A Look at OCAP that defies stereotypes

Published in February 2009, for the Ryerson Free Press. At the office of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), three desks are squished together in a bunker-like room without windows. Three metal filing cabinets are labelled “Immigration”, “OCAP”, and “Organization History.” A pile of protest banners leans against the wall. The walls are plastered with posters such as: “Fight to Win: March on Queens Park, 2000” and “Convergence 2010. No Olympics on Stolen Land. No Social Cleansing. No Eco-Destruction.” Others are in Portuguese with images of Brazilian workers. It’s clear that the coalition’s work in Toronto is connected to global struggles. As I wait, four activists arrive from Montreal. A mother among them has a newborn and carries the requisite baby bag with snacks and toys. So much for that militant-activist stereotype. Some city politicians, residents, and academics claim that OCAP takes an extreme approach in its representation of a vocal minority. But, on a symbolic level, the coalition speaks not just for the panhandlers visible to us, but also for the invisible poor. Its members speak for those who are too ashamed to fight for a right to government housing and for an increased minimum wage. The organizers at the coalition create a process that is politicizing for those who want to be involved, and forums for protests about broader issues. As a direct action anti-poverty group, the coalition advocates in Toronto’s City Hall for the poorest people. People who are often referred to as an underclass, those who can’t contribute to society, who are frequently classified as deserving or undeserving, without any examination of the larger economic context. The coalition advocates assertively, frequently breaking the rules. It plays a controversial role in Toronto’s political scene. It sometimes successfully gets homeless people on the map in a terrain that is otherwise dominated by stakeholders with power – the people in suits: developers, politicians, and residents’ groups. The trouble is that not everyone is aware of the work it does beyond its notoriously loud protests. In early September 2008, one city councillor’s constituency assistant spoke to me about the different communities in his ward. When OCAP came up, he rolled his eyes. He’s not the only one who appears to shrug off the coalition as merely a radical activist organization. For most liberal citizens, the idea of a poor people’s unruly protest is unsettling. It reminds us of revolution, and the reversal of power that took place during significant times in history, like the French Revolution, when people demanded bread and got angry at the royalty, chopping off their heads for their presumptive sense of entitlement. The working classes were hungry and the ruling class disdained them. The anger that citizens had then was unbounded and brought them together in a frightening force. Clearly they had nothing to lose. Today, many people still find direct-action protest tactics to be in bad taste and, on a subconscious level, terrifying. The large number of police at some protests exemplifies the hyper-vigilance of the city trying to maintain order and the status quo. A journalism professor at Ryerson University, April Lindgren, who is familiar with Toronto politics, and who is a former Queen’s Park bureau chief, also shared her doubts about the coalition’s reputation. She said, “Their use of sometimes violent means – organizing the riot on the Queen’s Park lawn a few years ago – undermines their cause.” But the coalition has a different idea about what it is doing. On Oct. 4, 2008, the coalition marched along Parliament Street to “take back Cabbagetown.” According to its website, it “made it clear that poor people who live in the neighbourhood and use services in the neighbourhood are staying in the neighbourhood.” At the local Business Improvement Area (BIA), Doug Fisher said business owners were not impressed with the coalition’s loud and annoying protest against gentrification. Inside the coalition’s tiny one-room office near the Moss Park Armory, two organizers, both part-time staff at the organization, AJ Withers and Kelly Bentley, explained that they go to city council meetings to remind the councillors of things we would rather not be reminded of. They say they provide access to politicians in a way that most poor people can’t have alone. “What approach are people supposed to take when they are living in dire conditions?” Withers asked. “We…organize people to take action. So if squeamish liberals and reactionaries don’t like us, we don’t give a crap.” She added that they went to council last year to let councillors know that shelter beds are infested with bed bugs and that tuberculosis was going around. They demanded that more beds be made available. But, Withers said, councillors tell them there are enough beds, and they brush off the fact that shelters aren’t safe. She said, “They are not on the front lines dealing with people.” Most people don’t know about the range of work that the coalition does. Withers said, “Our protests are aimed at broad-scale change, but we wouldn’t be responsible as an organization if that’s all we did. We believe in our Band-Aid day-to-day solutions for people too, and that’s where our case work comes in.” They compile a list of affordable housing from newspaper listings to distribute to agencies working with low-income clients. They advise people on legal matters when possible, and on welfare, if they have problems. Withers said they give people the tools to solve problems for themselves, and sometimes they call the welfare offices on their behalf. She said they get around 20 people a week asking for help. In addition to working with the downtown sector, the coalition also supports a group of Somali women in Rexdale. It has a community among the homeless population and ask people to come to meetings and speak at protests. Bentley said, “I work with Ontario Disability Support Plan recipients to process their social-assistance forms. They know that OCAP is there to support them, and I think it gives them a sense of security and belonging. At the same time, as we tell them about our research, they tell us what is happening on the street.” But, Withers admitted, “The homeless community is transient… Our membership is more fluid.” Since it formed in 1989, the coalition has held frequent general membership meetings. Until 2001, it had support and funding from the Canadian Auto Workers union, but that relationship ended after a series of incidents which the union could not support. According to the coalition, the actions that ended the relationship – such as evicting then-Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty from his office because the eviction rate had skyrocketed while he was in power – were some of their most successful. Withers said that when the union pulled their funding, even a poll on City TV indicated the popularity of the coalition’s actions. Withers explained, “We never let our funders control what we do. That makes things hard, but it’s the way we have integrity.” Withers also noted the role of the media, stating, “If we sign someone up to get welfare, nobody cares, but anything we do that is sensational gets into the news.” According to Withers, another misperception of the media is about the coalition’s dealings with the police. Withers said, “Lots of times police do something outrageous, like they take a child away from a mother during a protest, but instead of letting them do that, we support people to defend themselves against police violence.” She adds, “How democratic is it if you have to protest in a benign way? We want to express the urgency and the change that people need.” Withers said, “We are building a poor people’s movement… I think that the detractors of our organization are a testimony to our effectiveness. It’s a serious fight and you’d expect that we would be loved and hated.” But moments after Withers insisted pugnaciously on the need to break some rules, Bentley asked, “Where can we send people for Christmas help?” Once again, any impression of the coalition as a simple extremist group is shattered.