ODSP Action Coalition takes action on the Special Diet
Apr 8th, 2010 | By Collective | Category: Campaigns (incl.) Grassroots, Community BoardINFORMATION PICKET AT HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL
Re: CANCELLATION OF SPECIAL DIET
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 9:00 am—11:00 am
Outside Human Rights Tribunal offices
655 Bay St.
Ontario Government Tramples on Rights of People with Disabilities
by Canceling Special Diet
On April 13, the Human Rights Tribunal is holding a follow-up hearing related to a decision issued in February, that the Ontario government discriminated against people with certain medical conditions by not providing them a fair amount of special diet allowance. Rather than committing to uphold human rights by making the special diet allowance fair for everyone who needs it, the government is going to cancel the entire program.
Members of the ODSP Action Coalition will be holding an informational picket outside of the Human Rights Tribunal to call attention to this. We will hand out information pointing out how serious the cancellation of special diet will be for the health of thousands of people with disabilities, and questioning why the government treats the human rights of people with disabilities with such contempt.
Toronto-area supporters of the Coalition and anyone else concerned about special diet are welcome to join us in this peaceful picket.
IMHO
Its because our society was raised with such contempt towards anyone who doesn’t work a full time job and make 30,000 a year.
Soon my ODSP cheque amount will be $120 dollars a month once they cut my special diet this year. I have been informed by the organization ACORN that they have already cut people’s Special diet that were receiving it monthly .. I guess I could be Next.
Thanks Madame Meilleur!!
I only found out I’d lost my Special Diet Allowance when I read the ODSP Action Coalition’s website. I can’t see how they expect us to survive without it. I also only have $120 a month without it and that doesn’t even come close to covering the cost of the food and supplements I require to maintain my health.
I’m absolutely gobsmacked. Is this information being covered by mainstream media? I live in McFlinty’s Riding….time to whizz by in my wheelchair and hurl eggs I can’t afford at his window. I had no idea my Diet Allowance was in jeopardy. I want to puke. McGutless’ flunky assured me, when I called last winter to ask what his boss’ poverty platform was, that there were riches and loverlies aplenty in the budget…
How dare this government even consider taking from US? My overpayment recovery fee shot up because “the government really needs the money” (no kidding, this is what an ODSP worker gave as explanation), our meagre increases are dwarfed by the maximum rent increases afforded landlords, and it couldn’t be more obvious that poverty is not on any radar at any level of gov’t in the putatively great and glorious country.
I feel like a pariah sometimes. I feel impotent and frightened. I worry about money every day. I live alone.
In the old days, when I wasn’t a drain on society, I worked in Public Relations. This news has motivated me to get back in the trade for a special project….
I’d like to invite any member of this government (we’ll need an attention-seeking narcissist desperate for free publicity – but he’ll think we’re too naive to know that) to live on our ODSP stipend for three months. Just three months. No expense reports or per diems, no credit cards, and no home. The three month clock only starts to run when he or she has found an apartment in the CITY that he can afford, and let’s get news cameras and print media to follow along…
We can start waging on how long the dude will last, we’ll read his blogs and Twit Tweets, and once the momentum starts to build I’d like to see every member of the Legislature spend one week trying to live on OUR liquid assets (in my case about $40.00 a week until that last week when there’s about $10 left – oh and dont ya love those five-week months?)
The point is, the government won’t do anything because they don’t care. So let’s exploit their lust for publicity and get the PEOPLE involved. Let the middle classes howl at their MPP’s instead of us.
Appealing to the government is a waste of oxygen. Let’s appeal to our brothers and sisters instead – let’s “out” the Liberal cretins by telling the folks watching the 6 o’clock news that their government wants to literally take food off our plates.
Perhaps there are some Ontario Businesses who wouldn’t mind a little free P.R. and an opportunity to speak publicly against a Party they can’t stand.
I want Dullton to feel as ashamed as I often do.
I hope this isn’t just a rant – I hope I actually do something about this…
Dee
Brilliant!
ie…without benefit of “home”, car, credit card, and all the other hidden resources and supports so inherent in their experience of class that many are unable to even recognize their own “privileges”…politicians and other VIP’s (VERY IMPORTANT People) visiting food banks or “living on a food bank diet” for a few weeks in homes the likes of which they enjoy wouldn’t be that bad at all! I could quite handle a can of tuna in the back of a flowering yard on a quiet street for a few weeks.
…and the notoriety and hero worship they receive in the process is nothing more than a glutenous feast of “self-worth” while so many others starve…
Alas, the diet is gone.
And there wasn’t very much noise from anywhere- except amongst those of us hungry, those of us who have been there, and those of us who care…
The work still continues (see “campaigns incl grassroots”)
and there is much Hope.
The discipline is to hold on to it.