Social Safety News - the OSSN Newsletter
Issue 28 March 2003

Social Safety News is produced by the Coordinating Committee of the
Ontario Social Safety NetWork, which is made up of anti-poverty groups, legal
clinics, faith groups, labour organizations, community agencies and social
activists who support the Mission Statement of the NetWork.

How to Raise Funds locally for Your Group

By Deborah O’Connor, Northumberland Legal Centre

A common challenge faced by grass roots community groups is raising the funding needed to pay for members to attend meetings and participate fully in the organization. That statement also applies to the OSSN right now. While the steering committee is busy finalising funding proposals that we hope will result in our being able to bring member group representatives to our Toronto meetings, we find ourselves strapped for cash in the here and now.

To make sure our members can come to the Toronto meetings, we need the help of our local organizations to do some fund raising in their home communities to cover travel and child care costs.

Fortunately, this isn’t as hard as it might sound. In our group, the Northumberland Coalition Against Poverty, we have been able over the years to get small amounts of cash from our local Labour Council and some of the supportive union locals in our county.

If you can’t find your local Labour Council or listings for union locals in the phone book, you can call the Ontario Federation of Labour at 1 800-668-9138 to find out who to contact. If you can get to your Labour Council they can help you contact their member locals. Not all labour councils or all union locals are blessed with big pots of money though, so ask your contact what an appropriate request might be. Think of who the big employers are in your area and concentrate on their unions in your quest for funds.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to ask to go to a meeting and make a short presentation about your group and why you’re asking for their help. An approach that has worked well for us is to ask their members to imagine trying to unionize a workplace with no resources: no phones, faxes, or photocopiers, and no money to get to meetings and events. Tell them that’s the challenge your group is facing trying to organize low income people in Ontario. Remind them it’s the same government policies gutting the welfare system that decimated employment standards in Ontario and laid off thousands of unionized public service workers. Tell them you want to build ties between their members and yours, to support and attend each other’s campaigns and events, but you need their help to do that.

You may find it’s the beginning of a long and strong relationship with Labour in your community.

Another good source of listings for groups you might approach for funds is the Directory of Anti Poverty Groups in Ontario prepared by the Ontario Coalition for Social Justice. It lists social justice groups and some may be able to support your group, or at least be able to share funding sources with you. Call the OCSJ at 1-416-441-3714 or visit their web site to view the directory at www.ocsj.ca

Two other potential sources of funding can be church based groups and service clubs, but they need to be researched first. You may find that often women’s groups are more concerned about poverty rights and more willing to support your group’s work. The process would be the same: a telephone contact to gauge interest and find out how to proceed, perhaps with a letter of request, or perhaps by a presentation to your target organization. Take care to find out what your target groups’ passionate issues are and find links to your own causes so you can tell them by supporting you they are moving their own agenda forward.

Your local community information centre or United Way office should be able to provide lists of service clubs and church groups you can contact for help. Good luck and see you in Toronto!

ROGERS INQUEST: A reflection on OSSN participation

By Nancy Vander Plaats and Barbara Anello

The Inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers was held in Sudbury from October 15 through December 19, 2002. As readers of the Social Safety News probably know, the jury made several recommendations concerning welfare, chiefly to end the lifetime ban (or any ban) for people in need convicted of welfare fraud, and to raise welfare rates closer to actual costs of food and shelter.

The Ontario Social Safety NetWork partnered with the Ontario legal clinics’ Steering Committee on Social Assistance to obtain standing as a party at the Inquest, meaning we could participate fully, cross-examining witnesses and calling our own witnesses. We were represented by the Income Security Advocacy Centre. Our area of interest was defined as social assistance law and policy insofar as they are relevant to the circumstances of Kimberly Rogers death, or as they would affect others in similar circumstances today.

The Sudbury Social Planning Council had standing to look at the effect on the community of the policies involved in Ms. Rogers life and death. The coalition of national groups, including the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, the National Anti-Poverty Organization, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, and the National Association of Women and the Law (collectively known as the CAEFS Coalition), were allowed to deal with the prosecution and sentencing of welfare fraud. Naturally there was some overlap and the three public interest groups tried to coordinate strategy and communications. Meanwhile the Sudbury Committee to Remember Kimberly Rogers kept up their media and political work while remaining outside the inquest process.

