OCAP Radio: Raise The Rates Public Assembly

=============================
RAISE the RATES :: A Public Assembly
=============================

===> Audio files from the assembly are online now at:
Click here to listen.

On January 18th 2007, the Ontario Coalition held a public assembly in Toronto to provide an update about the Special Diet clinics and the RAISE the RATES campaign, and to discuss the ways forward in the fight to increase welfare, disability and minimum wage to dignified amounts for all Ontario residents.

Speakers included:

→ Anne Abbot (Independence Unlimited) w/ Simone Schmidt (OCAP);
→ Kathy Hardill (Health Providers Against Poverty);
→ Andrea Gunarj (Women Against Poverty Collective);
→ Sam Gindin (Trade Union Activist);
→ Mariam Hassan (OCAP Women of Etobicoke);
→ Rachel Huot (OCAP)

BACKGROUND

For the last 3 years, OCAP's priority has been the RAISE THE RATES campaign. The campaign demands include a 40% increase in income for people living on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Supports Program – the amount by which the Harris government cut social assistance
rates in 1995, adjusted for inflation and the cost of living. The campaign also demands that minimum wage be raised to a livable standard of $10.00 an hour.

As part of the RAISE THE RATES campaign, OCAP has run Special Diet Clinics, in coordination with the Health Providers Against Poverty. The clinics have drawn the connections between inadequate income, poor nutrition, and ill health, and allowed thousands of social assistance recipients to receive a little-advertised monthly supplement to provide for their dietary needs. Although the Government of Ontario responded to the clinics by restricting access to the special diet allowance, clinics are up and running again, and social-justice conscious health care providers

For more information about the RAISE the RATES Campaign, check out http://ocap.ca/taxonomy/term/44