Press Conference and Court Support

Thursday November 20th, 2008

8:30 am

Old City Hall

(Queen & Bay)

Free coffee & doughnuts

Matthew Rickwood, a young Toronto man, is appearing in court on Thursday with his lawyer, after being charged under the Safe Streets Act this summer for "encumbering of street".

In June, Matthew had just sat down on the sidewalk in Toronto's downtown east end, when he was approached by cops and served with a court summons. He had already been given multiple tickets, carrying fines he simply cannot pay. More to the point, he had done nothing wrong. Living on social assistance, after paying his rent and board each month, Matthew is left with $56 to survive.

June 21 - 4pm
Allan Gardens
Free Meal - Entertainment

Turf Wars: Low Income Neighbourhoods vs. Upscale Redevelopment

From 2004 to 2007, Tickets Under the Safe Streets Act have Increased 288%

As the grotesque oversupply of housing for the rich creeps into poor areas of the city, a ruthless drive to push out homeless people gathers force. People are targeted by cops. Those forced to beg on the streets are hounded and their civil liberties disregarded. Services to the homeless are curtailed by the city. Hundreds of shelter beds are taken out of the hostel system and the places that remain become overcrowded dangerous hell holes. Under the City's Streets to Homes project, homeless people are dumped in tiny rooms with no resources and no support, in conditions that make the shelters look humane. The War on Homeless People has grown uglier and gained in speed.

Defy the process of upscale development - join a takeover of a city park for the homeless. Help OCAP ensure that the covert plot to drive the homeless from view is made a public issue.

Download Poster PDF (4 mb)

Check out OCAP's Map of the PATH. Click Here

Click Here to download OCAP Radio's field audio from the action.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is preparing to mobilize homeless people and their supporters to come down into the showpiece underground PATH system for a mass panhandle. We want to make clear why we are carrying out this action and what users of the PATH can expect from us.

Huge cuts to social programs and a desperate lack of affordable housing have fueled a crisis of homelessness in Toronto. Instead of meeting the needs of the homeless, those in power are looking to drive them out. Hostels have been closed and people forced onto the streets to beg. Then, police are used to harass and criminalize people trying to survive.

Wednesday November 7
12 Noon
Corner of Dundas and Sherbourne

Download the poster here

The Toronto Police are installing several cameras in the area of Dundas and Sherbourne to monitor any "criminal activity" or "anti-social behaviour" that takes place. In the heart of one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods and surrounded by drop-in centres and shelters that are seeing their budgets transfered to the police, it is hard to see how these cameras will put food on the table or roofs over the heads of those in the community. Instead the cameras will record people going hungry and struggling to survive.

There are many problems at Dundas and Sherbourne but the Toronto Police are not the solution to any of them. Join us for a press conference to denounce this intimidation and waste.

On the 10th Annual International Day Against Police Brutality

Thursday March 15th
4:00pm
College and Lansdowne

Every day OCAP works hand in hand with communities that have been under attack by the Police. Under attack because they are poor, homeless, people of colour, First Nations or new immigrants. Under attack because it is the job of the police to maintain the power of the wealthy and upper class. When we struggle to improve our lives and the lives of our children and communities, it is these same police that attack us and keep us beaten down.

March 15th 2007 marks the 10th Anniversary of the International Day Against Police Brutality. A day to bring awareness to the violence, torture, intimidation and harassment inflicted on citizens' by our governments' Police Forces.