Skip to main content

To: The Honorable Carla Qualtrough: Ministry of Labour: Minister for Jobs, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion.

Disabled Workers in Canada Seek Section 7 Charter Protection

November 30th, 2020

Hon Carla Qualtrough
Minister of Labour
House of Commons *
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada
K1A 0A6
Email: [email protected]

Honorable Minister Qualtrough:

Injured, ill and disabled workers have suffered harms seeking fair treatment through administrative justice procedures in Canada for a generation. Law, policy and regulations governing Canada's worker's compensation and safety systems empowers provincial worker's compensation agencies, employers and provincial governments to deny legitimate worker claims for injury and/or illness; physically and psychology suffered by workers in the course of our employment.

Negative outcomes include: imposition of poverty; denial of required professional healthcare services; infliction of psychological harm by way of what's coined sanctuary traumatization; moral injury to worker's families; and in most tragic circumstances, worker death to suicide.

We propose that Provincial/Territorial Workers Compensation Law, Policy and Regulations as drafted and in force today, November 30th, 2020: persist in causing egregious harm to injured, ill, and/or disabled Canadians and by proxy to our families.

We further propose, that as law, policy and regulations are drafted with clear intent to favor compensation agencies, employers and governments: Canadian workers are disempowered when consequences of workplace accidents and exposure result in our need for financial compensation for healthcare, retraining, rehabilitation, recovery and in cases of disability, a earnings loss pension and whatever care is needed moving on through our lives.

When expected protection is denied, avenues for redress are effectively blocked. Due to intentionally constructed language in law, policy and regulations that impedes our timely access to receipt of appropriate justice: struggling for some lasts our remaining life-times.

Injustice demands Justice. Restorative Justice that wrongs are expressed and corrected for.

We believe that the Federal Minister for Jobs, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion is the appropriate representative of the the Government of Canada to whom we raise these concerns.

This is not an official petition; rather, this letter intends to gather as many signatures as possible for purposes of exploration. We do so as those provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms allow.

We are seeking our Government of Canada's protection. As we begin this campaign, we're informed that thousands of Canadian Workers have suffered such egregious violation of rights for over a generation. In British Columbia, this letter represents 280 BC abandoned workers.

We call on the Minister to proactively intervene. These matters demand a National Public Inquiry be initiated in due course by the Government of Canada, which is what we've written you to request.

We await any reply with united resolve.

Respectful Regards,

Darren Michael Gregory
5474 Cory Road
Wynndel BC V0B 2N1
November 30th, 2020

Why is this important?

The purpose of the inquiry we request is to determine the extent of harms put upon injured, ill and/or disabled Canadians in provincial and territorial jurisdictions nationally.

We raise these concerns to ensure as well our own full and fair redress in the form of workers compensation benefits as we are entitled to receive and rightly, legitimately deserve.

We believe that only with a National investigation of provincial law, policy and regulations that govern provincial/territorial occupational health and safety can troubling issues be properly rectified.

Those agencies and agents so empowered by law, policy and regulations have not responded to our direct engagement to address these issues with integrity.

As these issues are of long-standing national concern, we assert that the concerns receive the attention that these matters require as it is in the National interests of all Canadians to do so.

How it will be delivered

This letter will be delivered to the Minister by Email at the close of this campaign.

Links

Updates

2020-12-06 06:28:37 -0500

Well, if you told me you were drowning
I would not lend a hand
I've seen your face before my friend
But I don't know if you know who I am
Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been
It's all been a pack of lies.
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, (Oh lord)
Well I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, (Oh lord)
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
Well I've been waiting for this moment for all my life oh Lord, (Oh Lord)
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Collins Phil
https://youtu.be/J-tY4Av3meo

2020-12-06 04:22:18 -0500

https://youtu.be/45cYwDMibGo

2020-12-06 02:18:13 -0500

"We live in a time of massive institutional failure, collectively creating results that nobody wants. Destruction of communities, nature, life and the foundations of our social, economic, ecological, and spiritual well being. This time calls for a new consciousness and a new collective leadership capacity to meet challenges in a more conscious, intentional, and strategic way. The development of such a capacity would allow us to create a future of greater possibilities."

~ C. Otto Scharmer, 'Leading from the Emerging Future'.

https://amzn.to/39MWeWs

2020-12-05 21:35:58 -0500

This is from 2016. Not even our Physicians in Canada are safe from retaliation.

This physician, REFUSED to 'deliver a medical opinion that suited WSIB' in Ontario.

She stood up for us. She paid the price. Her determination, I highly respect.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/04/21/doctor-sues-wsib-employer-after-refusing-to-change-medical-opinion.html

2020-12-05 20:44:50 -0500

December, 5th, 2020: The Westray Act.

