In 1995, just before the Harris Government cut social assistance rates by 21.6%, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty marched from the low-income community of Regent Park into affluent Rosedale. The impending welfare cut and Provincial tax breaks would soon transfer about $1 million a month from one community to the other. Replicated across Ontario, this vast transfer of wealth to the already wealthy was at the very heart of the ‘Common Sense Revolution’. Initiatives around poverty that ignore this continuing injustice are of very limited value.

Last week, a report was issued by the National Council of Welfare on the undermining of provincial income support systems since the early 1990s. Written well into the McGuinty Government’s second term of office, the report makes clear that Ontario has lead the way in the deterioration of income adequacy for people on assistance. It is from this dismal starting point that the Government of this Province issues its proposals to address the problem.

Please support OCAP's struggles in 2009

We have already started to take calls from laid off workers who don'tknow how to apply for EI or welfare. More and more people are calling us because they can't pay their rent and they face eviction. We are going into the worst economic crisis in generations and, while bailouts for the rich are readily available, the poor are going to have to fight for their survival in this crisis.

OCAP plans to go into action in 2009 to build a strong movement that can ensure that welfare offices don't turn away people in need, that a challenge to economic evictions is taken up, that workers, including those without status or on temporary work permits, are not exploited even more, that income support systems are strengthened, that 'economic stimulation' resources are allocated to meet the needs of communities, that poor people come out of this crisis united and stronger than ever.

How Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy Will Fail

As more plants close and the markets continue to fall, there is consensus on the economic future for the province of Ontario: more job losses and recession. Ontario’s last recession took place in the early 1990s - thousands of people from across the province migrated to Toronto in search of work and services that smaller communities offer little of, such as shelters, drop-in centres, meal programs, and outreach workers. Most people who came to Toronto found shelters well beyond capacity, social services over-taxed, and a stingy, overloaded welfare bureaucracy staggering under a caseload of 100,000.

The three high rise buildings at Gordonridge Place in Scarborough are in a state of massive disrepair. The tenants in these buildings, like tens of thousands of others in Toronto Community Housing (TCH), face mold, water damage, poor ventilation, broken fixtures, unsafe balconies and infestation by rodents, cockroaches and bed bugs. They are victims of the City of Toronto’s worst slum landlord – the City of Toronto.

Press Conference and Court Support
Thursday November 20th, 2008
8:30 am
Old City Hall
(Queen & Bay)
Free coffee & doughnuts

Matthew Rickwood, a young Toronto man, is appearing in court on Thursday with his lawyer, after being charged under the Safe Streets Act this summer for "encumbering of street".

In June, Matthew had just sat down on the sidewalk in Toronto's downtown east end, when he was approached by cops and served with a court summons. He had already been given multiple tickets, carrying fines he simply cannot pay. More to the point, he had done nothing wrong. Living on social assistance, after paying his rent and board each month, Matthew is left with $56 to survive.

OCAP Builds Cement Wall Against Real Estate Developer In Solidarity With Palestinian

OCAP demands immediate end to the settlements on Palestinian land, calls for building real affordable housing in Toronto

Today, as part of the International Week Against Israel's Apartheid Wall, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) has erected a reinforced cement wall in front of the Toronto building '50 On the Park' at 50 Portland St. (Bathurst and King) owned by wealthy real estate developer Leviev-Boymelgreen. Leviev-Boymelgreen is a developer in Toronto and Brooklyn and also builds illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestine.

It’s Their System, They Broke It, And We’re Not Paying To Fix It.

We are watching the greatest financial crisis since 1929 unfold before our eyes. Even if they manage to shore up their system for the moment, there is no doubt that a serious international downturn in the economy is getting underway. As this situation begins to impact the lives of our families and communities, we must understand and prepare to deal with what the crisis will mean to us:

People protesting the bail out in New York

OCAP fought back against gentrification and the City's ongoing policy to push poor and, especially, homeless people out of the downtown core. On October 4th, we marched through the streets of Cabbagetown and made it clear that poor people who live in the neighbourhood and use services in the neighbourhood are staying in the neighbourhood.

for more photos, click here

For more information, see www.ocap.ca/supporttmt

Getting the Special Diet: How the City is Illegally Prying into People’s Private Lives

David Miller and Councillor Joe Mehivc often talk about wanting to help poor people. The City has held poverty reduction meetings and passed this resolution in December of 2005: “TSS [Toronto Social Services] ensure that social assistance recipients receive all dietary benefits to which they are entitled and that TSS staff are properly trained to not eliminate any dietary benefits recipients are eligible to receive.”

Behind the scenes, however, the City goes out of its way to violate people’s privacy and deny the special diet.

Public Meeting on Streets To Homes
Thursday, September 18th
349 Ontario St.
(Between Dundas and Gerrard)
Meal at 11:30
Meeting at noon
Organized in conjunction with CUPE 4308

Dear Mr. Miller, Mr. Mihevc, Mr. De Jong:

As you are aware, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has been a vocal critic of the City of Toronto’s Streets To Homes (S2H) program. Our primary concern is that the City has treated the S2H program as if it can replace all other forms of social support for Toronto’s homeless population. We’ve watched the City defund shelters and meal programs resulting in the loss of over 300 shelter beds in the past two years.

September 18th
7:00pm
Ryerson University
380 Victoria Street (Gerrard and Younge), Room: POD 250

Free- all welcome

Short presentations followed by Q & A
Poverty, income security, and health are intimately related. Join for a discussion on the growing income and health gap, the privatization of health care and what we can do about it.

Panelists:

Natalie Mehra
Director Ontario Health Coalition

John Clarke
Organizer Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

Laura Cowan
Executive Director Street Health

Doris Grinspun
Executive Director Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario

Come out and demand that the City take action to address these deaths and the daily hell and conditions people are experiencing.

NOTE:THE TIME HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 1PM

Wednesday August 20 - 1pm
Outside the Coroner’s Office
15 Grosvenor Street
(West of Yonge, North of College)

Frank Julian, Carolyn Connolly, Dennis Bowen, Robert Maurice, Biniyam Selleshi

In the last month, two more people in our community have died. We don’t want to have to bury another person from the neighbourhood. People are dying on the street and in shelters. People are dying in their apartments alone in the far corners of the city, with only a few dollars left a month after their rent is paid because they were shipped out of the neighbourhood by Streets to Homes. No more people should have to die because the City has abandoned them to struggle and suffer in poverty. The City has to stop telling the public everything is okay. How can everything be okay when we have already lost four people this summer?!

Last Friday, August 8th, on the occasion of his birthday, Aaron Shelbourne - a disabled activist and a member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) – and supporters went to the Everest Restaurant & Lounge on Queen St. to demand a public apology from management. This was the second time Aaron went to Everest to demand an apology (video from the first action is available here). Over the past three months a powerful on-line campaign gained momentum to boycott the restaurant until they apologize to Aaron. The “Boycott the Everest Restaurant” group on Facebook has 1300 members, and the restaurant’s discriminatory practices are denounced on myriad other websites.