Fight The Fare Hike! Public Transit Should Be Free!

On Saturday, December 12, OCAP members and supporters gathered at City Hall to confront and resist the impending fare increase by the TTC. After several speeches that drove home the message that this increase will massively affect poor communities, dozens of people, carrying signs and chanting slogans, moved to board a Queen Street streetcar. As the driver smiled and passengers expressed support, the OCAP supporters moved onto the vehicle, showing slips of paper stating that they could not pay the high fares being demanded. These bore a striking resemblance to regular TTC transfers.

Having travelled some distance, we got off together and lined upon the other side of the street for the return journey. The first streetcar heading back downtown was, unfortunately, driven by a worker whose sense of solidarity was a little weak and he drove past us. We, therefore, took the precaution of blocking the path of the next vehicle and we were than allowed to board again and pay what every passenger on a public transit system should pay nothing.

Our action on the 12th was not intended just as a symbol of defiance but as a pointing of the way forward. The TTC is already massively expensive compared to other major North American cities and there is every chance that a series of yearly increases will, over the next few years, take the cost of riding the Rocket up far beyond the already outrageous $3.00 coming into effect in January. For poor people and their communities, access to public transit is simply a necessity and, if it is made unaffordable, it must still be accessed.

The OCAP transfers we used at the recent action will be used on a bigger scale and we will build as much support and participation as we can among passengers and workers who operate the system. People have to get to work, to go to food banks and welfare offices and take their children to school. The TTC can't charge fares that force them to walk or that rob them of their rent and groceries. As a public service, it must be affordable and adequate. Ottawa puts nothing into the TTC, Queen's Park neglects it and the City politicians do the dirty work of imposing increases on us. They are all guilty and we have to challenge them.

Refuse to pay the fare hike and fight for the right to public transit!