1) "The Westray bill or Bill C-45 was federal legislation that amended the Canadian Criminal Code and became law on March 31, 2004. The Bill (introduced in 2003) established new legal duties for workplace health and safety, and imposed serious penalties for violations that result in injuries or death. The Bill provided new rules for attributing criminal liability to organizations, including corporations, their representatives and those who direct the work of others."

"These provisions of the Criminal Code affect all organizations and individuals who direct the work of others, anywhere in Canada. These organizations include federal, provincial and municipal governments, corporations, private companies, charities and non-governmental organizations."

2020-12-05 20:44:12 -0500

December 5th, 2019

2) Sections of the Criminal Code

The amendment added Section 217.1 to the Criminal Code which reads:

"217.1 Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task."

The amendment also added Sections 22.1 and 22.2 to the Criminal Code imposing criminal liability on organizations and its representatives for negligence (22.1) and other offences (22.2)."

https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/legisl/billc45.html

2020-12-05 05:03:35 -0500

Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada
Dr. Bob Barnetson.

1). "The purpose of this book was to examine how Canadian governments prevent and compensate workplace injury, who benefits from this approach, and how they benefit. The first four chapters suggest that governments do a poor job of preventing injury. The use of ineffective regulation appears to represent intentionally prioritizing profitability over safety. And the state has contained the ability of workers to resist this agenda by shaping the discourse around injury and the operation of these systems. Examining injury compensation reveals how seemingly neutral aspects of claims adjudication and management financially advantage employers and limit the ability of workers to resist unsafe work."

2020-12-05 05:02:44 -0500

2). "Together, this analysis suggests that the prevention and compensation of workplace injuries are not solely technical or legal undertakings, but intensely political ones that entail serious consequences — most often for workers. This conclusion is quite upsetting. But the facts are difficult to dispute. Whatever the drawbacks of Canadian injury statistics, they demonstrate that hundreds of thousands of workers are injured each year on the job. This raises two fundamental questions. First, why are so many seriously injured every year? And, second, why don’t governments do something about it?"

~ Dr. Bob Barnetson, 2010.

https://www.aupress.ca/books/120178-political-economy-of-workplace-injury-in-canada/

2020-12-05 00:48:24 -0500

December 4th, 2020

We know that disabled Veterans are included in those living homeless in Canada.

We know as well, that there are a great many psychosocially disabled public safety workers in Canada who were betrayed by employers, governments and compensation systems across Canada.

We know that of the 15,000+ who've perished to drug-poisoning, the numbers include workers discarded by our compensation systems without doubt.

As our compensation systems and employers had favor of government in BC for far too long, workers suffered great losses.

Many, lost our lives. Many, remain stranded in limbo, waiting for justice. When our compensation systems throw-away workers in legitimate suffering and trouble due to injury and/or illness, we end up eventually seeking social assistance or CPP.

This has stressed these systems to nearly complete uselessness. Disability benefits Canada wide provincially are abysmal. As is the case with CPP. Deep poverty is imposed here.

2020-12-05 00:41:23 -0500

2). Because service systems mandated to serve persons with disabilities in BC are managed using a Corporate Governance Model, as is our WorkSafeBC, law and policy for our Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction in BC was manipulated around the same period (2001-2005); income benefits have remained stagnant for a generation. We know, the disdain expressed by employers and business for workers injured, made ill or disabled in the course of employment is crushingly real.

2020-12-05 00:41:02 -0500

3). There's been little effort put towards determining the needs of the estimated 6.5 Million persons disabled in Canada. There are a great number of policy think tanks and other NGO's that have worked desperately hard to raise these same concerns for all those years.

We know too-little. Governments in Canada have failed persons with disabilities.
The outcomes of the past 20 years of governance in Canada speak for themselves.

How many discarded workers have ended up homeless?

2020-12-05 00:40:19 -0500

4). It's clear that the Federal Government and Minister Qualtrough are stepping up.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1334523868174749699

As I view social injustice issues as connected, I've signed this letter.

"Recovery for All" is a campaign sponsored by:

The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

https://caeh.ca/
https://act.newmode.net/action/make-the-promise-a-reality

2020-12-04 23:55:05 -0500

https://twitter.com/i/status/1334523868174749699

2020-12-04 21:15:18 -0500

December 4th, 2020

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights protection in Canada isn't an issue that any citizen in our country should need to, 'lawyer up' and fight to secure.

"This inherent, inalienable human right is affirmed in international law – the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Canada ratified in 1976. Economic and social rights relate to our ability to live in dignity and participate fully in society. They include rights related to the workplace, social security, family life, participation in cultural life, and access to housing, food, water, healthcare, and education. They include the right to an adequate standard of living."
https://maytree.com/publications/lets-turn-social-assistance-on-its-head/
https://www.amnesty.ca/search/node/social%20economic%20cultural%20rights%20canada

2020-12-04 03:06:53 -0500

https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/provide-a-liveable-income-for-canadians-with-disabilities