You have dislodged a rock...

For the past few years, women have been struggling to change the legislation introduced by Mike Harris in 1995, to no avail. We have become increasingly aware that the system is abusive, that it forces women and children to go hungry, that it forces them to live in unsafe housing, and that they are systematically denied the basic necessities that would allow them to lead dignified lives.

We know that women who are survivors of abusive relationships describe their relationship with Social Assistance as profoundly negative and abusive. When women think that they have escaped an abusive situation, they are forced to confront extremely demeaning and humiliating treatment from social assistance workers and managers.

The power of social assistance workers to control information, to keep entitlements “hidden” (for example the Special Diet supplement), to implement rules that are never explained, puts women in the same kind of powerless situation as when they were living in abusive relationships. Any “disobedience” may result in punishment at any time. Women on social assistance live in fear of doing something to ”upset” their social workers.

We know that abusive men take advantage of this situation either by making women aware that they are not going to survive financially on their own or by calling the “snitch line” to accuse women of fraud – an accusation that has dire consequences for women. Many women are constantly being cut-off because workers receive information from abusive partners although they might be aware of the woman’s history of violence.

We know that report after report from the food banks and other agencies have concluded that women do not have adequate food. Women on social assistance may spend all or most of their monthly allowance in paying their rents, regularly going without meals. They are forced to live in cheap places, which are usually in a state of disrepair, or forced to share with others, living in crowded conditions. Evictions of families have become a regular event at the Housing Tribunals. When the Special Diet supplement, hidden for a long time, began to be massively accessed by families on Social Assistance giving them a bit of relief from hunger and aiding in the prevention of illness, it was immediately cut-off.

Women barely can pay the rent and feed their families. Therefore, access to basic necessities such as transportation or having a phone may seem like luxuries, despite being basic necessities that can ensure women’s safety.

In this context, it is not a surprise that many women decide to return to abusive relationships in order to survive economically. Sadly, this may cost them their lives. In August 1996, OAITH (Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses) surveyed 38 shelters in Ontario. They were asked questions about the impacts of the funding cutbacks on the women who used their services. In this study, 66% of shelters cited cuts to social assistance as the deciding factor in women’s decisions to stay with abusive partners.

We are tired of banging the doors of the governments to demand changes. To date, and with great fanfare from the government, we have only received a 5% increase. This is a mockery to women.

What we need is access to meaningful social supports – this is absolutely essential to guarantee women’s safety. This means at the very least, a 40% increase in the rates, an end to the clawback of the National Child Tax Credit, and the continuation of the Special Diet supplement.

We are calling on all women to come together to demand real change. This is a time of solidarity, organizing and mobilizing to make sure that women stop dying and suffering in abusive relationships, because they cannot survive economically on their own. It is time that our feminist voices become too loud to be ignored and too angry to be appeased by merely trickling with Social Assistance.

It is time to create an avalanche.

Join us on May 1st from 1 to 3pm to organize a mass delegation of women (to take place in the later part of May) to demand that the government:

• implement a 40% increase in the social assistance rates,
• end the clawback of the National Child Tax Credit, and
• reinstate the Special Diet supplement.

The meeting will take place at The 519 Church Street Community Centre (Wellesley Subway) Child Care will be provided upon request.

ASL interpretation will be provided upon request.

Contact: Ginny Santos at 416-392-3138 (TTY: 416-392-3031) or justice@metrac.org

This meeting is called by a network of women’s advocates and endorsed by:
OAITH, OWJN, METRAC, Nellies, Women’s Habitat, Parkdale Community Legal Services, Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre, Ontario Women’s Health Network, OCAP, and others.

Background Information:

• When Premier Dalton McGuinty announced his government's Domestic Violence Action Plan in December 2004, he talked about his government's commitment to ending women's inequality as an important component of ending violence against women. Indeed, women's equality appears as one of the principles of the Domestic Violence Action Plan in the document released by the government in August 2005. He needs to be held accountable for his statements;
  
  
• Women's equality cannot be achieved if women continue to live in poverty;
  
  
• Welfare rates in Ontario were cut by 21% under the Mike Harris Conservative government;
  
  
• With the increases in the cost of living since then, a 40% increase in social assistance payments would simply reinstate the pre-Harris rates;
  
  
• Families relying on social assistance would still require access to the special diet allowance. Any federal child benefits must not be clawed back, as this is funding intended to support children;
  
  
• In November, the Minister of Community and Social Services, Sandra Pupatello announced the government would be tightening up access to the special diet allowance, which thousands of social assistance recipients had been accessing for several months;
  
  
• Now, only a very limited number of "medical conditions" allow a person to seek the special allowance. Notably absent are breastfeeding and malnutrition, both situations where good nutrition is clearly important. As well, the amount of the allowance has been significantly cut;
  
  
• As a result, thousands of families have lost $250/person/month in income;
  
  
• Most of those receiving social assistance are single mothers and their children;
  
  
• Many of these women are relying on social assistance because they have left abusive relationships;
  
  
• Inadequate levels of social assistance keep women from leaving abusive relationships and force them to return to them, which exposes both the women and their children to ongoing violence and danger.

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