Doug Ford's war on people in poverty exposes the basic cruelty of our system

Lisa MacLeod announces cuts against appropriate backdrop.

There are some junctions and points in time when the fundamentally ugly and vicious underpinnings of the system we live under come more sharply into focus. These last few days are certainly one of those.


With the election of Doug Ford the government of Ontario has now declared a rather open war on people living in poverty.

Breaking a promise made during the election campaign the Ford government is cancelling a basic income pilot project that was started by the previous Liberal government. While basic income is certainly debatable as public policy from a leftist perspective, what is not debatable is that cancelling the project will throw into total disarray the lives of those who, in good faith, signed up for it. The stunned participants are saying that the cancellation may lead to homelessness, having to abandon education plans they had made and other desperate "choices".

This move by the government is cruel and grotesque -- an assault on a group of people living in poverty to "save" what is a tiny amount of money in governmental terms.

Meanwhile the Ford government is clawing back the planned, and much needed, increases in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works rates by half. Instead of a 3 per cent increase it will now be a 1.5 per cent increase.

In one of the more disgusting displays of doublespeak I have seen in a very long time, Ford's Minister for Poverty and Injustice Lisa MacLeod actually framed these cuts as being done "on compassionate grounds" and as "the right thing to do".

Seriously.

She also trotted out the old reactionary lie that "the best social program is a job" implying that those who signed up for the basic income project or who need ODSP or welfare could all simply go out and find work if they wanted to. Especially repugnant and ironic given that her boss is a silver spoon case whose daddy did all the "work" for him.

These attacks come as basic necessities such as housing remain out of reach or unaffordable for many in the province. This is not just in Toronto either, with news of police harassment of the homeless in Hamilton and mass corporate evictions of lower income tenants from their homes in Ottawa.

Of course, not everyone is doing badly. This week we learned that Sears Canada's board of directors, for example, are making lots of money in the wake of the once formidable retailer's collapse. And they are doing so despite the fact that thousands of former Sears workers who lost their jobs have not gotten proper severance pay and have lost parts of their pensions.

We also learned that "Fewer than 90 families in Canada hold roughly as much wealth as what everyone living in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island collectively owns."

Let that sink in for a moment.

90 families holding as much wealth as the entire populations of three Atlantic provinces! Just over 1.4 million people.

While liberals and social democrats will talk of slightly higher taxes on the wealthy or closing tax loopholes, this is all just window dressing when confronted by a system as basically evil and unjust as ours. It is not that these steps should not be taken, it is just that they will do little to alter what has lead us here.

Immense and constantly increasing inequality while millions either live in or are a paycheque or two away from abject poverty is not an anomaly or distortion of the capitalist system, it is a function of it.

As Ontario unleashes austerity targeted at those living in poverty, the marginalized and the racialized, the desperate need to build a mass anti-capitalist movement that seeks to change not this-or-that minor aspect of capitalism but rather to alter the very nature of and ownership of our economy becomes ever clearer.

See also: Chaos Theory: For Doug Ford disruption will be the plan

When it comes to 'universal' health care, it is a lot less universal than Canadians like to think

The other day one of life's unpleasant little surprises came along.

My youngest son Robert, who is nine, had his foot slip off an exercise bike at his school and the peddle came around to hit him hard in the ankle. That night it hurt a bit, but seemed ok.

The next morning as we went into school he said it was hurting more and finally said it hurt too much to walk properly and so, of course, we went up to an emergency clinic. Despite right-wing propaganda we were seen very quickly as usual. It turned out he had a fracture. The very nice specialist put him in a temporary cast and handed me the referral for an early morning appointment the next day at a fracture clinic.

All of this up to this point, covered as it is by OHIP, was 100% free.

And, then, the specialist said that if I wanted crutches for my son they would be $40. Now, if I had insurance I would get that $40 back (I don't) but otherwise they would send me a bill and expect a payment. Needless to say I took the crutches, as how was my son to possibly walk out of the clinic without them?

You cannot walk on a plaster cast.

The next day we went to the clinic as directed. The doctor felt that the best treatment -- apparently by far -- for the fracture was an air brace ankle boot cast that would keep his ankle safe, and then a follow up visit for more X-rays in two weeks.

Again, all of this was, of course, free, and was very fast and effective care. But as my son was being sized for the special boot, I found out that it would cost $190. Payment was expected on the way out the door. They had debit/credit card machines right on the counter.

What happens if you do not have $190 (I did have it) or insurance? Well your kid does not get the boot. Instead they would get a plaster cast that is covered but that would not be ideal and that requires crutches (which again, are NOT covered) unlike the boot.

This is one of those moments where you realize that 'universal' health care in Ontario and Canada is not as universal as we like to think.

As we all know, other than for kids, seniors and people on social assistance -- who get some coverage, sometimes, depending on various factors -- dental care (except in extreme emergency cases) and eye care is not covered by OHIP despite the essential role they play in people's physical, emotional and personal well being.

So if you are having trouble making ends meet and have eye problems or problems with your teeth, you are shit out of luck. You are going to have to either forgo proper care or have trouble paying the rent, with groceries or with the bills.

As the Association of Ontario Health Centres noted, what is "Needed: A Tommy Douglas for Dental Care". One is certainly not forthcoming including from the NDP.

But while some will try to frame these as somehow non-essential health services-- a rather bizarre claim -- there is absolutely no doubt about how essential another item that is not covered by OHIP is, that being life-saving medications.

