City

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.

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.

Saturday, November 26th
12Noon
Moss Park - corner of Sherbourne and Queen

*Food and hot chocolate

We demand:

STOP THE CUTS!
EXPAND SERVICES FOR ALL!
STOP THE HANDOUTS TO COPS and CORPORATIONS!

SERVICES AT RISK & CUTS IN OUR COMMUNITY:

· Sunday Closure of Parliament Street Library and reduced hours during the week

· Sell-off of over 1000 Toronto Community Housing units, including buildings and houses in this neighborhood

· Priority Funding Cuts & Users Fees for Adults at 3 local Community Centres - John Innes, Regent Park South and Wellesley Community Centre

· Slashing city Childcare and cutting funding for subsidies

· Ongoing attacks on Public Sector Workers, part of a broader move to privatize city services

STOP THE SELL OFF OF TORONTO HOUSING!
Statement from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

In a move that falls in line with the plans of Rob Ford, Toronto Community Housing is looking to sell off close to 1000 homes. The money raised in the sale would, we are told, go to meet the $600 million repair bill that years of neglect have created in public housing owned and operated by the City of Toronto. The sell off will involve ‘stand alone’ homes throughout the City.

Tens of thousands of desperate people sit on the 10 years’ long waiting
list for rent geared to income housing in this City and the housing
authority is now looking to sell off a major portion of this precious
resource. Displaced tenants will have to be moved into units presently
standing idle, that will be renovated with the money from the sale. This will mean that few people on the waiting list will get housed while the stock of public housing is reduced massively.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
12:00 PM
Thursday July 21
KPMG’s Toronto Headquarters
Bay Adelaide Centre (333 Bay St)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What right do rich, paid private consultants have to decide what public services our communities in Toronto should or should not have?

KPMG is a private consulting firm that was hired by the City of Toronto and paid millions of dollars to do a completely subjective review of all of Toronto’s public services. KPMG is currently releasing their 8 final reports detailing service by service what they think could be cut, changed or contracted out.

They have taken their ‘vision’ of a devastated Toronto public services to City Hall, and now we will take our vision of the kind of Toronto we want straight to them!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Toronto Stop the Cuts Network

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>>>>>>>>>>>> http://facebook.com/stopthecuts <<<<<<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>>>>>> http://twitter.com/tostopthecuts <<<<<<<<<<<<

COMMUNITY MEETING to STOP FORD’S CUTS

THURSDAY, JULY 14

CENTRAL NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSE
(349 ONTARIO STREET)
6 PM
On-site childcare + transit tokens available • food provided

Meeting sponsored by CUPE 4308
SERVICES ON FORD’S CHOPPING BLOCK

•Priority funding for 3 local community centres - John Innes, Regent Park South and Wellesley Community Centre - HAS BEEN CUT
• The School House men’s shelter at Gerrard and George, which may close by the end of August
•Sell-off of 22 Toronto Community Housing buildings, including buildings in this neighborhood, with more to follow
•Slashing city childcare and cutting funding for subsidies
•Ongoing attacks on public sector workers, part of a broader move to privatize city services

Toronto Stop the Cuts Committee - East End Working Group twitter.com/tostopthecuts • tostopthecuts@gmail.com
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty www.ocap.ca • ocap@tao.ca • (416) 925-6939

In December, OCAP made a call-out for video submissions around Rob Ford's planned austerity agenda for the City of Toronto. Response was not exactly overwhelming, but we did receive several great videos, which are posted here for your viewing convenience. We'll be contacting submitters in the next little while to pass along some neat OCAP prizes. Many thanks to everyone who submitted content and please continue to support OCAP's work with your creative efforts!

You-Tube Video and Poster Contest

The Year of our Ford is upon us. And it's not gonna be pretty.

Rob Ford swept to power on his populist “working man” appeal, despite the fact that he is a millionaire and is gearing up to slash the very services we depend on most. Less than two weeks in, he's already preparing to blow $15 million a year on new cops that even the police chief doesn't want and costing us millions and millions of dollars by scrapping Transit City for his asinine subway expansion wet dream...

Here's a chance to help inform, inspire, and energize the growing
opposition to Ford's agenda.

Stick it to Ford!
Win Fabulous Prizes!

Submit an entry to OCAP's “Commie Pinkos” You-tube video
and poster competition!

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!