Press Release: September 19, 2008
Community & Artists Demand: Replace Moss Park Armoury With Affordable Housing!
HOUSING NOT WAR MUSICAL PROTEST: 12:30PM on Sat., Sept. 20
@ Moss Park (at the baseball diamond)
Moss Park is the site of a musical protest Saturday afternoon featuring live music, a free meal, and a march on the neighbouring Moss Park Armoury, calling for its replacement with affordable housing. Artists including Faith Nolan, Sara Marlowe, the PARC Drummers, and Mohammad Ali will perform hip hop, blues/jazz, folk and more. The free meal will provide food to poor and homeless people for whom the government fails to secure basic conditions for life.
The Moss Park Armoury is located in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods, and is surrounded by homeless shelters, people living outdoors, and very substandard housing. The government trains 800 soldiers a month inside the Armoury, while on a regular basis people outside it die without adequate food and shelter.
Local displeasure with the Armoury has increased since reservists beat to death an elderly homeless man trying to sleep on a bench in Moss Park in 2005. Still, soldiers in battle gear including rifles are often seen running through neighbouring streets, a sight many community members find disruptive.
Canada is the only industrialized country without a national housing program, while military spending is the highest since WWII. Now, 300,000 people in Canada experience homelessness annually – about the same number who bought new homes last year.
Childcare is available at the event.
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