return to our Site on the
latest and upcoming
provincial elections
-
Recipe for Tory Toast
-
Pre-Debate Mishaps Produce Three
Losers
-
Road Rage Leads to Strip Club Campaign Stop
- The Tory Election Memo from the Wilderness
- No Holds Barred in Heavyweight Tory Attack Ad
-
Kitten Eater and Eves Memory Lapses
Traced to Alymer Food Donation
-
A Passport to
Mudville Ontario
-
Eves: Corporate Media and Pollsters may Boost him to Power
-
Ernie Eves: Leader or Mudslinging Bully?
-
Ontario Tories – Leave them in the Dark
- Tory Auto Insurance Fix an Attack on Accident Victims
- The Sickening Truth about Ontario Meat
- Why the Power Went Out
- Politics of Revenge as Tories Pursue Clarke
- Support a New Rent Supplement Program
-
Ontario Health
Coalition Protests
Recipe for Tory Toast –
Sept.30.2003
shadowcat@citizensontheweb.com
Ernie Eves says his
party isn’t toast and that he’ll work his buns off to win the Ontario Election
on October 2nd.
Now it has come out
that Eves’ buns may have been toasted as well, and Howard Hampton is saying
that, “When you hear Ernie Eves saying he isn’t toast, you know he’s toast.”
That is in fact so true
that there is now a new way to cook Tory Toast in Shadow’s cook book.
Shadow’s full Recipe for Tory
Toast
Thrice the
brinded cat hath mew'd.
Thrice and once the
hedge-pig whined.
Harpier cries 'Tis time,
'tis time.
For Tory Toast
Round
about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Tory, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble
Fillet of Ecker snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt gingrich and toe of walkerton frog,
Wool of north bay bat and tongue of Aylmer dog,
Flaherty’s fork and blind-worm's sting,
Tsubouchi's
leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Scale of amalgamated dragon, tooth of download wolf,
Witches' mummy tax cut, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea harris shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
With liver of blaspheming clement,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
*
Note from Shadow.
Though the dip may be
hard to make, cooking the toast is the easy part.
Dip your slices of
Weston bread in the broth then toss them on a hot button griddle. Be sure to
fast evict them from the pan when browned.
Serve the toast on a
sterling platter with a garnish of sour grapes.
Have enough champagne
at ready to wash down the foul toast and eight years of Tory gruel.
Drink hard and the
magic is done.
Celebrate!
Celebrate! Celebrate!
---------
Pre-Debate Mishaps Produce Three Losers
- Sept.25.2003
shadowcat@citizensontheweb.com
In preparing for the
big TV debate, the worst happened to Ontario’s three most popular would-be
leaders. This began in a pre debate warm-up where the leaders addressed a group
of school kids in a CBC foyer. This mini debate didn’t go over well as these
were rowdy kids that got bored quickly.
The first mishap came
as liberal leader Dalton McGuinty promised to keep kids in school until age
eighteen. As he was saying that a basketball flew from the crowd, hitting him on
the forehead. He staggered and began to mutter something about 2005. Weird
muttering that continued repetitively as his handlers led him away.
NDP leader Howard
Hampton’s bus was late, and as he hurried through the crowd of kids to get to
Ernie Eves, he slipped on a toy car. Sliding among the kids he fell to the
floor. Stunned by the fall he took to the podium and began to debate Eves.
Though the issue was education, Howie kept rambling on dogmatically about public
car insurance. His behaviour seemed strange and like McGuinty he was led away by
his handlers.
Eves was left as the
victor. Smiling he stepped down to greet the crowd of kids. But once he got into
the crowd a hockey stick came up and hit him with a vicious jab to the groin. He
was then taken away in great pain.
With the three leaders
injured in an odd coincidence, handlers and spin doctors began to sweat as they
attempted to hide the problems from the press. Under medication Hampton
recovered enough to do well, though he still tended to shift every question into
a speech on public auto insurance. His opponents were fooled into thinking he
was being dogmatic, and in the end he came through with a strong performance.
Handlers worried only marginally about the small beads of sweat that formed on
his upper lip near the end. Apparently as an allergic reaction to the heavy dose
of tranquillizers he’d been given.
Dalton McGuinty’s team
faced a much more serious problem. George Smitherman said that, “Since being
hit, Dalton thinks it is 2005 and keeps talking about that.”
Former premier David
Peterson and a non judgmental psychiatrist were brought in to talk him down. The
doctor called Dalton’s belief that it was now 2005 a combination of amnesia and
fear of the debate. By being in 2005 he would not have to face Ernie Eves.
In the end the head bang enhanced his performance. The whacked out Dalton was
fluid on the stage. He gestured, turned to Eves and also addressed the TV
audience. He did fail to answer direct questions because being in 2005 left his
memory a bit short on 2003. His liberal handlers were most frightened when he
attempted to label Eves’ policies as dated. “You’re still in 1995,” Dalton said
to Eves. “This is 2005.”
