-parent mothers
and their children are shockingly high -- 54.2%. For single-parent mothers
under 25 it was 85.4%.
- Poverty among young people in general
has grown to 43.3% from 28% for families with heads under 25 years and
to 61% in 1998 from 48% in 1989 among singles under 25.
The situation for seniors improved:
17.5% lived in poverty in 1998, down from 34% in 1980, which is when several
levels of governments stepped in to address the problem.
---------
Baird unmoved as Tory tuna diet up 21% in
cost - Dec.2000
Five years ago social services minister Dave Tsubouchi urged
welfare recipients to eat tuna and produced a recommended shopping list
for the poor. His shopping list, from brown rice to whole grain bread,
oranges and yogurt, cost $90.81 for a month's worth of groceries.
Liberal critic MPP Michael Gravelle has discovered the
identical items now cost $109 to buy, a 21% increase. Yet welfare benefits
have not risen since they were cut 21 percent.
à]8pÏl6Ç
The Tories do expect more money themselves as they tried
to put through a huge 38 percent increase in their pay this year.
---------
Portable Houses for Tent City
- Fri, 8 Dec 2000
Fwd from: dweitz@interlog.com (Don Weitz)
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
On the morning of December 7, 2000 a flatbed
truck and a large crane pulled into Tent City, a shantytown occupied by
about 30 of Toronto's many thousands of houseless people. A prefabricated
house, the size of a small hotel room, was delivered. DuraKit Shelters,
an innovative Canadian manufacturer of prefabricated housing, donated it.
This type of house has been delivered around the world where disaster relief
housing is required and where 'instant housing' is needed, such as at remote
mining camps in Canada's north.
For information on the DuraKit house that was
delivered.
See DuraKit Shelters
http://www.duraKit.com
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
Beric German @ 964-2459
Cathy Crowe @ 703-8482, x117
To find Tent City
DIRECTIONS: By car, drive east on
Lakeshore Blvd from Parliament St. Stay in the curb lane. Turn
south onto Cherry St and enter the first gate in the chain link fence.
You have gone too far if you go over the bridge.
By TTC, take the Parliament bus to the bottom
of the loop. Walk down to Lakeshore Blvd. Walk east on the south
side of Lakeshore Blvd. Follow the chain link fence around
onto Cherry St and then enter the gate before Cherry St goes over the bridge.
Or, take the King car to Cherry St, which is
east of Parliament and then walk south to Lakeshore Blvd, cross Lakeshore
Blvd and continue east and south.
It is a large site so you may need to look around
for a minute to find the crowd.
See you there!
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
--------
RENTS RISE AGAIN
- Dec.2000
from the NDP
- The Conservative government's repeal of rent
control laws has created a wasteland of plunging vacancy rates and soaring
rents, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said today. "Families desperate
for decent housing re losing hope," Hampton said. "There is less and less
rental housing available and it's costing more and more." The latest
figures from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation show the average vacancy
rate in Ontario dropped to 1.6 per cent this year, from 2.1 per cent in
1999. Meanwhile, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment soared 5.6
per cent. That means it costs a whopping $1,896 more a year. "We have been
demanding a two-year rent freeze and the reintroduction of rent controls.
It's time the Conservatives took our advice before the problem gets worse,"
Hampton said. Housing Critic Rosario Marchese said rent hikes are forcing
low-income and social assistance families into the streets. He called on
the Conservatives to immediately increase the shelter portion of social
assistance payments.
--------
POOR PEOPLE'S SUMMIT reviewed in Village Voice
of Nov 22-28
http://www.villagevoice.com:80/issues/0047/todaro.shtml
---------
Federal Housing Debate - Spin Doctoring
on CounterSpin - Nov 02, 2000
(Real Housing for Real People, or Another Bedtime
Story.)
By Doreen & Gary
Tonight CounterSpin with Avi
Lewis held a discussion called Housing and Homelessness As An Election
Issue. The Liberal Red Book III calls for 680-million dollars in aid for
Canada's homeless, but only if the provinces match it. Some housing advocates
think this is a good beginning. Cathy Crowe of the Toronto Disaster Relief
Committee wants the Federal Government to spend one percent of its budget
on housing. She is elated to be one sixteenth closer to her goal.
