Recession Relief Coalition/blog

In all areas of social concern, Canadians are finally realising that being polite just isn’t getting us anywhere. More and more, alarmed Canadians are taking to the streets and invading elitist events to disrupt their lives and demand social justice. If they refuse to listen and act for the betterment of our society we will increase the volume and persist in an ever increasing campaign of disturbance until they are forced to respond.

The most recent demonstration of these new tactics was

Low Income People Crash Lavish Liberal Dinner Party:

OCAP Organizes to Raise Welfare/Disability Rates

See Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifeyMhTLWU4

On Thursday, February 25th, 2010, diners at a lavish Ontario Party Liberal fundraising event, which cost attendees $950 per plate and $9,500 a table, did not finish their meals in comfort.

Members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) organized to crash the fundraiser, at which Premier Dalton McGuinty was scheduled to speak, in an act of outrage at the fact that rich Liberal Party supporters could spend more on a meal than people on welfare and disability have to live on for a month. While the Liberals feast, literally thousands of people in this city go without food or shelter.

At about 7:00 p.m. at the Metro Convention Centre, 50 low income people and OCAP supporters managed to disrupt the fine dining and cocktails, walking past police and security and proceeding right to the front of the banquet hall. Just as hundreds of dinner attendees gathered in the reception area sipping on champagne, OCAP occupied the centre area chanting Raise the Rates and We are hungry, we’re angry, we won’t go away!. The group was loud, energetic and determined despite physical
attacks by Toronto Police and Liberal Party members. While they promise ‘poverty reduction strategies', the Liberals are doing
all they can to eliminate Special Diet access, a benefit people can access to limit their poverty, if a medical provider considers it necessary. They have sent memos to welfare and ODSP offices giving untrained staff the right to evaluate and reject the diagnoses of health providers. This is leading to a huge reduction in access to this vital benefit. The loss of Special Diet income for the poor in Ontario will be a major cut in people's income. The reality is that people on social assistance live on incomes that have lost at least 40% of their spending power since 1995. People are even poorer today than they were under Mike Harris.

On Thursday OCAP organized to stop the attack on welfare and disability recipients, and to expose the hypocrisy of the Provincial government and their 'poverty reduction' veneer. Poverty is not comfortable - nor should rich supporters of McGuinty's Liberals be.

In the midst of this economic crisis attacks on poor people have increased, and the potential of social cuts in the upcoming Provincial budget is very real and will mean an explosion of Poverty in Ontario. That's why, On Apr 15, 2010 OCAP will hold a large mobilization against the Provincial Government. We won’t pay for their crisis or their deficit. We demand the right to decent income and a future free of poverty. Raise the Rates by 40% Now! Join us on April 15 and fight for the right to decent income!

Get Involved:
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
www.ocap.ca
ocap@tao.ca / 416-925-6939
Fight to Win.

The session also included a panel of representatives of non-governmental organizations, who outlined the challenges facing various groups within Canada. The panelists spoke before the MPs in order to provide a context for the parliamentarians’ remarks and also posed questions to the parliamentarians after their presentations.  The participants from NGOs were Peter Clutterbuck of the Social Planning Network of Ontario, Gerda Kaegi of Canadian Pensioners Concerned, Avvy Go of the Colour of Poverty, Laurell  Ritchie of the Canadian Auto Workers, Laurel Rothman of Campaign 2000, and Michael Shapcott of the National Housing and Homelessness Network.

The NGO panelists challenged the MPs with depictions of the harsh realities that they encounter in their daily work:

▪ Peter Clutterbuck talked about some of the problems facing the voluntary sector and stressed that the sector can function only when it is properly resourced and treated like a partner;

▪ Gerda Kaegi emphasized the pressing need for home care, home support, and affordable housing that will enable older adults to live within the community;

▪ Avvy Go called for a new wage earner protection program and for the identification of the systemic disadvantages faced by some groups in Canadian society;

▪ Laurell Ritchie said that a fundamental restructuring of EI is needed and also said that the labour movement is calling for an improvement in pensions;

▪ Laurel Rothman pointed out that Nov. 24, 2009, was the 20^th anniversary of a federal government pledge to end child poverty by the year 2000. On Nov. 24 of last year, the House of Commons again passed a resolution calling on the government of Canada to “develop an immediate plan to eliminate poverty in Canada for all.”

