Learn more about campaigns and projects aimed at promoting good jobs, fair wages and higher minimum wages across Canada.
ACORN members from across the country will come together to listen to exciting guest speakers, including labour leaders, community allies, politicians and more; meet other ACORN members and leaders from across the country; attend workshops on how to build power for change; and learn the skills and tools needed to develop grassroots campaigns.
ACORN members will continue to be key leaders in the fight back to make sure Ontario is an affordable, livable province for low and moderate income people.
Despite some positive initiatives, ACORN members are deeply disappointed by the lack of action put forward in the Poverty Reduction Strategy.
A greater proportion of Ontarians are working for minimum wage today than in 2003 — and they are more likely to be women, visible minorities and immigrant
Tomorrow, September 15, ACORN members in Ottawa and across the country will join the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) to send a clear message to the Harper government: your cut backs will affect us all.
Thousands of government workers are being fired right now. Not only do our communities need good, well-paid jobs, we need badly need the services those workers provide. Cuts to food safety programs, cuts to programs for seniors, cuts to services that put unemployed Canadians back to work - these will affect us all.
To find out more about the work that PSAC does, visit their website.
If you can join ACORN members when they rally with the PSAC, contact the ACORN office nearest you.
Government also reduces planned hike to child benefits as it tackles deficit.
The provincial government is scaling back a planned hike in child benefits and freezing social assistance, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Sunday, as Ontario grapples with a solution to its $16-billion deficit.
Rather than rising by $200 per year in July 2013, the child benefit will rise by $100. It will increase by the same amount one year later.
Provincial social assistance programs - which include Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program - will be frozen.
"We believe these are the right choices," McGuinty told reporters in Toronto.
The announcement comes just days before the government's seminal March 27th budget containing McGuinty's response to a growing financial crisis in the province.
With speculation rising that the City of Toronto may try to pull the plug on the Occupy Toronto movement's stay in St. James Park, those in the camp remain steadfast in their determination to draw attention to financial inequalities between society's haves and have-nots.
Despite rain and cold, the downtown park remains packed with dozens of tents, and spirits remain high among those staking out the space as the protest nears the one-month mark.
Even rumblings that Mayor Rob Ford has intimated that the occupiers should move on have not dampened the protesters' resolve.
"They've had a peaceful protests but I think it's time we ask them to leave," Ford said during a news conference held to discuss the Eglinton LRT Wednesday morning, "Again I have to confirm this with the chief and I'm not here to speak on the chief's behalf ... I think everyone can appreciate it's been a peaceful protest but I think it's time that we ask them to move on."
Ford's statements were backed by non-specific comments by city manager Joe Pennechetti that the City was looking into "appropriate steps" to deal with the site.
ACORN Canada supports the thousands of Canadians who have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest income inequality, corporate greed and a broken economic system. Inspired by #OccupyWallStreet, the movement that began less than two months ago in downtown Manhattan, and has now spread to over 1000 cities in 100+ countries.
This movement is exposing the underlying unfairness of an economic system that has left a tiny elite with a disproportionate amount of wealth while hardworking Canadians struggle to make ends meet.
The 35,000+ members of ACORN Canada have a message for these brave citizens camped out in parks and public spaces across Canada today: we've got your back, we support your calls for a fairer Canada and we'll always be a friend to the #occupy movement.
Reasons to support the #occupy movement in Canada (Source: CCPA):
-Canada's richest 1% have doubled their income share between 1970 and 2007.
-$6.6 million a year is the average compensation for Canada's 100 best paid CEOs.
-1 in 10 Canadians live in poverty including 1 in 4 aboriginal children.
Nearly 100 Toronto ACORN members joined with community and labour groups in an impressive rally of over 10,000 Torontonians who marched from Yonge and Dundas Square to City Hall to protest proposed service cuts.
"No matter who you voted for, you didn't vote to cut services in Toronto. We must protect our housing, jobs, and transit so that we have a city that works for everyone."
The massive crowd surrounded City Hall and delivered thousands of postcards to city councillors urging them to vote against the proposed cuts and give respect back to the taxpayers. In response to the rally, Rob Ford committed to holding public consultations in neighborhoods around the city before following through with the decision.