- read
the full report
--------
Toronto shelters don't meet UN refugee camp
standards - Oct 28, 2000
The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
says conditions in many of the city's 46 shelters for single people don't
meet United Nations standards for refugee encampments,
Their report, titled ''The State
of the Disaster,'' also says crime, violence and disease are rampant in
Toronto's homeless shelters, and that two out of three people using shelters
personally experienced violence and/or crime there.
Kathy Hardill, one of the authors
of the report said ''What we found was a shelter system that's bursting
at the seams that doesn't come close to U.N. standards."
Some facilities for the homeless
have only two washrooms for 150 people, don't provide clean bedding and
accommodate people by crowding common areas with floor mats mere inches
apart. The food isn't nutritious and there's little air circulation.
One in three people using shelters
or drop-in centres for the homeless has tuberculosis.
The report estimates that 1,000
homeless people are living on Toronto's streets. It calls on the city to
stop closing shelters and to come up with another 1,000 safe beds in the
shelter system this winter. It also calls for more harm-reduction facilities
and shelters for couples.
--------
A Home for All -
The Gomberg for Mayor platform plank on Housing and the Homeless is now
on the web at
www.gombergformayor.org/platforms/home.htm
---------
Residents Oppose Single Mothers' Shelter
- October 11, 2000
Info from the Star
Residents of the St. Clair Ave.
and Lansdowne Rd. area spending money to block Beatrice House, a transitional
home for single mothers, from moving into their community.
Suzanne Stanley is spearheading
the group and was among 100 residents who showed up at the Joseph Piccininni
Community Recreation Centre on St. Clair Ave. W.
The Toronto District School Board
approved a plan for Beatrice House to move into Hughes Junior Public School
on Caledonia Ave. Thirty families are expected to move in next spring.
Beatrice House is secondary-stage
housing, meaning the women are one step away from living on the street.
Single mothers get job training and earn the equivalent of their high school
diplomas. The non-profit, city-funded centre is chaired by the renowned
Dr. Fraser Mustard.
Better-off local residents continue
to oppose all development for those in need and it is a shame to see democracy
used as a tool for victimization.
--------
Harris' Eviction Swat Teams - Oct.2000
The Harris government is planning
to set up swat teams of eviction officers to speed up the process of turning
desperate families out on the street, NDP Housing critic Rosario Marchese
revealed today. The creation of eviction swat teams is part of the
government's latest so-called Red Tape Bill. It would allow the Ontario
Rental Housing Tribunal to appoint "Default Order Officers" who can move
quickly to evict tenants.
Default Orders are issued when tenants
don't show up to contest evictions. But advocates say tenants often
don't show up because landlords never give them notice of eviction. Others
never appear before the tribunal because they don't understand the notice.
Marchese noted that evictions have climbed 15 per cent since the Conservatives
repealed the NDP's Rent Control Act in 1997. "Instead of finding
faster ways to evict families, the Conservatives should freeze rents for
two years as proposed by the NDP. Our Rent Freeze Act would end skyrocketing
rent increases and force the Tories
to solve the affordable housing crisis they created,"
he said.
NDP QUOTE OF THE DAY - "Just in time for winter,
the Conservatives have come up with a scheme to make sure more families
are kicked out of their homes. They want to turn public servants into eviction
thugs who will throw more men, women and children into the street without
ever hearing their side of the story." - Trinity Spadina MPP Rosario Marchese
on government's new eviction swat teams.
--------
Food bank's gaining more customers -
Oct.11.2000
The Daily Bread Food Bank's latest
survey data shows that the need for the food bank's services is growing.
The number of people turning to the food banks grew by 5,000 since 1995,
to 120,000 in 2000. This has happened despite a large reduction in the
unemployment rate – 9.5 per cent to 5.4 per cent over the same period.
People who have been cut off
under Harris' welfare cuts need to use the food banks more and the growing
army of the working poor need food banks.
In times of an economic boom our
system victimizes the poorest with cuts and a low minimum wage.
