Paul Vienneau: Why we have to fight our own battles
“…we have to fight our own battles. The government would still be gleefully discriminating against us if we didn’t sue them,” writes disability activist Paul Vienneau.
Search Results for: BRAG
Welfare recipients keep getting poorer in Canada’s most miserly province
A recently published report shows that incomes for people on welfare in Nova Scotia are terribly insufficient, and on a downward trajectory. They are also by and large the lowest in Canada.
Tim Blades at the Lower Sackville My Week on Welfare screening: I want to be part of a solution
Poverty activist and welfare recipient Tim Blades speaks at the recent screening of My Week on Welfare in Lower Sackville. His message is not the one that Community Services would like you to hear, but it’s rooted in lived experience.
News release: ACORN to highlight Eastlink’s lonely refusal to participate in low-income program
This Saturday at 12 noon ACORN members and allies will launch a mock food drive to support EastLink’s Bragg family, who last month claimed to be too small a company to provide low-cost internet to low-income Nova Scotians. The patriarch of the Bragg family, John Bragg, has reported wealth of 1.3 Billion dollars.
Community Services transformation: No lack of spin during info sessions
Recently Community Services organized a series of info sessions to provide an update to stakeholders on the ESIA transformation. I couldn’t go of course, since I am merely a grouchy old journalist and not a stakeholder. But I talked to a few anti-poverty advocates, and this is what I found out.
There but for the grace of God … Aron Spidle tells Nova Scotia MLAs about a broken social assistance system
In September several MLAs from all three parties attended a screening of My Week on Welfare at the auditorium of the Nova Scotia Art Gallery in downtown Halifax. This is what Aron Spidle, who is featured in the documentary, told the MLAs. “When a friend asks me to do something with them, the first thing that occurs to me is to ‘how can I get out of this gracefully?’ because most of the time I cannot afford it.”
When ends never meet – Tim Blades at the My Week on Welfare screening for Nova Scotia MLAs
On Wednesday evening several MLAs from all three parties attended a screening of My Week on Welfare at the auditorium of the Nova Scotia Art Gallery in downtown Halifax. My Week on Welfare is a wonderful documentary, produced by Jackie Torrens, that offers glimpses into the lives of income assistance recipients, families and individuals both, trying to make ends meet on a scandalously low food and shelter budget. The screening was organized by BRAG and CASAR members. What follows is what poverty advocate and Nova Scotia Advocate contributor Tim Blades told the MLAs.
Letter – Poverty activists to Community Services bureaucrats: Could we speak with your manager, please
The Benefits Reform Action Group sent a letter to the Community Services Standing Committee, explaining why it is no longer interested in meetings with bureaucrats that go nowhere.
Danny Cavanagh: No justice for restorative justice workers
Danny Cavanagh: “One must consider the cost of keeping an individual incarcerated and the savings we see because of the work these six workers do every day. This program seems to be a win, win for everyone, everyone except the six workers who now have little choice but to stand up for what they believe in. These six workers just want a living wage and to be treated with respect and fairness. These six workers want the expanded restorative justice program to work.”
Why talk when nobody listens? Benefit Reform Action Group halts discussions with Community Services
The annual review for people on social assistance is intrusive, stressful, and often unnecessary. But when BRAG complained to the Standing Committee it turned into a lengthy exchange of letters. Enough of that, says BRAG. Here is the story, as told by Kendall Worth.