Jane Scharf
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Jane Scharf is a poverty activist from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada who ran for mayor of Ottawa in the 2006 municipal election. Jane is on Ontario Disability Support Program and resides in Blue Heron Coop in Kanata, Ontario a suburb of Ottawa.
Scharf has been active in Ottawa politics for at least two decades. She is a member of the Ottawa branch of the Industrial Workers of the World and has worked closely with homeless youth.
In the summer of 2003 Scharf was involved in a protest against the Safe Streets Act which involved Scharf sleeping under a bridge, the location where many homeless youth spend their nights. Scharf was removed in August of 2003 by Ottawa Police and arrested for mischief in an attempt to get the protest shut down. She was found not guilty of these charges after a 2 ½ year prosecution with a seven day trial.
In 2004 during another protest, the Homeless Action Strike at Ottawa City Hall, Scharf spent thirty-eight days in jail without bail after another arrest used to stop the protest. She spent several days of her jail time in solitary confinement after she reported a male prison guard was sexually harassing herself and other female prisoners. The charges she was being held on where dropped. [1]
Scharf supports the youth protest Kaptus Bridge Action which is trying to rename the underpass located at the intersection of Rideau and Sussex which was the location of a death of a homeless youth in 2006. The homeless youth, Kaptus was murdered in the summer of 2006. The campaign to rename the underpass the Kaptus Underpass and place a plaque in his remembrance. The campaign includes a written petition which already collected many names.
On May 1st 2006 Scharf was part of a May Day march against the Rideau Centre in downtown Ottawa. One of the other organizers was Andrew Nellis who is also on the General Members Board of the IWW and an organizer with the Panhandlers Union. Scharf is currently on hiatus from the IWW while she campaigns for mayor of Ottawa.
Scharf has frequently spoken on behalf of the homeless. She is frequently mentioned in the X-Press newspaper, an alternative free weekly available in Ottawa. She was also the Ottawa correspondent for the Dominion newspaper.
Scharf is opposed to the Safe Streets Act and other legislation which she believes harms the poor. Scharf said in the X-Press newspaper: "I believe that panhandling is a necessity right now because of the inadequacy of social services and the Safe Streets Act is an unconstitutional piece of legislation as well."
[edit] Candidacy for Mayor
Jane Scharf mentioned her intention to run for mayor of Ottawa as early as 2005. Scharf attended all of the debates for mayor but became frustrated when the media would only mention the four main candidates for mayor. Scharf reacted to this by putting up posters listing the names of the seven candidates for mayor (six after Kilrea dropped out). The other candidates for mayor in 2006 were Piotr Anweiler, Bob Chiarelli, Robert Larter, Alex Munter, Larry O'Brien and Barkley Pollock.
Scharf again became frustrated when local news radio station CFRA had a candidates debate but only invited Bob Chiarelli, Alex Munter and Larry O'Brien. She called into the program and attempted to join the debate but was told by the host that these were the three candidates the citizens of Ottawa wanted to hear from.
Scharf also protested live on air at a CBC debate because the format was arbitrarily changed from an all candidates debate to a debate between the frontrunners while the other three candidates were expected to sit quietly without opportunity to speak.
She finished fourth in the 2006 election for mayor, receiving 1467 votes (0.49% of the popular vote). She received the largest number of her votes from Rideau-Vanier
Scharf is claiming publicly that the elections are fixed by deceptive manipulation of the public with unethical polls and unfair media coverage. "The polls do not use my name when polling the public and the media claims they are not covering me because I do not do well in the polls.The Citizen, CBC, A-Channel and CFRA are the worst offenders."
Scharf acquired a legal opinion that this activity is illegal under the criteria set down by the courts which allows one candidate to receive more coverage than another. The courts have determined that the media may cover one candidate more if they have political experience,or expertise in an election topic or if they have a public profile. Scharf filed a claim in Ontario Small Claims Court against the city claiming breach of duty. She indicated that City of Ottawa was in breach of duty under the Ontario Elections Act because they did not supervise the media coverage of candidates. This breach of duty resulted in Larry O'Brien receiving extremely more coverage even though he did not meet any of the criteria set down by the courts to allow more media coverage. Alex Munter and Bob Chiarelli even complained that O'Brien had more coverage than them in the last two weeks. Scharf meet all the criteria set down by the court for additional coverage yet she received approximately 1% of the coverage. The City paid the claim in full without a court hearing.