Again, with some exceptions, other than for those who have coverage due to work or an insurance plan medicines and prescriptions are not covered by OHIP even if not taking them would lead to your death.

There are many examples of this, but one I know from personal experience. My partner has had a serious form of asthma for her entire adult life. She has to take various medications, some of which are very expensive. If she does not take these medications, she dies.

But they are not covered by OHIP at all. Not one penny.

I had a friend in Ontario who noted on Facebook at the end of last year, after having to go through surgery for cancer, that "after developing a blood clot after surgery I've been given a prescription for a month's worth of blood thinner to prevent me from dying from a heart attack or stroke. Cost? $300 - and that's after my drug plan pays 80% of the cost which means if I wasn't lucky enough to have a drug plan it would have cost over $1000!".

Note that the medicine still cost him $300. That is a lot of money, drug plan or no drug plan.

$1000 a month is inconceivable for many people.

It is a disgrace that this reality means that we do, despite our pretensions, absolutely have a two-tier medical and healthcare system in the province and country.

Unless you are either on an existing social assistance program or, in some cases, qualify for a limited mean's test driven plan, you are on your own if you are one of many, many workers who do not have a plan through their workplace or privately to cover the countless things that are a part of a healthy and fulfilling life free from what is completely unnecessary suffering or economic anxiety.

Going back to the point I began with, $190 is a lot of dough. Especially as it would be a straight up hit to your family/personal budget and as there is very good chance you would not see it coming.

I had no idea I would be parting with that kind of cash that morning.

Had I had less than that in the account, even with access to money in theory eventually my kid would have been possibly screwed for at least a day or two minimum. At the very least we would have gone through the humiliating experience of a parent and child trying to negotiate or get care that they cannot afford.

That is really, really wrong.

Luckily, due to fate, I could afford the care. But this must be beyond stressful for many people, something that again has a direct and demonstrable impact on health.

Having to use credit, borrow from family or do without other necessities to make sure your kid, yourself or your loved one gets proper care is a reality that puts the lie to some of our national myths.

And that is depressing, immoral and infuriating.

See also: Ontario's poverty gap puts the lie to Wynne's 'social justice' pretensions

Ontario's poverty gap puts the lie to Wynne's 'social justice' pretensions

Back in 2013 when she was running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, Kathleen Wynne famously told the Toronto Star that she wanted to be known as "the social justice premier". She also said that when it came to "liberal values", "I believe social justice is what drives us". 

Yet, when it comes to social assistance rates and those trying to live on them in Ontario, after 13 years in office this alleged liberal value of social justice is, to say the least, on scant display.

In fact, the Liberals in office have continued with Mike Harris' devastating war on people living in poverty that began when the Conservatives defeated the Bob Rae NDP government in 1995.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released a report today that looks at the "poverty gap" for people on both Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). The poverty gap is "the distance between total benefit income and the poverty line".

The report found that not only had the Liberals not reversed the dramatic increase in the gap created during the Harris years, they had maintained it. When one looks at the numbers, the vicious and cruel social assistance rates that force to people to try to survive on an "income" that is as much as 60% BELOW the poverty line continues to this day and has seen no significant improvement under the Liberals or Wynne.

Overall the numbers are shocking. As the report lays out:

The poverty gap for a single adult qualifying for Ontario Works was 59%.
It would take an additional $12,301 to close the gap.
The poverty gap for a single parent qualifying for Ontario Works was
35%. It would take an additional $10,386 to close the gap.
The poverty gap for a couple with two children qualifying for Ontario
Works was 38%. It would take an additional $15,686 to close the gap.
The poverty gap for a single adult qualifying for ODSP was 33%. It would
take an additional $6,783 to close the gap.
The poverty gap for a single parent with one child qualifying for ODSP
was 11%. It would take only an additional $3,261 to close the gap.
The poverty gap for a couple with two children qualifying for ODSP was
20%. It would take an additional $8,146.95 to close the gap.

In fact, single people on Ontario Works only just recently began to receive as much monthly in assistance in actual dollars as they received in 1993:

 At that time, a single person on social assistance received $663 a month, the equivalent of about $995 in today’s dollars.
Two decades later, in 2014, after severe welfare cuts by the former Mike Harris government and despite modest improvements to rates and other supports by the Liberals, single people on welfare received $656 in monthly Ontario Works payments and about $75 a month in Trillium benefits and federal GST credits.
Today, the maximum Ontario Works rate is $681 a month.

A government that squanders hundreds of millions on white elephant "infrastructure" initiatives for rich people, over a billion dollars on the eHealth boondoggle, that recently even handed out $32 million to IBM to fix a government software mistake that IBM itself  had made, and that has engaged in round-after-round of unnecessary "middle-class" tax cuts, has done nothing of any meaning to help the most vulnerable in the province.

This shameful situation will not be solved by pilot projects that may, a generation from now, lead to some kind of "guaranteed annual income" that may prove little more than a Trojan Horse.

We need action now. Social assistance rates well below the poverty line are grotesque and unacceptable.

The Liberals have been in power for more than long enough. And Wynne cannot use the excuse that she has only governed for a few of those years, for, as the CCPA report points out, it took the Rae government only three years to cut the poverty gap for single people on welfare from 40% to 20%.

As long as the Liberal government allows this to continue by its inaction, any pretensions by Wynne to claim to care at all about social justice remain a hollow farce.

See also: Joe Mihevc and Toronto politicians are "ripping off" the TTC -- Not transit riders!

See also: Toronto budget prioritizes policing -- Yet again