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Advocates take on federal government over Bill C-43
In a whirlwind week of organizing, ISAC and our partners pushed back on Bill C-43.
C-43 is the omnibus bill that contains two sections that would allow the provinces to restrict access to social assistance benefits for refugee claimants and others without status in Canada:
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=095b12c98935ecaadd327bf90&id=c69da51d1e&e=[UNIQID]
Last week, we appeared with Canadian Council for Refugees at the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs during their pre-hearings on Bill C-43:
http://incomesecurity.org/documents/C-43SenateCommitteePresentationNov62014.pdf
On Monday evening, Romero House appeared at the House of Commons Finance Committee to oppose the sections of Bill C-43. Their great op-ed was published in the Star on Sunday: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/11/16/canada_takes_another_step_away_from_oncehumane_refugee_policy.html#
Tuesday morning, we issued a press release about the Open Letter that we sent to Minister of Finance Joe Oliver and the 160 organizations that signed on:
http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/160-organizations-across-canada-oppose-federal-bill-c-43-1969248.htm
Our contact with a Canadian Press reporter resulted in a story that was picked up in more than 30 media markets across the country Tuesday (here’s the Globe):
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/battle-over-refugees-welfare-coverage-looms-between-advocates-and-ottawa/article21635225/.
Canada Without Poverty appeared at a House of Commons Finance Committee meeting Tuesday morning and took on backbench Conservative MP Gerald Keddy:
http://www.cwp-csp.ca/2014/11/cwp-speaks-out-at-the-finance-committee/
Meanwhile, Health for All and Council of Canadians led a delegation to Minister Oliver’s constituency office to deliver the Open Letter:
https://storify.com/healthmichael/we-delivered-a
Both of those were covered in a CP follow up story:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/advocates-prepare-for-new-battle-with-feds-over-cuts-to-refugee-benefits-1.2106919.
The Open Letter and the demo at Oliver’s office were also covered by:
- The Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/11/18/refugee_advocates_battle_federal_government_over_welfare.html
- Torontoist: http://torontoist.com/2014/11/health-coalition-says-refugee-claimants-need-access-to-social-assistance/.
Ontario’s Minister of Community and Social Services was quoted as saying “We have no intention to change our policy as it relates to refugee claimants at all” in this Star story:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/11/18/refugee_advocates_battle_federal_government_over_welfare.html
Michele Biss of Canada Without Poverty, Dr. Ritika Goel of Health For All, and Janet Dench of Canadian Council for Refugees between them did something like 18 CBC / SRC morning shows across the country on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
(Sorry, we don’t have links to these, but you might search your local station’s website…)
Canadian Council for Refugees and Colour of Poverty / Colour of Change Coalition presented at the House of Commons Citizenship and Immigration hearings Wednesday afternoon:
Video of the hearings is here: http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/parlvu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?contententityid=12282&date=20141119&lang=en
And the Globe and Mail ran this supportive editorial on Wednesday:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/compassion-common-sense-refugee-claimants-and-omnibus-bills/article21661600/
If you haven’t already signed the petition against the provisions in C-43, please do:
https://www.change.org/p/stephen-harper-stop-the-budget-bill-from-denying-refugee-claimants-social-assistance
Around the Province
The Toronto Star’s series on the 25th anniversary of the 1989 House of Commons commitment to end child poverty by the year 2000:
It’s time to hit the reset button and get the job done:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/11/19/25_years_after_ottawas_pledge_to_end_child_poverty_its_time_to_hit_reset.html
If the promise had been kept, her life would have been different:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/11/19/ottawa_and_child_poverty_how_keeping_the_promise_might_have_changed_one_childs_life.html
One Toronto man’s story shows why the quality of jobs matters as much as the numbers of jobs:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/11/19/behind_the_child_poverty_cycle_precarious_work.html
Ed Broadbent reflects on the 1989 pledge:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/11/19/ed_broadbent_reflects_on_the_childpoverty_pledge_of_1989_a_heartfelt_promise_still_unfulfilled.html
The statistics tell the story:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/11/18/the_cycle_of_child_poverty.html
Reports and Analyses
Sheila Block of the CCPA-Ontario on Ontario’s Fall Economic Update:
http://behindthenumbers.ca/2014/11/17/ontarios-economic-update-pieced-together-with-string-and-masking-tape/
National
Linda McQuaig on the rich getting richer, faster than you think:
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/12/the-rich-are-getting-richer-and-faster-than-you-think/
Research shows that new immigrants took the brunt of the recession’s shrinking job market:
http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2014/11/18/immigrants_took_the_brunt_of_recessionyear_turn_toward_selfemployment.html
International
“The establishment” is starting to understand that inequality is bad for the economy:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/10/25/why_the_establishment_is_worried_about_inequality_burman.html
And yet seven of the 30 largest corporations in US paid more to their CEOs than they did in taxes:
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/19/us-companies-pay-bigger-executive-salaries-than-taxes?CMP=twt_gu