OCAP TAKES ON LIBERAL BARBECUE

OCAP TAKES ON LIBERAL BARBECUE:
Grits are no longer unaccountable

On Saturday, August 28, two busloads of OCAP members and supporters traveled to the exclusive York Mills/Bayview area to confront a display of Liberal arrogance. The luxurious home of Party supporter Joseph Kurian was the venue for the "Red Hot Grits" BBQ - the biggest provincial Liberal fundraising event of the year. Major Government figures and their fan club intended to gather in order to feast and wallow in self-congratulation. OCAP managed to cast the very real shadow of poverty and anger over this event. The guest of honour, Dalton McGuinty, was a no-show.

As we marched on the street where the Liberals were set to hold their little party, it was clear that the cops would serve and protect the privileged guests and not worry themselves too much about legal niceties.

A line of officers and another force of mounted cops barred us from a public street, but the crowd moved around and past the police lines in order to reach Kurian.s house. A hastily assembled force of cops managed, with some difficulty, and by riding horses into the crowd, to push us back to the edge of the property. A tense and spirited stand off then unfolded over the next couple of hours.

Reports indicate that over a hundred and fifty aspiring partygoers decided to do something else with their afternoon as a result of our action. The BBQ was repeatedly challenged and confronted. Inside, the buzz of conversation and tasteful music was drowned out by the angry chants of the crowd. Those who showed up to join the event had to proceed under heavy police escort. The gathering was not cancelled, but the partygoers could only continue their revelry under siege.

While it was clear that the Liberals desperately wanted to avoid a scene that would stir memories of the Harris years, the police could not resist some heavy handed outbursts. Three people where arrested, including an OCAP member who was thrown to the pavement by police, suffering a concussion and neck injuries, and had to be taken away in an ambulance. She was later escorted from her hospital bed into police custody, and is now facing the charge of .obstruct police.. Pepper spray was also used on people in the crowd. All arrestees have since been released.

For one whole year, a Liberal Government elected on a platform of .change. has merely been complicit in perpetuating their predecesors. anti-poor agenda. The Liberals have made miserable token gestures when serious action was called for. The minimum wage had a few pennies added to it. Social assistance rates, after losing some 40% of their real value over the last ten years, have been hiked by an insulting 3% (which their privatized computer system can.t even deliver). Yet this whole exercise in duplicity had been carried off with very little in the way of a challenge to it. On Saturday, the poor and homeless and their allies who came to confront the Red Hot Grits event established new rules of engagement between the McGuinty Government and its victims. That fact, more than the simple wrecking of a Liberal fundraiser, was what made Saturday so important.

OCAP has given a lead and we now call on others to join us in fighting this Government. Members of anti-poverty organizations from other cities in Ontario were there on Saturday but only a smattering of other social movements and unions showed their support. This Government will continue to consolidate the war on the poor until it is challenged by way of a serious social mobilization. Please help us continue to give the lead we have now taken up. Our financial situation meant we were unable to bring more than two buses to the Grits' event. Join us when we take on McGuinty in the weeks ahead. A year of passivity in the face of Liberal attack is over. Let.s hold this vile Government to account and build a challenge that can shake them to their foundations.