Next steps:
Raise the Rates Organizing Meeting
Sunday, May 2nd
2pm
Location: Centre for Social Justice 489 College Street, Suite 303 (College and Bathurst)

Click here for more photos!

On April 15th, over 700 people marched on the Provincial Liberal Government, rallying first in Allen Gardens Park and then converging at the Ministry of Community and Social Services. Arriving at the Ministry, the crowd took over the main entrance and the building was effectively on lock-down. The demonstration was loud, energetic and angry with a wide range of communities under attack and an array of allies from across Toronto calling for the restoration of the Special Diet, a 40% increase in welfare and disability rates, and to defend against the broader attacks on Public Services.

Public Testimony From April 9th, 2010

On March 25th the Ontario Provincial Government cut the vital 'Special Diet' program for people on Welfare and Disability. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) held a public meeting on April 9th to talk about the impact that this cut will have on people's lives, and to organize towards a raise in Welfare and Disability rates in Ontario.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

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.

About 20 people on social assistance, supporters and members of OCAP confronted Duncan on live television this evening. Duncan, as Finance Minister for McGuinty's Liberals announced the government will cut the special diet in a few months. The biggest social cut since Harris, this is a 30% cut for people on welfare and a 19% cut for people on disability who are getting the full special diet benefit. Click here for more photos.

Give It Back! And Raise The Rates

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.

Read the Star article here.

Come out on April 15th!