A List of Our Demands: ODSP/OW Clients of Ontario.

 

Do it.

 

 

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

To that end.

We hereby demand a 2.5 % raise for ODSP/OW, to be committed to in writing by this government. This announcement will be made prior to Oct 1/21. The commitment will be for a term of five years. This raise will take effect Nov 1/21 and remain in effect for five subsequent years, that is to say until the last raise of Nov 1/26, at which time a new rate is to be determined in a timely manner as circumstances dictate. The new rate will be higher.

This government will commit, in writing, and on the front pages of community Canadian journalism, not to claw back any federal benefits including, but not exclusive to, child care programs, income adjustment benefits, including any form of federal basic income benefits, or any form of federal housing benefits for low income Canadians. This includes carbon tax rebates, HST and Trillium Benefits as well as any other federal/provincial subsidy that exists or should take effect.

This government will not exclude this demographic group from any such further social benefits.

We hereby demand this government to commit, in writing, to raising the allowable earnings, to $500.00 per month for ODSP/OW, with a rate of claw-back no more than one third, in other words 33 % on earnings over the allowable income threshold. This government understands that the present rate is fifty percent and shall not be raised by subterfuge or obfuscation.

This government will immediately raise the Work Related Benefit from $100.00/month to $250.00/month for a single adult employed person and proportionately for adults with dependent children. Each and every dependent child or incapacitated adult.

This government will immediately raise all benefits for dependent children, up to and including the age of 25, as presently applied for otherwise inapplicable adults currently living in household and otherwise not covered under existing and otherwise applicable dependents.

We hereby demand that this government commit in writing to continue rent controls as presently constituted, (Sept/21), for a period of 3-5 years; or until such time as the housing crisis has been deemed by parties competent to determine same, has been ended.

We hereby demand that this government shall from this time henceforth, collect, collate, study and determine the ODSP/OW suicide rate, and take all appropriate actions to lessen and mitigate these issues. We expect the government to be sincere in these initiatives. Let this government ‘flatten the curve’.

We hereby demand that this government end the practice of dividing benefits into ‘shelter’ and ‘personal needs’ portions, which do nothing other than place burdens on our most vulnerable citizens. This alone is a recipe for homelessness, as we have repeatedly stated; in our communications to this government. Which so far have been unacknowledged.

We hereby demand a raise in allowable assets as applied to ODSP/OW, this especially applies at the time of original application. We demand a ten percent raise in allowable assets, we also demand that all guidelines applicable be clear, easily understood and easily accessed and searched online and otherwise in an easily-accessible form for those of sight and hearing-impaired status. This should also be available in as many languages as are presently found in this polity, i.e., Ontario, Canada and its environs. This includes roughly three hundred and fifty languages.

We demand that this government recognize the right of the disabled, the mentally ill, or any other marginalized group, person or entity, whether collectively or in their own right, to negotiate on their own behalf, as well as on the behalf of others, for any beneficial or charitable reason, for any reasonable reason whatsoever, and that it shall not prejudice their case, or any other cases, that may be shown to be affected by this and other demands.

This government commits to no reprisals, including any form of bureaucratic or ministerial infringement, interference or undue inquiry when faced with such moral or ethical questions or challenges. The government will honour this commitment.

This government understands and acknowledges that charity is not, and can never be, a substitute for adequate, robustly funded social programs that meet the needs of the target demographic and should never be used to solicit positive, front page publicity without any real impact on the issue at question, a situation that has of late become intolerable to any thinking citizen.

We hereby demand that the allowable gifts in any given benefit period be raised from $7,000.00 to $10,000.00 immediately.

We hereby demand that the guideline or provision allowing any charitable institution, a church, a charity, a benevolent association, thereby allowing them to give a disabled person one million dollars for any reason whatsoever, without penalty to their benefits, be immediately raised to two million dollars.

We hereby demand that the practice of clawing back benefits from spousal parties or otherwise, who choose to co-habit a domicile, be ended and that neither party shall lose any part of their shelter portion, neither their personal needs portion or any other portion, whatsoever, under any circumstance whatsoever. No more claw-backs.

We hereby demand that the mileage rate for business, employment or medical travel be immediately raised ten percent, from $0.40/k to $0.44/k.

This government will commit in writing to initiatives that will reduce stigma, reduce the role of race, bigotry and prejudice, sexual or otherwise, in any social services delivery, including reducing barriers to proper service for those suffering from mental health and addictions issues. This also includes issues of sexual dysphoria.

This government will commit no future funding to community nutritionists, on the front pages of local media outlets, who just want to help poor people make better nutritional choices, when this government knows very well that clients of ODSP/OW have no money for food anyways. Honestly, it’s not even a dollar a day for either demographic group. So why bother.

This government will negotiate in good faith with the one million citizens of Ontario, through their representatives, duly appointed or selected, by God if necessary, but otherwise by democratic and parliamentary means, who, in the past have always been the last to be consulted in regards to their own hopes, their own dreams and their own aspirations, and whose lives, families and fortunes, their very futures have always been sacrificed in the past in the interest of those who could very well have done without such unfair advantages at the expense of their less fortunate friends, neighbours and fellow citizens, and who undoubtedly would have done something about it, if only they could have found the time.

This government will also acknowledge that it understands that it has been put on notice; and that it indeed understands that it has been put on notice; and that it also understands its responsibility to respond in an ethical manner, and even in a timely manner, that reflects credit upon itself and upon the taxpayers and the interested citizens of this province.

This government will clearly state that it has failed, and that it will endeavour to do better in the future in the best interest of this polity.

