March for Dignity to Queen's Park! - Rally for a Raise at Queen's Park, Thursday April 29th at 11:00 am


March for Dignity to Queen's Park! Rally For A Raise
	On Thursday, April 29th, a courageous group of seniors, people with disabilities and people on social assistance will arrive in Toronto after walking 150 MILES from Sarnia, through Woodstock, London, Kitchener and Hamilton to Toronto on a March for Dignity to protest provincial government policies that force them to live thousands of dollars below the poverty line. If you live along the march route and are interested in assisting or supporting the marchers, please contact march organizer Jim Young at 519-438-4621. If you live in or near Toronto, please come out and welcome the marchers and join them in demanding REAL change, not SPARE Change. Rally for a Raise! at Queen's Park in front of the Ontario Legislature (on University, just north of College) Thursday April 29th 11 a.m. - 12:30 pm The March for Dignity has been organized with very little resources by a coalition of community groups, seniors and people living on ODSP and Ontario Works. They need our support. So please distribute the poster far-and-wide and bring out your staff, volunteers and members and help us make this a protest the Liberals can't ignore. Bring your banners, placards and noisemakers and help us make sure that the next provincial budget includes a significant raise for ALL low-income people in Ontario. And please print out the petitions calling for increases to social assistance rates and a $10 minimum wage and get as many signatures as you can. Fax the completed forms to Dana Milne Provincial Organizer, at the Income Security Advocacy Centre at 416-597-5821 or bring them with you to the rally. We're planning to present them in the Legislature that afternoon. Thursday April 29th at 11:00 am Rally at Queen's Park, Toronto Ontario voted for REAL change, not SPARE change and we need YOUR voice to make sure it happens. BECAUSE Ontario Works was slashed by 21.6% in 1995, and with the increases to the cost of living that cut is worth nearly 40% today; BECAUSE Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) Benefits have been frozen since 1993 while the cost of living has increased by 18%; BECAUSE current social assistance rates do not allow recipients to meet their cost of living; BECAUSE the people of Ontario deserve an adequate standard of living and are guaranteed such by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and BECAUSE the Jury at the Inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers recommended that social assistance rates be reviewed so that they reflect actual costs of living; We demand that the Ontario government immediately increase social assistance rates to reflect the true cost of living. This means shelter allowances that are based on the average local rents as calculated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and a basic needs allowance that is based on the Nutritional Food Baskets prepared by local health units as well as the calculations for the costs of household operation, household furnishings and equipment, clothing, transportation and health care as reported in Statistics Canada’s Average Household Expenditures. Join us Thursday April 29th at 11:00 am Rally at Queen's Park, Toronto Show that you support dignity for all people in Ontario. The March starts in Sarnia on April 24th enroute to Queen's Park Relevant Links - NOTE: External links open in a new browser window Canadian Social Research Links Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) Quarterly Statistical Reports - Caseloads and Beneficiaries 5 years of statistics on ODSP and OW caseloads (i.e., number of households) and beneficiaries (i.e., number of individual recipients) includes stat breakdowns by family type (singles / couples / sole support parents) Ontario Disability Support Program Quarterly Statistical Report Ontario Works Quarterly Statistical Report NOTE from Gilles Seguin, publisher of CSRL: Kudos to the Ontario Government for finally making ODSP statistics publicly available for the first time since the mid-1990s! [the policy of the former government was to make OW statistics available on the website, but if someone wanted to know the number of people on ODSP, they had to submit a request, by regular mail or e-mail and wait for a beneficient bureaucrat of the Ontario Government to reply...] Note to explain the previous note: Why is it important for ODSP stats to be as readily available as OW on the government's site? Because any comparison of Ontario's welfare stats with those of other Canadian provinces and territories must include both the "expected-to-work" and the "not-expected-to-work" components of the welfare caseload. March with Dignity Flyer http://www.incomesecurity.org/upload/resources/25_87_Flyer.pdf Handbill http://www.incomesecurity.org/upload/resources/25_88_Both-sided%20Handbill%20.pdf This handbill is a double-sided version that can be printed and photocopied on both sides of the paper and cut through the middle Petition-Welfare http://www.incomesecurity.org/upload/resources/25_85_petition-welfarefinal.pdf Petition-Minimum Wage http://www.incomesecurity.org/upload/resources/25_86_petition-minwagefinal.pdf Ontario Needs a Raise - News Release dd March 25, 2004 http://www.incomesecurity.org/upload/media/117_release%20-%20March25-04%20-%20ONR.doc (Word doc) Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) Needs Reform http://dawn.thot.net/odsp6.html Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) - Fact Sheet http://dawn.thot.net/odsp5.html Access to ODSP Campaign - Ontario Disability Support Program Summary of Forum Reports http://dawn.thot.net/odsp.html Denial by Design - Ontario Disability Support Program © Income Security Advocacy Centre 2003 http://dawn.thot.net/denial_by_design.html Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA) Committee http://www.odacommittee.net Inquest into the Death of Kimberly Rogers http://dawn.thot.net/Kimberly_Rogers/kria.html Recommendations of the Rogers Inquest Jury http://dawn.thot.net/Kimberly_Rogers/kria118.html
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