A Face of Poverty & Desperation in Cornwall Ontario – Letter to the Editor – January 26, 2013
I’m so tired of reading articles that bash people on social assistance! I’m sure a lot of you have read the blogs and commentaries either online or in the local newspapers and some of you may even be the authors! I’ve seen phrases like lazy, responsibility free, dope selling bums, drink their cheque, professional scammers, believe the world owes them a favor, they hang out at Timmy’s all day drinking coffee, abusing the system, sure to end up in jail and mentally unstable. I can only hope to change your mind, to put a picture in your head of what it’s like and hopefully make you think twice next time you type those disparaging remarks that cut to the very soul.
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Poverty to some might mean making their car last another year, downgrading their cell phone plan, not taking the trip they had planned or maybe cutting down on takeout meals. I’m not talking about the kind of poverty we see in commercials of third world countries asking for donations. I’m talking about the poverty in our very small city of Cornwall, Ontario that should not exist in our well developed country! For me, poverty goes way beyond what you can imagine. I really don’t mind not having a car, cell phone, takeout meals or being able to go on trips.
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I don’t even mind not having cable TV, or not being able to go the hair salon to have my extremely fast growing hair trimmed, or not going to a show at the cinemas once in awhile. My adult children even understood when I couldn’t buy them gifts this past Christmas and will understand when I can’t get them a gift for their up and coming birthdays either. None of this matters when you can’t afford them, you just learn to do without, and people as a whole can do without those extras. I’m living proof that you can, and no, you won’t die! So that’s the list of things I can do without, easy enough, a lot of us in the lower tax bracket do and we survive.
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So now, imagine your life as a single person, losing your job due to a permanent widespread lay off, collecting the Employment Insurance benefits you’re entitled to at 55% of your previous wages which weren’t great to begin with, all the while looking for work. That’s pretty rough, but I made it through that too. I was able to pay my rent and I did cut back on groceries, but was still able to make it through, hoping that a job would come up soon. My lay off was in April of 2011, I was hoping by summer I’d be in the land of the employed again.
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I have an education in Business Administration Accounting and a two year accounting diploma, some experience in office administration, accounting, and customer service, it shouldn’t be that hard! The months came and went and nothing, I registered at some of the employment agencies to aid in my search, but still nothing, my EI benefits were running out by then.
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By November, I went to Ontario Works, I needed help, and I figured it might only be for a little while. November was ok, I had already paid my rent, and then December I would have the two cheques to pay my rent. They would give me $599 per month, but at least I would have benefits. In December, there was a raise to $606/month. Let me break this down for you, there are two parts to the cheque, Basic Needs $230, and Shelter, $376. I had to pay my $725 all inclusive rent out of a $376 Shelter allowance; you can’t even put a tent on a basic camping lot for a month for $376/per month. So ok, I have some groceries stocked up, so I can use the $230 Basic Needs portion, only I’m missing $119 to cover it! My wonderful daughter covered my rent, and I’m so very grateful but at the same time it’s tearing me apart having to borrow from my girl! By the end of December, I’ve got 150 applications and resumes out there.
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Keep in mind I’m confined to Cornwall, because I don’t have a car so my search is limited. One suggestion was to bus to Ottawa every day, people can be a bit dense I guess, after researching, I found out it would cost about $400 per month to get to and from Ottawa, not feasible! A suggestion from my OW worker, move, I said ok, who is going to pay for the move and the expenses of first and last months’ rent that is required? That funding has been taken away by our government. She said well put your name in for subsidized housing, well there’s a 3+ years waiting list for that. I mentioned that I didn’t have any money for groceries, her suggestion: there’s a place that if you give $10, you can get fruit and vegetables, I don’t have $10 to give I said.
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So there was no help for my situation, I did ask to be assigned an employment worker, I’m still waiting on that. We’re coming up to the end of January; I now have about 200 job applications out there. February’s rent is coming up and I have a $605 cheque coming. I have 49 cents in the bank but will go into overdraft when they take my bank fee out. What to do? Well I guess there’s a few things I could sell, but I would only get a fraction of their worth and if OW found out if I don’t claim it, the police would be at my door charging me with fraud. Tonight’s menu, porridge, I’m running through what groceries I’ve had stocked up. I’ve already begged, borrowed, but haven’t stolen yet, I guess that might be next because I’m running out of everything…I guess in the end, I could end up being just like those Welfare recipient bashers call us!
