Recent news:
Area MPPs feel heat at poverty meeting
(The Scarborough Mirror, June 10, 2008)
'Have the guts to help,' poor tell the province
(Toronto Star, June 10, 2008)
Karen Mundy is urging Queen's Park to display one thing above all in its bid to cut poverty – courage..."You have to have the guts to help poor people," the Toronto woman said to applause from many of the 150 on hand at a meeting in a stifling hot school auditorium in St. James Town, one of the city's most impoverished neighbourhoods. "We aren't popular to stick up for."...read more
Liberals seek public input
(Toronto Star, June 9, 2008)
Social activists are calling it Super Monday in the provincial fight against poverty. Toronto-area Liberals are holding three public meetings across the city this evening for the public to weigh in on the McGuinty government's plan to draft a poverty-reduction strategy with measurable goals and timetables by year's end...read more
The hard search for 'good jobs'
(Toronto Star, May 13, 2008)
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton had it right when he said, "The best social policy is a good job." But good jobs here in Ontario are growing increasingly scarce with the decimation of the manufacturing sector over the past six years. (General Motors yesterday announced yet another closing, this one its Windsor transmission plant, which employs 1,400 people.)...read more
Poverty 'steals from your soul'
(Toronto Star, May 9, 2008)
In a forum usually reserved for peering at poverty through the lens of bureaucratic terminology, Michael Creek showed up to talk about how being poor actually feels...read more.
Anti-poverty arsenal lacks key weapon
(Toronto Star, May 7, 2008)
In its war on poverty, the Ontario government is beginning to sound a little like Saddam Hussein's old spokesman Comical Ali, who rhapsodized about glorious Iraqi victories even as American troops rolled into Baghdad...read more
Liberals defend closed-door poverty reduction consultations
(Peterborough Examiner, May 6, 2008)
The provincial Liberal Party Tuesday defended its decision to hold closed-door meetings about poverty reduction amid harsh criticism from opposition leaders and some Peterborough politicians...read more.
Listen to the poor
(Toronto Star, May 4, 2008)
Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews has begun the process of consulting with communities about how to reduce poverty in this province. But already anti-poverty groups are raising concerns about how she is going about it...read more.
Ontario seeks input on poverty issues
(Toronto Star, May 2, 2008)
Ontarians concerned about the high number of people living in poverty will finally have a forum to tell the government what they think should be done about it....But already there are concerns that the plans for closed-door consultations will shut out those the government needs to hear from the most – people living in poverty...read more
Determining a deprivation index
(Toronto Star, April 19, 2008)
Opal Sparks dreams of the day she doesn't have to walk in somebody else's shoes.Second-hand clothes are second nature for the 56-year-old former office administrator whose mobility problems forced her out of work four years ago. And for her, a constant reminder that she is poor."Everything I'm wearing today, except my coat and my underwear, are used," she says. "Even my shoes." If you can't afford new clothes, are you poor?...read more.
Column: Preying on vulnerable workers
(Toronto Star, April 18, 2008)
She lowered her eyes in shame. "Welfare," she said softly.That was the last place Norma Soares wanted to be. She came from Mexico two years ago, determined to work hard. She was willing to do the dirty, menial jobs nobody else wanted. Like most immigrants, she dreamt of a better future. But she discovered that employers in Canada can cheat workers like her – and get away with it...read more.
Column: Callwood's truth goes marching on
(Toronto Star, April 16, 2008)
If June Callwood could have chosen a memorial, it probably would have been what happened this week.On April 14, the first anniversary of her death, 500 anti-poverty activists – single mothers, street people, individuals with disabilities, immigrants, members of marginalized minorities and those who support them – held an hour-long, emotion-packed meeting with Children's Minister Deb Matthews, who has a mandate to reduce poverty...read more.
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