OCAP's Fight to Win! campaign kicks off with a blast!

Poverty activists vow to increase civil disobedience
Flaherty's office attacked: 'This campaign is going to escalate,' says OCAP member

Mark Gollom and Robert Benzie
National Post

The destruction of the Ontario Finance Minister's constituency office yesterday is the "first skirmish in what will be an
all-out war" against the provincial government, a controversial poverty activist group has warned.

About 20 members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty barged into the Whitby office of Jim Flaherty, overturning and
destroying office equipment, scribbling obscenities on walls and throwing furniture on to the street.

"Jim Flaherty is not fit to govern and we evicted him," Lana Rabkin, a member of OCAP said yesterday. "I think it would
be a mistake to see today's act as an act of vandalism. Today we say enough and this campaign is going to escalate,"
she said, adding the incident was just one of a "host of different tactics" to be unleashed in the near future.

At about 11 a.m., dozens of OCAP members who had chartered a bus from Toronto to Whitby began marching on Mr.
Flaherty's office.

"All of a sudden, we heard people on megaphones screaming obscenities and yelling," said Donna Barnes, an
employee of Hakim Optical, which shares the building. "And that's when all hell broke loose."

Six members went inside the lobby and began screaming at employees -- a full-time staff member and three summer
students -- behind a counter, police said. One employee pressed a panic alarm and called 911.

"At that time, another group behind them came in and they started to jump the counter and started to rampage the place," Sergeant Paul Malik, of
Durham Regional Police, said.

Furniture was destroyed and filing cabinets and display cases thrown down as pamphlets and papers were strewn along the floor. The vandals began
hauling out files, papers and furniture -- including desks, chairs and a microwave -- and dumping them on the street.

One member took a knife and sliced through the plastic awning bearing the Minister's name.

Others who were still inside the office scribbled "F--- your corporate pride" on closet doors and "F--- gender" on the door of the women's washroom.

When police arrived, activists were still throwing objects on to the road. The group scattered but two were arrested at the scene. The rest boarded their
bus but it was later stopped by police. One female officer was hurt in the struggle.

Twelve people, all from Toronto, were charged with mischief over $5,000, unlawful assembly and causing a disturbance. A number were also charged
with assaulting police, assault to resist arrest, obstructing police, assault with a weapon and breach of court orders.

Mr. Flaherty, visibly shaken after hearing the news, cut short his work at Queen's Park and rushed to Whitby to check on his staff and inspect the
damage.

"It's wanton destruction by some people. I don't know why that would happen. Certainly it's unnecessary," he said.

After surveying his office, he said he was shocked and upset by the sight, adding his staff was "terrified" by the ordeal. "It's violent and it's totally unfair to
the young people who are working here."

Ms. Rabkin said Mr. Flaherty was targeted first because his policies of privatization make him a "particularly offensive example of the Tory government."

Sue Collis, an OCAP organizer, said in a statement: "Today's action is the first skirmish in what will be an all-out war on this government."

OCAP is planning a rally this weekend to commemorate the first anniversary of the Queen's Park riots, in which 18 people were arrested when
protesters clashed with police on the steps of the legislature.