There was far too much evidence and argument to summarize here; those who had not previously seen our daily dispatches and media articles can see them (and all of the jury’s recommendations) at: http://dawn.thot.net/Kimberly_Rogers

In general it was clear that most of the official government witnesses, particularly those involved in the prosecution of Kimberly Rogers, took pains to emphasize everything possible negative about Ms. Rogers’ personal behaviour and to minimize or completely deny any broader societal responsibility for what happened to her. At times (despite the tragic nature of the reason for the inquest) this got almost comical, as when several police officers and government lawyers talked about a temperature of over 34 Celsius as only about 80 F. Other times were far more serious, as when the lawyers for the Attorney General and Public Security Ministries repeatedly claimed Ms. Rogers was not poor. Two other blatant misrepresentations of the evidence were that Ms. Rogers knew she would absolutely have to serve a three month suspension of benefits when she agreed to plead guilty, and that she could have easily had her house arrest conditions changed to allow her to go out for almost any reason, like getting exercise.

However, neither these absurd arguments nor the legal constraints placed upon our lawyers in terms of narrow rulings by the Coroner ultimately blinded the jury to the conditions under which Ms. Rogers lived and died. The evidence of the community workers who had tried to help Ms. Rogers, her lawyer in the Charter Challenge, Grace Kurke, and evidence from the court transcript and welfare files clearly showed a woman who had not understood what was happening to her and was terrified of leaving her apartment prison. And the positive side of Ms. Rogers’ character as an honours student who was praised by the community agency where she did a placement came through.

It is clear that without the public interest groups participation, the official parties could have easily reduced the case to that of a flawed individual who got in trouble and paid the ultimate tragic price for her own failings. I felt our presence was well worth while when the Coroner’s counsel, who had presented this type of scenario in his summary on the first day of the inquest, completely changed his presentation at the end and showed a far more balanced picture.

But we had an even greater task, which was to try to explain the complex and perverse welfare system and to present evidence which could lead the jury to make recommendations to prevent future deaths. Our expert witnesses, Ian Morrison, Jacquie Thomson and Margaret Little, challenged welfare stereotypes and presented the reality in clear and compelling ways. For example, Ms. Thomson told about the woman who had her OW payments reduced because she was brought leftover food home from Sunday dinner with her family.

The OSSN/SCSA had developed a long list of recommendations which we hoped to see the jury make, and obviously we did not get them all. For instance, we were stopped from dealing with the adequacy of OSAP, and therefore did not get recommendations regarding increasing support for post-secondary education as a strategy to get people out of long term poverty. However, given the level of public support that the harsh Conservative welfare policies have enjoyed, we had identified the lifetime ban and the welfare rates as our priority objectives, and were overjoyed to get strong recommendations on both.

The inquest took a tremendous amount of time and resources from those of us who attended as clients and particularly from our counsel, using almost all the time of ISAC’s staff for over two months. And all we have are recommendations, which the government has already said they do not intend to act on. Was it worth it?

The Inquest got substantial media attention, with really well balanced coverage from the Toronto Star and CBC Radio reporters. So that makes the next step a lot easier as anti-poverty activists around Ontario organize and mobilize ourselves in the upcoming provincial election, to make the implementation of the recommendations, a campaign issue. We convinced five ordinary citizens of Sudbury about what needs to be done to prevent the deaths of more people like Kimberly Rogers; can we convince enough members of the public that whoever forms the next government will change those policies?

ODSP ACTION COALITION ON THE MOVE

By Deborah O’Connor, Northumberland Legal Centre

In our February 2002 newsletter Nancy Vander Plaats told us about the first steps in a campaign to get improvements in the way ODSP treats applications for disability benefits in Ontario, as well as to improve client service including raising the amount of benefits people get.

Since then several public forms have been held across the province, each providing valuable input into the changes that are needed. From these forums a set of recommendations has been developed to take to the Ministry of Community, Family and Children’s Services. Meanwhile the group of legal clinic workers who started the campaign have expanded the committee to include other organizational partners who agree with the need for change.

There’s a very good reason why the OSSN is such a valued partner; it’s because the OSSN was the first group to be consulted about the need for work on this issue in November 2001, and because the OSSN is our critical link to community activist groups.

The OSDP campaign relies on local groups to carry out the proposed activities in their own communities across Ontario. In return the ODSP Action Coalition has developed materials and tools for groups to support their work, co-ordinate and collect information on everyone’s efforts.

