LIBERALS ON LOCK DOWN
On May 20, in six Toronto locations and a range of other Ontario centres,
communities facing the loss of the Special Diet rallied at MPPs offices to
win it back and raise the rates.
See pictures from May 20th actions here:
http://update.ocap.ca/image/tid/43
We have gone to their ‘front door’ at Queen’s Park, and we will again
soon, but the coordinated Day of Action at MPP offices on May 20 shifted
the focus and took the fight into their backyards. One thing stood out
very clearly and showed the effectiveness of the actions – they hated it.
After OCAP put up posters in Toronto’s downtown east, inviting people to
come to the office of the local MPP, Glen Murray, the man himself called
us. “How dare you protest at my office?” he demanded to know. He wanted
to assure us he was a ‘friend of the poor’. When poor people showed up at
his door on the 20th, however, their ‘friend’ had closed up for the day
and was represented by a bunch of cops.
It was the same picture in most places. At Shafiq Qaadri’s office in
Etobicoke, a delegation brought together by OCAP members in the Somali
Community, met a line of cops and the MPP’s rep in the office told them he
had been advised by the police not to open the door. At Laurel Broten’s
office, also in Etobicoke, they refused to open up and members of the
delegation had to put the letter under the door. At the office of Dr.
Eric Hoskins, MPP’s office in Toronto, a nurse representing Health
Providers Against Poverty was told that they would not open their door
that day. In Ottawa, the office of the Minister responsible for the
attack on the Special Diet, Madeleine Meilleur, was locked up and guarded
as sixty people brought out by the Under Pressure Collective rallied
outside. (Meilleur, who keeps social assistance rates at a level that
destroys health and shortens lives, is actually a Registered Nurse, so
action targeting her is especially just and necessary).
A list of locations targeted for actions is already on this website but,
three more initiatives took place on the day. A delegation from the
Canadian Auto Workers delivered a letter to James Bradley in St.
Catharines. A rally organized by members of the local NDP riding
association gathered at the office of Kevin Flynn in Oakville. (OCAP does
not support any political party but we greet this initiative with thanks
and respect). Also, last week a delegation went to the office of the MPP
in Guelph and forced a meeting around the cut to the Special Diet.
May 20 was a day the Liberals got a taste of the anger of the local
communities that they are robbing of food and health. Their ‘community
friendly open doors’ were locked and guarded and it looked good on them.
If you are going to take away the income people need to live on and force
them to send their kids to school hungry, you’d better lock up those
offices for good and have cops on the door round the clock.
The next major step in our fight to win back the Special Diet and raise
the rates will be a demonstration and direct action in and around the
Provincial Legislature and Ministry of Community and Social Services in
July. Stand by for further announcements shortly. We are in this fight
to win it and the Liberals had better get used to unwelcome visits because
they are going to get more frequent, bigger and angrier. Decent income is
a right and we are going to fight for it.
JOIN the Raise the Rates Movement, Join the Ontario Coalition Against
Poverty and Under Pressure:
www.ocap.ca / 416-925-6939
Under Pressure: raisetherates@gmail.com