▪ Michael  Shapcott called for the implementation of a national housing plan.

The MPs and the Green Party representative talked about their parties plans to ease the impact of the recession and to end poverty in this country.  The themes and measures they addressed were similar: the need for reforms to the Employment Insurance program, the need for a national standard for social assistance (which ended with the abolition of the Canada Assistance Plan in 1995, the need for measures to alleviate and end poverty, the need for a housing strategy.

MP Tony Martin pointed to two recent hopeful developments: a report by the standing committee on human resources and social development and a report on poverty by a Senate committee. Art Eggleton and Hugh Segal are promoting adoption of the measures proposed in the Senate report.  Martin said that he would table a bill to eradicate poverty in Canada when the House resumes sitting.

The Town Hall was also the occasion for the release of the coalition’s latest bulletin about social indicators of the losses and suffering caused by the recession. The indicators, unlike indicators of GDP and stock market robustness, are often not reported by the mainstream media. The bulletin, which was presented to the Town Hall by coalition member Ann Fitzpatrick, is titled “One Year Later-Recession Fallout Continues.”  Copies of the bulletin, which deals with EI, social assistance, and pensions can be obtained at bulletin.

The Town Hall was preceded by the Homeless Memorial that is organized every month at Holy Trinity Church by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. Poetry was read and voices were raised in song to commemorate the hundreds of homeless people who have lost their lives on the streets of Toronto in recent years. The memorial was followed by a hearty hot lunch provided by volunteers at The Meeting Place. The nourishment, the recollection of painful losses, and the expression of hope for the future were appreciated by all.

-- Virginia Smith

It's time to rethink our socio/economic system and re-invent our society. Neither Capitalism nor Communism is a workable model for the new millennium. We need to invent something completely new that takes into consideration the fact that most of the work that was done during the industrial age is now automated and the few remaining functions that employed our population during that period will soon disappear as well. Our ingenuity has allowed us to eliminate most of the tedious grunt work that was required to produce the material necessities of our population yet we foolishly cling to the outdated mindset that the industrialists called work ethic. A work ethic that declared that each member of society must work hard to do his share in the production of our mutual material needs is no longer appropriate. Machines do most of this work now and will shortly eliminate nearly all of these functions entirely.
We must devise an alternative system that encourages people to take advantage of the time that mechanization has freed up. Instead of demanding that people work at jobs that are becoming extinct we should be encouraging them to work at the enhancement of the human condition. More emphasis needs to be directed towards the encouragement of the arts as a viable and desirable occupation. Similarly employment in areas that have traditionally been left to volunteerism are now viable as salaried careers. The service industries which historically have been deemed non essential and been allotted minimal financial compensation are presently crucial to the promising new social order and must be compensated for appropriately. It is no longer acceptable to require employees in this industry to subsist on wages that are well below poverty levels.

It is quite possible that the concept of money itself will eventually disappear. Certainly, our present monetary system needs to be re-evaluated. Society cannot endure the continuation of a system that allows a limited elite to accumulate vast amounts of wealth the far outreach any possible valid justification while a rapidly expanding percentage of the population is deprived of the means to maintain shelter and acquire food and the other necessities  of life. This cannot be tolerated.

A system that measures the success of our society based on constant growth when we have reached a point where resources and the planet’s ability to absorb the waste that is produced will not permit this expansion is so outdated that our leaders who insist on adhering to this idea must be total idiots. Our present socio/economic system is unsustainable and any attempt to cling to it is irrelevant. If we do not voluntarily re-invent our society, it will collapse. Our only option is to change. If we refuse to do so, change will be forced upon us with devastating results. The collapse of the social order combined with the collapse of the planet’s ability to sustain our demand for growth is inevitable if we do not.

