Round Table on Poverty The Hamilton Round Table on Poverty spent almost five hours making presentations to Hamilton City Hall on Friday February 10th, but the whole mornings worth of words were summed up pretty succinctly by three speakers that "presented a face" to poverty. Gloria Wade is a mom who after losing her son to multiple illnesses turned advocate. She saw first hand how much was wrong with our Social Services. She saw first hand how the disabled don't have a voice. And she knows from personal experience that the income levels for those on Disability are so woefully under the poverty line that they actually cause more poverty and illness. She was speaking on the behalf of Dr. Sue Grafe a Health Provider Against Poverty from Hamilton's North End Clinic. One of the harder hit areas of the city for poverty. Dr. Grafe took us through a morning of her appointments. All the patients were suffering from lack of a proper diet, and were destined to become considerably worse due to the cuts in the Special Diet program. Dr. Grafe talked about how the changes would see one of her elderly patients succumb to osteoporosis because she couldn't sustain the prescription of calcium and vitamin diet supplements that the Special Diet funds allowed her to do the year before. The changes in the diet program would mean that this patient will have to wait until osteoporosis has taken over her body before any extra diet supplement would be allowed. Last year Dr. Grafe could have prescribed a Diabetic Diet to help her patients suffering from the disease to prevent heart failure, or the loss of limbs. This year because of the revisions the $40 dollars a month will have to do. Then there is her patient suffering from HIV, who will not be eligible for any supplementary income, if she doesn't disclose her health condition to her Social Worker. The patient stated "Her privacy and dignity are worth more than the money - she'll do without" From Diabetes to Liver disease, Cancer, HIV, and Gastrointestinal disorders none of these ailments are covered sufficiently or in some cases not at all under the newly changed Special Diet Supplement Forms. All this suffering because the activist group for the poor OCAP (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) dared to feed the poor living on basic welfare with the special diet supplement. All of OCAPâ