Protest Takes Place Outside Payday Loan Store

Historical archive, first published 2006 — payday-lending laws and rates have changed since. Preserved for the record.

During their lunch hour Friday, nore than a dozen people gathered at a Scarborough Money Mart store to protest high interest rates.
The demonstration at 2377 Eglinton Ave. E. near Kennedy Road was one of more than 30 across North America organized by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The demonstration gradually moved inside, where one protester presented a clerk with a letter, signed by an ACORN member, to the president of the National Money Mart Company.

“We call on you to abandon the [payday loan] lending practices that harm thousands of low-income people who make regular use of your company’s products,” the letter said. “ACORN has been leading the way in Canada in calling for very specific reforms of the payday lending industry as it is now conducted …”

The letter said ACORN does not seek to get rid of the industry of payday loans because there is a market need for small, unsecured loans.

“However, we believe that the time has come for substantive reforms that lead to small loans being offered at a fair price in a fair business environment that does not trap working families in cycles o

In a statement after the protest, Money Mart said it supports regulation of the payday loan industry.

“We join with ACORN in urging governments to move quickly in regulating this industry to ensure both consumer protection and a viable industry serving an established need in the marketplace.”