YUFA
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Feast and March in Yorkville
THIS SATURDAY!!!
- SATURDAY
AUGUST 23, 2003
DINE AT THE TORY TROUGH
FEAST AND MARCH IN YORKVILLE
Meet at 7pm on Cumberland Ave. (north of Bloor between Avenue Road and
Bellair)
Speakers on the night include:
- Murphy Browne - Community Organizer in St. Jamestown, Toronto
- Mughir Al-Hindi - Al Awda Palestinian Right to Return Coaltion
- Sarah Blackstock - Ontario Coalition for Social Justice
- Kelly O'Sullivan - President of CUPE 4308
- Sima Zerehi - No One is Illegal, Toronto
- Members of Native Youth - Toronto
- Rev. Lincoln - Pastor at St. Paul's Church and Immigrant rights advocate
- Member of the Comite des Sans-Emploi, Montreal
- Carlos Barbosa - Hotel worker and member of OCAP
- Gaetan Heroux of OCAP
The Yorkville area of Toronto is well established as a bastion of privilege and wealth. It is to the restaurants, bars, cafes and shops of Yorkville that corporate executives and their friends from Queens Park go
to dine and shop at taxpayer expense. Whether business or pleasure, meals in the elite restaurants of Yorkville are tax deductible to the tune of 50%. That's millions of dollars drained from housing and social services so that super-rich Tory backers can dine on meals at $100 a plate.Those who are elected members of the Tory party need not even bother with tax deductions. MPP Cam Jackson blew $3000 of Government money, or almost six months worth of individual welfare cheques, on dinner at Mortons Steakhouse in the heart of Yorkville. Then despite living only 45 minutes from Toronto and having a car and driver paid for by taxpayers, Jackson billed Ontario residents $14,000 for a room at the Yorkville Four Seasons Hotel. That money represents more than someone earning minimum wage would make in 1 year of 40 hour work weeks.
Cabinet Minister Chris Stockwell has been forced to quit politics after being busted in two instances of fraud. One involving $300,000 worth of entertainment expenses and another where he financed a family vacation to France on the money saved by the Tories by cutting welfare. We can be assured that Stockwell will receive no lifetime ban on holding office, nor will he die under house arrest in the sweltering summer heat for his fraud. Unlike Kimberly Rogers died 2 years ago in such conditions. Stockwell will likely receive a cushy job at one of the firms that back the Harris-Eves regime and will soon be entertaining clients at Yorkville restaurants, cashing in on the tax breaks he has helped to bring in for the rich.
Those who wish to live in close proximity to the luxury of Yorkville will find no more prestigious address than the Residences at 10 Bellair where condos start at $2 million a piece and skyrocket from there. These condos were built and are owned by Tridel, a company which generates millions in profits each year then funnels a signifigant portion of that money back into the Tory party as reward for creating the environment for such profits in the first place
The Tory party has done nothing but drain money from poor communities, steal food from those who are hungry and cut services to those in need to finance the decadence and greed of those who put them in office. If someone sends their child to the exclusive Upper Canada College they receive a $3,500 tax break, which also represents the cost of the best bottle of wine in the cellar of Yorkville's Truffles restaurant and four months of rent for the cheapest bachelor apartment in the city.
On the eve of a provincial election campaign we will challenge the Tory
government and all those who seek to follow in their footsteps by holding a feast and march in the heart of the Tory Trough.Poverty will no longer be hidden and
Wealth will not go undisturbed.
For more information contact OCAP at 416-925-6939 or ocap@tao.ca
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Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
517 College Street, Suite 234 Toronto, Ontario M6G 4A2
416-925-6939
ocap@tao.ca
www.ocap.ca
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