OCAP Shutsdown McGuinty's Eviction Factory

HOUSING TRIBUNAL BROUGHT TO A STANDSTILL

This month, the impact of the Liberal Government’s cut to the Special Diet Supplement is starting to be felt, as some families lose the food allowance and return to the tough choice they used to face pay the rent or feed their families.

On Friday, February 10, OCAP took the fight against this cut and the demand for a 40% increase in welfare and disability rates, right to the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal. This body legalizes the process of putting poor people on the streets when they fall behind on their rent.

The miserable income they receive on social assistance ensures that they will be forced from their housing by the thousands every month of the year.

About fifty of us arrived at Toronto’s northern area Housing Tribunal, at Sheppard and Yonge, as it opened to perform its ugly business at 10.00 AM. Operations were immediately brought to a standstill. People facing the Special Diet cut, stood their ground and defied all attempts to intimidate them. Loud chants made it impossible for any evictions to get their usual rubber stamp. Landlords and their lawyers glared at us in futile anger and tenants who had given up hope of keeping their housing, beamed with pleasure.

Tribunal officials hoped that the arrival of a strong body of cops would enable them to resume their work but they were quite wrong. Threats of arrest had no impact. Everyone was determined to prevent evictions that day, to let McGuinty know that he faces a challenge and to show the 760,000 on assistance in Ontario know that resistance is possible.

After a short standoff, the office decided to cancel hearings for the day. Thirty tenants and their families were saved from eviction. They went home and the landlords left without their expected pound of flesh.

In the weeks leading up to the Provincial Budget, OCAP and poor peoples’ organizations in other cities will be challenging the Liberal Government. It will not be business as usual for those parts of the Provincial bureaucracy that, like the Housing Tribunal, are there to inflict misery on poor people. Rich corporations that benefit from welfare cuts and sub poverty wages, will be targeted. Wealthy consumers, who have had their fat tax breaks financed by lowering welfare rates, can expect this campaign to focus on their lavish habits.

The poor have seen their poverty deepen under both Tory and Liberal governments. We want our money back and we intend to make sure the Liberals pay up.