 Where are the great thinkers and leaders we so desperately need in this transitional period of social evolution?

The government allots a percentage of the financial pie to each ministry based on a priority system.  The largest piece of that pie goes to defense, while the smallest amount is allotted to Community and Social Services.  The Conservative government's partiality to business, with its emphasis on pursuit of self interest in a competitive economy and the responsibility of individuals to fend for themselves, is unacceptable in a climate of global change and instability that leaves hard working members of the community unemployed through no fault of their own.  It is an employer's market characterized by downsizing, restructuring and a melding of several roles and skill sets into one job description.  The last economic recovery was a jobless recovery, and an increase in gross domestic product is certainly not felt or enjoyed by the general population.  With the industrial revolution, people lost control over the means of production.  While communism is certainly no better than capitalism, changes need to be made in hiring practices and job structure.  This all or nothing mentality in terms of qualifications and job requirements has to change.   Each individual has a right to work based on their skills and capacity.  It is far more costly to the nation to have people out of work. 

Jason Serrour prefers the streets to shelters

After you turn out the lights and lay down in a comfortable bed there are well over 5,000 people in Toronto going through the same motions, but on very different terms. Substitute the lights for a street lamp, and the bed for a sidewalk. These are the conditions that homeless people survive in every day and night. One hundred people conducted an online survey on homelessness and on a scale of 1-10, one being not at all, and 10 being extremely, 21 per cent felt a sadness level of seven when they see a homeless person. Of those 100 people, 78 per cent believe homeless people should not be forced into shelters, yet of the same sample, 64 per cent believe they should be forced into shelter during extreme weather conditions.

Ronzig, 63, is a distinctive looking man. His long beard, matching hair and staple camouflage hat with pins promoting various causes, is hard to miss. He is a photographer, artist and activist who has great insight into the issue of homelessness and all that comes with it.  A former millionaire turned drug addicted homeless person. Ronzig lived on the street for over ten years before giving up drugs and finding housing in downtown Toronto. After experiencing it all: jail, hospitals, severe weather and what the homeless thought to be the best shelters, Ronzig is still not an advocate of shelters.

“Most people don’t prefer to be on the streets as opposed to a decent home, but there is no decent home available to them. Starting from the bottom, I would say the worst place you could be put is in a shelter, second would be jail, the third would be a hospital and the fourth would be sleeping on the street,” said Ronzig.                       

Ronzig had difficult and frustrating experiences with the numerous shelters that he stayed in during his time on the streets. Crowded into facilities with beds two feet apart, at times Ronzig remembers feeling unsafe. He was sleeping beside people who were sick, violent and insane. He recalls the security being minimal, as staff would turn a blind eye to violence within the shelters. Strict schedules were to be followed and in the morning the guests were put back on the streets, regardless of the weather conditions.  Losing one’s personal belongings is also an issue; shelters have meager storage facilities and belongings are subject to theft or thrown out after a few days, Ronzig explained.

“ The shelter system is designed to take total control of your life. Forget about what your needs are, they don’t care about the needs of the person at all,” he said.

Patricia Anderson, manager of partnership development and support for the homeless for the city of Toronto, says that the city does take action during extreme weather in Toronto. When there are extreme weather alerts shelters are contacted by the city and told to relax their usual restrictions such as schedules and numbers usually allowed. An additional 125 beds are put out and available for use. Workers and volunteers also go outside and check on homeless people who may be lying outside.   

“During extreme weather, it is life threatening to spend too much time on the streets in the cold,” Anderson said. “Yet you can’t force people to come inside, even when it is very cold out.”

There are about 50 drop-in centres and 60 shelters available to the homeless in Toronto. The city funds 9 of these shelters. At the shelters guests receive a place to sleep and a meal. Typically, most people get a caseworker to help them find permanent housing, because emergency shelters are just that – for emergencies only.

