K'JIPUKTUK (Halifax) - On October 17, the International Day to Eradicate Poverty, about one hundred people took to the street to once again remind Haligonians that poverty is still very much a reality in Nova Scotia.

The march wound its way along Gottingen Street and concluded at Brunswick Street United Church, where people sat down for lunch and listened to music and a first voice panel and open mic.

Many of the marchers were living in poverty, but labour, social workers and other allies also made their presence felt.

Along the way people spoke in front the St. Pat's Alexandra School, and at the St. George's Round Church. These locations were chosen because each in their own way highlighted the theme of the event, the discrimination people living in poverty experience every day.

HRM deemed the St. Pat's-Alexandra School surplus in 2011 and proceeded to sell it to a private developer. It took a succesful court action by three community-based non-profit groups for the sale to halt and the non-profits to be offered an opportunity to submit proposals.

"It was an absolute disgrace, but it happened because of lot of people in positions of power consider it ok to run roughshod over people living in poverty, over racial minorities, and over long established communities that happen to be racial minorities living in poverty," said long-time poverty activist Wayne MacNaughton.

The soup kitchen at St. George's Round Church was why the marchers stopped there.

"We shouldn't have to rely on charities and churches to provide basic needs like food. It's just wrong," said MacNaughton.

The march was organized by a coalition of groups working to end poverty in Halifax, including the Community Advocates Network, the Faces of Poverty Consultation, the NSGEU, the Halifax-Dartmouth and District Labour Council, the Community Society to End Poverty in Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers, the North End Community Health Centre and the Nova Scotia Association for Community Living.