[Canada] Poverty groups to picket Stratford

from The Globe and Mail

GUY DIXON AND KATE TAYLOR

A coalition of anti-poverty groups plan to picket the Stratford Festival's black-tie gala in Stratford, Ont., on May 29 and turn the opening night into a stage for their demands for greater public assistance for the poor.

The leading organizing group, the local Perth County Coalition Against Poverty, has invited the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and the Ontario Common Front to help bring in buses of protesters from Toronto and other cities to descend on what one activist described as "a showpiece of lavish consumption."

The intention is to create "the most visible and powerful" disruption possible "to make those who are involved in organizing the festival and the [Ontario] government that in many ways stands behind them as uncomfortable as they possibly can be," said John Clarke, an OCAP organizer.

OCAP plans to bring in a busload of protesters. Clarke wasn't able to say whether protesters would try to disrupt the opening-night production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus or whether they would remain outside the theatre. "Our intention is to be strong and as powerful as we can be," Clarke said.

The coalition of activist groups is seeking not only to mobilize the poor, but specifically to raise social-assistance rates by 40 per cent.

The festival reacted cautiously to the planned demonstration yesterday, issuing a statement expressing the hope that any protest would be peaceful. It noted the theatre festival welcomes 550,000 visitors annually, generates an estimated $125-million in economic activity and creates, directly and indirectly, 3,300 jobs.

"There's an absolute understanding of their cause," communications director Leanne Perreault added in an interview yesterday. "We are just hoping their means are peaceful and respectful.

"We support a lot of groups in the community," she added, citing the festival's work with the United Way and various local shelters and support networks. "So it's a bit ironic we are targeted." For example, the festival recently donated 100 preview-performance tickets to Coriolanus to a group that distributed the tickets to the unemployed.

However, OCAP's website describes the festival as a place where "poor and homeless people are swept from sight to make way for an annual playpen for the rich."