Salvation Army Complicit In Deceit.

Louis Shalako

Okay. I was reading, and speaking with commenters on a Salvation Army post. I had a question. Why doesn’t the Salvation Army mention that social assistance rates are appallingly low. Why can’t they come out and say that the Ontario Disability Support Program benefits are thirty-five to forty percent below the poverty line? How come they don’t advocate for a higher minimum wage? Why is it that they seem to forget the landlords are taking anything up to seventy percent and beyond in terms of disability pensions?

Comments came thick and fast. I don’t think they were all that pleased with me, but then the bourgeoisie never questions their own assumptions. Food banks, and food drives, are ‘good news’ stories. Always have been, and always will—unless someone breaks their little fucking bubble.

So. They have their reasons not to get too specific. One person mentioned 'separation of church and state', another mentioned that any charity that can issue a tax receipt is barred from political activity. (Which has never stopped the Fraser Institute from making political statements.)

This is why the Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, or St. Myles of Yappi over at the Inn of the Good Shepherd, cannot criticize social programs in the province and in this nation. It is a Catch-22.

You can feed the poor—you can accept donations—but you must never mention that the causes of poverty are structural, you must never say that social assistance rates are appallingly low, must never acknowledge that disability pensions are thirty-five to forty percent below the poverty line, or that the minimum wage should be raised, or that the landlord is taking seventy percent in rent.

In other words, if they want to keep their church's tax-exempt status, keep your mouths shut. 

So: in that sense, in the sense that this is an agreement, a bargain with the ruling classes, these entities are complicit in the deceit.

Yeah, it’s a fucking bargain all right.

#mystery_solved

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Here's a journalism thing. Canadian journalists 'don't make the news'. If a statement is made, it must be attributed—it must be attributed to someone else.

And if that someone else feels constrained by laws and tax-exempt status, then those statements of fact never get made.

When I say the causes of poverty are structural, this is one of those structures.

Oh, and just for the record, David Chilton (The Wealthy Barber), is incapable of writing intelligently on this subject.

#fuck_off

Here is the original Salvation Army post on Facebook.

END

A Workable Plan for the Reduction of Poverty In Ontario.

A Submission to the Government of Canada on the Subject of Poverty Reduction.

Thank you for reading, ladies and gentlemen.