On Sunday, July 27th, anti-fascists ("antifa") came together from across Southern Ontario to confront and shut down an attempt by long time hate organizers to intimidate the participants of London's 2008 Pride Parade. Acting on information found posted on white supremacist websites, antifa in several cities were able to organize and produce the numbers despite minimal preparation time.

On Monday, July 7, around supper time, a young Somali man in his mid- twenties was found dead in the Salvation Army Maxwell Meighen Hostel. On Thursday morning, July 10, Denis Bowen, 42, a native man known to many of us in the community, died outside a social housing building at 200 Sherbourne St.

Action Notice:

Join us THURSDAY, July 17th, to protest the city’s refusal to address poverty in our community and to speak out against the recent deaths of two homeless men who died last week in our community.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 17, 2008
TIME: 11 AM
LOCATION: Queen and Sherbourne St.

MNN. July 14, 2008. 10:40 a.m. This morning the Brantford City police arrested a Six Nations Indigenous person at the construction site at Fenn Ridge in Brantford. At the same time Ontario Provincial Police are gathering on Highway 403, making way for cement trucks to enter the illegal construction site. More cruisers are arriving on the scene. They have laid spike belts on the road to keep Indigenous people on the outside. Ambulances and paddy wagons are arriving. There are men, women and children inside the site gates. All the workers have left.

Today we went to City Hall to demand that Mayor David Miller immediately restore shelter beds in the downtown east side. We've lost over 350 shelter beds in the downtown core, and tens of thousands of meals over the past year, and the City has done nothing.

"They closed University Settlement for renovations today, so where am I supposed to sleep now?" asks Chris. "I'm sleeping in parks, under bridges. They got empty rooms here in City Hall tho, maybe we should stay here?"

On May 26th Indigenous communities and supporters including environmental and social justice groups will gather at Queen's Park to uphold our duty to protect the land, forest, water, and air and to promote respect for our Indigenous rights to say no to economic exploitation and environmental destruction. It is time to end the jailing and harassment of our people for protecting mother earth and traditional ways. Please come to our large rally on May 26th at the legislature. We are also inviting supporters to join us in four days of ceremony, speakers, workshops, music, and a three night sovereignty sleep-over directly on the front lawn of the legislature.

As part of our challenge to the neglect and abuse faced by Toronto Community Housing tenants, OCAP has been collecting up photographs of disrepair in TCH buildings. On March 26, we came to City Hall and put up a photo display that showed some of what we have seen around the City.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and supporters came to City Hall Monday to draw attention to the lack of services available for poor and homeless people in Toronto while demanding to know where those in need will seek food and a place to sleep as shelter closings plague the downtown core.

By now, most Out of the Cold (OOTC) Programs, volunteer initiatives that provide emergency shelter to the homeless community during the winter months, have closed their doors resulting in a loss of 130 beds per night. Over the past year, OCAP said the City has allowed three large rooming houses in the downtown East End to be shut down and five major shelters – providing 300 beds - to be closed.