ABOVE, video footage from January 26, march to Allan Gardens

PICKET: Toronto Liberal Leadership Debate
Wednesday, January 9, 7:00pm
Old Mill Inn - 21 Old Mill Road, Toronto *Meet-Up: 6pm @ Sherbourne Subway Station (outside)

MASS PROTEST and ACTIONS: Liberal Party Leadership Convention
January 25 – 27th
Maple Leaf Gardens

Starting January 1st, 2013 – Ontario’s Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) will disappear – thanks to the Liberal led Ontario government. 16,000 Ontarians a month rely on this social assistance benefit when they need to get a place to live, pay first and last months’ rent, stave off eviction, get furniture, pay their utilities, flee domestic violence, or relocate when they must.

Between December 7 – 14, 2012, actions were taken to defend the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit in local communities from Windsor to Ottawa to Sault Ste Marie. People demonstrated at or occupied the offices of Liberal MPPS, marched through the streets of their communities, held clinics to enable people to obtain the start up benefit and more For the most part, the Liberal MPPs hid from sight as this challenge to their brutal cutback unfolded in community after community.

The Week of Action, which was called by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), would not have been possible without the efforts of dozens of organizations and hundreds of people working together to make it possible.

GROWING SOLIDARITY WITH UNIONS: The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Ontario) has worked with OCAP for three years now on the Raise the Rates Campaign that created the basis for this challenge to the CSUMB cut. CUPE continued to provide organizational and communications support as the week unfolded. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Ontario Region provided material assistance and encouraged its local activists to be part of the week. The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) supported the organizing in key ways and helped mobilize for the local actions.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is calling for a week of action from December 7th - December 14th to put pressure on Liberal MPPs throughout the Province to reverse the decision to eliminate the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB).

UPDATED LIST OF ACTIONS (December 12) BELOW!

Provincial Week of Action to Stop the Cut to Community Start-Up
December 7th - 14th: Take Action in Your Community to Stop the Cut!

32 Community Events and Counting!

The movement is growing and the momentum is building to stop the cut
to Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit; let's keep up the
fight! The Government has felt a lot of pressure on this issue and
they are about to feel a great deal more as we launch the Provincial
Week of Action to Stop the Cut.

**Below is updated information about some of the provincial actions
that are planned.

We are calling on all Provincial allies to plan and organize actions
in your communities to stop the cut!
-----
What can you do in your community?

-Organize a delegation, rally or protest to 'your' MPP's office

-Deliver a letter (use our model MPP letter if you want:
http://ocap.ca/files/ModelCSUMBLettertoMPPs.pdf)

-Occupy your MPP's office and show them such a despicable attack as
the cutting of the CSUMB will mean it will not be business as usual

-Set up an emergency shelter in that MPP's office or other provincial
government office

-Hold a clinic and deliver the applications on-mass

-Anything creative you can think up!

ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Use #SaveCSUMB and #RaisetheRates

This fight is not lost. This benefit can and must be saved and we are
calling on people affected, and all those who support them, to
challenge the Liberals in the way they deserve to be. The momentum and
the fightback against this cut must escalate towards the January
cut-off. And even if they proceed with this cut, the fight will not
end there. People will still face homelessness or situations where
their housing is at risk and they will be organized to go the Liberal
Government and its MPPs to demand what they need to survive.

On January 25 and 26, the Liberals will select a new leader to replace
Dalton McGuinty and we'll start there. We'll go to that convention
with many of the people this cutback has affected and call for answers
from those competing for McGuinty's spot.

Call us right away and let us know how you and your community can act
to save the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit and challenge
those who want to destroy it: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty,
www.ocap.ca / 416-925-6939 / ocap@tao.ca

------------------------------
Provincial Week of Action Schedule of Events:

DECEMBER 7

•KITCHENER The kick off rally at Minister, John Milloy's office was a
resounding success but not for poor old John. He prorogued his own
holiday open house and hid away somewhere while Poverty Makes Us Sick
and its allies mobilized on his door step.

------
DECEMBER 8
• TORONTO Workshop at the Ontario Common Front General Assembly
------
DECEMBER 10
• OSHAWA With the assistance of PSAC activists and students, a
delegation will go to the local offices of the Ministry of Community
and Social Services to deliver a letter of protest against the cut
-----
DECEMBER 11

