CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-TORONTO:

TWO NEW ITEMS FROM OCAP:

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) continues to be as active as ever down in the throbbing centre of the universe, otherwise known as Toronto. Here's two new items, one an announcement of a demonstration this coming Thursday (July 17) and the other an update on the struggle to save the Liu family home.

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City meets to discuss poverty reduction:

Two homeless men die just blocks away

On Monday, July 7, around supper time, a young Somali man in his mid- twenties was found dead in the Salvation Army Maxwell Meighen Hostel. On Thursday morning, July 10, Denis Bowen, 42, a native man known to many of us in the community, died outside a social housing building at 200 Sherbourne St.

We are not able to confirm for certain how these two men died. What we do know is that both men were homeless.

We should all be disturbed and outraged when poor people die in overcrowded hostels, or are found dead outside deteriorating social housing buildings operated by the city. For too many years, we have watched poor people in our community struggle on a daily basis without sufficient income, and we have watched as they try to survive, to find food, shelter, and safe affordable housing.

The mayor, and city politicians, want the public to believe that the city is taking care of the needs of the poor and the homeless - in reality, homeless men and women are suffering and dying on our streets. The City of Toronto has abandoned many poor and the homeless people who live on its streets and in its shelters.

Please join us THURSDAY, July 17th, to protest the city’s refusal to address poverty in our community and to speak out against the recent deaths of two homeless men who died last week in our community:

DATE: THURSDAY, July 17, 2008

TIME: 11 AM

LOCATION: Queen and Sherbourne St.

For more information, contact: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

ocap@tao.ca

(416) 925-6939

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Please Sign Petition to Save the Liu Family Home!‏
You may have read in a previous email or seen the story on our web siteabout the Liu family (story below). We would urge you to sign the onlinepetition at ipetitions.com and to watch for further info on future actionsand updates in support of the Liu family.

With Thanks from the Liu Family for your support!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/defendingourhome/

For more info:

http://defendingourhome.wordpress.com/ourcase/

http://ocap.ca/node/1252

OCAP is working with the Save the Home of the Liu Family to try and prevent a well financed Christian charity from dragging Louise Liu into court and taking away the home that she and her disabled brother need.

Louise's mother, Margaret, was a poor woman who came to this Country from Hong Kong with her kids, shortly after the death of her husband. She worked to buy a small home and always intended to leave it to her children. However, a couple of years ago, when she was well into her 80s and, after she had had a series of strokes, she made out a new will, leaving her home to the Chinese Christian Herald Crusades.

Representatives of the Chinese Christian Gospel Church, which she attended, played a very big role in facilitating this. They assisted the elderly woman to prepare the will, did not tell her daughter this was happening and, then, immediately after Margaret died, presented Louise with this bombshell.

Louise feels her mother made a decision that was not in keeping with the plans and intentions she had had for years. Her state of mind at the time is a major issue and a strong legal case could be made in favour of Louise and her brother. However, the charity has huge resources and Louise almost none. OCAP has been working with a committee of friends and supporters to fight for justice for this family. When such cases of injustice emerge in immigrant communities, it is often the case that the government funded organizations set up to represent those communities will not get involved. OCAP is, therefore, stepping in to do all it can to back this family. We have joined with other supporters to leaflet the Church and responded to attempts to silence Louise with threats of legal action.