---------
New studies show Canada's rich really are
getting richer -- and the poor poorer -- as the middle class erodes
Statistics Canada report from 1989 to 1998
The poorest Canadians with an income of around
$10,388 to $8,627 saw their earning decline 17%
The Lower Middle with an income of around $31,427
to $27,486 saw their earning decline 13 %
The Middle at $48,776 to $46,835 saw a
decline of 4%
The Upper Middle at $67,790 to
$68,505 gained 1 %
The Richest at $114,178 to $124,681 gained
9%
--------
Toronto expecting record numbers of homeless
people this winter - Sept.16.2000
Councillor Brad Duguid says the
city is preparing for record levels of homelessness this winter and has
308 new shelter beds in place and plans for another 368.
Citizen advocates for the homeless
say city officials have misjudged demand and predict that the 3,000 emergency
beds in the city won't be enough once the snow starts. Allison Kemper
of the Advisory Committee on Homelessness, said the city faces a shortfall
of up to 655 beds.
More than 32,100 people are expected
to seek emergency shelter at some time this year.
--------
Low-income housing project to go ahead -
Sept.2000 - Swansea NIMBYS have failed to block a 42-unit apartment
building for low-income tenants. City council's administration committee
approved contributing $1.3 million in grants, loans and land to the project,
to be developed by the Fred Victor Centre, a shelter for homeless women.
The project goes to city council
early next month for final approval.
Councillor David Miller supported
the project, and is at odds with Councillor Bill Saundercook, who is seeking
to unseat him in the Nov. 13 municipal elections. Councillor Chris
Korwin-Kuczynski also sided with NIMBYS opposing the project.
Almost no new affordable housing
has been developed since 1995.
--------
Mel's Flawed Law and Order Ticket-
Sept.2000 - Mel Lastman says he is campaigning for re-election as Toronto
Mayor based on a law and order ticket. Yet a new document on his past programs
of Target Policing and CAP reveal his law and order agenda to be a failure,
cruel to the poor and racial minorities, and fatally flawed in many other
areas.
Read - Who's
the Target?
(An Evaluation of Community Action Policing by
the Committee to Stop Targeted Policing)
Posted at the bottom of our Target
Policing Opposed page
--------
Jobless rate higher than thought -
Sep.9.2000
The ravages of unemployment are
far more widespread than the official job figures show, Statistics Canada
reported yesterday.
A study of unemployment in 1997
shows that while the official figure has one out of every 11 workers out
of a job that year, the number of individuals who were without work at
some point was closer to one in six, says StatsCan. The number of family
households affected was nearer to one in four.
The old system has not taken into
account that some people find work each month, while others lose their
job. A more detailed study of the figures found that 17.3% of individuals
were out of work at some point during the year and that 28.2% of family
households were affected by one or more members being unemployed.
--------
Lastman Plugs Beggar Meters-
Sept.7.2000
Mayor Mel Lastman will consider
installing beggar meters on Toronto street corners in a bid to stop aggressive
panhandling. This is a coply of a US system where instead of giving change
to panhandlers, people in some major U.S. cities contribute only to specially
designated parking meters.
The money will go to the homeless
-- but with the city in charge of the purse strings. And where will the
homeless be sent - up North perhaps, with a free ticket on Mel's garbage
train.
It is also questionable as to whether
the city could divide any such money fairly.
--------
United Church Pushes for end to Homelessness
- Monday, Aug.21.2000
The United Church of Canada, meeting
in Toronto for their 37th general council, approved a plan to reduce the
number of people living on the streets. The plan includes petitioning Ottawa
for a national housing charter. The church wants the government to spend
one more percent of its budget on housing.
---------
Ottawa judge halts provincial day-care rip-off
-
Aug.27.2000
An Ottawa judge has granted a temporary
injunction allowing parents to keep their RRSPs while qualifying for day-care
subsidies.
Justice Monique Metivier said the
new provincial policy of Mike Harris to limit such subsidies would cause
"real and immediate harm" to needy parents.
Judge Metivier said the harm would
begin Sept. 1 when parents of 900 children would be forced to spend their
RRSPs or pay full fees.
Outraged by what they regard as
discrimination, 11 parents whose children attend Glebe Parents' Day Care
sought an injunction that would allow them to keep their retirement savings.
The injunction will remain in effect
until Oct. 3 when the court decides on the legality of the government policy
that would require parents to cash in RRSPs worth more than $5,000 to qualify
for subsidies.
