On Monday, January 12, 1998 5:25 PM, Dennis
Raphael[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] wrote:

Hello all,

As an anti-poverty activist who is not a health promoter I have followed
this discussion with interest.

Outside of the Edmonton food bank not backing down on the measure of
poverty, I have seen little examples of confrontation or denouncement that
Alana is referring to.  I would like to have some concrete examples of what
she is talking about.

I know that I have presented to the provincial government's standing
committees 4 times, I have met with and lobbied many of the government
members as have many of my fellow advocates (not health people).  I can
think of no examples of us being confrontational or disrespectful.

To tell you the truth there has been an almost weird silence from the
health community.  I think that is changing as many can not stand the
destruction of people's lives that they are seeing.  The only solutions are
with the government.

The Harris government in October 1995 testified that they were under no
obligation when setting welfare rates to unsure that they would sustain
life, in fact the rate for a single person in Ontario is one that if that
same person was a Prisoner of War it would violate the Geneva Convention.

I am afraid I agree with Dennis any hope that people had to gain control of
their lives have been thrown away and over a hundred years of work has been
thrown out the window, we are in fact back in the 1920's in terms of
welfare policy with the current changes.  Now people have to fall off the
edge of the world before they qualify and when they do they will be
punished for being in a position of receiving benefits, this is almost a
point of no return.

Again, Alana I do not see your point, maybe you can explained and explain
the solutions as you see them?  One final point, within my small community
among the single parents on the provincial welfare program the rates cuts
represented $900,000.  a month, our United Way budget for the year was
$700,000., women and children depended on that money to eat and obtain
shelter, there was little left over for anything else, how any amount of
self esteem building, nutrition training, muffins or anything else is going
to fill this gap I can not imagine, but again I can not wait to hear your
answers.

S

> I do not believe that health promoters can work with the likes of Harris
and
> Klein.  When the Ontario government cut welfare benefits by 22%, they
wiped
> out, with one stroke of a pen, the works of hundred of person years of
health
> promoters that have been working to build communities, and enable people.
>
> They know what the effects on poor people are.  They cannot know!  The
Globe
> and Mail, Star, radio stations, Dick Smythe, thousands of fax messages
and
> demonstrations told them what the effects were.
>
> The Catholic Church, United Church and the Jewish Rabbis told them about
the
> effects on the poor [for Christ's sake!]!  The belief that they are
concerned about
> those without voices is absurd.
>
> They do not care!  Period.  For Alana and others to see these guys as
being
> misguided, or somehow uninformed, is naive at best, immoral at worst.
 For HP to
> lobby for "breakfast programs", a few crumbs to work on healthy
communities
> coaltions, and other such "health promotion programs"  during this
onslaught on
> the poor is not acceptable.  Sorry. Get these guys out.  Period.
>
> "They say in Harlan county, there are no neutrals there. You're either
for the union
> or a thug for J. H. Blair!"
>
>
>


--
Sherrie Tingley
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