The quest to get improved pensions for seniors continues to gather provincial steam.
Vernon's Carole Fawcett, along with Vancouver's Sharon Elliot, is behind Seniors Tin Cup, a seniors anti-poverty group committed to fair pensions for seniors. This Thursday, June 27, rallies will be held in nearly a dozen B.C. communities – including Vernon – as a show of solidarity.
"Standing together throughout the province, seniors are sick and tired of being poor and living below the poverty line," said Fawcett.
The Vernon rally will start at 11 a.m. and will be held at the intersection of 25th Avenue and 32nd Street (bottom of Hospital Hill, across from the Polson Park water fountain).
Rallies are also slated for Kelowna*, Penticton*, Kamloops, White Rock/South Surrey, Ladysmith, Cranbrook, Williams Lake, Prince George,* Vanderhoof, and Terrace. All events will start at 11 a.m. (* as of Tuesday morning, June 25, organizers were still being sought for rallies).
Hundreds were out on March 21 throughout the province (for a similar rally) and we expect more on June 27," said Fawcett.
More than 1,000 people have signed paper and online petitions calling for the government "to provide a universal liveable income...to Canadian citizens, 65 and over, that exceeds the poverty level to allow them to have an acceptable standard of living."
"We are not asking for trips, for fancy anything," says a quote on the website seniorstincup.org. "We would like dignity and respect. We would like to be heard. We are tired of being the invisible generation."
The organization states that plenty of seniors are living below the poverty line which, in Canada, is $25,252. A total of 28 per cent of senior women are living in poverty.
For more information about Seniors Tin Cup and the planned rallies, visit the website.
