[homeles_ot-l] Recession Relief Fund Coalition FW: Public Forum article in STAR:

[Lynne Browne]

FYI . . . More on the Recession Relief Fund at HYPERLINK
"http://recessionrelief.ning.com/"http://recessionrelief.ning.com/

 

Lynne Browne

Coordinator, Alliance to End Homelessness (ATEH)

147 Besserer St., Ottawa, ON K1N 6A7

613-241-7913, ext. 205

HYPERLINK "http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/"www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca

   _____  

From: nhhn-can-owner at povnet.org [mailto:nhhn-can-owner at povnet.org] On Behalf
Of Cathy Crowe
Sent: May 5, 2009 9:27 AM
To: ccrowe at sherbourne.on.ca
Cc: nhhn; hhno-on-request at povnet.org
Subject: [nhhn-can] Public Forum article in STAR: Recession Relief Fund
Coalition

 

To learn more about the Recession Relief Fund Coalition, to sign the
declaration, or to join our Facebook group: 

HYPERLINK
"http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54616996258"http://www.facebook.com/g
roup.php?gid=54616996258

 

The Star

 

Giving a voice to recession's victims

May 04, 2009 04:30 AM 

HYPERLINK "http://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/94620"Carol Goar 

HYPERLINK
"http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/627774"http://www.thestar
.com/comment/columnists/article/627774

 

The last time Canada went through a recession, there was no Facebook, no
high-speed Internet access and no online chat rooms. Email was in its
infancy.

That meant public perceptions were shaped largely by economists, politicians
and pollsters. The people who were hurting were seldom heard.

This time it will be different, anti-poverty activists vow. Technology has
given them the ability to link up, highlight the distress signals they see
and tell their stories. 

"Facts and figures are useful and important, but we need to show the human
impact," said John Andras of Toronto's Recession Relief Fund Coalition,
which is spearheading the initiative. 

The 5-month-old coalition has built a coast-to-coast network of 230
organizations that speak for – and work with – vulnerable Canadians. It
intends to gather intelligence from them, collect personal testimony and
combine it into a recession tracking tool. "Our hope is that if Canadians
are informed, they will come together in common purpose and the government
will have to listen," Andras said.

To introduce the project and build grassroots support, the Recession Relief
Fund Coalition held a community forum at the University of Toronto last
week. It featured four speakers: high-profile author Naomi Klein, labour
organizer Peggy Nash, anti-racism activist Uzma Shakir and food bank head
Gail Nyberg.

The room was jammed. The mood was edgy and expectant. Neither surprised
Andras, co-founder of the coalition and senior vice-president of Research
Capital Corp. "People feel powerless. There's a hunger to be able do
something."

Each of the four panellists offered words of support and solidarity.

"This is a moment where you get trampled or transform," Klein told the
audience. "We are seeing a level of (government) intervention I have not
seen in my lifetime. But public resources are being used to bail out the
wealthiest in society.

"We have to stand up and say: We refuse to pay for the crisis."

She urged workers, students, the unemployed, the poor and everyone else left
out of Ottawa's rescue package to join forces and demand economic stimulus
that serves public – not corporate – interests.

Nash, a senior official at the Canadian Auto Workers, stressed the
importance of healing the divisions left by 20 years of tax-cutting,
market-pleasing governments. "There has been a concerted effort to divide us
against ourselves," she said. "We need a less polarized society."

She described with painful accuracy how Canadians have turned inward,
shedding their qualms about letting one group after another – welfare
recipients, the jobless, forestry workers, steel workers, auto workers,
office and financial workers – fall by the wayside.

"We must choose to work against these divisions," she said. 

Nyberg used statistics from the Daily Bread Food Bank to show how irrelevant
such divisions have become. The ranks of the poor now include formerly
secure families, once-confident workers and long-time donors who never
dreamt of needing help, she said. Every stereotype has been shattered.

"Maybe, just maybe, we can use this crisis to open up the government's eyes.
It's not `those other people.' It's someone like us."

Shakir, an internationally educated Pakistani writer and feminist, driven to
social activism by the racism she found in Canada, reminded listeners that
"the communities I've been working with have been in a recession for 30
years."

She urged the fledgling coalition not to marginalize people who look like
her. "This is the time to build to a larger solidarity."

The meeting can't be neatly summarized. The speeches (except Nash's) were
unpolished. The personal anecdotes were disjointed. The discourse was
unfocused, except in one regard: Everyone wanted an outlet for missing
voices and was eager to be part of it.

Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

 


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