TORONTO: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s (CTF) online petition to end seniors’ benefits including Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for convicted prisoners has garnered over 17,500 signatures in less than six days.
CTF Federal Director, Kevin Gaudet said “we were expecting Canadians would be keen to sign the petition, but the response has been nearly overwhelming.”
The CTF launched its online petition Wednesday March 24th, after it was revealed in the Toronto Sun that all prisoners over the age of 65 are entitled to OAS and GIS. Prisoners like serial child killer Clifford Olson are paid this entitlement which includes; $516.96 for OAS and $652.51 for GIS, combing for $1,169.47 per month. With over 500 such prisoners this costs taxpayers over $7 million per year.
Servers hosting taxpayer.com where the petition is located were nearly crashed late last week due to the tremendous response. Those who could not access the petition for a short period of time last Thursday are encouraged to come back and try again.
Diane Finley, Minister for Human Resources and Services Development Canada, is responsible for OAS and GIS programs. She and Prime Minister Harper have committed to addressing this issue. The CTF is hoping to deliver the first round of signatures to the federal government in the next few weeks.
“Until legislation is passed and the change is in effect we will continue to collect signatures. This way we can press all Members of Parliament to support this change,” concluded Gaudet.
