Rally and March on the McGuinty Government:
Thursday, April 15th @ 12 Noon
Allan Gardens Park (Sherbourne and Gerrard)
*free meal
*accessibility pick-up @ 11:30 am at south-east corner of Dundas-Yonge
WE DEMAND:
-Raise Welfare and Disability rates by 40% now!
-Stop the attacks: Give us back the Special Diet!
-Defend Public Services
On March 25th, Ontario’s Liberal Government killed the Special Diet in the Provincial Budget. 20% of those on social assistance in Ontario have been getting this vital benefit and will now be thrown into a crisis – robbed of the ability to buy food and pay the rent once again.

People on Welfare and Disability live on rates that are shamefully inadequate. Since the 1995 cuts, these rates have been reduced in real terms by more than 40%. For 15 years, people have been forced further
in to poverty. In slashing the Special Diet now – the government is taking away the one thing that people on Social Assistance had left to try to get-by. This is the most devastating social cutback since Mike Harris slashed welfare rates in 1995.

The Liberal Government has dared to talk about ‘poverty reduction’. Not only has it cut the Special Diet while huge numbers of people face the impact of an economic crisis, but it has announced that it will increase the rates by 1% at the end of the year. That’s less than inflation and an insulting slap in the face. Governments responded to the economic crisis by giving billions of dollars in bailouts and tax cuts to failed corporations and banks. Now they are looking to get that money back in the way of serious social cutbacks. The Special Diet is an example, but all Public Services are under threat.

If we let the government write our future, it will be bleak. It’s time to challenge this Government and to build a movement to win the right to decent income. We are calling on poor people in Ontario to organize and fight back. We won’t pay for their crisis or their deficit. We demand the right to a decent income and a future free of poverty. Raise the Rates by 40% Now!

Join us in this fight:  April 15th.

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
www.ocap.ca / 416-925-6939