For his part Ernie
Eves remained in severe pain. He couldn’t turn about like Dalton to face his
opponents. There were fears he would groan if he moved. Campaign chief Jeff
Bangs solved the problem by having Eves stare straight ahead, sometimes looking
down when not talking. He drank water and pretended to take notes whenever he
felt a grimace coming on. He did do well and managed to deliver some blows to
his opponents.
But in the final
tally, what the voters saw was three losers in a debate scrap over sissified
questions from the media and selected representatives of the public. Large
issues like Toronto and poverty were ignored by party leaders who did not have
total recall or full intellectual capacity.
--------
Road Rage Leads to
Strip Club Campaign Stop – Sept.21.2003
Breaking news from Shadow
the Black Cat
Week three of the
Ontario election campaign came with an unexpected after effect that has all
three major parties in a sweat over auto insurance. This involves the rates on
their own vehicles.
It began at the
international plowing match at a rural expo in
Carleton Place. All three
leaders appeared to show off their skills at the plough and to court the back
country vote. Eves drove a blue Landini Atlantis,
McGuinty had a red Massey Ferguson and
Hampton chose a green Agrolux 60
tractor.
Things did
go fine at the match, but now the three leaders have received notices of drastic
increases in their auto insurance rates. The notices cite news of reckless
driving at the match. Reports that were received from unnamed individuals.
Ernie Eves
was hit the hardest. His rates went up 400 percent, and that includes the rates
for the Tory campaign buses. It energized the Tories with road rage fury as
Ernie came off the ropes with an attack on Dalton McGuinty. “This was the work
of Dalton’s attack poodles, George Smitherman and Sandra Poopatello,” Eves
fumed. “They reported me to the insurance company. Why doesn’t Dalton stand up
like a man and do his own dirty work?”
Still holding a coil of barbed wire and a big Get Out of Jail Free card from a
Tory media stunt on crime, Eves fended off reporters who suggested that he might
need the card to get out of jail himself if he keeps driving without insurance.
Eves’ anger was shared
by Tory media director Paul Rhodes. “In our plan to lower insurance rates, we
are giving the corporations a gift of 1.3 billion dollars and trusting them to
use the money to lower rates. Now they have responded by taking the money and
raising the rates on our campaign buses. Voters should keep in mind that if
Dalton McGuinty wins this election, Ernie probably won’t be able to afford to
drive. It’s another reason to vote Tory.”
Howard
Hampton’s rates also skyrocketed, and the feeling on the NDP bus was that the
rate increase is a last gasp by an insurance industry that fears Hampton’s plan
for public insurance. The NDP response is to attempt to raise money to keep the
buses on the road with a Public Auto Insurance Day September 22nd.
On this
sticky issue Dalton McGuinty came across as the slickest. Confused by the rate
increase, he attacked Ernie Eves then retracted his statement to take the High
Road. Which in this case was an attempt to diffuse two ugly situations at once.
The liberals have been under fire due to candidate Tony Ruprecht’s acceptance of
donations from the House of Lancaster strip club, so
Dalton
decided to make a campaign stop at the strip club to clear up the problem. Back
dropped by some of the girls, McGuinty appeared on the stage and told reporters
that, “A fair Ontario gives strippers the right to vote, too. So what’s all the
mudslinging about?” Moving to the auto insurance issue, Dalton said, “These
ladies are all housewives that live in the 905 area. They have to drive into
Toronto every day to strip, and with Eves allowing auto insurance rates to
skyrocket, many are having a rough time. With johns paying less these days life
is harder. My liberal plan for auto insurance will have these girls taking off
their clothes without being stressed by Ernie Eves.”
--------
The Tory Election Memo
from the Wilderness –
Sept.17.2003
Breaking news from Shadow
the Black Cat
The third week of the
Ontario Election Campaign began with the Ernie Eves tour sending out another
round of strange signals and attacks.
Tory media director Paul
Rhodes apologized for a release suggesting that Dalton McGuinty is mentally ill,
and there was a special memo sent to Ontario election candidates warning them to
ignore public opinion polls that go up and down. That memo included a paranoid
thread that said the media had aligned against the Tory party.
The strange memo
originated with campaign manager Jeff Bangs and also came from key party
strategists Leslie Noble and Jaime Watt. Aside from that, Eves himself came
online with paranoia, launching a bizarre political attack on former Tory
premier Bill Davis, a man who retired a long time ago and supported Eves at the
launch of his campaign.
Not much has been
revealed in the mainstream press about the roots of this strange behavior,
though a full copy of the original memo has been recovered. I recommend that the
voters read it and form their own interpretation.
--------
Letter
from the Wilderness
A Release from Tory
Campaign Manager, Jeff Bangs, Sept. 2003
- THEY’RE AFTER US -
I took the PC van and
had Jimmy drive me on ahead to set up the event in Quinte. It was a hard night
at the wheel and we popped a lot of wakeup pills to keep on the road. Somehow we
got off track and ended up on a swampy run by the lake. So many moths were
swirling in the lights we started to swerve, then Jimmy went off on the shoulder
and the engine died completely.
