for immediate release: December 19, 2006

Canadian Muslim Union condemns MPP's 25% pay raise

The Canadian Muslim Union unequivocally condemns the 25% pay increase Ontario MPPs have proposed for themselves. We note that Ontario's MPPs already make almost triple the average income and more than 5 times the minimum wage. We also note that social assistance and disability support payments leave individuals and families relying on these supports in abject poverty.

And we note that our MPPs have done very little to support low cost housing, affordable child care and public transit - items that Ontario's working poor rely upon.

We note with despair that the need for food banks has not declined nor has homelessness abated since the Liberals took office.

Given these failures to address the urgent problems faced by millions of Ontarians, we find the pay raise unconscionable. And we deplore the timing, coming just before Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Haj. When most people are thinking of kindness, charity and good will, we are disgusted that the Liberal and Conservative MPPs would rub their pay raise in the noses of people who are struggling to get by.

We call upon all citizens of Ontario to remember this act and to vote against every MPP who supported the pay raise when the provincial election is held in October.

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