DOCUMENTS

U N F I T   T O   G O V E R N Who Decides? The track record of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Government over the last seven years gives cause for serious alarm. Some of the lowlights of their shameful record include: · A complete withdrawal from social housing delivery leaving so many people homeless, and at risk of homelessness, that it is now openly recognized as a National Disaster. The water tragedy in Walkerton that killed seven people in the year 2000, providing clear evidence that the Ontario Tories knowingly put public health in Ontario at risk for the sake of privatizing and deregulating sections of our public water infrastructure. The September 6th, 1995 police assault on the Stoney P o i n t F i r s t N a t i o n (Aazhoodena) and the murder of Dudley George and the refusal to call a public inquiry into Dudley George’s death despite a call by more than 100 groups for a public inquiry. Wave after wave of legislation eroding workers rights and the living standards of Ontario families. Starving of municipalities across the province of funds and local control through “downloading.” Hospital closures and chronic underfunding for healthcare resulting in the deaths of people turned away from hopelessly overcrowded emergency wards. A clear attack on people in need of welfare benefits, including a cut in benefits to subsistence levels, drastic changes in eligibility rules, the clawback of the National Child Benefit and the new mandatory drug and literacy testing requirements. This is a context that clearly contributed to the death of Kimberly Rogers, a pregnant woman sentenced to house arrest for welfare fraud in Sudbury in August 2001. Lack of support for families with disabled children Continuous stalling on passing a fair Ontarians with Disabilities Act Increased tuition hikes and a public school system that is the object of constant attack, including opening it up to privatization. Threatening to pull funding for licensed day care in Ontario. These are just some of the examples of the Tory policies that have created a province where the gap keeps growing between the rich and poor, and where all but the most privileged face increasing difficulty and inequity in accessing the most basic services and resources, such as healthcare, housing, education and public recreation facilities and transportation. It isfor all these reasons and more that Ontario Coalition for Social Justice (OCSJ) is organizing a province-wide campaign called “Unfit To Govern.” This campaign will collect a wide and damning body of evidence that will expose the suffering of Ontarians and demonstrate beyond a doubt that Mike Harris and his Tories are simply not fit to govern. The UNFIT TO GOVERN campaign asks the questions: What will Ontario look like if this government is allowed to continue? What are the real costs of Tory economic and social policies? Who really benefits under the Tories and the privatization agenda? Why is our provincial government NOT standing up to the global corporate pressures that threaten our public services, when they still have real power to do so? This evidence gathered and presented during this campaign aims to make clear the privatization agenda behind most of these policies, including: the aggressive Tory underfunding of our public services, creating crises in the delivery of each and then offering sections of them to private control. the Tory government prioritizing of corporate and employer tax cuts so as to make “doing business” in Ontario cheaper at the obvious expense of workers and low-income families; the loss of this tax revenue also further starves our public services. the Tory demonization of the public sector in general and its obsession with cutting public and government, happily sacrificing public health and lives in the process. The UNFIT TO GOVERN campaign focuses on community participation across Ontario. Communities will be asked to share their personal stories, knowledge and experience of life under Harris through the mediums they choose. This may be written statements, photographs, video documentation, public murals or even dramatizations. Groups will be encouraged to hold community gatherings, public forums or press conferences as ways to present their evidence to the public and media, collectively sending the message that there is a broad and growing population of Ontarians that believe the provincial Tories have gone too far. We will work towards a series of provincial wide actions, starting now and leading up towards the next provincial election. These events will be presentations of local evidence, from all sectors. To start, participating communities are hosting an UNFIT TO GOVERN workshop to launch the project in their area. These workshops will guide participants through thinking what their community evidence of the Tory unfitness to govern is. Then each group will decide how they would like to present this evidence and how they will continue to build the campaign in their areas up to the next election. There will be a direct action training component to the workshop as well. The campaign will also include the publication of a final written report that aims to bring all the stories and academic evidence from all the various sectors hit by Tory legislation in the last years together in one place. Consider the following: 1. LOW WAGES Since the Tories came to power, the Minimum Wage has not seen an increase... it is still $6.85 an hour. People earning minimum wage in Ontario live below the poverty line! That means people have trouble paying their rent and feeding their children! 2. EVICTIONS The Ontario Tories make it easier than ever for landlords to EVICT their tenants so they can jack up rents. Every day, 150 families in Ontario lose their homes because they cannot afford their rent. 3. EDUCATION and DECENT JOBS The Tories think that people should find a better job. But better jobs require better education. And the Tories tied our hands even more. The costs of education have more than doubled. Cuts to social programs mean job training programs are harder mean job training programs are harder to access. Mike Harris also cut lots of important government jobs ... jobs that had union coverage and decent wages. More EVIDENCE: TAX CUTS The Tories have given lots of "perks" to high-income earners. Tax cuts gave most of us a few dollars more. But those at the top got most of the benefit. The richest 18% got more than half of the benefits from tax cuts. And the business community got $2.6 billion a year in tax cuts. WE ALL HAVE TO PAY for this payout. WELFARE Welfare by 21.6%. That means lots of poor kids. Rent control was eliminated. That contributes to lots more homeless people - evictions are at record levels! Funds for subsidized housing and for shelters SHRANK! The Tories even reversed a decision by the federal government to target money to children - if you are on social assistance, you don't get it. And More.... These are some of the Horrible stories of vulnerable people in Ontario: In Scarborough, Theresa is a breast cancer survivor who gets tested 3 times less frequently than her doctor recommends. WHY? Because Sarah is a woman with a disability and cannot afford to pay for the $15 test fee for someone to come to her home. In Burlington, because of drug de-listing from standard coverage costs, Sarah cannot afford to spend $3 a day for medication to help keep her alive because her welfare benefit is only $560 a month. She also needs physiotherapy but has been on a waiting list for OHIP covered, in-patient physiotherapy for 9 MONTHS. It would cost her $50 to go to a private clinic and $20 for each subsequent visit. In Bracebridge, Maria is a single mother with two children who works 10 hours a day on minimum wage. Maria cannot afford rent so she and her two children live in a motel room. Aside from having no privacy, they have to wash their dishes in the bath tub. In Sudbury... let's not forget Kimberley Rogers - an woman who died in a blistering heat wave while serving a conditional sentence of 6 months house arrest. She was convicted of welfare fraud for collecting social assistance and student loans while attending college. She died in her 8th month of pregnancy, alone and destitute trying to survive on $18 a month. In Hearst, Don is a man diagnosed with cancer and immediately referred for treatment in Thunder Bay. He can't go because he can't afford the cost of meals not covered by the travel grant. In Ipperwash, an unarmed Dudley George was SHOT DEAD by police as he protested for native land rights. The Tories deny wrongdoing (evidence points otherwise) and refuse a public inquiry.

 

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Page created December 22, 2001

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