MEDIA RELEASE: Support the S-CAP 11 in Court – Decision on whether to Grant the Crown a New Trial for the S-CAP 11

Sudbury, June 23rd, 2014.  The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty (SCAP) will be returning to court in support of the S-CAP 11 on Thursday June 26th, 2014, at 9:30 am in the Sudbury Court House at 155 Elm street.  Everyone is invited to come out in support. 

On November 9th, 2012, eleven members and supporters of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty went to Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci's office to talk about impending cuts in the provincial budget put forward by the Liberal government that would affect people living in poverty and people on social assistance.  Despite being in his office during the visit, Bartolucci refused to meet with them.  The group then decided to open up a homeless shelter in his office to dramatize the very probable increased need to homeless shelters as a result of the government cuts to social programs including the Community Start-up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) pushing people into homelessness.  In response to this, Rick Bartolucci had them arrested.

In 2013, the S-CAP 11 were cleared of all charges.  As absurd as it was to have charged the S-CAP 11 in the first place, it is even more absurd that the Crown decided to appeal this decision! 

If a new trial is granted to the Crown on Thursday, this will continue the colossal waste of resources that could be much better spent addressing the issues of poverty and homelessness the S-CAP 11 were speaking out about.

We’d like to see this stop here.  This Thursday the 26th is the next appearance of the eleven activists, and they are asking people to be in the courtroom and show their support for meaningful action against regressive and harmful government policies, and their opposition to the criminalization of efforts to get peoples' needs met.