It was a dead area. We
radioed for help and got none then decided to get out and walk … soon coming to
a beach area with clutches of tall pines. We saw two parked vans with liberal
markings. Strange voices were in the air so we slipped through a path in the
sand and watched from behind a big rock.
It was unreal, we
couldn’t believe our eyes. A thing that resembled a switch between a spaceship
and a car was parked and about ten people stood in murky green light. The only
ones I could make out were Bill Davis, John Honderich, George Smitherman and
Dalton McGuinty. The others were in the shadows, most of them smoking cigarettes
with a peculiar aroma.
McGuinty sat on a log
and had an oval-shaped computer in his lap. It flashed as a whining tone rose
and fell.
Smitherman spoke.
“Boys,” he said. “With this machine we can make the polls rise and fall and your
TV ratings go up and down. You must obey us and create bad publicity for Ernie
Eves.”
“Suppose we refuse,”
said one of the men in the shadows.
“Refuse and this
happens,” said Smitherman, turning to McGuinty.
McGuinty then shifted
form and became a hideous reptilian beast. At that point, Jimmy choked, all eyes
turned to our direction and we ran off as fast as we could.
We got away. They’re
still after us. But take this to heart. Don’t believe in polls that rise and
fall. McGuinty has turned the media against us, and he’s got Bill Davis, too. It
will be that way until we destroy that space computer he’s using.
We now know for sure
that he’s a reptilian kitten-eater from outer space, and if we don’t keep our
noses to the grindstone, he’ll win this election and fill the entire province
with illegal aliens.
Yes they’re after us,
but we’re still on the rails on the Road Ahead.
Jeff Bangs
--------
No Holds Barred in
Heavyweight Tory Attack Ad
– Sept.15.2003
Breaking news from Shadow the Black Cat
In Stratford today
Ernie Eves denied that the backlash against Tory attack ads and a new softer
PC approach meant an end to the verbal assault on liberal leader Dalton McGuinty.
On Saturday a
vendor at a farmers' market gave Eves a tongue-lashing for his anti-McGuinty
rhetoric. It gave Tory strategists cause to think, but it failed to hold them
back from further attack ads.
It did slow the
pace. Paul Rhodes decided to delay a new no-holds-barred attack ad until later
in the campaign. The new ad previewed by focus groups Saturday is described as
frightening.
In it a tough
talking Eves goes after McGuinty with street-fighting language. The script, done
by marketing experts from the World Wrestling Federation uses some of the same
abuse and posturing used by steroid geeks like The Rock.
Here is an
excerpt of the text, with the video portion featuring Eves with his sleeves
rolled up and standing with a gang of workers out front of a meat packing plant.
“I hear you want
to debate me, Dalton McGuinty. If that’s the case you better be ready for a butt
kicking. And I’m up to doing the job you can’t do.
You’re scared to drink
the water and I know you’re a coward who’ll run from his own crying towel. Up
here in the sticks where I come from we carry baseball bats for taking care of
people who are against seniors and children. So you tell me Dalton, why are you
trying to rob little old ladies of their tax cuts?
You’re against
education and you’re gonna need a brain transplant to figure out what happened.
You hate hospitals, but you’re gonna need one real bad, ‘cause the big splash is
coming and you’ll be debating with the pieces of the podium I bust over your
head.
Brush up your scales
you lousy reptilian kitty-eater from another planet, and think about what
happened to the dinosaurs. Bones is all that’ll be left of you and you’re a
bonehead anyway. I’m gonna put you down and put the boots to you … kick your ass
from Cornwall to Niagara Falls. Leaving you Tory blue from head to foot ….
--------
Kitten Eater and Eves Memory Lapses Traced to Alymer Food Donation
– Sept.13.2003
Breaking news from Shadow the Black Cat
This week began with Ernie Eves coming
under fire for being unable to outline the costs of his campaign promises.
It ended with attacks on Dalton McGuinty that included a press release calling
him an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet.
News organizations across the province
reported the release but couldn’t comprehend the strange reasons behind it.
Eves said he thinks someone either had
way too much coffee or way too much time. ''I know it was an attempt at humour,
but it was an ill-advised attempt at humour. I'm not apologizing, but I am
acknowledging that it certainly went over the top.''
Behind the scenes Tory Guru Paul Rhodes
has revealed to citizensontheweb.com that the bizarre week of mistakes including
the Eves memory lapses and the kitten eater attack can be traced to the spicy
Tory campaign diet.
Problems and gaffes started at the same
time as the Eves campaign bus began to feast on a week of donations of barbecued
foods provided and cooked personally by Butch Clare of Aylmer meats. Antonella
Artuso of the Sun recalls Butch Clare meeting the bus at a roadside picnic
ground in Southern Ontario. Wearing an apron and flipping the burgers himself,
Clare stood with Eves as the two assured Ontarians the meat in the province is
okay.