Across the province, the policy
would affect about 133,000 children in subsidized day care.
--------
Anti-Poverty Actions Continue in Toronto-
Friday.Aug.11.2000
Intelligence officers have been staking out all anti poverty actions
and making arrests since the June 15th rally at Queen's Park. In spite
of that there were two actions tonight. The 1st anniversary of the OCAP
"Safe Park" in Allan Gardens is still underway . . . . . .
- read
the full report at the rallies page.
--------
Rent Freeze takes another step forward
- Aug.12.2000
The Greater Toronto Tenants' Association (GTTA) has been
promoting the idea of a Rent Freeze in response to the housing crisis.
NDP MPP, Rosario Marchese, is now introducing a private member's bill to
support this idea. GTTA is now planning a march in North York to support
the Rent Freeze. Contact GTTA at 967-4882.
Clip from the NDP Statement - NDP Housing Critic Rosario
Marchese is calling for a blanket freeze on rents across Ontario for the
next two years to keep families from being thrown into the streets.
"Tenants will sleep easier knowing they have the protection
of a two-year rent freeze," Marchese said. "A blanket ban on rent increases
will help low and moderate income families keep a roof over their heads."
Tenants across Ontario have been hit with huge rent increases
in the last two years, thanks to the Conservative government's repeal of
the NDP's Rent Control Act. During the same period, evictions in Toronto
jumped 15 per cent.
Landlords, on the other hand, have enjoyed a rent bonanza.
By the fall of 1999, landlords in Toronto alone had pocketed more than
$282 million in additional rent.
Marchese will introduce a private member's bill this fall
that would amend the Tories flawed rent legislation. The two-year freeze
would be followed by the passage of a new rent control bill similar to
the NDP's now-cancelled legislation.
The Trinity-Spadina MPP said that the Tories legislation
had failed miserably because it had produced no new affordable rental housing
in two years. At the same time, the province has stopped building non-profit
housing. These two developments have turned Ontario into a tenant's nightmare.
Media Contact: Gil Hardy at (416) 325-7118
--------
Support Groups say increase city aid to the
poor - Aug.2000 - The Ontario Council
of Agencies Serving Immigrants, a coalition of 40 ethnic community groups
is demanding that city council take action on the widening gap between
Toronto's rich and poor. The coalition wants the city to adopt a short-term
relief package providing supplementary benefits for welfare recipients,
rent subsidies, neighbourhood-based support services and day-care programs.
The money would come from the city's $26 million welfare surplus in 1999.
Debbie Douglas of the coalition
said that apartheid-like conditions call into question the right of full
citizenship for the city's racialized majority. Her group plans to act
during the upcoming election.
The coalition is outraged because
Mayor Mel Lastman and city councillors have failed to respond to a recent
study that outlines huge inequalities in income, employment, education
and rates of poverty among ethno-racial groups.
A large part of the city's
problems come from the hostile provincial government of Mike Harris. The
Harris cuts in housing and social services are taking a huge toll and there
is no sign of relief for debt-ridden Toronto.
---------
Speakers support Civil Rights of Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty leaders
Labour and social justice
leaders will bring a message of support for the civil rights of Ontario
Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) leaders to a court-house rally on Wednesday,
August 9th. The event will take place at 10 AM in front of the Ontario
court at 361 University Avenue.
The rally is designed to support
the bail review hearing for OCAP Executive members John Clarke, Gaetan
Heroux and Stefan Pilipa. The three OCAP activists were released from jail
on July 22nd on the condition that they not associate with other OCAP members.
"This restrictive bail condition
is a fundamental violation of the constitutional right to free association,"
says Ryerson Political Science Professor Colin Mooers.
Speakers at the court-house rally
will include Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour,
Josephine Grey from Low Income Families Together, Peter Rosenthal, Professor
of Law at the University of Toronto, and Helen Kennedy of the Metro Network
for Social Justice, among others.
The bail review will take place
Thursday, August 10, 10AM, 361 University Ave.
For further information contact
David McNally, Professor of Political Science at York University at (416)
465-5684
See also - OCAP
- June 15.2000 March
--------
Fight for a Rent Freeze - Toronto Tenants
take to the Streets- Aug.3.2000 - Members of one of this
city's largest tenants' associations and its supporters took to the
streets tonight in their kickoff of a fight for a Rent Freeze.
