Violence Against Women Activists Call on Government to Reinstate Special Diet Allowance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 30, 2005

Toronto: A group of violence against women activists attending the provincial government’s “Finding Common Ground: Working Together to Reduce Domestic Violence” are calling on Premier Dalton McGuinty to immediately reinstate the special diet allowance, end the child tax benefit clawback and raise social assistance rates so women do not remain in abusive family situations for reasons of economic survival.

Women from OCAP (the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) arrived at yesterday’s conference opening to speak to Minister of Community and Social Services Sandra Pupatello. Minister Pupatello refused the invitation and, in fact, left the conference via a back door while the women waited, surrounded by hotel security and city police.

Violence against women activists at the conference took over the microphones on the floor to demand that the women be allowed into the room to speak to delegates. There was overwhelming support for this from those attending the conference.

Women told more than 500 conference participants that they and their children are living on less than $700/month. The special diet supplement provided them with an additional $250/month to buy food for their children. Pupatello has just announced that this special diet allowance is being rescinded.

“Without adequate social assistance, many women find themselves remaining in abusive relationships to ensure their children have a roof over their heads and food on the table,” says Cindy Cowan of OAITH, the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses. “It is unconscionable for the government to place women in this position.”

Welfare rates were slashed by the Mike Harris Conservative government more than 10 years ago, and have never been restored to the pre-Harris level. “Restoring the special diet supplement, especially as we enter the most expensive time of year, is only the first step that the government must take,” says Pamela Cross, of the Ontario Women’s Justice Network. “If this government wants to walk the talk of ending violence against women, it must begin by ending women’s poverty.”

Provincial women’s anti-violence groups including the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, the Ontario Women’s Justice Network and the Cross Sectoral Violence Against Women Strategy Group call on Premier Dalton McGuinty and Minister Sandra Pupatello to reinstate the special diet allowance benefit effective December 1st.