Special Diet

Click here for more photos.

On Wednesday, July 21st, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
demonstrated against the devastating cut to the Special Diet benefit and to demand that the Liberal Government raise welfare rates by at least 55% - the minimum amount required to restore rates to where they were before the cut by Harris in 1995.

During the rally, over 300 people took to the streets, while a smaller group of people went in to the Liberal Party headquarters, to deliver an invoice to the Liberal Party “demanding full re-payment of benefits taken from people living on social assistance.The delegation of people who entered the Provincial Liberals HQ went to deliver a message about the impact of the cuts on poor people. Rather than receive this message, the powers that be chose to enforce their austerity measures with police action. Shortly after the group entered, Toronto Police arrested all 11 people, OCAP members, allies, and labour activists. Two people were released, while the other 9 were held overnight at 52 division and appeared for bail hearings in College Park Court Thursday.

There was a large presence of supporters from many organizations across Toronto in defense of the detainees. Represented by Movement Defense lawyer, Mike Leitold, all 9 were eventually released Thursday July 22 with sureties, and on conditions including to not be within 50 metres of the Liberal Party Headquarters.

On June 26th the G20 met in Toronto with the government spending over $1 billion on the summit. This money funded the militarization of our city, security fees, promotional stunts involving a fake lake, lavish dinners and hotels for world leaders and their entourages. That weekend, in response to the G20 meeting, tens of thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of Toronto despite police violence and extreme intimidation. We know all too well that these attempts to criminalize and brutalize will continue in the daily violence that poor communities, people of colour, and First Nations communities face.

On June 25th – 27th, we demonstrated not just against the cost of hosting the G20 meetings in our city – but against the plans and decisions that were being made behind the security perimeter inside that armed camp. We protested because we know that the policies of the G20 affect poor people every day: decisions to fund security and prisons instead of schools and community centres, decisions to cut public services, childcare and welfare at the same time as giving huge tax breaks to corporations and banks. Decisions that serve the interests of wealth at our expense.

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

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!

A letter from Doctor Roland Wong to Dalton McGuinty about someone unjustly being denied the special diet.