Anti-Poverty in
Toronto
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is one of the best
known anti-poverty organizations in Ontario. It has acquired a
reputation for militant direct action tactics on such issues as
affordable housing, welfare, homelessness, and immigrant and refugee
rights. In a political climate where powerful politicians and vested
interests wish the poor would just quietly die, OCAP has proven to be
a vocal critic.
In 1989 three Ontario cities, Windsor, Ottawa and Sudbury, held
marches against poverty which converged in Toronto. After the marches
it was decided to create a provincial body in order to try and raise
the issue of poverty in the face of indifference from politicians.
OCAP was the result. While OCAP does have organisational affiliates
across the province, the group is based in Toronto.
Where OCAP has really been successful is in drawing public
attention to the issue of homelessness. In 1998 businesses in the
downtown core near the Eaton Centre lobbied local councilor Kyle Rae
to close a Salvation Army shelter because the homeless were
hurting' their business by panhandling. OCAP members took to
the same businesses picketing them until they signed a letter calling
for the shelter to be reopened. One businessman denied he had ever
called for the closure of the shelter, even though he was widely
known to be the architect of the closing.
On August 7th 1999 OCAP activists, frustrated over the city's
failure to address the problem of homelessness and the increased
summer crack-down on squeegee kids and the homeless, erected a "Safe
Park" at Allan Gardens, a downtown park in one of the city's poorest
neighbourhoods. An estimated 500 people, among them members of
community groups and trade unionists as well as the homeless, visited
the park on Saturday evening and over 100 slept there. Despite
threats from Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman that the poor would not be
allowed to take over a public park and that they would be cleared out
by the end of the weekend, as night fell Sunday evening, the Safe
Park remained. In the last municipal election Lastman demonstrated
his awareness of the problem of homelessness when, the same day as a
homeless man was found dead in the washroom of a North York petrol
station, he declared there were no homeless in North York.
The end came early on August 11, the day after Lastman called OCAP
organizer John Clarke a "thug" and described OCAP as "people paid to
cause trouble. " Shortly before dawn the police moved in. People
sleeping in the park were told they had fifteen minutes to leave or
they would be arrested (strangely enough a local TV station, CITY TV
was given two hours notice that the park was going to be cleared).
The local media were smug in their denunciations. A columnist for the
allegedly liberal Toronto Star sneered that Clarke was home in bed
when the raid came and that he earned $20,000 a year. Much was made
of the fact that only seven of the twenty -seven arrested at the park
were actually homeless. That being arrested might have more serious
consequences for the homeless, than for someone who has a home (is
that now considered a privilege?) did not seem to occur to the media.
The Police are generally not in the habit of granting bail to someone
without a permanent address, so it is easier to get out of prison if
you give a friend's address. While OCAP activists were in jail some
were told by Police that Clarke lived in a mansion. Given the current
Toronto housing market and Clarke's salary, he must be one of the
smartest people in Toronto to have found such a bargain!
Folk singer Phil Ochs' once quipped that a liberal is someone who
is two steps to the left of centre on most issues and two steps to
the right of centre when it affects them personally. Or when the poor
and homeless try to do something for themselves rather than being
passive victims for paternalistic liberals to assist.
Yet it was not only the liberal and conservative media which
criticised OCAP. Toronto's alternative' weekly Now published
several columns from editors (many of whom are former Trotskyists),
who argued that OCAP was out of touch with the times and that Clarke
"lacked the sense that resistance is an art [!]" Perhaps the
prize goes to the International Socialists whose newspaper Socialist
Worker printed two articles on the Safe Park, yet didn't mention
OCAP. Surely it wouldn't have anything to do with the IS calling OCAP
"racists" after a public dispute around International Women's Day
1998, would it?
The Monday after the destruction of the safe park OCAP activists
met to plan the next step. Over 60 activists attended the meeting
which evaluated the Safe Park and discussed the media vilification of
OCAP and Clarke in particular. Although the obvious question was what
to do for an encore, wisely OCAP has decided not to try and re-occupy
a park immediately, reasoning that the Police would be ready for such
a contingency and would respond with repression. Instead OCAP has
decided to "regularly and systematically disrupt the conspicuous
money-makers that profit from the attempted disappearing' of
the homeless... until the Mayor and Council begin conducting
themselves with some honour." Whether or not it is possible for the
Mayor to act with honour is another question, but OCAP's very visible
activism is unlikely to disappear.
D. E.
8/99
Articles
/ Home Page