OCAP Not Participating in Sham Consultations: Minister Matthews lies to legitimize secret 'poverty meetings'

Come tell Matthews that to stop consulting about poverty and start doing something about poverty

Wednesday, June 18
4pm meet at Eglington West Station (inside turnstiles)
Accessible Transit Route

OR

4:30pm meet at York Memorial Collegiate
(2690 Eglinton Avenue West at Keel)

Tokens will be provided.

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(June 11, 2008) Yesterday, during an interview with CBC's Metro Morning, the Minister of Children and Youth Services, Deb Mathews, claimed the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty was invited to and attended a secret poverty consultation.

In reality, these meetings have been designed expressly to avoid interacting with anti-poverty groups like OCAP and with poor people in general. OCAP has never received an invitation to attend these private consultations. These meetings make no attempt to address systemic poverty in this province, rather they seek to allay the public's concerns "within existing resources."

"We don't need to waste our time in secret consultations. We need a government that is actually going to do something about poverty," says A.J. Withers, an OCAP Organizer. "We know what the problems are. Welfare and disability rates are too low, we need a livable minimum wage now, we need more affordable housing and we need the housing we do have to be in decent repair."

The Liberal government would like the public to believe it will make real and substantial changes in people's lives. Instead, this government continues to quietly chip away at crucial money and services. "While they talk about reducing poverty, the Liberals continue to let welfare and disability rates lose ground to inflation. They slashed the Special Diet supplement that let thousands of people eat healthier food, and they introduced the confusing Ontario Child Benefit that means parents probably won't be able to buy coats for heir kids this winter," says John Clarke of OCAP. "This is not a government that actually cares about poor people, it is a government trying to get political capital by talking a lot about us, but doing nothing for us," Clarke says.

While Matthews is a liar, she was right about one thing: there have been protesters outside of her sham consultations, in cities all across Ontario. This month, in Toronto, we plan to be among them.