The donation of barbecued food Clare
provided was described as peculiar designer stuff, complete with
glow-in-the-dark Alymer ketchup. Green tinted hotdogs were served on Cara foods
buns died Tory blue and heavily garnished with hot sauces and peppers. The curly
potatoes were heavily spiced and labeled as tax cut fries. Burgers were thick
wedges of organic beef and loaded with a strange garnish. Clare put a mountain
of stuff on those burgers said a Globe reporter, who also noted that they tasted
more like sloppy joes than organic beef.
It has long been known that Eves’ love
of Alymer meats is behind his growing paunch. “This time he really over
indulged,” said Rhodes. “It led to indigestion, a week of sleepless nights,
confusion, memory loss and a campaign bus full of reporters whose behaviour was
reported as strange at the very least.”
In Tory circles Eves is still maintaining
that the beef is good, but he is pointing a finger at the fluorescent ketchup as
the source of the problem.
There is one Tory insider, a well-known
consultant, who reveals more. She asks not to be named, and says it was the
meat. “There were strange things in those green dogs and the burgers. One small
town reporter pulled something weird out of his teeth while munching a burger.
He said, ‘My God, it looks like a kitten ear!’”
The Tories reportedly laughed at that
and said that maybe Dalton put it there. “He’s an evil reptilian kitten-eater
from another planet,” Eves quipped. And so the label stuck and now Dalton
McGuinty is tagged as such in the national media.
----------
A Passport to Mudville
Ontario
By Shadow the Black Cat
The 2003 election flies
like a dead Tory turkey and Ernie Eves with his Passport to Ontario wants to
wade into immigration, which is controlled by the feds. Eves’ special deal would
see Ontario sending agents abroad to make sure we get good immigrants and not
bad immigrants. Once they are selected Ernie would have them sign an agreement
not to move into the GTA but into areas where they are needed. Like James Bay or
Mudville Ontario.
If you take a look at
the federal immigration policy you’ll get an idea of what constitutes good and
bad now. About a half million dollars to invest or a special skill will get you
into Canada. Meaning we rob other nations of the people they have trained and
the people that have money. Leaving the rest with lack of development and a
Passport to World Poverty.
The bad guys are us and
now Eves wants us to get badder. What ever happened to the Statue of Liberty,
the mother of exiles? "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these,
the homeless, tempest-tost to me …."
The new statue is one of
a king, racism and greed. Its inscription one that says: Send us your rich and
compliant. Those who will work like nannies and can pass emperor Bush’s anti
terrorism tests. Those who will accept fewer rights, and live wherever we want
them to work.
Once again Democracy
believes in racism and slavery.
---------
Eves: Corporate Media and
Pollsters may Boost him to Power
By Shadow the Black Cat
In the last election it
got tight and stayed that way till near the end, then a spate of polls came out
showing Mike Harris pulling ahead.
The whole of corporate
media saw that as the cue to jump on board the Harris iron bus, and follow up
with a spate of articles and reports declaring him the victor. Most damaging to
the opposing parties was Ian Uquahart’s article at the Star.
A combined media effect
brought the public to Harris and boosted the Tories into majority government,
when fairer coverage would have left the election nearer to a draw.
In an honest scenario we
would’ve seen a weak minority government and an election sooner.
This election may be a
rerun, with Eves standing in for Harris, and we’ll all have pollsters and
corporate media to thank for our loss of democracy.
Wait for the polls, and
if the Liberals don’t come out way ahead near the finish line, count on
corporate media to boost Eves over the fence. At the very least they could deny
Dalton a majority and make Howie fight for every vote he gets.
--------
Ernie Eves: Leader or Mudslinging Bully?
By Shadow the Black Cat
Editor's
note: Citizens on the Web has
resorted to black magic, bringing Shadow in to cross Ernie Eves' path.
Premier Ernie
Eves stumbled yesterday when he couldn’t put a price tag on his campaign
promises. Seems the sky’s the limit when you’re super rich with taxpayers’
money, and like in the blackout Eves rolled up his shirt sleeves and did some
figuring … finally coming up with a sum that looks surprising small considering
he’s promising close to the moon in giveaways to the wealthy.
For a long time Tory
strategy has been to win elections by changing the laws to hide money spent.
First they spend hundreds of millions in public money to plug themselves before
the election begins. Then the premier doesn’t have any limit on what he can
spend on personal travel. Plus the Tories are allowed to raise millions and
millions more in funds from their corporate buddies. That money is used for
target polling and advertising. They find out where they are weak, and blitz
those areas with ads and campaign events.
That’s the way to buy
an election. Except that many people can’t be bought. They have to be fooled.
If you read any of the
recent polling info, you’ll know how stupid most of the voters are … the
standard comment being, duh…oohhh, and well I don’t follow politics, but I saw
Ernie Eves with his sleeves rolled up trying to fight off the blackout. He must
be a leader.
