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.
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
Thank you
for reading, ladies and gentlemen.