• SARNIA. Poverty Reduction Network will meet with local MPPs on the CSUMB
• KITCHENER/WATERLOO: Noon, Rally & flyering re: CSUMB in Waterloo
Town Square, followed by visit to Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife
• KITCHENER/WATERLOO: 4pm-5pm, Regional Council building
'Cheerleading rally' for Council to do the right thing and fight to
save the CSUMB
http://www.facebook.com/events/488705004484071/
• KITCHENER/WATERLOO: 6pm Weekly CSUMB sign-up clinic at Queen Street Commons
• HALTON Voices of Change in Halton Region are visiting MPPs
• TORONTO Special action in support of those applying for CSUMB
• SUDBURY The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) is going to
the City Council meeting on December 11 to press for a resolution
against the cut to CSUMB. S-CAP members charged following the
occupation of 'their' MPP's office are back in court on December 11
and will use it to rally again against the cut
-----
DECEMBER 12
• TORONTO Action by Front-Line Workers Against the Cut
• TORONTO Jane Finch Action Against Poverty action at MPP's office
• KITCHENER/WATERLOO: 4:30pm rally at Grand Valley Institution
Making the links: criminalization, violence against women,
marginalization and poverty; impact of cuts to CSUMB on women
transitioning out of GVI; with the 'We Remember Ashley Smith' campaign
-----
DECEMBER 13
• OTTAWA: Delegation going to a Ministry of Community and Social
Services office and a local MPP
• TORONTO: Delegation to Scarborough MPP
• TORONTO: Teachers will hold a ‘Bake Sale on Bay Street’ for their
students affected by the cut to CSUMB outside $500 a ticket cocktail
party for Kathleen Wynne: 4:30 - 6:00pm, Location: 199 Bay St (Bay
and King). Join Teachers in Putting Students First!
• TORONTO: Health Providers Against Poverty will go the office of Dr.
Eric Hoskins MPP
• TORONTO: Etobicoke Clinic to sign people up for CSUMB
• TORONTO: OCAP Sleep out at office of Toronto Centre MPP, and Liberal
Party leadership hopeful, Glen Murray. Allies from the OFL will be
joining us for the night including President Sid Ryan and along with
other allies and people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless
as a result of this cut: http://ocap.ca/node/1033
• KINGSTON: KCAP action at MPP John Gerretson's office:
http://www.facebook.com/events/381015461988191/?ref=ts&fref=ts
• PEEL: Peel Poverty Action Group action at MPP's offices
• SAULT STE MARIE: Local organizations, North Shore Tribal Council and
Sudbury CAP to march on MPP's office
• CAMBRIDGE: Presentation by Poverty Makes Us Sick from KW on CSUMB at
Argus Youth Shelter
-------
DECEMBER 14
• TORONTO Sleep out at Glen Murray’s office concludes with community
breakfast at 8am
• HAMILTON Round table meeting on defending the CSUMB and mobilization
at City Hall
• KITCHENER/WATERLOO: TD Bank action: Cut the Banks, Not Social Programs!
http://www.facebook.com/events/310209979085605/
• PEEL CUPE 966 action at MPP's office
-------
DECEMBER 17
•ST.CATHARINES: event and action
-------
Details to be announced of actions that are being organized in:
• WINDSOR
• LONDON
• GUELPH
• HALTON REGION
• OTTAWA

MORE TO FOLLOW!!!

WHO WE ARE: The campaign to Raise the Rates is jointly organized by
the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and the Canadian Union of
Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario and other labour and community groups.
We work in partnership with local groups across the province,
including anti-poverty groups, women's groups and Aboriginal
organizations.
-----------------
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
www.ocap.ca
Phone: 416-925-6939
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/OntarioCoalitionAgainstPoverty
@OCAPtoronto
#SaveCSUMB
#RaisetheRates

CUPE Ontario Raise the Rates Campaign: www.cupe.on.ca/raisetherates
@CUPEOntario

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Below, we include a model letter to these MPPs that people can use in their own community. The form of activity that is taken up in any community depends on local conditions and capacities. In Kitchener and Sudbury, people have already organized occupations of their MPP's offices. We know there will be rallies and pickets held. OCAP in Toronto is planning an all night sleep out on the sidewalk outside the office of Glen Murray, MPP.

However, we stress that all local actions to raise this issue in the community are welcome. Even something as basic as a letter delivery to an MPP's office will be a valuable and welcome part of the week. Those who do not have a local Liberal MPP can still participate in some other way. For example, they can address a letter of protest to Minister, John, Milloy, and deliver it to the local offices of the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

Download the model letter here.
Download the poster here.

Need help organizing a direct action? Get in touch, and we are happy to share skills.

December 7th - 14th: Take Action in Your Community to Stop the Cut!

An Appeal for United Action from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)

The movement is growing and the momentum is building; let's keep up the fight! The Government has felt a lot of pressure on this issueand they are about to feel a great deal more. December 7th at Milloy's office will launch a week of actions across the Province at MPP's office. We are calling on all Provincial allies to plan and organize actions in your communities between December 7th - 14th.

What can you do in your community?
-Organize a delegation, rally or protest to 'your' MPP's office
-Occupy your MPP's office and show them such a despicable attack as the cutting of the CSUMB will mean it will not be business as usual
-Set up an emergency shelter in that MPP's office or other provincial government office
-Hold a clinic and deliver the applications on-mass
-Anything creative you can think up!

If you don't have an organization in place yet, but still want to help this campaign, call us (collect if you need to) and discuss with us how you and your neighbours could take action, even if it is something as basic as delivering a letter of protest to the MPP.