Welfare / ODSP: Special Diet Supplement Wrestle Continues with City and Provincial Liberals

north america / mexico | community struggles | news report Sunday August 14, 2005 22:20 by Jeff Shantz - Punching Out (NEFAC) punchingout at nefac dot net PO box 79538, 1995 Weston Rd., Toronto, Ontario, M9N 3W9, Canada

An update on the struggle for a raise in the Ontario welfare and disability rates focusing on the 'special diet supplement’, which is under attack from Toronto bureaucrats.

TORONTO - As reported in the July issue of Strike! The Special Diet Campaign undertaken by OntarioCoalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and allies in the Ontario Common Front has been widely successful, helping hundreds of people access $250/per month for improved nutrition. On August 7th , in Belleville, the Tenant Action Group (TAG), together with the Marsh Drive and North Park communities, organized a highly successful “hunger clinic” which signed up 124 for the supplement.

In early July Toronto’s welfare administrators attempted to bring in mean-spirited changes to the special diet policy requiring all people receiving the supplement to re-apply for it on new municipal forms. In an overtly sexist move, nurse practitioners, dieticians and midwives would no longer be allowed to authorize the forms. Additionally, doctors would be asked to reveal specific underlying medical conditions for each applicant. As one CUPE worker in social services revealed to me, this was in violation of even the Provinces welfare regulations, as well as basic health protection law which is supposed to protect doctor-patient confidentiality. These policies would have excluded about 1/3 of people currently receiving the allowance.

On July 21st , a public strategy meeting was held in Etobicoke, conducted in different languages (Somali, Spanish, English), with over 150 spirited participants. They voted overwhelmingly to directly confront the Mayor and occupy city hall until their demands were won.

In the face of this large and angry mobilization of people receiving the supplement --combined with demands from medical practitioners, especially nurses -- the City was forced to retreat from these plans rather than face a publicly embarrassing occupation of City Hall and the prospect of legal action. While this obstacle was overcome, the City continues to arbitrarily deny many people for various dubious reasons. Forty-two families presented a united front on August 5th at the Mayor’s Office to demand the funds be released. As reports of denials, of new “consent forms”, and other b.s. from caseworkers come in from across the city, it’s clear the fight continues.

Even more, we must win the real basis of the campaign, which is getting the benefit to everyone who receives welfare or disability payments. The vast majority of people who need the special diet to get by are clearly not accessing it, if we consider that there are approximately 140 000 on social assistance or disability in Toronto, but only about 10,000 receiving the supplement (a 67% increase since the start of this campaign.) There are approximately 760 000 people in Ontario who rely on the Provinces inadequate welfare and disability payments.

That is why OCAP argues the emphasis must be placed on building community movements that are capable of forcing the Liberal government to automatically give the $250 special diet allowance to every person receiving social assistance in the province. This money must be made available without reference to medical examination since the links between the province’s paltry social assistance rates and ill health are already clearly established.

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This article is from the August issue of Strike! - A newsletter of anarchist news and commentary published in Ontario, Canada.

To download a pdf file of the newsletter go to:

http://users.resist.ca/~gidget/nefac/strike/aug_strike1.PDF