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Desperate in Cornwall
Donna R. - Cornwall, Ontario
(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)
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Donna said, “I see the issue of bilingualism as a bit of a farce, if we, as workers, are required to be able to communicate effectively in both languages to be qualified for a job, then I believe that the public at large should also be required to communicate effectively in both languages. To have that expectation sounds silly right?”
Yes, it is silly. How can one expect the public at large to communicate effectively in French if demographically Canada and the province of Ontario are overwhelmingly English? Very few anglophones know French, but all francophones in Ontario know English. Who in their right mind decided majority of jobs in Ontario require French???
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Thank you Stella, all words of encouragement mean so much! Give up, no, to give up means to lay down and die! I’ve always been a fighter and will continue!
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Donna your very honest with your situation and I am sure enough that an employer will wecome your skills .
Myself, I really welcomed your integrity and honesty that my girl is hard to find and an employer would most certainly benefit having you on their team.
Best of luck ,hold your head high ,your future will only blossom.
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The plight of English speakers in Canada;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q763sTCZ6IQ&feature=youtu.be
Time to end language discrimination in Canada!!!!
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There are some people trying to get off safety nets and the system is not set up to do that, change is needed. Why can’t we have someone just starting EI or social assistance being offered a training course to get them working in a field they like or in demand?
Short order cooks, bookkeeping, ceramic tiler, Plumbing or other trades helpers are examples of accelerated course possibilities.
If this job ad said English only (OR DO NOT APPLY), how many noses would be dislocated? Good for you Donna, let people know when they need it.
“One of my recent communications with a potential employer was in response to an ad for an administrative secretary position, this ad specifically says ‘completely bilingual (OR DO NOT APPLY)’. I am completely qualified for this job and did email the employer to let her know that I’m disappointed that the only thing stopping me from being able to apply is that fact! There has been no response whatsoever, this was Thursday.”
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@CC2….Helga and other english freedom fighters…this article is not about french and English…..ca-vas?
Do you have to bring up language in every article….my God, get a life. Relax some…take time to live life **smile**
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Language discrimination affects Cornwall nurses;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMBl7ZOVfBg&feature=g-upl&context=G2ab7300AUAAAAAAAAAA
Speak up & demand fairness.
Silence=Consent….
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stellabystarlight
January 28, 2013 at 9:50 am
“@CC2….Helga and other english freedom fighters…this article is not about french and English…..ca-vas?”
“this ad specifically says ‘completely bilingual (OR DO NOT APPLY)’. I am completely qualified for this job and did email the employer to let her know that I’m disappointed that the only thing stopping me from being able to apply is that fact!”
So yes Stella this comment says it all from Donna -QUALIFIED but LANGUAGE is a barrier once again.
Canada has a cast system similar to India -Bilingual (French) <17% , Uni-lingual 83% .
Great government opportunities NOT allowed for 83%,yet they pay for that burden with their taxes.
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highlander……It seems like you did not read the article…..read it. In the article itself there is no mention of language….got that?
The language issue, as usual, was brought up in a post by an english freedom fighter……until that post came up there was no mention of language……comprends-tu?
So my question again….why do the freedom fighters have to bring language up in every article? **smile**
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stellabystarlight
January 28, 2013 at 1:34 pm
“So my question again….why do the freedom fighters have to bring language up in every article? **smile**”
Because in most circumstances there is relevancy to it.
Why institute full bilingualism in Ontario for 4% of the population or for the 14th most spoken language in Ontario -POLITICS ,POLITICS !
concerned citizen 2
January 28, 2013 at 8:30 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q763sTCZ6IQ&feature=youtu.be
So Stella what is your answer to this ?
Now don’t say nobody cares what happens in Quebec it is still part of Canada-because most do .If you did ANY research you would realize that .
So my English hater -do you agree with whats happening to that individual ?Do you think its as fair how Quebec treats non French?
Do you advocate such behavior ,yet the rest of the country must implement French even if numbers do not warrant?
I thought North America removed segregation -only to realize we have imported and improved on it through legislation in Canada.
