Sudbury Social Justice News - January 19, 2014

EVENTS & MEETINGS:

1) Monday, January 20: S-CAP Deputation to City Community Services
Committee
2) Monday, January 20: Meeting of Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty
3) Wednesday, January 22: Town Hall Meeting in Support of Postal Workers
4) Wednesday, January 22 and Thursday, January 23: S-CAP Fundraising
Book Sale
5) Thursday, January 23: Queer Activism in the 1970s: From Liberation
to Rights
6) Saturday, January 25: The Buzz on Bees
7) Wednesday, January 29: Open Stage for Radicals and Progressives
8) Friday, January 31: Employment Rights Training for Front Line Agency
Staff
9) Friday, February 14: Love Over the Rainbow Dance

NEWS, ANALYSIS, & CALLS TO ACTION:

1) S-CAP Submission to City of Greater Sudbury Community Services Committee
2) "This is about facing, not defacing history" by Ben Sichel

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Monday, January 20: S-CAP Deputation to City Community Services
Committee

Time: 4pm
Location: Room C-11, Tom Davies Square (200 Brady Street, Sudbury)

The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty will be making a deputation to the Community Services Committee at Tom Davies Square about the current problems people are facing obtaining CHPI funding (Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative) and the need for emergency shelter space out of the cold for the entire winter. Please come out and show your support for these every important issues.

Please see below in the "NEWS, ANALYSIS, & CALLS TO ACTION" section of Sudbury Social Justice News for the text of S-CAP's submission.

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Monday, January 20: Meeting of Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty

Time: 6:30pm
Location: Offices of the Sudbury and District Labour Council (Suite 209 upstairs in 109 Elm Street, which is across the street from the Native Friendship Centre)

Matters to be discussed include a report back from the provincial Raise the Rates campaign meeting, evaluating what happened at the City Community Services Committee, organizing against any ODSP/OW merger, our next support work drop-in and our continuing direct action support work.

The venue is wheelchair accessible. Children are welcome to attend, or childcare support is available upon request.

S-CAP is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. We provide direct-action support work assisting individuals in their struggles with welfare and ODSP, housing, employers, and others who deny people what they are entitled to in order to meet their needs. In addition, we mount campaigns against and support educational work about regressive government policies as they effect working people and people living in poverty. We believe in the power of people to organize themselves. We believe in the power of resistance!

La coalition contre la pauvreté de Sudbury (S-CAP) est un organisme d’action directe luttant contre la pauvreté. Elle se trouve à Sudbury en Ontario.

Le travail de la coalition se base dans l’action directe et consiste à apporter de l’aide aux individus dans leurs luttes pour l’assistance sociale, l’invalidité, le logement, l’emploi et à les aider à faire face aux gens qui leur refusent ce à quoi ils ont droit pour rencontrer leurs besoins. De plus, la coalition fait des compagnes de sensibilisation et de dénonciation par rapport aux politiques gouvernementales régressives quant à leurs effets sur les travailleurs et travailleuses et les personnes vivant dans la pauvreté.

La coalition croit au pouvoir des personnes de s’organiser elles-mêmes; elle croit au pouvoir de la résistance!

Please call us (249-878-7227)

Email us at sudburyCAP@gmail.com

S-CAP on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/257339454351403/

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Wednesday, January 22: Town Hall Meeting in Support of Postal Workers

Time: 7pm
Location: United Steel Workers Hall (66 Brady Street, Sudbury)

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is looking for solidarity in their fight against the government's plan to slash jobs, raise prices, and reduce services to Canadian homes. At the crux of their fight is that Canada Post wants to please it's 200 largest business clients on the expense of Canadian citizens.

Don't be fooled, Canada Post is profitable. In fact, it has only had one non-profitable year of the past 17 (they lost money in 2011 and then returned to profitability in 2012). The problem is where those profits have gone. In 2006 for example, $119 million went to Canada Post's commercial profits; and, $80 million became lucrative dividends for the federal government. What about commitments to improve public postal service?

Please make a commitment to attend the CUPW Town Hall Meeting on Jan 22. It starts at 7 pm at our Steelworkers Hall. This is everyone's fight. Remember: stand together or fall apart!

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Wednesday, January 22 and Thursday, January 23: S-CAP Fundraising
Book Sale

Time: 11am to 4pm each day
Location: Bowling Alley of the Arts Building, Laurentian University

Professor Gary Kinsman is retiring from Laurentian University and has donated many of his books to S-CAP for a fund-raising book sale. This includes books on Feminism, Women’s Studies, Sexuality and Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Sociology, Social and Political Theory, Media Studies, Psychoanalysis, work by Freud, Marx, Chomsky, Weber, Che Guevera, Lenin, Mao, Fidel Castro, Trotsky, and many others, copies of Upping the Anti, Radical America and much, much more. Come on by, find a title that you like, and help support S-CAP's important work in the community!