However, finding these affordable housing opportunities is a huge obstacle facing not only homeless people but also the city of Toronto.

“The biggest challenge is to try and find places to stay that they can afford. The city just came out with a Houses Opportunities Report, a strategic plan for affordable housing within the next 10 years. There is a shortage of affordable housing for the people of Toronto,” Anderson said.

For some, it is not the fact of using a shelter that is the issue, for they would be happy to stay in one, but it is the availability and conditions. The city of Toronto has shut down 300 shelter beds in 2008. There are 170,000 social housing units that need repairs and over 80,000 that sit vacant. There are over 640,000 people in Toronto that need some form of assistance to meet their housing needs. In response, the Housing Opportunities Toronto Action Plan (HOT) 2010-2020, calls for $484 million in annual investments over the next 10 years, to assist 257,7000 households struggling with housing costs or inadequate accommodations. This includes creating 1,000 new affordable rental homes annually, the repair of Toronto Community Housing and other co-operative housing units and the general commitment of ending homelessness in Toronto.

Meanwhile there are mixed feelings regarding the ethical question of forcing people into shelter during extreme weather. A short and cheerful Alice Rogers, 52, smiles a toothless grin as she talks about her new home in Parkdale. Rogers experienced both the streets and shelters, dating back to her teenage years. 

“I think they should be able to force them into shelter when it is really cold out and things like that because it is unsafe for them out there, but only if they made them better. I only used shelters sometimes because being a woman I felt that it would be safer. I got beat up on the streets. But thinking back, I did not always feel safe in the shelters,” Rogers said.

She is not the only one. A longhaired and thickly bearded Jason Serrou, 32, can usually be found outside of the Tim Horton’s on Victoria St., joking with any passerby in hopes of earning a smile and spare change. He has a small fold up mat, a sleeping bag and other personal belongings that he usually carries with him. He occasionally sleeps in shelters, but only during extremely cold weather.   

“I like it out here because the shelters have schedules and they tell me when to sleep and when to wake up and that sort of thing. But the shelters aren’t too bad, they kind of remind me of high school and jail but I do like the people in them. It is comfortable out here; I have a sleeping bag and a bed. Why would I go into a shelter when I am comfortable and free out here?” said Serrou.

Rich Coleman the Minister of Housing and Social Development of British Columbia introduced the Assistance to Shelter Act, giving police the power to remove people from city streets for their own protection during the winter months this past October. Last December there was a public outcry after an elderly woman died while trying to warm herself with a candle in a makeshift shelter. Outreach workers and police tried to take her to a shelter, but she refused.

Cathy Crowe, 57, a street nurse for The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee has worked with numerous homeless people, wrote a book entitled Dying for a Home and has won the Atkinson Economic Justice Award for her efforts.

“Even if the city wanted to force people into shelters they wouldn’t be able to happen because there is no room; that is one of the biggest issues. British Columbia passed a law for this, right in time for the Winter Olympics,” said Crowe. 

However, Coleman has said that the Olympics were never discussed the law was passed solely for safety purposes.

There are many issues that stem from forcefully interfering with the free choice of individuals. Homeless people may choose to hide from police and outreach workers, causing them to shy away from already existing services and shelters. Simon Lewchuk, the outreach program coordinator for The Lunch Program of Church of the Redeemer associates with homeless and marginalized regularly. The program operates five days a week and in addition to serving food, nursing care, housing help, haircuts, informal counselling and volunteer opportunities are provided.

 “Forcing people to do something against their will is just perpetuating the problem. It would create animosity, a deep sense of distrust, and further oppress and marginalize people. I believe our attempts to help people who are homeless and facing difficult circumstances must always be characterized by compassion and understanding,” said Lewchuk.

