OCAP has opened a shelter at City Hall and we need your help to defend the space we've taken. We are being told that they will try
to clear us out by 9:30pm. We need large numbers if we are going to keep this shelter open!

Bring food, drinks and any other supplies you may have. Spread the word! No more homeless deaths!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013 8:00 AM
Toronto City Hall (100 Queen St. West, front entrance)

Dear OCAP members and supporters,

In this year's budget, due to be brought to Council on Tuesday, the
City of Toronto is once again targeting the poor of this city for
cutbacks. While shelters are at capacity and homelessness is on the
rise (especially as we face provincial cuts), the City is planning to
cut approximately 115 shelter beds and to eliminate the Personal Needs
Allowance (PNA) for homeless people in those shelters. PNA is being
uploaded to the Province meaning people in shelters will now be told
to apply for the 'basic needs' portion of welfare (OW). However, many
people, especially those without the necessary I.D, are sure to left
with literally no income at all.

Dear OCAP members, supporters and allies,

Yesterday we heard the news that the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, Dalton McGuinty, has resigned and prorogued government.

McGuinty has resigned, but make no mistake, the Liberal anti-poor policies continue. This recent turn of events does not mean that the cut to Community Start-Up will be stopped - we have to continue our campaign under the assumption that the CSUMB cut will come in to effect this coming January. Which is why we need to keep up the pressure to stop this cut and to raise the rates!

Queen's park is closed down, but the Ministry of Community and Social Services remains open - which is where we are headed tomorrow to deliver our applications for CSUMB, and our demands. Join us tomorrow on the streets, and help spread the message!

Solidarity,

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

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Day for the Eradication of Poverty
Toronto Events
Wednesday October 17

Join Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and Jane-Finch Action
Against Poverty (JFAAP) at events throughout the day...

Former Toronto Dominion Bank economist, Don Drummond, has now handed over his report to the McGuinty government. As we might have expected it is a call to arms for the advocates of austerity. It suggests cuts to social services that would make Harris’s Tory government look like social reformers. Harris cut the Provincial Budget by less than 4% during one term of office while Drummond wants a 17% reduction kept up for a decade and a half. Among other drastic recommendations it calls for limiting annual spending growth for social assistance to 0.5% until 2018, despite the fact that those living on social assistance are still suffering from the 21.6% cuts to assistance from the Harris years, which the Liberals have only made worse. Nowadays a person living on welfare in Ontario is making 55% less than they did in the early 90s, when the rates were already far below the poverty line. Also in Drummond’s cross-hairs are ODSP and the Child Tax Benefit.

Through all the rhetoric of "overspending" it is important to remember that this economic crisis was not caused by us. After all, it is noteworthy that the budget was balanced before the crisis of 2008-09. It was not caused by welfare recipients, it was not caused by organized labour and it was not caused by public services. We are living through a financial crisis that was caused by the rich, and while the banks are getting bailed out we are being bled dry to pay for their greed.

The Drummond report is a roadmap to austerity and if it is not swiftly defeated its legacy will haunt us for decades to come. At the same time it is important not to stay fixated on the Drummond report. We know that the Liberals have been planning to implement cut-back measures long before this report came out. It is imperative that we keep a close eye on the upcoming budget and root out every attack directed against us in the name of austerity.

The time is crucial for us to coordinate our efforts and organize ourselves as effectively as possible to mount a serious fightback.

A MESSAGE FROM THE ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY

Rob Ford and his friends on City Council are out to wipe out public services in this City and to attack the workers who deliver those services. Thousands of members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees face the threat of being locked out by the City. (This means the City would refuse to bargain for a fair contract but would instead lock the workers out from their jobs with no pay).

OCAP is an organization that works among poor communities under attack and we know what side we are on in this fight. Ford wants to sell off many services to private corporations and then cut what is left to an absolute minimum. The workers who deliver those services will not have decent wages or working conditions, if he gets his way. The City will become, instead, a low wage, sweat shop employer. This would be a huge defeat that would drive down wages all across the City and beyond and it must not be allowed to happen.