Finally we had a meeting with Brenda Elliott, the new Minister, on January 27th. While she made no specific promises, she certainly knew about the ODSP Action Coalition, and acknowledged that the ODSP system needs improvements. We plan to meet with Ministry staff and opposition party politicians as well to make our case for immediate and extensive reforms.

Part of the campaign is an effort to collect endorsements from organizations who support us. These will show the strength and determination of the Action Coalition. As well, plain language fact sheets and a detailed brief about all the problems with ODSP are available now. Postcards are available for people to sign and send to the Minister.

One of our more ambitious plans is to go to as many municipalities in Ontario as we can, and ask them to pass a resolution which endorses a short version of our recommendations for ODSP and formally asks the Province to implement them. So far, two communities have been successful in doing this; Ottawa and Northumberland County.

This is an exciting campaign that provides a real opportunity for us to work together to make significant change to the disability program in Ontario. With a provincial election coming soon, our hard work now can contribute to ensuring that low income issues like this are front and centre at election time, finally getting the attention they deserve from our politicians.

More information about the campaign, and the postcards are available on the Income Security Advocacy Centre website at www.incomesecurity.org

Wherever you live in Ontario, you and your group can get involved in this campaign and join the fight to improve ODSP for our disabled brothers and sisters.

(webmaster note: see also ODSP Action Coalition: Access to ODSP Campaign)

It’s Time for an Income Security System that Works!

By staff of the Income Security Advocacy Centre

Frustrated with an unemployment insurance program you have to pay into but can’t access when you need it? Angry about a welfare system that treats people like criminals? Think it’s time income security programs, wages and labour standards respected fundamental human rights to dignity and basic needs? Tinkering isn’t going to work – the system needs a complete overhaul.

Over the next few months, the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) will be working with communities across Ontario to help develop an income security system that actually works for people. Agencies and legal clinics in Hamilton, Sarnia, London, Toronto, Sault Ste. Marie and other communities will be holding focus groups with people living in low income to find out how we can address the growing social and economic insecurity in Ontario.

The focus groups will have two components. The first will look at potential law reform and litigation strategies related to income security programs. This will help ISAC set its priorities for the coming years. In the second and most critical part of the focus groups, facilitators will help participants imagine a new income security system - one that takes into account the realities of the current economy of unstable, increasingly non-standard employment and polarized wages, and that embraces fundamental human rights.

Using the results from the focus groups, ISAC will work with participants, community organization, legal clinics and others to develop a policy platform on income security that we hope will inform future lobbying and law reform initiatives.

For more information, please contact ISAC’s provincial outreach co-ordinator, Josephine Grey, or Katheryne Schulz at (416) 597-57820 or 1 (866) 245-4072 (toll free).

Campaign Update: Pay the Rent AND Feed the Kids

By Sherrie Tingley, Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation

Here is a brief update on who has joined the campaign to date. Ottawa, Toronto, North Bay and Kitchener / Waterloo, have all gotten posters and have strong campaigns in their areas. All of these places have added an impressive list of endorsers to their posters.

Toronto has taken the campaign to a whole new level, adding new demands to raising the shelter allowance. In addition they have planned a whole media strategy and launched their campaign October 30 2002. They have also begun a postcard campaign. They are planning to deliver the completed postcards to Ernie Eves. They are also trying to get a province wide event under way. They have also produced their own poster and pamphlet.

Ottawa is planning a city wide bus campaign which should have a significant impact in raising awareness. They have also held a community forum and in relation to the issue of adequate shelter allowance, sent a bus to Sudbury in support of the Kimberly Rogers inquest which will have significant impact on the lives of those living on social assistance.

North Bay has been very busy distributing information on the campaign and has spread the word about the inadequacy of shelter allowances far and wide. North Bay also succeeded in having November 22, 2002 proclaimed Housing Strategy Day and had November 24-30 declared Child Poverty Awareness Week. In the other above mentioned communities, the campaign is going strong and several strategic events are being planned.

The following communities have received their posters and are very enthusiastic about getting their campaign under way: Cobourg, Peterborough, Windsor, Kingston, Sault Ste. Marie, Belleville, York Region, London, Peel, Hamilton and Thunder Bay. These communities are also eagerly seeking local endorsements to add to their posters.