Well, not quite. It’s
not really about leadership in blackouts Ernie helped create. It’s about using
bully tactics to beat down key opponents. Right now that opponent is Dolton
McGuinty … whoops, I mean Dalton.
You gotta sling the old
mud and hit out on TV with ads showing that Dolton isn’t fit to lead. The dirt
flies in his face like black magic and people start thinking that maybe Uncle
Ernie at least has some smarts that will get Ontario back on track.
They forget about
Ernie’s record. Get blinded to the hidden corporate agenda, and then vote for
the poor always to be poor, the water always to be contaminated, and uncountable
other horrible Tory policies.
This strategy is
bullying down the opposition. And in a society hypnotized by movie heroes,
people find it easy to believe in the bully that leads with his treachery and
not with any inspiration or ideals.
So here you see
democracy now. What it has come down to … the common bully denominator is our
leader.
Vote, and vote many
times. Someday you’ll figure out what you voted for … when it’s far too late.
--------
Ontario Tories – Leave them in the Dark
- Sept.7.2003
By
Shadow the Black Cat
* Editor's note:
Citizens on the Web has resorted to black magic, bringing Shadow in to cross
Ernie Eves' path .
As
Leonard Cohen says
Now you can say I’ve grown bitter
but of this you may be sure
the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
and there’s a mighty judgment coming
but I may be wrong
you see I hear these funny voices, in the Tower of Song
I see you standing on the other side
I don’t know how the river got so wide
I loved you baby
way back when
and all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed
but I feel so close to everything that we’ve lost
we’ll never
we’ll never have to lose it again
But
we will lose more in a new Tory Ontario. If Ernie Eves and his Harrisville
boys get back in the Park we’ll all face the cannon fire that goes over the
heads of the richest and straight for the poor. Like an Israeli missile homing
in on a Hamas guy in Palestine.
Who
knows, with the push for an Ontario death penalty and the arrests of suspected
terrorists going strong, I may end up put away forever for writing this article.
Since
they’re going to get me anyway, I may as well go after them.
First
question is how should the Tories kick the bucket? (Note that this is a slow
article I’m writing by flashlight, and hopes of revenge come with a lot of hair
pulling and cursing. Plus I’m drinking heavy for a cat and can barely write
through the bad pet food headaches.) Electoral defeat is possible and they also
have a built in self-destruct mode, which unfortunately takes us all out with
them.
The
Eves of Destruction are killing us with long slow ideological machine gun fire.
Yet they can duck bullets fired back. Supposed terrorists flying over nuclear
reactors may be a cover for the fact that they plan to nuke us with more stupid
mistakes and privatization. So threatening to undo privatization and
amalgamation are terminator weapons that scare the Tories like hell.
I also
wonder why none of these guys have heard of the term Living Wage. All parties
talk about the minimum wage and competitiveness. So hey! maybe the poor would
really work hard if they got huge million dollar bonuses like corporate execs.
We’d really be competitive then.
So
don’t tell me about the minimum wage. Tell me about a living wage. Change the
name to living wage legislation so we’ll know what we’re talking about.
Poverty is one thing, but when you turn on the power, everywhere you look
they’ve got a piece pointed at your head. Drink the water and you may find the
fast road to heaven. And please don’t swim in it. There’s a tax cut in the beef
that may leave you without an inspector for the lower part of your exploded
body. But don’t look for relief when you’re disabled because there’s been a
blackout on raises for the disabled and the working poor. If the rent has gone
up look out the window and you’ll see Ernie Eves talking to the landlords about
easy evictions and maybe charging people to live on street corners. So if you
don’t pay they’ll help you out with a ride to jails that are so full they’ll
have to cram you in like a sardine in a can. But jail may be better than going
to the hospitals that the Tories have crippled with cuts and closures. Once
healed you won’t drive out easy without auto insurance and by that time there’ll
be an endless traffic jam, Toronto in a shambles like one big mega hell hole,
and no forests left.
Seems
the lights never come on in Tory Ontario. They just get dimmer. If the Tories
could find a way to deregulate the sun it wouldn’t come out. Only smog would be
there.
Now we
must find hope in ways that leave others behind in the gridlock. Let’s face it.
We don’t have much education any more and counting the incoming bullets isn’t
that easy. The doctor is hard to afford and the situation is kill or be killed.
We
are looking at minimum options. There are few avenues of escape from the Tories.
It is an election so does the opposition plan a real attack or hard run on
them?
Maybe
they want to come in like a team of nice guys and hope the premier appreciates
that … with a grin blackened by lack of electric toothbrushes, the vomiting that
comes from drinking bad water and meat that died screaming and un-inspected at
the doorstep, wrapped in a bloated and stinking hydro bill.
The
Tories are giving big corporations a tax cut for this inconvenience, leaving you
with the option of voting against them or resorting to despair and senseless
violence.