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Thursday, January 23: Queer Activism in the 1970s: From Liberation
to Rights

Time: 7pm
Location: C-309, Classroom Building, Laurentian University

As a first installment in work on the making of the contemporary neo-liberal queer this presentation remembers queer organizing in the 1970s drawing on historical research and memory work. Starting off with the emergence of gay liberation and lesbian feminism out of the social revolts of the 1960s the often forgotten history of queer resistance to the privatization of our sexualities and intensifying sexual policing, the anti-queer national security campaigns, and the moral conservative neo-liberal right-wing is charted. At the same time the shift from liberationist politics to a more limited human rights protection approach that takes place later in the 1970s, along with the expansion of ‘pink markets,’ and the growing view of gays and lesbians as just like an ‘ethnic’ minority group help to lay the basis for the emergence of the neo-liberal queer in later years.

Gary Kinsman is the author of The Regulation of Desire: Homo and Hetero Sexualities, co-author (with Patrizia Gentile) of The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation, and editor of Whose National Security?,  Sociology for Changing the World and Mine Mill Fights Back. He is currently working on a new book project called The Making of the Neo-Liberal Queer and is involved in the AIDS Activist History Project. He is a long-time queer liberation, anti-poverty and anti-capitalist activist currently most involved in the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty  (S-CAP).  He has just taken early retirement from teaching Sociology at Laurentian University, on the territories of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek nation.

Organized by Pride@LU, the LU Committee on Sexuality and Gender Diversity, and the Sudbury Pride Committee. Sponsored by the History and Sociology Departments at Laurentian University.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/517570151690456/

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Saturday, January 25: The Buzz on Bees

Time: 2pm to 3pm
Location: Sudbury Public Library in New Sudbury (1346 LaSalle)

Come to the New Sudbury Public Library for a free presentation by local beekeepers, Dan and Tracy Seguin of Creekbend farms.

Toxic Pesticides? Freezing Temperatures? Nasty parasites? How do all of these things effect the glorious golden syrup that sweetens your life? Join Dan and Tracey Seguin for their free presentation on local beekeeping, followed by an open discussion on Bee Colony Collapse Disorder.

Pre registration with the library online or by phone recommended. Sampling of honey and maple products at Eat Local Sudbury 176 Larch St. Sudbury, ON from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 25, 2014.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/244967672331047/

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Wednesday, January 29: Open Stage for Radicals and Progressives

Time: 8pm to 10pm
Location: Townhouse Tavern (206 Elgin Street, Sudbury)

One Struggle Sudbury presents our first monthly Open Stage for Radical and Progressives! We want to advance radical and progressive culture in Sudbury! Political radicals and progressives are invited to come out and share songs, poems, raps, skits, and excerpts. Time slots will be allotted on a first come, first serve basis. This is a monthly event, so mark your calendars for the last Wednesday of every month!

For more information, please contact Rachael Charbonneau at rachaelcharbonneau@vianet.ca or 705-670-1982

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Friday, January 31: Employment Rights Training for Front Line Agency
Staff

Time: Coffee & registration from 9am, workshop 10am to 4pm
Location: please RSVP
Fee: $25

This workshop is geared towards front line staff who have clients that are considered "vulnerable workers". These are people who earn minimum wage, work for temp agencies or are on employment contracts. The workshop is hosted by Sudbury Workers' Education and Advocacy Centre in partnership with the United Way of Sudbury and the Toronto Workers' Centre.

FRONT LINE STAFF TRAINING

The provincial Employment Standards Act protects the employment rights of workers in Ontario. The Sudbury Workers’ Education and Advocacy Centre will be hosting a one day workshop that will give you the basics of the Act.  Topics such as the following will be covered:

Eligibility, Minimum Wage, Cash Payments, Weekly Hours, Daily Hours & Breaks, Overtime, Vacation, Public Holidays, Termination Notice or Pay, Severance Pay

If your clients work in non-unionized environments they need to know their rights!  Join us on Friday, January 31, 2014 in the United Way boardroom for an exciting day of information sharing with Karen Dick from the Toronto Workers’ Centre.

Refreshments and lunch will be served. Fee is $25.00. Space is limited. Please make cheques payable to the Sudbury Workers’ Education and Advocacy Centre. Payments can be mailed to: 109 Elm Street, Suite 209, Sudbury, ON, P3C1T4

Coffee & registration at 9:00.  Workshop 10:00 to 4:00

Please RSVP by January 24, 2014 to sudburyworkerscentre@gmail.com or call 705-470-3323.

