April 1st – OCAP Rally
April 1st we attended the OCAP Raise the Rates Rally. We had food, banners and a drummer, high spirits and unknown destinations, as usual. lol There were a lot of the usual faces, but some new – seemed to me that there were more elderly folks there this time. There was a lot of press and police, horses included. It wasn’t the biggest rally I’ve been to, but it had something the other rallies didn’t have.
It had children! City View Alternative school brought students. They are doing research and a project on where the money goes. The rich versus the poor. They made a banner that read Hey McGuinty, we get it, why can’t you? From the mouths of babes. 
They did a small skit using chairs. Each chair represented 10% of the money, and they had one child in each. They made one fellow a king and through cuts and such – they slowly moved the rest of the children all down to one end chair, sitting one on top of the other. This was to show that all those children represented all the people who have 10% of the money in society, and the King had the remaining parts. I think that’s what they did. It was hard to tell with streetcars passing us and being on the opposite side of the road. Each time a streetcar passed and blocked our view, the crowd got upset. We were all watching the children. How can they, the government, ignore that?
The real difference was the children in this rally. People were watching them, cheering them. Moods were lifted to see them. It sent a strong message. These are your future voters, they are the ones learning about what you are doing. They will run this country. They were there to be heard. They understand that the math does not add up, why can’t the government? It’s common sense – and the kids, they get it.
We started at Nathan Phillip’s Square and crossed the street to chant and protest as we were told Dwight Duncan was in that building. We then marched up University and over to Wellesley and Bay.
