Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

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The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is a militant group of anti-poverty activists in Ontario that uses direct action to fight for the rights of the poor and homeless.

The group was founded in 1989 by John Clarke a British ex-pat and unemployed auto-worker. The group was created to battle the growing problem of poverty, homelessness, and gentrification in downtown Toronto. It rose to much greater prominence as one of the leading voices of opposition to the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris, which culminated in a June 2000 riot in which Clarke and others were arrested. The charges against Clarke, Gaetan Heroux and Stefan Pilipa were ultimately dropped after a trial of the three resulted in a hung jury.

The group is headquartered in Toronto, and that remains the centre of most of their activities, but they have engaged in actions in most major Ontario centres. The movement is composed primarily of activists, social workers, and the poor. It is funded through private donations and support from labour unions. At one time up to a third of their operating funds coming the Canadian Auto Workers but the CAW cut most of its funding after the Flaherty action and OCAP has had to engage in raising funds from individuals in order to pay its organizers.

Its direct action tactics have been very controversial, and the leading members have been arrested a number of times. The organization has blockaded major streets, broken into abandoned buildings to apply pressure to have them be turned into housing, and crashed political events and meetings. A small controversy was created when a group of OCAP activists walked into Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's office and staged a mock eviction, moving his furniture out onto the curb.

The group has battled many organizations, keeping a close eye on the behaviour of the police and making enemies of all major political parties. The group is especially confrontational towards neighbourhood associations that tend to work to close homeless shelters and evict the poor from neighbourhoods.

The tactics have earned the group much publicity, notice from politicians, and have had real results in increasing the supply of affordable housing. The group is known world wide, and it is frequently held up as a success story by anti-poverty activists, anarchists, and many others involved in other or similar resistance movements. However, in recent years some tactics have resulted in trade unions and other progressive organizations becoming alienated from OCAP. The Canadian Union of Public Employees cut its funding and recent actions by OCAP attacking the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees union (HERE) has caused traditional supporters to denounce OCAP and disassociate themselves from the group's activities.

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