Seating is limited, so please register by January 24, 2014. For more information, please contact: sudburyworkerscentre@gmail.com or call 705-470-3323.

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Friday, February 14: Love Over the Rainbow Dance

Time: 7pm to 1am
Location: Parkside Older Adult Centre (140 Durham Street, Sudbury)

A Valentines day dance celebrating love, community and 40 years LGBT2-SQQA history in Greater Sudbury and the North. Everyone is welcome to attend! Tickets will go on sale January 6 2013 for $12 advance or $18 at the door.

Fierte Sudbury Pride is presenting this fundraising dance in honor of all the work SAGA did to develop our thriving community.

Bring your pictures and memorabilia to add to our memory boards and historical rolls.

This event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/222728477910156/

NEWS, ANALYSIS, & CALLS TO ACTION:

2) "This is about facing, not defacing history" by Ben Sichel

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S-CAP Submission to City of Greater Sudbury Community Services Committee

Out of the Cold Shelter for the Entire Winter and for Community Start-Up  and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) funding and policies for CHPI Funding.

Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty Initial Report to the City of Greater Sudbury Community Services Committee – Monday, January 20th 2014.

This report is dedicated to all the homeless people who have died on the streets in Sudbury.

Members of the City of Greater Sudbury Community Services Committee:

The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty is an activist anti-poverty group. We take our direction from the needs and concerns of people living in poverty themselves. We undertake direct support work for people in poverty when they have problems with Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP); with homelessness; with landlords; and with employers. We also campaign against regressive government policies that hurt people living in poverty including the cutting of the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB), the earlier slashing of the Special Diet Supplement, and against the possible merger of ODSP with OW.  

We are talking to you tonight about two of the major problems facing people living in poverty in Sudbury. Firstly, there is the need for a replacement out of the cold shelter for homeless people for what the Mission in past years was able to provide. Secondly, given the experiences we are encountering with people living in poverty being denied what they need under CHPI funding we need to move as quickly as possible towards providing CSUMB rates and policies for CHPI funding.

The City Cannot Leave the Homeless Out in the Cold! The need for shelter space for the entire winter.

It has been a cold winter so far and for people trying to survive outside the situation is desperate. For people excluded from the existing shelters (for instance because they are identified with drinking or with taking drugs) or not willing to stay in them for a number of legitimate reasons (relating to safety and health concerns and disagreements with shelter policies) there have been nights when the Mission has been open since the City has declared it to be a cold weather emergency (which is -15 or -20 with wind-chill) but others when it has not been. As John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty put it sarcastically referring to the situation in Toronto, but this is also very relevant to Sudbury: “of course City officials know that everything is just fine at -14 and there is only a problem when it turns -15.”

S-CAP has been collecting information on the street about how people have been surviving with the Mission being closed many nights. First of all how homeless people find out about whether the Mission is open at night is unclear (it seems to be whether the lights are on or not) and we know there have been a number of nights when homeless people have arrived at the Mission only to find out it is not open. We know that on the nights that it is closed that more people are sleeping outside, sometimes on the concrete right outside the Samaritan Centre. Even on the nights when the Mission is open it operates only as a limited warming station and instructions from the Health Unit do not allow people to actually sleep there. On at least one occasion when someone did try to sleep there the police came to pick the person up and kept them in a cell overnight where at least they had a place to sleep.

Other people living in poverty are stepping in to try to meet the needs of homeless people given that the City is not meeting its responsibilities to the homeless. On the nights when the Mission is not open some people in poverty, who have very little to begin with, are inviting people who are complete strangers to sleep on their floors. The City has downloaded dealing with helping the homeless onto other people living in poverty. More people are also forced into couch surfing if they have friends who will let them do this and others are trying to survive outside. In general these homeless people are being forced more and more underground and are being forced to sleep in unsafe and unhealthy situations. The City has a responsibility to all people living in the City including homeless people and it is failing them.

We call on the City to establish as soon as possible a replacement out of the cold shelter for the entire winter so that homeless people have the warmth, safety and security they need. This must  be a place where people can actually sleep – people who are homeless cannot be deprived of sleep! There are many venues that could be used for this in Sudbury ranging from schools (including school buildings that have been closed down), churches and Tom Davies Square itself. The space is available and we know that the City social services budget has a surplus of at least $300,000 so funding is also available. The problem is one of political will and we urge the City to do the right thing.

In Toronto the recent organizing of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and other anti-poverty activists has led to the expansion of shelter space including for women fleeing violence and abuse and Metro Hall (the equivalent of Tom Davies Square) is now open as an evening warming station for cold weather emergencies.

Problems with CHPI policies and funding – we need CSUMB policies and rates for CHPI funding.

