Activists use clinics to aid the poor to improve nutrition
Sandro Contenta, Toronto Star, Apr 30, 2007
Dr. Gary Bloch ticks off the ailments on a government checklist like a man on a mission.
Chronic constipation – $10. Diabetes – $42. Extreme obesity – $20. Hepatitis or liver failure – $10.
There are 41 physical disorders on the Ontario special-diet list, with each raising monthly social assistance payments. Bloch is using all of them like weapons in a guerrilla war.
Bloch is a founder of Health Providers Against Poverty, a group seeking a 40 per cent increase in welfare rates, currently $548 a month for a single person. He dismisses the 2 per cent rise announced in the recent Ontario budget as “paltry.”
