Friday, March 26, 2010


CANADIAN POLITICS- ONTARIO:
OCAP CONFRONTS FINANCE MINISTER ON LIVE TV:
Dwight Duncan, Ontario's Finance Minister, didn't have an easy night of it yesterday. As he was busy selling his snake oil on live TV he was confronted by about 20 protesters from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) upset about the killing of the 'Special Diet' for poor people in Ontario. What's a politician to do these days if even the sacred ceremony of St. Prevarication is interupted by the heathens ? Here's the story from OCAP.
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OCAP Confronts Duncan for Killing the Special Diet‏
20 people on social assistance, supporters and members of OCAP confronted Dwight Duncan on live television on Thursday evening only hours after the Provincial budget became public. OCAP went face to face with Duncan,yelling 'shame on you' and 'raise the rates now!' in outrage of a 2010 budget that is an attack on poor people.
Duncan, as Finance Minister for McGuinty's Liberals announced the government will cut the special diet over the next few months. 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 buy food 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 it 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 slap in the face to those struggling on social assistance.
On April 15th we will be marching against the McGuinty Government.Clearly, the question we face in Ontario now 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. Duncan, Meilleur, and McGuinty can expect more confrontations to come.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
416-925-6939

2 comments:

Rotterdam said...

They were the same way with Mike Harris.

You can never make OCAP happy.

mollymew said...

It's indeed "hard" to make poor people happy by political promises. You can't eat them.