Tolerating inequalities
The media, along with leaders in business and the financial sector, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney being an exception, criticized the Occupy Wall Street movement for failing to identify specific issues that the participants wished to be addressed.
This was a stance taken simply to discredit the movement, which was a protest against a culture that favours those of wealth and not a few simple, identifiable issues.
An example of this culture was recently identified in the disclosure by the Ontario Securities Commission of their inability to collect fines for violators who were prosecuted for fraudulent securities offences. Since 2005, these fines totalled $73.36 million; $690,000 has been recovered, or a total of 0.94 per cent. In contrast, Ontario Works (welfare) spends millions administering a program of auditing social assistance recipients, our most vulnerable citizens. Overpayments are added for unreported income or for overpayment of benefits that were a result of errors by Ontario Works offices themselves. These overpayments are deducted from future benefits, which often do not even cover the basic cost of food and shelter; hence the temptation to not report occasional earnings. Once off of social assistance, overpayments will be recovered from voluntary repayments or income tax refunds.
This is just one single example of a culture that tolerates such inequality simply because of it’s unwillingness to take on those with the means and power to resist.
Geoff MacGregor
Kitchener

http://www.therecord.com/opinion/letters/article/661235--tolerating-inequalities