On Saturday people on income assistance and their friends marched through North Dartmouth, the constituency of Community Services minister Joanne Bernard, and rallied near her campaign headquarters at the Dartmouth Shopping Centre. “I would tell Bernard, please have pity on us, treat us like human beings, that is all we want,” said one of the protesters.
A group of anti-poverty activists is organizing a rally and march in North Dartmouth, the constituency of Joanne Bernard, the current minister of Community Services. They hope to raise awareness of the many difficulties people on income assistance face under the current welfare system.
Kimberly Smith, proud father of Brendon, a 28 year old man who is labeled as living with developmental disabilities, writes about a conversation he had with Joe Rudderham, the executive director of the Disability Support Programs at Community Services. The interview is included. “As for the developmentally challenged and elderly, we are definitely heading toward a monumental iceberg and time to act is running out. We do not have to crash and sink in poverty and illness… We can rise up and help each other prosper,” writes Smith.
In an open letter to the Premier a group charges that government isn’t serious about supporting persons with developmental disabilities who are looking for community-based solutions rather than being warehoused in large institutions. he Department of Community Services isn’t even meeting targets it set earlier and that were publicly endorsed by minister Joanne Bernard, the letter states.
Barry Walters’ rent in a public housing apartment building for seniors went up from $285 per month when he first move in in late 2015, to a whopping $812 today. It”s all the Feds’ fault, says Housing Nova Scotia. Well, that’ doesn’t really help me, Walters says.
This year’s budget may be balanced, but the a small group of people on social assistance and their allies who gathered in front of Province House wondered at what cost. Protesters hoped to talk about poverty in Nova Scotia with MLAs entering the House to take part in this afternoon’s budget discussions. Demonstrators were studiously ignored by Liberal and Conservative MLAs, while NDP MLAs stopped to chat.
Years after he got off social assistance Community Services intends to charge him with fraud for running a small business, even though the department had earlier approved the practice. Now the poor man fears he may end up losing his daughter. Brenda Thompson reports from the Annapolis Valley.
It appears frequent contributor and poverty activist Kendall Worth is not a fan of Minister Joanne Bernard.
Persons living with developmental disabilities and their advocates feel seriously betrayed by the wishy-washy commitment of Community Services to the execution of the so-called disabilities roadmap.
The politicians who make decisions about people on social assistance should try living on a social assistance budget just for a week, says actress and documentary maker Jackie Torrens. It would make them better politicians. “I don’t extend the challenge in an aggressive way, or an angry way. I sincerely want our MLAs to have a tiny glimpse of what people on social assistance in this province are dealing with on a daily basis,” says Torrens.