- read
the full rally report.
--------
Safe Park Anniversary Campout on August 13th.2000.
(Safe
park charges tossed and Constitutional Challenge on hold)
OCAP had a "Safe Park" in Allan
Gardens August 7-10 1999. It was a place where the homeless could sleep
safely. The police busted it up on August 10.
On Friday, August 13, 1999,
a group of University of Toronto students and supporters began sleeping
in the Allan Gardens Safe Park every Friday night. They have been charged
under City of Toronto by-laws with sleeping in a park and with putting
up a structure in a park. (They draped a tarpaulin over a tree branch
when it rained).
Thursday, August 3, 1999, they went
to court to launch a constitutional challenge to these City by-laws.
Their challenge failed when the
judge threw the charges out. The cops apparently made many errors
when writing up the tickets. My guess is that the cops never intended to
convict anyone, they just wanted to harass and intimidate the students
and their supporters.
Mayor Mel Lastman and His City Council
have given the police $2 million for "Targetted Policing." Guess
who the "target" is?
The students will be sleeping out
every Friday night, Allan Gardens, corner of Gerrard and Sherbourne.
They usually set up by 10:00 pm and usually are there until about 10:00
am Saturday.
Drop by some time during the evening.
It is never too late. Better still, bring a sleeping bag and join
them.
They will be holding an anniversary,
supported by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, on Friday, August 11,
probably starting at about 8:00 pm. There will be a "speak-out" for all
those who support the Safe Park.
OCAP thinks that this is great,
but OCAP itself is busy doing OCAP work, and besides, OCAP does not do
anniversaries.
Come on down!
Bob Olsen, Toronto
--------
Tory Welfare Fraud Exposed -
July.31.2000
The Harris Government has ignored
nearly all other issues as it boasts of the success of it welfare reforms.
Now an analysis of government reports that The Toronto Star obtained under
access-to-information laws paints a totally different picture.
The Tory studies really only contact
those who used to be on welfare and now have some source of income. Those
that can't afford housing or telephones aren't tracked in the studies.
Andy Mitchell of the group Welfare Watch notes that the welfare reforms
have driven the most needy people further into poverty.
Social Services Minister John Baird
boasts that more than 60 per cent of people who leave welfare do so for
full-time work. The truth is that a disproportionate number of those who
polling firms could track were better-educated and had more recent work
experience that helped them find full-time jobs. In one study of 5,441
people who left welfare in a single month in 1996, only 2,159 could be
found and asked how they were supporting themselves without welfare. A
mailing survey to 1,000 former welfare recipients at their last known address
found only 59 people. 35 of them said they were back on welfare.
The government boasts of improvements
are fraudulent because the findings assume that 60 per cent of people who
could not be contacted were also in the workforce. What is more likely
is that these people are on the street without any support. Food banks
are verifying the increase in clients who have no source of income after
being forced off welfare by unfair rules. The many thousands with no fixed
address crash wherever they can find shelter. If the economy downturns
and the Harris welfare laws are not reformed, Ontario will face an unbelievable
poverty disaster.
---------
G8 Summit - A Billion Dollar Insult to the
Poor- July.2000
Let them eat computers is the new
motto of G8 leaders after their billion-dollar Okinawa meeting did nothing
for debt relief or foreign aid. Jean Chretien's modest plan for aid improvement
died on the table. And No was the word they had for a new plan to accelerate
$100-billion in debt relief for the poorest countries. They even
turned down a Japanese plan to set up a G8 fund to fight infectious diseases.
In their final communiqué
the leaders did vow to help bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots
of the digital age. And this led critics to charge that they expect the
poor to eat computers.
At $1-billion, it was the costliest
summit ever mounted, and the biggest insult ever from rich nations. No
summit at all, with the one billion used to aid the needy, would have been
much better.
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Latest News Relating to the Toronto June 15th
Poverty Rally/Riot- updated in late July.2000
Bail conditions set for Ontario
Coalition Against Poverty activists amount to persecution. Read about them
and the courthouse protest.
Collected Reports:
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| LINKS: |
GO TO THE 2ND PAGE OF WAR ON THE POOR