Be careful as the Tories are masters of abuse. If you’re an ordinary Joe you
don’t have a chance. And even if you’re a terrorist they’ll take you out by
doing the job themselves and destroying things before you can get there. Then
they’ll arrest a bunch of immigrants who had nothing to do with it. And leave
you with no publicity at all.
If
you can vote, then do so. Because this may be your last chance to dismantle the
Tory bomb.
--------
The Sickening Truth about Ontario Meat
– Aug.31.2003
Bad meat is making
people sick in Ontario and the Ernie Eves investigation is another gross
factor.
The thrust here by the
Tories and media is to make a villain out of Butch Clare and Aylmer meat
packers. Clare is an aggressive and rude fat slob who bullies inspectors and
employees. As well as selling bad meat he dumps blood and body parts into the
water.
Currently there aren’t
many inspectors to bully. Since the Tories laid nearly all of them off. And have
a law that meat can’t be processed without inspectors. Yet there aren’t any
inspectors and meat is processed.
Even before the
layoffs, slaughterhouse practices were grossly inhumane and ignored by the media
and the government.
In Toronto the other
day I saw dead stock rolling into the packers below Bathurst and King. The truth
about Ontario meat is that if you value your health, and care about animal
cruelty, you won’t eat it at all.
Tell the reps from the
Tories, the Libs and the NDP to go to hell. And don’t forget the feds. All of
the politicians are apologists for an industry that is sick and perverse,
feeding on the stupidity and hunger of a fat consumer society.
Gary Morton
---------
Tory Auto Insurance Fix an Attack on Accident Victims
– Aug.31.2003
All the political
parties want more and more people to drive in a grid locked city and world where
Parisians are dying like flies from the scorching effects of global warming.
To fix expensive auto
insurance Ernie has come up with a plan that is no plan at all. The plan is
another problem.
A – Rob Sampson will
give the insurance gougers a gift of 1.3 billion, with no guarantee that they’ll
lower rates.
B – Taxpayers will
shell out 100 million for an insurance fraud squad that will do nothing other
than harass accident victims.
C – Accident victims
will lose the right to claim or sue unless they are nearly dead and medical
treatment will be cut to the tune of 400 million.
In Toronto, unlike
anywhere else in the world, pedestrians are the number one victims. Sampson’s
plan amounts to a runaway Tory truck, perhaps filled with rotting meat, which
will mow down the innocent.
Gary Morton
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Why the
Power Went Out – August.15.2003
Independent
Electricity Market Operators are the only words you need to know. In the USA and
Canada power has been privatized and distribution has been turned over to Sharks
that only want to make a profit.
In Ontario the Eves
Government is paying a fortune in public funds to subsidize their mistake. All
we have left is Hydro One and it is in disarray due to arguments about
privatization and lack of funds for upgrades to equipment.
In the US and Ontario,
the market sharks that run power only increase prices. The equipment that
includes nuclear reactors is so run down and outdated that they can’t even guess
where the failure began. It could have happened nearly anywhere in the
dilapidated system.
Another question is
whether it happened by accident or is it an accident they knew would happen …
during a heat wave when 50 million people really need power.
Remember how Enron
scammed California with rolling blackouts and high prices. Then you’ll know that
this may be another cannon shot by unscrupulous capitalists. Another assault by
market terrorists on an unsuspecting and unprepared public.
They’ve showed us that
the power will go out. They have many people living on the edge that the
darkness and heat can create. Next they’ll want us to pay … more and more.
The independent
market operators know how to run a scam. They’ve laid off so many experts on
power that they can’t even trace problems and failures. The grid has no
safeguards – it is set up to transfer large quantities of power for sale. And
they could care less about the public and safety. Deregulation is a code word
for no safeguards.
In the darkness they
hope for the confusion that will convince governments to give them more profits.
A long time ago in
Ontario even Conservatives agreed that Hydro had to be public. It is part of the
balance of power and the best way to protect us from sharks.
Yet we have no public
power. Instead we have Tories and Mel Lastman in a command post on Grosvenor
Street. They have no clue and they have a stupid strategy where they tell us to
drink lots of fluids and stuff, while at the same time ordering all the stores
closed so we can’t buy anything.
They left us in the
dark. It’s time for the lights to come on with public power and the forced exit
of Ernie Eves.
Gary Morton
--------
Politics of Revenge as Tories Pursue Clarke
– June.19.2003
When Mike Harris
and the Tories came to power Ontario was in a political split. The Ontario
Coalition Against Poverty functioned more as the opposition than the opposition
parties did and the entire government agenda through those years was an attack
on the poor.
Now we are in an
election year and the Eves Tories haven’t forgotten that. Leading a government
that is tottering in the ill winds of corruption and its own bad policy, they
don’t want to be nailed for more mistakes.
Prosecuting three
leaders of OCAP for the June 15, 2000 demonstration at Queens Park was clearly a
mistake. And after the recent mistrial all of the charges should have been
dropped.
