March 23, Claudette Bradshaw didn't deny being minister responsible for homelessness.
That was the day Jean Chrétien added homelessness to her portfolio as labour minister.
March 27, she didn't deny being minister responsible for homelessness.
That day, she attended a summit on homelessness in Toronto. She hung her head in sorrow as the names of the homeless dead were read out, and wore a button demanding that an additional one percent of government money be allocated to homelessness.
But three months later, Bradshaw has changed her story.
"I'm the minister of labour, not the minister of homelessness," she said.
Maybe Bradshaw is running for cover because she has done absolutely nothing (except hang her head and wear a button).
This in spite of the fact that:
* More than 1.7 million households in Canada (more than 20 per cent) spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, driving them into poverty.
* More than 96,000 families are on waiting lists for some sort of assisted housing.
* Every night, 300 people use homeless shelters in Vancouver, 700 in Calgary, 400 in Ottawa and over 4,000 in Toronto. Many thousands more sleep on the streets.
* Every week on average, one person in Toronto from homeless-related causes. An untold number die in other cities.
* To meet the housing crisis, Canada needs 200,000 units of assisted housing to be built within the next ten years. Yet last year, only 1,400 were built, down from 19,000 in 1992. That will leave the country 186,000 units short of what is necessary, ten years from now.
It was because of these stark facts that Bradshaw was appointed as homelessness minister in March. Chrétien hoped that this would deflect criticism from his government, awash in a budget surplus of billions of dollars.
But it is because that not one dime in increased spending on housing has come from the Liberals since then, that Bradshaw is claiming not to be minister for homelessness.
Workers, students, community activists -- all working people in Canada should raise a hue and cry against this travesty, and demand that the Liberals spend the modest sums of money it would take to house all the homeless immediately.
* Now turn to centre pages