For Immediate Release: McGuinty Fundraising Dinner Crashed!

On the evening of Wednesday November 10th members of Under Pressure, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and No One Is Illegal disrupted the Ontario Liberal Party's fundraiser dinner. A rowdy crowd of roughly 30-40 people assembled at the Crown Plaza hotel where the Liberals were having drinks and an expensive supper. The anti-poverty activists gathered outside tried to make their way into the event, but were pushed back by police. Luckily, one group of protesters had come dressed in suits and managed to get inside the event to confront Liberal party members.

''Tickets to this event cost 500$ per person, which is almost as much as a single person on Welfare in Ontario is expected to live on for a whole month!'' said Shushan Araya, spokesperson for No One Is Illegal – Ottawa Premier Dalton McGuinty was the special guest for the event. Under his leadership the Ontario Liberals have upped their attacks on poor people across Ontario in a spectacular way. Not since the Conservative Party of Mike Harris has a provincial government not only let people live in poverty, but actually cut the amount of money that people living on welfare and the Ontario Disabilities Support Program see every month.

"Poor people in Ontario often have difficult decisions to make: pay the rent or pay the bills. Food on the table or a winter coat on their kids. But one thing we do not have a choice about is to fight. We are a community of struggle and we always have been. We know that to survive we need to fight these governments and their anti-poor agendas. Many of us in the struggle today were born into the Common Sense Revolution that saw poor people attacked viciously. Now we are seeing a new wave of attacks, but just as we have before, we are ready and willing to fight back" said Pierre Beaulieu-Blais of the anti- poverty group Under Pressure, addressing the crowd.
The demands of the demonstration were to raise welfare and disability rates by 40%, to bring them back closer to what they were before the cuts in the Harris years and to stop the cancellation of the Special Diet Allowance program, which was putting up to $250/month in the
hands of poor people who needed the money for health related reasons.
''Let's make it clear that the Ontario Liberal Party will have no
peace as long as people are starving, dying on the streets and unable to pay their bills.'' said Monika Thakker, a member of No One Is Illegal

Contact Under Pressure at: raisetherates@gmail.com

Contact No One Is Illegal Ottawa: noiiottawa@gmail.com

Contact OCAP at ocap@tao.ca or 416-925-6939