This government will reinstitute food safety guidelines for food banks and homeless shelters, with a view to preventing abuses of the food safety network, e.g. Grade C eggs donated to food banks, which are not suitable for human consumption but only for further processing. Even though agricultural corporations receive substantial tax credits for same.

This government commits to a program of defunding the food bank industrial complex and de-emphasizing homeless shelters and initiatives in favour of longer term solutions including a mix of co-op, geared-to-income, independent and dependent senior housing solutions, as well as more autonomous housing solutions in those cases where such may be applicable, in a person-based model, which is arguably better than whichever model may have come before, in the opinion of this writer.

Which model did come before? That is to say, if the government, or perhaps the Minister, doesn’t mind one million citizens asking a pretty reasonable question.

 

END

 

 

 

 

Hysteria Versus a Sober Analysis of the Facts.

Louis Shalako

The true ideologue is among the most ignorant of men, for he asks no questions, (although they do make a lot of statements), and needs no new information, and wouldn’t entertain an idea if it bit him on the ass. He already has all of his answers, provided to him in the most dichotomous terms, by his father’s dinner table conversation, at or about the age of nine years old.

They never forget, and they never learn anything new.

However, you and I can do better than that—


Freaking Out.


When people freak about Mr. Ford's slashing of proposed increases to ODSP/OW, one must bear in mind these were pre-election promises made by a doomed government.

There is no guarantee that they would have ever been implemented. At one time, the Liberals had proposed a massive shift, where welfare was eliminated and everyone would get, essentially, $749.00/month in subsistence. This would be four hundred less than ODSP clients were already getting, and in fact my own rent is more than that. So it remains to be seen just how far Mr. Ford will go, or how far he even can go, bearing in mind certain realities--e.g. the fact that my landlord is dependent on that disability cheque to the tune of $788.00/month. 

And I can assure you that the landlord is a conservative.

It is true, that I tweeted to former Premier, the Right Honourable Kathleen Wynne, seven or eight days before the election, that there was still time to raise ODSP and OW rates, in an act of simple justice. She admitted on the front page of many media outlets, the very next day, that they couldn’t win the provincial election. There was still some time, they had a majority, and yet they made no move to adopt the suggested changes.

#facts

Okay, read the second last line. Now recall, that I tweeted the new Premier the following question—this was just a few days ago: Doug, what sort of preliminary data were we getting back from the Basic Minimum Income project?

Now. Reading between lines, bearing in mind the Progressive Conservative ideology, it is an easy guess, that the program was fairly successful, in that outcomes were, in general, positive, and with at least some of the promised savings for taxpayers, even though the program took millions in funding. It has also only been going since early 2017—

The cynic in me says this is exactly the kind of information that PCs would prefer not to receive, as it contradicts their ideology, which is that work brings dignity, (more cynic), and the less it pays, the more dignity it brings. (On a dollar-for-dollar basis, this is true on some level. It is a level only ideologues and capitalists can understand, perhaps justify is a better word).

Mr. Ford is not going to pander to his critics, he has all the power. But he will, inevitably, pander to his base, no matter how ignorant and unsophisticated they may be.

Him too.

##Doug_Ford @FordNation #ODSP #OW #Louis

You guys know my attitude towards food banks, they are of course a national disgrace, and there are an estimated 1,000 of the fucking things here in Ontario. However, it is even possible that Canadian journalists also read my posts, and they're not exactly stupid. What they are, is thin on the ground, overworked and underfunded, and with the precarious nature of this particular calling at this particular time, not inclined to rock too many boats when advertisers are, for the most part, business advertisers—business big and small.

The other advertisers are the government, charities, (like fucking food banks and shit like that), as well as a few multinational corporations of a predatory nature.

Perspective: The Harris government slashed OW by 22.5 % back in 1995. Mr. Ford has slashed an increase by 50 %. The Liberals had promised three percent, for three years in a row, the Conservatives have left much doubt about the two years after this one. I don't like the man's policies, but if he follows my advice, we can still improve people's lives (I'm on ODSP) and still save a few taxpayer bucks. This is why I will be tweeting at him every day for the next 100 days.

If you have a concrete, specific suggestion, you can tweet the Premier, #Doug_Ford at @FordNation

No ineffectual do-gooders please.

Together, we can make a difference. Sure beats hysteria.

#hysteria

Doug, I totally agree with the Minister—social services is a patchwork, a mess, a fur-ball.

The question is what to do about it.

The thing is to do it right, with the minimum of pain and disruption to Ontario's most vulnerable citizens.

#Doug_Ford @FordNation #ODSP #OW #Louis

A simple test. If the preliminary data coming from the Province of Ontario's Basic Income pilot (now cancelled), was all-negative, then I have no doubt it would be quickly released by the government. If it was at all amenable to spin, then I suspect some spun version, shall we say more interpretive than hard numbers and facts, would be released at a somewhat later date—this allows them time to do the work of spinning it. But if it was mostly positive, or completely positive, the odds are the government, this government, would have no real incentive to release that data.

#analysis #tests #facts #honesty #interrogations

(Louis is always interrogating the system, ladies and gentlemen. – ed.)

On behalf of the taxpayers of Ontario, who paid for this study, I hereby call upon this government to release this preliminary data.

It will be interesting to see, if the Right Honourable Doug Ford, Premier of this fine province, can get the affected department, in the face of their own soon and imminent demise, to do the work of analysis and digestion of aforesaid data.

Honestly, if we could simplify this bullshit, it would free up a few hundred million for other projects, including poverty reduction. #snork #cynics

…and now you know how I really feel.

END

At the time of this writing, Louis has all kinds of books and stories available for free from Smashwords. He would hate to see anyone miss out—

Thank you for reading.