Due to his close and frequent contact with homeless people, he understands their choice to take advantage of a shelter or not. The city of Toronto and its communities ensure that there are shelters and services for the homeless. Although conditions are questionable and schedules and rules may not be convenient, people do work hard to help marginalized people.

“The people who choose not to stay in shelters often do so for good reason. While there are many good shelters in Toronto with caring and compassionate staff, shelters can often be oppressive and intimidating places. They offer little privacy. They are often unsafe. Things get stolen,” he said.

Ultimately it would be impossible to force every homeless person into a shelter during harsh weather conditions, whether they are hiding, go unnoticed or put up a strong fight. It is a disturbing thought to think of any person eating, sleeping, and living outside in the frigid winter months. Ronzig experienced some of Toronto’s coldest winters while living on the streets and has seen others do the same. He had a propane stove, a lantern and a sturdy squat to sleep in, but others, such as the mentally ill, may not be as fortunate. Ronzig still has hope for such people.

“They do not have the mental facilities to be able to survive properly and yet they do. Isn’t that amazing? Maybe they are not as dumb as people think they are. I know people out there that can’t even talk they are so crazy but they are surviving. The instinct of survival is very strong in the human body. It’s an instinct. So they survive. I survived,” he said.

In downtown Toronto, it is common to pass homeless people; on your way to work, on your school campus, even outside your own front door. The majority of people have become so desensitized to these people who are sons, daughters, friends and parents. Our society today disregards that these people have a story to tell.  Cold weather or warm, it is easy to forget about the homeless as we walk through our front doors everyday. As Lewchuk so eloquently stated,

“We need to remember that people who are homeless are just that: people.”

G20 Transparency Petition sign here

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services…

--Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Research shows that developing countries are losing $1 trillion every year due to crime, government corruption, and tax evasion. These illicit monetary outflows are roughly ten times the amount of aid money going into developing countries for poverty alleviation and economic development.

The loss of money from poor economies that would otherwise go to provide health services, infrastructure, and other critical needs exacerbates poverty and leads to the deaths of millions of people. The annual loss of hundreds of billions of dollars from the world’s poorest and most vulnerable economies constitutes one of the most pressing human rights issues of the new decade.

The key to tackling this problem is transparency in the global financial system. After these stolen or otherwise ill-gotten gains exit their country of origin they vanish into an opaque financial system comprised of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions. The most effective deterrent to criminals, corrupt officials, and tax evaders is to create a global financial system where illicit money cannot hide.

When the world’s 20 largest economies – the G20 – meet in Toronto on June 26-27, 2010 they will have an unprecedented opportunity to institute changes to create a transparent global financial system that is open, accountable, fair and beneficial for all.

Toward that end, we call on the G20 leaders to:

• • Recognize the link between illicit outflows of capital from developing countries, absorption of those resources by tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, and the adverse impact those flows have on poverty alleviation and economic development.

• • Call on the Financial Action Task Force to amend its recommendations 33, 34, and VIII to provide that the beneficial ownership of all companies, trusts, foundations and charities be made a matter of public record.

Season’s greetings. I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our new Updater which I will send out on a monthly basis except on months when our quarterly news letter goes out. The purpose of this Updater is to help keep you current on our activities and progress during the periods between newsletters. I will include reminders for upcoming events on this Updater, so if you are planning an event and wish it to be included, please submit the details early at

 http://www.recession-relief-coalition.org/submit.php  

 Town Hall Meeting

DATE:            Tuesday, January 19, 2010

TIME:              11 am (lunch) - 2:00 pm.
hot lunch followed by Panel of Federal Party politicians and coalition
members from 12:00 - 2:00.

LOCATION: Church of the Holy Trinity

10 Trinity Square (just behind the West centre doors of the Eaton Centre, between Queen and Dundas).

SPONSORED BY: Recession Relief Coalition.

