Combatting prejudice as a way to fight poverty

December 18, 2018 |It’s easy: hand out the Christmas cards that are available through your local union team or send them to people you know and to your MNAs. The goal is to get them out there. And talk about them at your family gatherings!

These Christmas cards illustrating the day-to-day problems faced by the least affluent members of our society can be used to generate discussion and highlight realities that are all too often ignored. Tolerating or supporting misconceptions and prejudice about poverty means accepting injustice and inequality and seeing them as inevitable.

“By basing social policies on misconceptions and prejudice, governments hinder developments in the fight against poverty. The same preconceived notions make these policies acceptable to the population as a whole. It’s clear, then, that the fight against poverty must necessarily include actions to counter prejudice,” affirmed the spokespersons for the collective, Virginie Larivière and Serge Petitclerc.

The 2018 campaign reminds us all that if Québec is to eliminate poverty, it needs political will, not luck. The lottery theme of the 2017 campaign is once again featured, with the addition of new and poignant examples giving us hope that one day food drives to help people living in poverty will be a thing of the past.