Public meeting

Saturday, October 1st, 2011
2.30 PM<
Steelworkers Hall, 25 CECIL STREET (South-East of Spadina and College (wheelchair accessible)
Click here for a map

Hearing Before the College of Physicians and Surgeons

Show your support for Doctor Wong and the Special Diet
Monday, October 3, 8:00 AM
80 College Street

Calling all health care providers, health and public sector workers,
poor people, anti-poverty activists and allies!

The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, Canadian Union of Public
Employees – Ontario, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Ontario Nurses
Association and Health Providers Against Poverty invite you to join us
on September 8th and 9th for an important and timely public forum and
conference on poverty, health, austerity and how we can fight back
together.

United We Eat, Divided We Starve!

Provincial Raise the Rates Solidarity BBQs: August 13th - August 27th
Ottawa - Toronto - St.Catharines - Hamilton

(Click here to see pics from last weekend BBQ in Ottawa August 13th!)

CUPE Ontario and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) are fighting back to Raise the Rates of welfare and disability benefits and restore the Special Diet Allowance. As of July 31st, 2011, all those on welfare and disability who get the Special Diet have to re-apply under a much tougher system. It is expected that over August and September, countless poor people across this province will lose this vital benefit or have it reduced significantly.
It is a brutal cut at the worst time possible.

In response, CUPE Ontario and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty are partnering with labour and community allies in cities across the province to organize a series of Solidarity BBQs. We will feed and defend each other at a time when the government is taking away money for food. We will join with allies to take forward the fight for our right to an income that lets us pay the rent, eat properly and live with dignity.

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BIG THANKS to all who came out! click here to read report-back on rabble.ca-
"Raise the Rates solidarity barbecue feeds over 1200 people"
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RAISE THE RATES! STOP THE CUT TO THE SPECIAL DIET!

Allan Gardens, Saturday, July 23 at Noon

Free Food. Music. Children's Games. Plans to Fight Back

By July 31, all those on welfare and disability who get the Special Diet will have to re apply under a much tougher system. Tens of thousands will lose their benefits and many more will get reduced amounts. It is a brutal cut at the worst time possible.

We have no choice but to fight back. The Special Diet has to be restored and social assistance rates must be increased by 55% to put them back to where they were before Mike Harris cut them and Dalton McGuinty let them fall even further.

People won hundreds of millions of dollars in Special Diet payments because they stood up and demanded them. It's time to increase that resistance. OCAP has been joined by allies across the Province, by anti poverty and other community organizations. It has launched a Raise the Rates Campaign that has now been endorsed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ontario and the Ontario Nurses Association. The BBQ on the 23rd will be the first of a series in Ontario towns and a way to take forward the fight for our right to an income that lets us pay the rent, eat properly and live with dignity.

Come out on the 23rd and be part of the fight to Raise the Rates

CLICK HERE to download PDF file of the poster!

Community allies, activists, workers, students and all Torontonians are invited to a RALLY!

Thursday, May 26

12PM, Sheraton Hotel, 123 Queen St.

*This rally is held during CUPE Ontario’s Convention and ends at Queen’s Park

In the lead up to the provincial election on October 6, there is an
opportunity to make a difference in the province of Ontario. You are
invited to join members of CUPE Ontario during their annual Convention
to send a message to the provincial government.

Send a message about the growing poverty in our communities, about the
vital role that public services play in our communities and about good
jobs. Join us in sending a united message to...

BUILD A BETTER ONTARIO!