Our latest initiative, an outreach team is preparing to launch at the Town Hall Meeting, so be sure to say hello to Ronzig, Ildiko Nova and Lynda Cheng if you can come. Our team will be going into the community to speak with people to learn how the recession has affected them. We will ask anyone who is experiencing problems due to the recession to tell us about them, either on camera or by written submission. We plan to use these stories to provide government officials with a clear picture of the human impact of the recession because to date they have focused on economic statistics which does nothing to reflect the suffering that is being inflicted on our population. Ronzig plans to produce a documentary video with these stories to submit on a DVD to MP’s, MPP’s and members of municipal government to bring the recession to them with detailed examples of how the recession is hurting the people they were elected to serve. Our team is contacting agencies to establish a relationship with them so that we can refer people to them when we believe they may be able to assist in alleviating some of their difficulties. If you or anyone you know has been harmed by the recession, please help us by allowing us to tell the story. You can see some stories on our website at http://www.recession-relief-coalition.org/stories.php    

You will find the minutes for our Dec 2 Steering Committee meeting attached. Our next Steering Committee meeting will be

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

199 Bay St Suite 4500

5:30pm.

Please try to attend. Your input and ideas are crucial to us. We need to know if we are missing anything that we should be doing and we need you to help with planning and implementation of our projects.

In the attached minutes, there is information about the NEW icon that I have added to the website. The following additional information was not discussed at the meeting.

To avoid confusion, I will co-ordinate the icons with the mailing of our monthly Updater or our quarterly newsletter. I will alternate using a red NEW icon for the first period and leave it up for 1 month after mailing out the Updater before removing it, but from the date of the mailing of the Updater I will use a yellow NEW icon for new posts for the next period.

All the best during this holiday season and have a happy, healthy and hopeful new year.

Ronzig

Bruce McLeod, former Moderator of the United Church of Canada – December 8 at Toronto’s  Homeless Memorial hosted by Church of the Holy Trinity and the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee – on the occasion of adding the 600^th name to the Homeless Memorial.

“When the Stranger says ‘What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?’  What will you answer? ‘We all dwell together to make money from each other’? or ‘This is a community’. (T. S. Eliot)

The names on this wall, many known personally to people like Cathy Crowe, are Toronto’s rough answer to the poet’s words. They are shadows cast on the sidewalk as we rush by, cell phones in our ear. Human shadows beneath our golden towers, our endless stadiums, opera houses, theatres, and shopping malls, our rent-gouging rooming houses, our explanations that affordable housing can’t be afforded here.

When we mention the shadows at all, we call them “the homeless” – one of those abstract terms like ‘collateral damage’ which we use to distance ourselves from what we’re talking about.

The truth is, of course, there is no such thing as “the homeless’. There are only people without homes. People with names and dreams and memories, people who once were babies softening frozen faces on buses, people who ran and played, fell down and got up, laughed and cried, people with lines around their eyes and mouths, their faces marked by what the years have done to them.

By the thousands they live beside us on these rich streets. They re not “the homeless”.  They are God’s children, as we are, who have more beds in our warm houses than we use. They are our brothers and sisters, who were cold last night and every night, who have no key to lock a private place, no cupboard to keep medicine, no bathroom where they can close the door.

This morning we remember the names of people, remembered always in God’s heart while we hurry past – people who were our neighbours whom we left on winter streets to die alone in the cold.

23 years ago our mayor, reflecting widespread public heartsickness sent a message to Florida lamenting the sudden explosive death of seven astronauts.  Toronto papers also reported that same day that the frozen body of Ann Regan had been found in a stairwell where she’d slept for the past two weeks.  Four days earlier 69 year-old Ken Currie had died of exposure just down the street from her. Just weeks before that another woman, Drina Joubert had perished of cold in an alley. No message arrived from the mayor.

One of Toronto artist Bill Kurelek’s most famous paintings is of our Old City Hall. Typical of Kurelek, Jesus is on the steps, hardly noticed in the crowd his arms outstretched, the jammed Queen streetcar passing by, the towers of consumerism across the street. The painting’s title is “Toronto, Toronto”. “What is the meaning of this city?”

