Poverty

What’s really going on? Rebates and government ‘largesse’

December 2, 2024

The recent announcement that Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board will be distributing $2 billion of ‘surplus’ rebates to businesses in February 2025 was met with shock and anger by the injured worker community. In response, Steve Mantis (Thunder Bay & District…

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ISAC wants your feedback on Ontario’s social assistance system

October 23, 2024

The Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) launched a survey yesterday to gather data and stories from those currently (or recently) receiving support from Ontario Works (OW) or Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). The information collected will be used in a report on…

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Age discrimination in Ontario’s workers’ compensation

June 24, 2024

In an op-ed in Hamilton Spectator (June 24) Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic caseworkers Tebasum Durrani and Chris Grawey note that while the province celebrates June as Seniors Month, older injured workers continue to be at increased risk of poverty. Under the…

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Calling on injured workers to take part in Human Rights Commission survey on poverty

November 18, 2022

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is doing a survey of people who are experiencing poverty, or have experienced poverty in the past, and also family members, friends or service providers who know someone who has experienced poverty. This is part of a…

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University of Waterloo seeks injured workers for study on retirement & poverty

October 17, 2022

A University of Waterloo-based study focused on injured worker poverty in retirement years would like to hear from injured workers who have engaged with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s Loss of Retirement Income (LRI) benefits. As a part of their investigation,…

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Survey to help shape federal Disability Inclusion Action Plan

July 6, 2021

According to the most recent Canadian Income Survey 13.5% of persons with a disability lived below the poverty line in 2019. On June 22, shortly before Parliament rose for the summer, the Minister of of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion introduced…

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Ontario injured workers bring concerns again to the UN

March 23, 2021

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is holding a general discussion on the Convention’s Article 27, which addresses the right of persons with disabilities to work and employment. The aim of the discussion is to…

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Stop Unsafe Evictions during COVID-19

October 7, 2020

Many injured workers know the fear of losing their housing when cut off or denied benefits. The current pandemic of Covid-19 has put additional pressure on those deemed by the WSIB to have a job at a time at a time when…

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How to reduce poverty?

January 21, 2020

December 2019 the Ontario government announced a consultation on the next five-year Poverty Reduction Strategy. According to Ministry figures, one in seven Ontarians live in poverty. Several recent reports provide a closer look at the social and economic dimensions of poverty.…

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Deeming as a violation of rights: submission to the UN

September 6, 2019

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities met in Geneva this week (4th and 5th of September) to consider reports on Canada’s compliance with the international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Ontario Network of…

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