Thank you for inviting Canada Without Poverty to appear at this important study of poverty reduction strategies.
CWP is a federally incorporated charitable organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty in Canada. Since our inception in 1971 as a national anti-poverty organization, we have been governed by people with direct lived experience of poverty, whether in childhood or as adults. This lived experience of poverty informs all aspects of our work.
I'm the president of CWP, and I have lived most of my life in poverty. I'm joined in my comments by CWP's executive director and United Nations special rapporteur on the right to housing, Leilani Farha.
I've reported many times before committees, and still poverty persists. Canada Without Poverty can provide all the statistics that you need to understand the persistence of poverty, homelessness, and hunger in Canada, the country with the tenth-highest GDP in the world, when we spend 5% to 6% of our GDP on maintaining poverty.
This morning, allow me to tell you about the actual lies behind these statistics. My poverty started when I left my middle-class yet abusive home at the age of 16, in 1978. My siblings and I were beaten from early childhood, and I was sexually violated by my father from the age of nine until I left home. These early experiences were crippling and devastating. I slowly fumbled along trying to make my way, and eventually married, yet to someone who was abusive and following the familiar pattern that some broken people live. I then became a single parent with three children.
Today I'm an educated professional with a master's degree, and have worked for over 20 years in my field. As a single parent, I faced obstacles and lived in deplorable conditions. I made hard choices between paying a hydroelectric bill and getting food, not to mention not having any money to save for the future. I did not have a bedroom of my own. We lived with sewer rats in our home, in our living space, in my kitchen, and even in my children's beds. I could not afford to live in a better place.
My poverty has been persistent. It has not collapsed. It has existed since 1978. Though mine is a personal story, the roots are systemic and bridge the lives of 4.9 million others living in poverty. At various times, members from every political party have said directly to me that they care about poverty, and I believe them.
So please understand that my poverty is a violation of my human rights.
United Nations treaty bodies have recently instructed Canada that we are in violation of our international human rights obligations to ensure an adequate standard of living, including the right to food and housing. The consequences of poverty, homelessness, and hunger are severe. Consider that in Hamilton, Ontario, a 21-year difference was found between the life expectancy of the poorest and that of the wealthiest residents of the city. In January 2015, two homeless persons died in Toronto, Ontario, due to cold weather, poverty, and a lack of adequate housing.