CRASH THE PARTY!

When: wednesday November 10th 6:00pm SHARP
Where: Ottawa Crowne Plaza – 101 Lyon Street North

On Wedneseday November 10th the Ontario Liberal Party will be hosting a fundraiser dinner for themselves in downtown Ottawa, with Premier Dalton McGuinty as their special guest. Tickets to this event are 500$ and a table costs 5000$.

This year the Liberals have upped their attacks on poor people across Ontario in an unprecedented way. Not since the Conservative Party of Mike Harris has a provincial government not only let people live in poverty, but actually cut and gutted the money that those on welfare and disability receive.

Poor people in Ontario often have difficult decisions to make: pay the rent or pay the bills. Food on the table or a winter coat on their kids. But one thing we do not have a choice about is to fight. We are a community of struggle and we always have been. We know that to survive we need to fight these governments and their anti-poor agendas. Many of us in the struggle today were born into the Common Sense Revolution that saw poor people attacked viciously. Now we are seeing a new wave of attacks, by a different government with the same policies. But just as we have before, we are ready and willing to fight back and be disruptive.

On Wednesday November 10th we invite all of our friends and allies to a disruptive noisy demo at the Liberal Party fundraiser supper. Let’s make it clear that they will have no peace as long as people are starving, dying on the streets and unable to pay their bills. Bring signs, flags, noisemakers and banners. Be ready to be loud! The aims of this demo are to deliver a clear, angry and disruptive message to the Liberal party, though we will keep in mind that some participants may not be in arrestable situations.

When: Wednesday November 10th 6:00pm SHARP
Where: Ottawa Crowne Plaza – 101 Lyon Street North

OUR DEMANDS:

raise welfare and ODSP rates 40%
hands of the Special Diet

this demo is organized by:
No One Is Illegal – Ottawa
Under Pressure Coalition Against Poverty
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

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

the day of action was called by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, based in Toronto.

the cutting of the Special Diet will affect up to 1 in 5 welfare or ODSP recipient in Ontario, and some will see as much as 30% taken off their cheques.

Join Under Pressure if you would like to be involved in future actions raisetherates@gmail.com

When: Thursday May 20th, 1pm

Where: meet at the corner of Montreal road and Begin st. (in Vanier)

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In this year’s provincial budget the Ontario Liberals cut the Special Diet Allowance, while raising the welfare rates by LESS that the inflation rate. This adds up to a 3% CUT in welfare spending in Ontario. This is only the third time a government has cut welfare spending.

The special diet allowance was money accessible to some OW and ODSP recipients who needed it for specific health related dietary needs, allergies, etc. The maximum amount of money a person could receive from the SDA was 250$. For people receiving SDA money, the cut represents as much as 30% less on their welfare cheques.

Although the Liberals have done nothing to reverse the rate cuts imposed by the Conservatives, the SDA was one of the few options available for poor people in Ontario who were tired of having to make the decision between paying the rent and buying groceries.

In recent years a groundswell of activity led to a sharp increase in people finding out about the SDA and signing up. This meant that the Ontario Government was now spending an extra $194 million a year on welfare.Due to the SDA’s recent growth in cost and popularity, the government has decided to cut it.

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FIGHT BACK

Across the province anti-poverty organizations are gearing up to fight these cuts. In Toronto, almost 1000 people gathered on April 15th to voice their opposition to these cuts.

In Ottawa, Under Pressure, an anti-poverty and anti-capitalist organization, is planning this protest in Vanier at MPP Madelaine Meilleur’s office. Meilleur is the Minister of Community Services, responsible for the loss of the SDA.

we won’t be quiet – we need the Special Diet

Email for more info: raisetherates@gmail.com

In the past, Under Pressure has worked with people on individual basis, as well as participated in broader mobilizations. in the coming months we will be joining with other anti-poverty organizations across the province to oppose the Liberals’ decision to cut the Special Diet Allowance

We are not a charity; we strive to build a poor and working-poor people’s movement in Ottawa that can eventually act as a counter balance to the powers in place. Through side by side struggle we aim to create the necessary links and connections between struggles affecting us and become a strong movement. We see ourselves as one of many anti-capitalist organizations in the city, working towards radical change.
In cities and provinces across the country poor people find themselves threatened, humiliated and attacked by those in power. In Halifax the municipality has ruled to make squeegeeing illegal, while in Vancouver poor people are being evicted at alarming rates in an attempt to spruce up the city in anticipation of the Olympic Games. Right here in Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brian has been attacking the city’s poor and homeless since he came to power.

Consider working with us to abolish poverty by abolishing capitalism.

Our demands:
40% increase for welfare recipients
An end to the Safe Streets Act
Decent affordable housing