This morning, before this wall of names, we are reminded what we have done. Too late, we remember our friends whom we failed. We remember also that there is a dream of community in this old city that is not dead yet, and that we can do better.

I was one of the participants the Recession Relief Coalition who attended two recent rallies outside the office of Street Health on Dundas Street just east of Sherbourne.

The rallies, which were co-hosted by the Friends of Street Health and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) were staged to protest the forced relocation to Scarborough of Gaetan Heroux, who has been an activist, a provider of services, and mentor to people in the Dundas-Sherbourne neighbourhood for the past 20 years.

The relocation is occurring in the midst of the struggle by Street Health workers to achieve a first collective agreement after they joined CUPE Local 4308 in 2008.

David Kidd, one of the founders of Street Health and a member of CUPE Local 79, told those gathered at the Nov. 9 rally how the founders met in All Saints Church across the street from where Street Health is now and decided to offer services “where the people are.”  David said that “one of the best things we did was to hire Gaetan.” Gaetan’s employer now is Neighbourhood Link, but he remains based at Street Health.

Gaetan told participants in the Nov. 23 rally that “My decision is not to move” and that “I intend to work as I have done for the past 10 years.”  Gaetan has researched the history of activism in the neighbourhood in order to put his own situation in perspective. In newspaper archives, he found stories about the House of Industry that operated in the area in 1915. People were expected to crack stones in order to obtain relief. George Bus, who refused to crack stones, was brought in front of a judge on a charge of vagrancy. When he was reproved by the judge for what was seen as a failure to be productive, George replied unashamedly, “That’s one way of looking at it. Your way.”  Gaetan’s message was that another way of looking at the current situation must be found.

Cathy Crowe of the Friends of Street Health and the Recession Relief Coalition told Gaetan and the rally that “we will not let you be evicted.”  Cathy said that a meeting about the situation will be held in the gym at the nearby John Innis Community Centre on

Wed., Dec. 9.

- Virginia Smith

Over and over, I hear the same lament, “Capitalism has failed!”

Dictionary.com defines Capitalism as an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Capitalism is merely an economic system created and designed to deliver the highest possible level of goods and services (wealth) to the people who utilize its principles to ultimately achieve the best possible standard of living. It makes no claim to being a form of distribution of wealth and has never been intended to deal with issues such as social justice. These issues are not addressed by Capitalism and belong in the realm of governance, not economics. As an economic system, Capitalism, has not failed, it has been extremely successful. It has provided goods and services adequate for the provision of an extremely comfortable and pleasant lifestyle for every human being on the planet.

On the other hand, our form of governance, Democracy has failed.

Dictionary.com defines Democracy as government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. A state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges.

According to that definition, our government which is a form of Democracy is given the responsibility of ensuring that each citizen is guaranteed equality of rights and privileges. Specifically that would mean that our government is responsible for creating rules or laws that guarantee that if some members of society are privileged with a lifestyle that provides comfort and security, then all members of the society should also be granted the privilege of a lifestyle that provides comfort and security.

Democracy has failed to ensure equality of rights and privileges and that is where our society has failed. We need look no further than our political system and the politicians who work theoretically for us when we seek to understand the vast inequities in our society. They have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring equality of rights and privileges yet we have individuals and families sleeping on our streets while others sleep in homes that exceed their physical needs so dramatically that it boggles the mind.

We live in the richest society that has ever existed on the planet and yet we have members of this society who are reduced to searching through garbage to find food to keep them alive and every month several people who are denied the basic right of a safe and secure home perish for no reason other than our failure to enforce the rule of Democracy that demands equality for all. We claim that society can not afford to provide this equality even though we are surrounded by vast riches. I say we can not afford not to provide this equality under penalty of disintegration and collapse.

Democracy has failed and each and every one of us is responsible for allowing it to fail. Only you and I have the power and responsibility to correct this. No-one else, you and I.