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Anti-Poverty Coalition Protest Raises the Poor as an Election Issue By Gary Morton September 26th Hundreds of protesters in four separate demonstrations and marches drummed and chanted as they arrived at the Ontario Legislature today. The rally organized by people from an anti-poverty coalition formed from more than a hundred separate groups. Beric German of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee described the event best, saying that it wasn’t a forum for politicians but for representatives of the most vulnerable in society. He showed that ideas can come from the bottom when he mentioned that the 10 dollar minimum wage debate prominent in this election campaign emerged from the Workers’ Action Group and not from politicians. German, Cathy Crowe and Jonah Schein raised a number of issues affecting those caught in desperate street poverty. They pointed out that there is still a lack of emergency shelter and a solid percentage of the homeless that have been on the streets 5 years or more. Inadequate food banks and assistance rates mean that many people are hungry amidst plenty. Probably most shocking is that 80 percent cite economic reasons for homelessness, meaning that the largest issue is a straightforward wealth gap. More money and benefits have to reach the poor. Welfare rates have only come back up three per cent in the wake of the devastating cuts of the Harris years. Protesters carried signs calling for a 40 percent increase in Ontario Works and Disability rates, and others said that even that wouldn’t be enough to catch up. Disability Action Movement Now (DAMN) is speaking up for the disabled but like other groups in this election their issues have failed to rise to the top in media coverage. Some signs called for an immediate 10 dollar an hour minimum wage and denounced high rents for slum conditions. Gaetan Heroux of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and other speakers denounced the lack of housing and hunger on the streets. 70,000 people are still waiting for access to affordable housing, and money the Liberals received from the feds to create housing has been largely unspent. One speaker informed the crowd that the large majority of minimum wage jobs are for large corporations that can easily afford to pay more. Poverty stricken immigrants are also an issue. Farrah Miranda of No One is Illegal estimates that there are 200,000 undocumented immigrants in the province. Nearly all of them denied health care and other benefits. She accused the province of being happy with the exploitation of these workers. Protesters want access to services without fear of deportation. Jen from the Canadian Federation of Students attacked the McGuinty government over tuition increases. Tuition fees are rising 20 – 40 percent over the next four years. Student debt is rising at an incredible rate, meaning only the wealthy can afford to aim for things like medical degrees. You could never pay your way through with summer jobs and there is a lack of scholarship funds. A student working all summer at minimum wage could not raise the funds to pay tuition and then there are housing, food and other costs. Anti-war marchers were the last group to arrive at the legislature, and they were there to equate war with poverty. Money spent by federal Liberals and Conservatives to double the defence budget is money not spent on social services. As the event ended the feeling among the participants was that it was a success. My personal feeling being that the media might continue to ignore real people and these key issues. It has been very unfortunate that PC leader John Tory, aided by Dalton McGuinty, has thrown up a smokescreen of religious education, the health tax and health care privatization as the only the only talking points in this election. Perhaps the drumming and shouting has to get louder before those in need will be seen or heard. ============== |