We were very glad to be able to assist in the City locating the funding to be able to provide CHPI funding for all of 2014. But there are major problems with how these funds are being distributed under City guidelines and policies. In our support work for people living in poverty we have encountered a number of problems people face when trying to access CHPI funding (see our report for the City Budget process on CHPI funding – we can send copies to anyone who wants one). These include problems with people getting adequate funding for beds, for furniture, and for needed household appliances. There have also been people having difficulties getting exceptional circumstances funding until S-CAP has intervened.

A central problem is the separation of CHPI funding focused on preventing homelessness and the associated discretionary funding administered by OW that is no longer disbursed along the lines of the provincial CSUMB program which allowed people to access funds for community start up expenses every two years. Instead the City Discretionary Benefits Policy provides low amounts of funding for such necessities as beds (a maximum of $300 – we ask you to find quality beds for this amount in Sudbury), washers ($300 for a family with children and $240 for singles/couples without children), and will not fund dryers at all since they are not considered “necessities.”   Such items as pots and pans and clothing for community start up which are often necessities are not covered in the policy and these were covered under the CSUMB.  If people are able to access housing itself but are not able to sustain it through getting the needed items to maintain their home this is not only not meeting their needs but can also lead to them becoming homeless again. Focusing only on getting people into housing does not keep people housed. CHPI funding, like under the CSUMB, must include funding for community start-up needs at rates that will allow people to get what they need to set up a household.

We have therefore re-written the City CHPI policy (see attached) to get it to conform as much as possible to the policies and rates of the former CSUMB program. This would now mean that people can get a maximum of $800 as singles/couples without children for their needed household and start-up needs and $1,500 for families with children every two years. We remind you that in other cities including Toronto, Peterborough, Hamilton, and the Niagara Region they have decided that their municipal support programs do more than is mandated in a narrow sense under CHPI to assist people living in poverty and this is what needs to be done in Sudbury as well.

On October 21, 2013, the Community Services Committee asked City staff to consult with people on OW and ODSP to see if revisions were needed to their CHPI and Discretionary Benefits Policy guidelines. So far they have not done this. But S-CAP did a focus group last fall with people on OW and ODSP on what their needs are in relation to CHPI funding.  We reprint the section from our Budget Report on this below:

“To find out more about people’s needs and concerns SCAP held a focus group discussion with nine people on OW and ODSP on Nov. 17th. Issues raised were the following: that CSUMB/CHPI was the only recourse people had to get a bit of money for  buying larger items (Revenue Canada rebates are no longer in a lump sum, but spread over several disbursements; and there is no more other clothing allowances or moving expenses covered elsewhere under OW/ODSP, etc);  CSUMB rates and policies must be maintained for CHPI funding; there is a need to use last month’s rent in any emergency situation and not just for evictions; last month’s rent must be offered in broader circumstances; CHPI and associated discretionary funding needs to cover the full costs of a bed; exceptional circumstances funding must remain at the same funding level as under the CSUMB;  CHPI funding must help people to stay housed; people must be continuously informed that they can access CHPI and there must be easily available and publicly accessible information on what is available and the criteria that are being used; moving expenses to move to places with lower rent must be covered; the mandatory aspect of this benefit must be reinstated; furniture and household items must be covered; there cannot be a reliance on religious institutions with their restrictive criteria (eg. The Salvation Army); there should be less reliance on shelter options and more focus on getting people long-term, sustainable housing; substandard and unsafe housing is a health issue for people on social assistance and there is a lack of affordable housing; there is a need for more transparency and for information on the  CHPI funding breakdown; there needs to be a review of the Housing First Approach; more compassion and consideration is needed;  there needs to be more people working on this given the volume in the case-loads for existing workers; and workers and supervisors need to made more accountable.”     

The needs people talked about require changes in the City guidelines and we have attempted to incorporate this into our re-written guidelines. These revised guidelines would begin to meet many more of the needs of people living in poverty in Sudbury and we urge the City to adopt them.

We certainly hope that the City will adopt these revised guidelines but if the City is not willing to re-write this policy at this time there must be a significant raise in the amounts allocated under the Discretionary Benefits policy so that people can afford to get more of their community start up needs met through these benefits. Raising the allocated amounts is important but another way of doing this is to remove the arbitrary caps imposed on funding for household necessities.

Regardless of what is decided S-CAP will continue to actively support people living in poverty in Sudbury.

Yours sincerely,

Anna Harbulik, Gary Kinsman and Clarissa Lassaline for the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty.     

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"This Is About Facing, Not Defacing History"
by Ben Sichel
(Originally published at No Need to Raise Your Hand: http://noneedtoraiseyourhand.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/this-is-about-faci...)