But that wouldn’t have
looked too good for the Tories, so the attorney general’s office found a way to
stall the issue until after this year’s election. They stayed charges against
Gaetan Heroux and Stefan Pilipa but ordered a new trial against John Clarke.
This helps the Tories save face and gain revenge against their natural
opposition on the streets. They see an opportunity to present a simpler case
against Clarke and possibly get a conviction. In the mistrial the jury had been
presented with a difficult decision tree. It forced them to answer certain
questions and made it impossible to honestly convict the three. Clarke alone
might be an easier target so that’s what the prosecutor is aiming at.
John Clarke says the
case against him is politically motivated. You would have to be naïve to think
it isn’t. It is also an abuse of the legal system when a government goes through
with long term legal persecution that includes jail time, and yet never really
wants to prove guilt or innocence. The Tories really want to find a formula for
convicting opponents and to win against the poor. And that’s about it.
Pre-trial for Clarke
is on July 22 and his trial will begin Oct. 7. If convicted he could get up to
five years in penitentiary, and that would certainly make the Tories happy.
OCAP’s newsletter says the group will be campaigning hard against the Tories
with numerous surprise actions.
By Gary Morton
--------
Support a New Rent Supplement Program
* Why We Need Rent Supplements
The apartment vacancy rate is now
climbing in Toronto
and it will continue to
rise over the next several years as the condominium boom continues. Eventually
there will be a surplus of condominiums. Very little affordable housing is being
built and it will never be planned, funded or constructed fast enough to deal
with the homeless problem. It makes sense to supplement low income people so
they can use the housing that is already in existence.
Our
booming economy did little to stem homelessness because too many people are on
the lower income scale. Job losses, economic evictions, personal problems and
other minor catastrophes continue to throw people on the streets.
It
is unfortunate that our response is an expensive one that tends to keep them
there and to further demoralize and cripple them. Shelter, Housing and Support
is Toronto’s third largest budget item. Only the Police and Fire Departments
swallow more tax dollars … and let’s not forget that Social Services is a
separate item and sixth on the list for expenditure of tax dollars.
Debt
charges are fourth in costs to the city. It is clear that if the economy sinks
the expensive shelter system will not be economically viable. If we continue
attempting to solve the homeless problem with shelters an incredible amount of
money will be eaten up … money that is needed for other services and culture.
Shelters aren’t a solution to the homeless problem. Many people in them have
jobs but are still on the street. Homeless shelters create a culture of despair.
The homeless learn to feel inferior. They adapt to the ways of the streets and
stay at the bottom. To avoid the violence at shelters they take to sleeping in
public areas and that leads to another huge expense for society in Health Care.
When you sleep in the cold your circulatory system fails and your health
deteriorates quickly. Street culture is one that is heavy on cigarette smoking
and includes drugs and alcohol and exposure to smog.
Youth make up a large segment of street culture, and they shouldn’t be learning
to be despairing drifters that care little about their health or their future.
Homelessness is also a women’s and elderly issue. Most women that are sixty and
over are having difficulties paying rent. Young women don’t do much better.
In
some ways it is a self fulfilling prophecy. Shelters perpetuate homelessness by
creating the continuance of the despairing attitude and the idea that we don’t
need real homes. It is obvious that any solution to the homeless problem has to
be one that keeps as many people as possible off the streets in the first place.
When
affordable housing isn’t being built the only real option to shelters is a new
government-run rent subsidy program geared at preventing homelessness and the
poverty that leads to it. It is a solution that would be easier, more
affordable, simpler to plan and administer and politically appealing.
Across Ontario residents are used to having renters or tenants around.
Opposition rises when shelters are proposed for neighbourhoods. In Toronto a new
bylaw allows limited shelter construction across the city, and there will be a
backlash from residents and a never-ending bitter battle over shelters.
A
new rent subsidy program could be initiated by any of the three levels of
government, but all should participate. If the city initiates it then the
province and the federal level would be expected to contribute. One question is
whether the City or the Province should administer it.
To
help prevent Homelessness and Poverty a Rent Subsidy Program would have to
deliver.
- Rent
supplements for the elderly, the working poor, the homeless and for those
already on forms of disability or social assistance, but don’t receive enough to
cover rent and survive in their locale.
- It
would need to be tied into the Tenant Protection Act. To prevent economic
evictions it would be necessary to review whether the persons being evicted
could be aided through a rent supplement. Or whether they had been entitled but
didn’t make a claim.
-
Information on the program would have to be available at all shelters for the
homeless or disadvantaged and mentally ill.
-
Supplements would have to take families into account and provide more to house a
family or single parent with children.
- It
would have to be a central program that stands on its own and not a hodgepodge
of rent aid or voucher programs scattered among various ministries.
-
Administration would be public and transparent and not through landlords or
co-ops or private sector firms that could profit from the program.
