CANADIAN POLITICS-ONTARIO:
MORE PROTESTS AGAINST THE ONTARIO BUDGET:





The recently released Ontario provincial budget is fully in line with the neo-conservative plan of making ordinary people pay for the financial crisis, but there is opposition outside of the political maneuvers in the provincial legislature. Here, from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is news of three upcoming events to oppose this attack on poor and working people in Ontario.
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Restore the Special Diet, Raise the Rates!
Upcoming Events.‏
Important Upcoming - please forward far and wide!
1) Poverty and the Provincial Budget Forum:Tuesday, April 6th
2)Public Meeting- Testimony on the Special Diet:Friday, April 9th
3)Raise the Rates - Rally and March on the McGuinty Government:
Thursday, April 15th All details below.
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1) Poverty and the Provincial Budget
Health, Jobs and Resistance
The Ontario 2010 budget, released on March 25th, confirms that the McGuinty government's "poverty reduction" efforts are all pretense. Poor and working people are being forced to pay for the economic crisis. New cuts to social assistance are the most devastating since Mike Harris slashed welfare rates in 1995. We saw this coming and we need to respond. How can welfare recipients, labor unions and social justice activists organize together? Join us for a discussion about current conditions and strategies forward.
Tuesday, April 6
7pm
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
252 Bloor St. West, Room 5260
Featuring:
John Clarke, Organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and Vice-President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario.
Dr. Roland Wong, Occupational and Community Medicine Physician.
Sponsored by:
Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG-Toronto)
www.opirgtoronto.org
University of Toronto Health Studies Students' Union
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
www.ocap.ca
Health Providers Against Poverty
www.healthprovidersagainstpoverty.ca
OISE is an accessible location. For more information about this event, contact OPIRG-Toronto at opirg.toronto@gmail.com .
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=525599031#!/event.php?eid=104934856208964
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2)PUBLIC MEETING: Restore the Special Diet, Raise OW/ODSP Rates Now!
Friday, April 9th
6pm @ Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre
1499 Queen St. W, Toronto
*snacks and drinks to be provided
*childcare to be provided
Are you struggling to make ends meet on OW or ODSP?
Are you angry at the Liberal government for taking away the one thing we had left to try to put food on the table?
Come out to hear testimony, or give testimony, on the importance of the Special Diet money and the need for a total raise in Welfare and ODSP rates.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
www.ocap.ca
416-925-6939
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3) THE SPECIAL DIET HAS BEEN CUT!
Rally and March on the MGuinty Government
WE DEMAND:
-Raise Welfare and Disability rates by 40% now!
-Stop the attacks: Give us back the Special Diet!
-Defend Public Services
Thursday, April 15th @ 12 Noon
Allan Gardens Park (Sherbourne and Gerrard)
*free meal
*accessibility pick-up @ 11:30 am at south-east corner of Dundas-Yonge


On March 25th, Ontario’s Liberal Government killed the Special Diet in the Provincial Budget. 20% of those on social assistance in Ontario have been getting this vital benefit and will now be thrown into a crisis - robbed of the ability to buy food and pay the rent once again. People on Welfare and Disability live on rates that are shamefully inadequate. Since the 1995 cuts, these rates have been reduced in real terms by more than 40%. For 15 years, people have been forced further into poverty. In slashing the Special Diet now - the government is taking away the one thing that people on Social Assistance had left to try to get-by.


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 while huge numbers of people face the impact of an economic crisis, but 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. Governments responded to the economic crisis by giving billions of dollars in bailouts and tax cuts to failed corporations and banks. Now they are looking to get that money back in the way of serious social cutbacks. The Special Diet is an example, but all Public Services are under threat.


If we let the government write our future, it will be bleak. It’s time to challenge this Government and to build a movement to win the right to decent income. We are calling on poor people in Ontario to organize and fight back. We won’t pay for their crisis or their deficit.


We demand the right to a decent income and a future free of poverty.


Raise the Rates by 40% Now!


Join us in this fight: April 9th and April 15th.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
www.ocap.ca
416-925-6939