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I’ve had a very fruitful day today, no I didn’t get a job, but working at it! I had an appointment with my OW worker to update my participation agreement, which basically outlines that I’m looking for work. She also gave me a list of potential job leads which is great! I told her of my letter writing endeavor this past weekend, and invited her to come and read it, she thought it was wonderful that I’m being so proactive! My OW worker is a very nice lady who understands inadequacies in the system as well as the fraudulent use of the system. She’s paid to spot the ones who are or aren’t trying and has assured me that she knows that I am trying wholeheartedly! This was a great appointment, and very much enjoy speaking with her!
After that, I went to Jobzone where I got some copies made of my resume and dropped them off to some of the job leads that some of you had recommended. Wow, Northern Lights was so hard to find!
My goal for this week: to get a job! Can I do it? I’m going to try my hardest!
One last thing, Pastor Tom and his wife had been in contact with me through email, they asked what I needed. Basics are always great, anything other than that is a bonus, and gave them a small list of absolute needs, and the extras. Saturday night they dropped around and brought me every item I had on the list! I was so surprised and thankful. I did thank them that evening, but I thought I should mention it on here. They are wonderful people, and we had a nice conversation.
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Donna….YOU GO GIRL!!!
Positive thinking brings about positive results!!
(MODERATED)
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(MODERATED)
Though I agree for once with Stella,Make note of that Stella .
Donna “Positive thinking brings about positive results!”
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One thing I did forget to mention about my meeting with my OW worker is that she gave me clarification as to having a part time job if that is all I can find. My earlier post was incorrect, since I have been on the system now for 3 months, that no longer applies to me so then the 50% of earnings would be taken off the cheque.
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Hi everyone. We have a multitude of subjects for the language issue to be discussed. Please stay on topic and save some wear and tear on your humble moderation team.
Thank you kindly.
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Hi Everyone hospital will be at the city council tonight 7pm to discuss the second street site .
Is that alright my humble moderator ?
My humble moderator did you get my message for all my Jewish friends I was thinking of them during the rememberence of the Shoah,sorry friends it was late in the evening I sent it.
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Daily job searching can be very frustrating! The need to job search can’t always be done door to door like in the old days, and we rely on our computers to take us to various job search sites to look for jobs. Often the required and expected method of submitting an application and resume is electronically. I’m not saying that door to door isn’t something that you shouldn’t do, but often your resume needs to be submitted through their website, or applications are often followed by testing on the websites for recruiting processes. Often they want to weed out the flakes, the ones who are inexperienced, or the ones who just aren’t qualified. Sometimes your skills might even be tested through these online applications.
As well as accessing Cornwall’s business Directory regularly to access various business career sections to see who might be hiring, I always access certain job sites one of which is the Service Canada Job Bank. On this site, you can break your search down by certain criteria such as location, qualifications, etc. Doing my search today on this site, I decided to try something different to break down the job search. My search had the criteria of just ‘Cornwall & Area’, there’s no way to confine it to just Cornwall, it came up with 99 jobs. That’s pretty good right? I should be able to find a job there! Here’s what I did:
I exported those 99 jobs to Excel, and then used conditional formatting to slowly eliminate the jobs that I couldn’t do because of certain constraints which were out of my control. Here is the breakdown:
- Removed all of the jobs outside of Cornwall, this left 28 jobs
- Removed anything that had the text ‘mechanic’, ‘dentist’, ‘dental’, ‘electrician’, ‘technician’, this left 20 jobs
- Removed jobs requiring special qualifications, licensing, education, experience and certification, this left 8 jobs.
- Removed all the jobs requiring a car for travel within the job, this left 6 jobs.
- Removed all the jobs requiring absolute bilingualism or ‘do not apply’, this left 4 jobs.
- Then I removed the last 4 jobs because I had already applied to them in the preceding weeks.
This search yielded absolutely nothing! While I do access this particular site daily, there rarely is anything new. I don’t usually break it down so methodically, but I just wanted to demonstrate how very frustrating it can be! I do access more than a half a dozen sites daily, and do a mental elimination of the jobs I can apply for and then proceed with the application process as requested by potential employers, sometimes they want a call, sometimes they want you to fax in your resume/cover letter, sometimes email.
On to the next job search sites….
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