MEDIA RELEASE: Week of Anti-Poverty Action Begins in Sudbury

For immediate release: October  15, 2013

Contact: The  Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (S-CAP) at 249-878-7227;

Week of Anti-Poverty Action Begins in            Sudbury 

Yesterday 15 people gathered in a ‘Thanksgiving’ day action to raise the minimum wage rate to $14 an hour to be indexed to inflation. This was also the first event in the province-wide Raise the Rates week of anti-poverty action being held in Sudbury. People gathered first at the McDonald’s on Notre Dame to highlight how even though McDonald’s made more than $5.4 billion in 2012 it is lobbying hard to keep the minimum wage rate from being raised. People then walked down Notre Dame, with many cars honking their horns in support, to the downtown Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons made $402 million in 2012 but it is also lobbying hard to prevent any increase in the minimum wage rate. This ‘Thanksgiving’ event also highlighted how so many of the people who put food on people’s tables earn wages that keep them below the poverty line and in the case of thousands of migrant farm workers below the minimum wage level.

“The Raise the Rates campaign of community and union groups is addressing both the needs of those who work for wages but live in poverty and also those who are trying to survive on the very low rates provided by OW and ODSP. We are creating unity and cutting across divisions created between different groups of people living in poverty. Yesterday we addressed the need to raise the minimum wage while on Friday and Saturday of this week we will be raising the need to raise OW and ODSP rates and to defend people living with disabilities from attack” said Gary Kinsman a member of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty and the Raise the Rates campaign.

The week of action continues today (October 15th) with a film showing by  the Graduate Student Association (GSA) at Laurentian University of the anti-poverty film “Invisible City” at the downtown Mackenzie Library, at 6:30pm.  “Invisible City” is a moving story of two boys from Regent Park crossing into adulthood – their mothers and mentors rooting for them to succeed; their environment and social pressures tempting them to make poor
choices. Turning his camera on the often ignored inner city,
Academy-award nominated director Hubert Davis sensitively depicts the
disconnection of urban poverty and race from the social mainstream.

Other events during the week of action in Sudbury are:

·         On Friday, Oct. 18th supporters of the Raise the Rates campaign will be gathering at 2pm in Memorial Park to call for the restoring of the badly needed provincial CSUMB program and until this is done that CSUMB rates and policies are maintained under CHPI. This event is supported by Mamaweswen, The North Shore Tribal Council. At 1:30pm a free meal will start in the park. At 2pm we will here from Liisa Scofield an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, City Councillor Claude Berthiaume, people who have struggled to get CHPI funding and others. There will then be a march to Rick Bartolucci’s office where the S-CAP 11, whose court dates are coming up the end of this month, will deliver a statement and then to the Provincial Building

·        Saturday, Oct. 19th – Province-wide Rally and March, with people coming from across the province.  The focus will be on defending people on the Ontario Disabilities Support Program (ODSP) from attack and for First Nations control over ODSP in their communities. The free pizza and salad serving will start at 1:30pm. The rally starts at 2pm sharp, in the Sheridan Auditorium (Sudbury Secondary School). Please come to the College Street Entrance. There will be ASL Interpretation. Speakers will include John Clarke from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Shannon Balla from Poverty Makes Us Sick in Kitchener-Waterloo, Laurie McGauley on Kimberly Rogers and more. Music will be provided by Streetwise and OB. The rally is followed by a march through downtown streets led by people with disabilities. 

This week of action is supported by: the Sudbury and District Labour Council; the Sudbury District Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Council; the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Sudbury and District Area Council; the Northern Initiative for Social Action (NISA); UTE Local 00042; the Sudbury Workers' Education and Advocacy Center; the Labour Studies and Women’s Studies programs; the Graduate Students Association, and the Poverty, Homelessness and Migration research project at Laurentian University.  Provincially the event is supported by: the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty; the Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario; the Public Service Alliance of Canada-Ontario; and the Ontario Region of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

For further information contact :  S-CAP at 249-878-7227