MAIN POINTS
(from interviews)

1. People feel like their government wants them dead

2. Loss of hope and dignity

3. Living with shame and blame

4. Discrimination made worse by being poor, especially in small communities

5. High numbers of women, people with disabilities, people new to
Canada and First Nations in poverty

6. Disproportionate number of First Nations people in jail

7. Poor kids feel like no one cares

8. Many women too ashamed, or afraid, to use charities

9. Much less access to justice or advocacy for people in poverty

10. Immigrants target of discrimination and hate when
there is fear of job loss

11. People feel they must hide poverty and put on happy face

12. Bad bosses only get away with so much because there is no GLI

INEQUALITY - Quotes

I will never forget that. [BC hospital workers] didn't know if they were going to be contracted out and then their own government was saying that they are just glorified toilet-bowl cleaners, and just a bunch of women earning pin money so their husbands can go on their benefits. A lot were single mothers. Some families that were affected were dual earners; both were working in healthcare. That whole thing affected the rest of the membership; for the last four years it was duck and cover, [people saying] "At least I didn't lose my job." They were not even standing up for their basic rights, not wanting to file grievances. [The threat of being poor] makes people bow down and cower. The whole attitude changed overnight with the threat. Let's not forget that the government did two things at once, they threw people off of welfare and gave them time limits while they were firing people. Also, at one time you could collect 52 weeks [of unemployment insurance], but they changed all that. Your weeks were based on whether you were full-time or part-time. So if you were full-time, you would get approximately 40 weeks, but a part-time got 29 weeks. And guess who had most of the part-time work? Women. It was discriminatory. If you were only one or two days a week because of staying home with kids, you didn't even qualify for EI, but you had to pay into it! There are some workers who went back and took jobs for $10 an hour -almost half of what they had before. If you talked to them, they said,"I had no choice, welfare was going to cut me off." It was the fear of not having a job-or, if they waited till EI ran out, that all the jobs would be taken. It was a plan, "Where can we get 10/hr workers? Cut these people off welfare." Most who went back had children; that is why they felt they couldn't afford to take the risk. Trades recently got a 32% increase [mostly men], and LPNs [mostly women], only got 16%, but the trades were organized. It could be that they had more time to organize, and the women had less because of looking after their kids. -Brenda

Everyone is divided. As long as they think they have their job, they think they are okay. We even have division in the welfare system where people feel secure on their disability. I've asked union people: "If you had a GLI right now, you wouldn't be forced to go back and work for nothing." Union jobs are being replaced with low-paying jobs; this has been happening for years. We need to wipe out these levels of classism... and have a Guaranteed Livable Income. -Cecia

A lot of non-union workers hate unions, but they hate them for the wrong reason. It's not what we have, but what they don't have. They turn that around and say, "You have so much; you're greedy." -Brenda

It's almost as if people would like to blame themselves. "If I worked a little harder, if I tried a little harder, I'd get that job." -Claire

There is tremendous ageism. There are more unemployed women in their 40s and 50s than ever before.   It's sad when we see ageism and throw-away disposable people. As soon as women get older, we're considered nothing; we're worthless. -Faith

Mothers do not have a place in this society. They are never recognized for the amount of work they do to contribute to society, and it is really, really sad. -Bernice

I am on a disability pension. I am not allowed to have fun, because there is no money to have fun. I am being punished for being disabled. Also, if you get married and are on disability benefits, then you only get a very small amount. Or if two people on disability benefits get married, one gets cut off and they are put onto one cheque for less money than for two. -Debie

I remember my mother crying all the 10 blocks to the welfare office. She cried while we sat in the office and cried while we did the interview. She was poor, black and a single mom, and that was the context that I felt since I was 8-that everything that happened to us was because she was a woman and she was black and she was poor. -Naomi

Why should somebody, because they suddenly can't get up and go to work in a structured way, as hard as they can full-tilt, 8 hours a day, be made to feel their life has no value? -Jennifer

On welfare you can't say, "I had a good week", you have to say, "I have these MULTI barriers." That kind of stuff sinks in. It's pretty sad that we learn the way to survive is to play these games when we have to put down ourselves and each other. -Faith

Women are so terrified of being humiliated, being put down, being made to feel worse, that they will do anything to avoid welfare. Never, never should anyone have to go through that. -Rita

It's difficult in a small town. Everybody knows you. You try and act as though everything is just fine, while I felt like falling on the sidewalk and bawling my brains out. I was a sixty-year-old woman, and I felt like the government would just as soon I died.... My own country that I had lived and worked and volunteered in, and raised 3 children in...! And this was the result? -Mary B.

My box of food had a dented can of yellow wax beans, and I started to sob. To me that can of beans was how society looked at me; that this is how I deserved to be treated. It was devastating. If you had any dignity when you walked in [to the food bank], you sure didn't when you walked out. -Bernice

When unemployment starts to rise, the first group of people affected are immigrants. They are attacked: people say, "They are taking my job away from me." -Brenda

My own brother said to me I had had a free ride, even though I had done all the caregiving for our mother. -Rita