A victory for all of us

By Doreen Marion Gee

James Bay in the fifties and sixties was home to families of diverse and contrasting social conditions. The well-heeled lived next door to the poor. Our family was somewhere in the middle. Some of my friends lived in terrible poverty – there was little relief for people going through hard times in those days. In a time before universal health care, many kids never saw a doctor. Dental care was a luxury. In the seventies, due to lobbying by James Bay activists, much-needed social services took root in James Bay and more government programs helped families that were at rock bottom. In all of my years of witnessing BC's mercurial politics and living through the different regimes of good, bad, crazy, misguided, inspired and corrupt governments, I've observed that many of the social gains that were made years ago are eroding and disappearing. Some social conditions in 2015 Victoria remind me of the desperate down-and-dirty fifties before things improved. The clock is turning back, not forward. This is precisely why any social justice victory these days is worth its weight in gold – because it is such a rarity. Every step forward in social equality and social justice should be embraced and celebrated. Which is why I was so happy to hear of a recent triumph for moms and kids on income assistance.

With pressure from women's groups, advocates and lawyers, the BC Liberal government announced in the February 2015 budget that they are ending their claw back of child-support payments that mothers on assistance receive from ex-spouses. The previous legislation, in effect for many years, was an unjust punitive policy where the child-support payments received were deducted from monthly income assistance cheques because they were considered a form of income. The loss of that vital money robbed children of the essentials of a good healthy life. Considering the rock-bottom income assistance rates, it probably meant that children did without proper food, housing, clothes and health care. It perpetuated the poverty cycle, keeping mothers and kids poor without hope of ever improving their lives.

The policy reversal was a long time coming. After years of legislated poverty, mothers and families on BC Income Assistance are enjoying a momentous victory. It demonstrates what people can do when they get together to support each other against injustice. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” And when all is said and done, the Liberals made a choice to act with humanity and did the right thing on Budget Day. It is encouraging when our political leaders act with their conscience instead of rigid ideologies.

As a tireless activist, I know that this triumph for the little guy will cause ripples far and wide. Its importance goes way beyond the immediate context. This victory is for everyone. Whenever one marginalized group gets justice, it sets the wheels in motion for other disenfranchised groups to win victories. Any step taken forward for equality and justice means that things are never the same from that day forward; the status quo has been shifted forever and the zeitgeist has changed in a positive direction. When David won over Goliath, he made it just a little easier for the next brave soul to do the same. Maybe we can all use the momentum from the income assistance victory to push for more equality, more social justice. Maybe it is possible to turn the clock forward again and regain what we have lost. Maybe we can make sure that the hard won successes of the past in James Bay and elsewhere were not in vain. Maybe. Just maybe.

For reasons that still elude me, I have always been keenly aware of injustices around me. Maybe it was that revolutionary time in which I lived when real heroes like Tommy Douglas existed. Maybe the voices of people crying out for peace and justice – the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, the war protestors – got into my blood.

All I know is that the victory for moms and kids made that little girl from James Bay happy. I longed for a better world back then. I still do.