Anti-Poverty Protesters Take Over MPP office and are Arrested

The following is a letter sent out by S-CAP (Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty), to the Councilors' in Sudbury, Ontario;

S-CAP has sent out the following open letter to all of the city councilors.

Dear City Councilor,

On behalf of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP), we are calling on you, Sudbury’s City Councilors and the City of Greater Sudbury, to take a decisive stance opposing the cut to the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) which is slated to occur January 1st, 2013. Since the Mike Harris cuts of the 1990’s people on Ontario Works and ODSP have seen the spending power on their cheques fall by close to 60%. This year’s Provincial Budget continued the rapid decline with rates that don’t even keep up with inflation. Following the previous gutting of the vital Special Diet benefit, this year’s Budget also brought a series of cutbacks for people on social assistance including the elimination of the CSUMB.

16,000 people a month turn to CSUMB. It is one of the only ways that people on OW or ODSP can get housing, cover the costs of moving, stave off eviction and obtain the basic items to maintain a home. It is a defense against homelessness and a means by which many women and children are able to leave situations of domestic violence. Cutting CSUMB is designed to hurt people as much as possible when they are at the most vulnerable point in their lives. It will increase homelessness and hardship.

As George Maroosis, Chair of the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board (DNSSAB) recently wrote to the Minister of Community and Social Services: “Given the inadequate basic needs and shelter allowances for the Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), the CSUMB has emerged as a core benefit for supporting people on social assistance. To that end, we are asking that the province fully reinstate CSUMB.” (October 31, 2012). We call on you to support this position and to communicate it as quickly as possible to the Minister of Community and Social Services and the Ontario government.


S-CAP is a non-violent, direct-action, anti-poverty organization based in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. We provide direct-action support work assisting individuals in their struggles with welfare and ODSP, housing, employers, and others who deny people what they are entitled to in order to meet their needs. In addition, we mount campaigns against and support educational work about regressive government policies as they affect working people and people living in poverty. We believe in the power of people to organize themselves.

Here is a short News video;


And the entire video uncut;



I love how this asshole simply calls them "Rabble Rousers". He talks about"In a democracy"; well they arrested a Reporter (Freedom of the press, anyone?). They arrest the protestors saying that it's "Private Property"; even though it is a CONSTITUENCY office which is payed for BY US!

It is very telling, one of the phrases used by the politician... he said " in a democracy people have a right to be rabble rousers, and in a democracy politicians have the right to make decisions we think are in the best interests of the......."

No... lets just get something abso-blooody-lutely clear here. In a democracy, the part a politician plays is that of public servant. It is NOT for politicians to choose a course that they think is in the public interest, but thier task to do as thier public demand of them, to enforce the will of the people, and force the government to behave as its people request.

A failiure to do this is a) common and rife amongst western democracies, and b) a reason for every single freedom loving individual between the south west of Russia, and the most western ends of the USA and the American continent in general, to get the hell up off the couch, and protest, and lay seige to thier governments, local and national.

When you vote, that does not give the person for whom you vote carte blanche to assault your earnings, destroy your local economy, or bring hardship into the lives of those who have done nothing to deserve such a fate. What it does do, is give you all a responsibility. A responsibility on behalf of those who vote for the person in power, to ensure they behave as they have been instructed by the people, and on the behalf of everyone else to prevent, by any means, the person who is in power from destroying the people overwhom they mistakenly believe they have power.

Take this to heart. The politician here is wrong. If the man was worth voting for, he would have been sitting with those people, not standing against them. If he was worth voting for, he would not be allowing the removal of a vital mode of support for thousands of needy people, but figuring out ways to get the money to pay for support of thier livelihoods.

May hell take every democratically elected official, who believes the votes he recieved gave him such power that he could ignore the will of those who gave unto him the power he wields. May they rot, and burn, and suffer.