Working People Speak Up on Matters of Concern
Community Organizations Reject Silence as the Response to Their Demands
On September 29, at the call of the Quebec Network of Autonomous Community Action (RQ-ACA), hundreds of community organizations and thousands of people from across Quebec took to the streets of Montreal as part of a national demonstration to demand concrete action to protect the social safety net.
The
organizations stressed the importance of their work with
vulnerable
people in the context of the housing and inflation crisis. The
issue of
funding is at the heart of their demands. "Community
organizations are
still facing significant underfunding, despite recent
investments,"
said Caroline
Toupin, co-spokesperson for the Get Involved in Community
Campaign and
coordinator of the RQ-ACA. "Failing to adequately fund the
community is
inevitably leaving citizens behind," she says.
Their main demands are:
- Funding of the missions of all of Quebec's 4,000 community organizations "to allow them to do what they were founded to do: help members of their communities. In addition, it is imperative that the government index annually these grants for all organizations."
- Major investments in public services and social programs because "they are indispensable for the respect of human rights and essential to ensure a decent standard of living for all."
-
Better distribution of wealth: "Solutions exist to strengthen
and
significantly fund the social safety net and we must have the
political
courage to do that. It is intolerable that the government should
deprive itself of the means necessary to reinvest in the common
good."
Roxanne Milot, spokesperson for the Regional Front for Autonomous Community Action (FRACA) of Montreal adds: "For us, social justice rhymes with fiscal justice. The wealthy must give back their fair share to the society that allowed them to accumulate a fortune. It's time for them to contribute more to the common good, because everyone should be able to meet their basic needs with dignity."
To read the full statement click here.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 24 - October 3, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520242.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca