Thousands tell Finance Minister - Housing not War

As homelessness worsens in Canada, the federal government can no longer justify spending untold billions of dollars on war.

Housing not War protest Toronto Construction Afghanistan Toronto (8 Feb. 2008) - On Thursday, February 7th a protest took place outside of the Toronto regional office of Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty demanding that the federal government address the housing crisis in Canada.

The rally was endorsed by more than 147 organizations and thousands of individuals - including the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). Supporters ranged from Canada’s largest civil society bodies to small grassroots community groups and thousands of individuals including public figures and politicians from all levels of government.

Every day, more people and organizations sign the Housing Not War Declaration demanding an end to the war and a shift of resources from record-high military spending to peace, including an extra 1% of the budget for social housing.

The National Union's support for the campaign came out of a policy paper passed at it's last Convention. In the paper, called Peace and the Global Commons, NUPGE stated that:

Once we, as a global society, achieve peace the trillion dollars spent globally on the military and the arms trade can be redirected to education, social programs, housing, environmental protection and restoration - in short to building a better world for all of us.

The Housing Not War Declaration

As part of the campaign individuals and organizations are asked to sign onto The Housing Not War Declaration:

I/we support the demand that the federal government implement a Housing Not War strategy. Canada is at war in Afghanistan. Homelessness remains a national disaster in Canada. Canadian troops should come home, and funding directed towards war and militarism should go towards housing and other peaceful purposes.
As homelessness worsens in Canada, the federal government can no longer justify spending untold billions of dollars on war. We call for the 1% solution - an additional 1% of the federal budget to be allocated towards social housing. This would bring spending to $4 billion per year. Sign the declaration here

The Housing not War campaign hopes to confront issues of both severe domestic poverty and violent foreign policy. Already the national campaign has gathered an unprecedented broad alliance challenging the Federal government’s basic priorities.

Broad based rally

Speakers at the rally included noted author Linda McQuaig, Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC) co-founder Beric German, Canadian Peace Alliance coordinator Sid Lacombe, Low Income Families Together (LIFT) founder Josephine Grey, NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo, Toronto City Councillor Gord Perks, and Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) member Gaetan Heroux.

“We did not choose these policies imposing destruction on poor people here and abroad. The government is alienating so many different people, and those different groups are uniting and pushing back together for change”, said Andrew Mindszenthy of TDRC. NUPGE