Ontario Community and Other Events

Toronto's Fall Food Drive

Daily Bread Food Bank

This food drive lasts from September 27 until October 17, 2008. For more information visit the Daily Bread Food Bank web site.

Remember the Rupert Hotel

Thursday, December 13, 2007, 11:00 a.m., people will be meeting at the site of the former Rupert Hotel rooming house, just north of the north-west corner of Parliament and Queen Streets, Toronto.

People will once again meet at the north-west corner of Queen & Parliament Streets in order to pay tribute to the men and women who died in this tragedy and to demand action on affordable housing. The Rupert Coalition web site.

London Ontario Area Blue Box Food Drive

London Food Bank

This food drive lasts throughout December 2007. For more information visit their web site London and Area Food Bank

Ottawa Really Big Hearts Food Drive

Ottawa Food Bank

This drive is on from November 5, to December 14, 2007. For more information visit the Ottawa Food Bank web site.

Raise the Rates Assembly

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the Health Providers Against Poverty

Thursday January 18, 7:00 p.m.
Steelworkers Hall 25 Cecil St.(South of College,East off Spadina)

In October 2006 OCAP and the Health Providers Against Poverty began Round II of special diet clinics. These special diet clinics are being organized under strict Dalton McGuinty government regulations designed to block access to this money. The government failed.

The special diet is a government provision that allows people on welfare and disability to receive funds for dietary needs when prescribed by a nurse or doctor. In 2005 OCAP began publicizing and organizing clinics with health providers for people on assistance to get the special diet. Forty million dollars later the City and Province began attempting to shut us down. For ten months we were unable to hold clinics and thousands of people lost much needed money.

In the last three months of 2006 close to 1000 people have gone through our clinics. We face a government reaching the end of its term that has raised assistance rates by just 5%- an insulting fraction of what it would take for rates to be livable. We face government at each level that intentionally deny people the means to get by..

Please support us - Come out to hear from the people making this struggle happen. For more information please contact the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.

OCAP to take over McGuinty's Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal Office

Call/FAX/E-mail McGuinty to demand a 40% raise to welfare and disabiltity benefits

Old item: February 10, 2006, at 9:30 a.m. OCAP will take over the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal at 47 Sheppard Ave. East, 7th Floor. This is the location where a huge chunk of the evictions that fuel the homeless crisis are given the legal stamp of approval.

The Harris Tories set up the Tribunal as part of their so called 'Tenant Protection Act'. Having cut welfare rates by 21.6% and made it impossible for people to pay their rent, the Tories then created a streamlined eviction process to enable landlords to put tenants on the street with ease. The Dalton McGuinty Liberals have maintained this situation and hundreds of thousands still go hungry to pay the rent or give up their housing to eat.

The Liberals have recently gutted the Special Diet Program that enabled poor people on welfare or disability to obtain a food allowance of up to $250/month. We are here today to demand that this decision be reversed and that social assistance rates be increased by the 40% needed to restore their spending power to 1995 levels. If the poor can't have enough to eat and pay the rent, economic evictions must stop. For this reason, we have gone to the Tribunal, today, to challenge its operations and ensure evictions are prevented.

Many directly affected by the cut to the Special Diet will be present at 47 Sheppard. It's just one of a series of actions we will hold to beat back McGuinty and Pupatello's bid to reimpose hunger and poverty on thousands of people.

CALL/FAX/E-MAIL DALTON McGUINTY
Demand that he restore the Special Diet Allowance and that Social Assistance Rates be raised by 40%. Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario, can be reached at:
E-mail: Dalton.McGuinty@premier.gov.on.ca
Fax: (416) 325-3745
Phone: (416) 325-3777