-
Supplements should be delivered as government cheques to the applicant, and only
paid directly to the landlord in cases where a tenant behaves irresponsibly with
the money.
-
Assistance must be immediate and without waiting lists.
- The
applicant must be free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the
program and not be limited to units located in subsidized or co-op housing
projects.
- The
subsidized tenant must be able to move according to job or other requirements
and retain the subsidy.
- Since
a primary purpose of the program is to reduce homelessness, aid for tenant
problems should be available to subsidized tenants.
================================
Some
examples of Rent Supplement Programs.
BC
Housing administers a variety of rent supplement programs, including:
*
Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters (SAFER)
*
Supported Independent Living Program (SILP)
Shelter
Aid For Elderly Renters (SAFER)
The
SAFER Program provides direct cash assistance to eligible residents of British
Columbia who are age 60 or over and who pay rent for their homes. If you are
eligible and pay more than 30% of your total income for rent, SAFER may
reimburse you for a part of the rent that is over 30% of your income. The
reimbursement is calculated to give the most assistance to people with the least
income. For more information contact BC Housing at (604) 433-2218 or
1-800-257-7756
Facts
about SAFER
An
average SAFER client who lives alone:
* has a
monthly income of $973
* pays
$519 in rent
* is
eligible for a subsidy of $205
* would
pay 53 per cent of their income on rent without SAFER
* 77
per cent of SAFER clients are female
Supported Independent Living Program (SILP)
The
Supported Independent Living Program (SILP) is a partnership between BC Housing,
the Ministry of Health and the health regions. SILP is a supported housing
program that enables people with severe and persistent mental illness to live
independently in affordable, self-contained housing. The Adult Mental Health
Division of the Ministry of Health funds the shelter component of SILP. BC
Housing administers the program.
Staff from mental health centres, located across the province, select
participants for the SILP program
As
of September 30 2002, BC Housing provides 1,648 individuals with SILP rent
supplements. Average rental assistance is approximately $248 a month.
--------
The USA has Voucher
Programs
Housing Choice Voucher
Program Facts
This information was
gathered from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
www.hud.gov
WHAT ARE HOUSING CHOICE
VOUCHERS?
The Housing Choice
(Section 8) voucher program is the federal government's major program for
assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to rent
decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since the rental
assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are
able to find and lease privately owned housing, including single-family homes,
townhouses and apartments. The participant is free to choose any housing that
meets the requirements of the program and is not limited to units located in
subsidized housing projects.
Housing Choice
(Section 8) vouchers are administered locally by public and Indian housing
agencies (HAs). The HAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer this voucher program. A family
that is issued a rental voucher is responsible for finding and selecting a
suitable rental unit of the family's choice. This unit may include the family's
present residence. Rental units must meet minimum standards of health and
safety, as determined by the HA. A rental subsidy is paid to the landlord
directly by the HA on behalf of the participating family. The family then pays
the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount
subsidized by the program.
Eligibility for a
rental voucher is determined by the HA based on the total annual gross income
and family size and is limited to U.S. citizens and specified categories of
noncitizens who have eligible immigration status. In general, the family's
income may not exceed 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan
area in which the family chooses to live. Median income levels are published by
HUD and vary by location. The HA serving your community can provide you with the
income limits for your area and family size.
Once an HA approves an
eligible family's lease and housing unit, the family and the landlord sign a
lease and, at the same time, the landlord and the HA sign a housing assistance
contract which runs for the same term as the lease. This means that everyone --
tenant, landlord and HA -- has obligations and responsibilities within the
voucher program.
- March.2003
---------
Ontario Health
Coalition Protests - May
10.2003
Photo:
http://photosc.msspro.com/pic/ohc1.jpg
The OHC held a Caravan of Protest in Ontario
today to demonstrate opposition to Provincial Government plans to build
for-profit hospitals and MRI/CT clinics.
OHC supporters have gathered over 100,000 pledge forms supporting
strengthened pubic Medicare. They say that for-profit hospitals and clinics cost
more and they lead to bed and staff cuts. Diminished access and standards are
caused by privatization in home and long term care.
The coalition pledge calls for Ontarians to commit to only support election
candidates who will work to strengthen Medicare.
- Stop For-Profit Healthcare
- Stop for-profit hospitals, MRI/CT clinics and labs, and redirect funding to
public hospitals and clinics
- Promote non-profit community health centres
- Stop the privatization of nursing homes and increase public control over them
- Stop delisting medically necessary OHIP services
- Restore the federal share of health spending to at least 25% and ensure health
spending goes to healthcare
- Cover homecare, rehabilitation, diagnostics and pharmacare with the principles
of Medicare
- Protect Medicare from trade agreements
- Control the costs of drugs and get cheaper generic drugs to the market faster
- Improve conditions in nursing homes and provide supportive care at home for
seniors and those with disabilities
This report from Gary
Morton at http://CitizensontheWeb.com
Contact Ontario Health
Coalition
www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
--------
