A couple of weeks ago, OCAP was approached by a man called Bryian with a dreadful and urgent situation. He is fighting throat cancer and the radiation treatment he has received has sped up the decay of his teeth. Three of them had to be removed but this created for Bryian a serious problem. The denture plate that he had worn previously was no longer anchored on anything and had become useless. Already down to less than 100 lbs, Bryian was now unable to eat solid food.

He contacted a dentist who told him the plate replacement would cost $250.00. Being on Ontario Disability, he went to Social Services and applied for help under the plan they have the the Great West Life Assurance Company. The company turned him down flat on the grounds that he had had the previous dental plate fitted less than five years earlier and he came to OCAP. We responded, after sending a letter outlining the grievance and getting no reply, by taking a delegation of our members to Great West Life’s Toronto office. At the same time, OCAP supporters in Winnipeg set up a picket line outside the company’s showpiece head office opposite the Manitoba Legislature. After calling the cops on us and finding we would not back down, a Great West Life official reluctantly acknowledged that the five year replacement rule could be set aside in compelling situations. We contacted Social Services to get them to provide the company with the necessary information and the desperately needed dental work was approved. For good measure, it was also agreed that Bryian would get a special nutritional supplement to deal with his massively serious weight loss. Next week he attends his first OCAP membership meeting and is anxious be involved in case work actions on a regular basis.

———————- Last week, OCAP defended a family under attack and the little skirmish we had with the welfare system shows two things. Firstly, how the arbitrary practices of welfare officialdom are set up to simply deny assistance without thought to long term implications or logic. Secondly, it is clear how OCAP’s well established readiness to use direct action methods to confront such injustices has by now created a situation where the mere threat of a response often brings results.

A woman came to see us who had been denied assistance. She had been unemployed for quite some time and, in an effort to secure lasting employment, had taken to volunteering at an agency providing services to the immigrant community she was part of. This agency had informed her that full time work would be available by June but, after having had no income for months and, with her personal savings exhausted, she realized that she would need some assistance to get her through if she was going to pay rent and feed her children. The welfare department, however, informed her that the volunteer position she was in proved that she was not looking for work and that a letter from them stating she had given up helping them was a precondition for getting assistance.

This woman had been forced by circumstances to do all the things required of her by a workfare based system. In order to eventually get employment, she had put in several months of unpaid work.Still, grabbing any shabby pretext available, the system had rejected her. It was nothing to them that she had acted diligently and that, within two months, would have the job she more than deserved. Under threat of eviction, it was now demanded of her that she jettison all her plans and hopes. Even from the standpoint of their cold blooded methods, this decision made no sense, since their sabotage of her efforts might very well mean she would need welfare benefits for months to come if the impending job offer was removed.

OCAP sent a letter to the welfare office outlining how their behavior violated all their rhetoric about supporting efforts to achieve ‘self sufficiency’. We also made clear that strong and effective public action would follow unless the grievance was resolved. This proved to be unnecessary. As in many similar cases, it seemed there had been a ‘problem with communication’ and the assistance was provided without delay.

This is another of our ongoing reports on the ‘direct action case work’ that is the cornerstone of OCAP’s work. If you would like to be involved in such actions or can help us to build up our ability to defend families and individuals like this by sending a donation, please give us a shout.

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