Raise the Hammer

So let us look at what the liberal government has done, under mcQuinty's leadership, in the name of poverty reduction. After all the changes that the Harris government did back in 1995, nothing has changed, in fact it has gotten worse by thse who spread the PR that we care about those who struggle, meanwhile, they got the scissors out and cut, cut, cut.

Their claim to reduce poverty by 25% in five years did not happen. They took away the winter clothing allowance, the back to school allowance, they cut the special diet, so that people got considerably less then before. They revamped the Ontario Chld Benefit, so families got less then they did before.

Now the discretionary benefits, which have been cut, are still not funded and this announcement only brings a portion of the CSUMB money to the city. What about those who will not get help, as the benefit is not funded as before, are they to be condered collerate damage and their lies not worth a hill of beans, in the big picture?

It was clear at this meeting that the voices of those who struggle was clearly missing, as the majority of the panelists, do not lie in poverty and rely on funding programs to keep thier jobs intact. After almost five hours of listening to them say we need more reports, more analysis, the reality is that it is getting worse in the streets for those who are vulnerable. Those low income who came out, finally just started to speak out, since they were not included in the discussion, period.

We also should pay careful attention to this Social Assistance Review as well because there appears to be a concerted affort to get those who are on disability to work, possibly in workfare conditions. Since Health and Safety issues are hard fought for, many workers in the precarious or temp work market find themselves being terminated if they dare to fight for these rights under legislated law.

It should also be noted that groups like OCAP and CUPE have been out for many, many moonths before this table got on board, holding clinics and townhalls, in an effort to mmobilize the people affected into action, direct action.

Given the press release yesterday by the Roundtable, in which they used the words, commended the government for giving some of the money back for one time funding, it sounds a lot like they are brown nosing and it negates all the cuts that have been made in the years before.