Early on Friday, members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and many people facing cuts to their welfare and ODSP cheques due to the slashed "Special Diet Allowance" occupied and shut down the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal at 47 Sheppard Ave. E. in Toronto.
The Tribunal was closed for the day as result of this action.
The Harris Tories set up the Tribunal as part of their so called ‘Tenant Protection Act’. Having cut welfare rates by 21.6% and made it impossible for people to pay their rent, the Tories then reated a streamlined eviction process to enable landlords to put tenants on the street with ease. The McGuinty Liberals have maintained this situation and hundreds of thousands still go hungry to pay the rent or give up their housing to eat.
The Liberals have recently gutted the Special Diet Program that enabled poor people on welfare or disability to obtain a food allowance of up to $250/month. We are here today to demand that this decision be reversed and that social assistance rates be increased by the 40% needed to restore their spending power to 1995 levels. If the poor can’t have enough to eat and pay the rent, economic evictions must stop. For this reason, we went to the Tribunal, today, to challenge its operations and ensure evictions are prevented.
http://www.ocap.ca/
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