Sault Ste. Marie has been distributing their posters at all the community events they can and were particularly successful at an event held on the 17th of December. Peterborough is also off to a great start. On October 28, 2002, Peterborough succeeded in getting their municipal government to pass a motion against the lifetime ban for welfare recipients and initiated a program to return the clawed-back NCB money to welfare recipients, providing those recipients with a small measure of relief from the burden of trying to pay their rent and feed their kids. They are currently in the process of joining forces with other groups in their area to give their campaign even more momentum. They are also eager to join other groups in staging a province wide event.

Manitoulin Island is also interested in joining the campaign and we will be working out which resources they need in the near future. Thanks to NUPGE’s support, they could have their own posters by the end of the month.

We are currently updating all our posters with the most recent figures that are available. We are also preparing our French posters for distribution. They should be available soon. We are sending an update to all our participating communities, offering all the most recent materials we have received from across the province as well as sharing the ideas that various communities have come up with, hoping to inspire others.

We are getting new requests almost every day. The campaign is definitely picking up speed. I am very pleased with the level of interest that everyone has shown and the enthusiasm the various communities are demonstrating. With this level of commitment, the campaign can only be a success.

Regional Report: Northumberland Coalition Against Poverty

It was a busy fall season for members of the Northumberland Coalition Against Poverty.

Hot from our spring success in convincing our County Council to pass a resolution asking the Province to repeal the lifetime welfare ban for persons convicted of welfare fraud, we went back to County Council again in November. This time we were seeking their support for our local recommendations to improve the Ontario Disability Support Program.

Earlier this year NCAP partnered with the Northumberland Community Legal Centre to host a public forum on ODSP, and that event resulted in the formation of two committees, one made up of service providers to co-ordinate and streamline the application process for clients trying to get on ODSP, and the other, our action committee formed to do the political work described here.

We had condensed our page and a half of recommendations into three main points for County Council to consider: that ODSP rates be increased immediately, that the application process be simplified, and that ODSP return to their former system of designating caseworkers for every recipient of benefits. Speakers made an impassioned plea for fairness for the disabled on ODSP.

Our delegation was politely received, and Councillors asked the Ontario Works office to prepare a report for their review in December. We all went back again to provide some encouragement for them to endorse our recommendations, and surprisingly, they did: our entire set, not just the three main points. Now our own County Council is on record as supporting all the changes we wanted locally, including raising the ODSP rates.

Next, six of us from NCAP and the Schizophrenia Society met with our MPP, Doug Galt. He listened to our heartfelt concerns and told us he had been speaking with the Minister, Brenda Elliott, about ODSP just a few days before meeting with us. One of our delegates’ own situation, being severely physically disabled from three spinal surgeries yet still denied ODSP benefits, concerned him enough to offer to take her case to Ms. Elliott personally. Overall it was a positive meeting but we’ll hold off on declaring it a success until we see the results! Certainly it’s easier to get the attention and sympathy of elected officials when it’s the disabled under discussion rather than people on welfare, who are suffering so much under Ontario Works rules and pathetically low rates.

At County Council we made sure to tell Councillors we think OW rates need to be boosted substantially too, and we intend to go back to them in the new year as part of the Pay the Rent AND Feed the Kids campaign. One thing is sure, when you’re fighting poverty you never run out of campaigns to fight!

Upcoming…

The Ontario Social Safety Network invites everyone to attend our Pre Election Strategy Meeting: “Getting Our Low Income Issues on the Table”

Friday, April 4th from 10 am until 3:30

at the Income Security Advocacy Centre, fifth floor, 425 Adelaide Street West, Toronto
(one block west of Spadina at Brant Street)

AGENDA:

Campaign Updates:

• Pay the Rent AND Feed the Kids
• Follow up to Kim Rogers Inquest recommendations
• ODSP Action Coalition

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER:

SARAH BLACKSTOCK, Ontario Coalition for Social Justice

Learn about the LIVING WAGE/LIVING INCOME campaign
and how to bring a community meeting to your town

For help with travel or child care costs call Deborah O’Connor toll free at 1-800-850-7882

Social Safety News is produced by the Coordinating Committee of the
Ontario Social Safety NetWork, which is made up of anti-poverty groups, legal
clinics, faith groups, labour organizations, community agencies and social
activists who support the Mission Statement of the NetWork.

The Ontario Social Safety NetWork depends on donations to send out our
newsletters and special reports, and to subsidize the cost of travel to
meetings for low income people from communities across the province.
Please contact Deborah O’Connor at 1-800-850-7882
if you would like to make a donation.