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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

2020-12-03 22:25:44 -0500

Human Rights Protection in Canada/ The Charter of Rights and Freedoms Must Come of Age.

“Somewhere beyond right and wrong: there is a garden. I will meet you there.” ~ Rumi

“A nation should not be judged by how it treats it’s highest citizens. But, by how (a nation) treats it’s lowest ones.” ~ Nelson Mandela

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms entered Canada’s Constitution in 1982. The purpose of the Charter was to empower Canada's people by honoring human rights protection with unified commitment referenced in constitutional law. Canadians are expected to understand the Charter along with the human rights documents and instruments that informed her.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/human-rights-protection-canada-charter-freedoms-must-come-gregory/

2020-12-03 21:53:19 -0500

December 3rd, 2020.

https://youtu.be/GxSN4ip_F6M

2020-12-03 20:22:53 -0500

December 3rd, 2020.

I received acknowledgement from a member of the press that the request I sent yesterday was received. I await further contact from the journalist and will update as the campaign moves forward.
Darren Gregory
Dec. 3rd, 2020.

2020-12-03 20:19:36 -0500

December 3rd, 2020.

I wrote today to the Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, the Hon Nicholas Simons, requesting Section 7 Charter Protection for myself and persons with disabilities in BC and as the campaign intends: for disabled persons and workers across Canada.

https://www.facebook.com/darren.gregory.39/posts/10223963428901648

2020-12-02 20:17:20 -0500

1). Today, I initiated two actions. First, after receiving the denial for a review of my case with WorkSafeBC yesterday, below you'll see a copy of an email sent to the Minister for Labor in British Columbia, Hon. Harry Bains. Prior, I contacted by form the Fair Practices Office for WorkSafe requesting guidance. The Fair Practices Office contacted me by phone today. Due to conflict with an appointment time scheduled, I put off discussion with the individual from Fair Practices until tomorrow. I'll make that call-back as early in the day tomorrow as possible and will update all members of the numerous groups using social media tomorrow on that particular step. I'll post an update here as well.

2020-12-02 20:16:51 -0500

2). The second action I will review tonight was reaching out to make contact with the press. I'll update here and to the groups when/if the journalist with CBC I've contacted and the other with the Tyee can support us all with a story. The journalist with the Tyee has done so in the past. So, fingers crossed there. I'll let folks know more as these two efforts come back with a response from those I've contacted.
Darren Gregory.
“A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it's lowest ones.” -- Nelson Mandela

2020-12-02 16:14:40 -0500

100 signatures reached

2020-12-02 01:30:34 -0500

"Eight-year battle with province ends in suicide."
Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, February 13, 2006

"Last Tuesday, injured trucker Bhupinder Singh Kang told a WorkSafeBC meeting that he spent his days dreaming he was in a big hall "watching the sunset, and waiting, waiting, waiting for death."

Hours later, he was found dead on the kitchen floor of his Abbotsford home, an apparent suicide.

His family and lawyer Craig Paterson believe the distraught 39-year-old took his own life because of his desperation over an eight-year battle with WorkSafeBC -- formerly the Workers' Compensation Board -- that left him depressed and despondent."
http://tombrownskwcb.tripod.com/id21.html

2020-12-01 20:08:08 -0500

Update: Dec. 1st, 2020

I've been denied an extension in time to request a WorkSafeBC review of my case. I've written the Fair Practices Office for WorkSafeBC, requesting guidance and Section Seven Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Protection. I expected this and am moving on to this as the next step. In attached documents, I've made it clear that I'm standing with 280 BC abandoned, struggling injured/ill/disabled BC workers and across Canada we number I'm told in the 1000's. Going in, I committed to see this through, wherever it goes. Now, I wait for a response.

Should any supporters, regardless of where in the country you're from, wish to punch out a letter to Minister Bains: Use the following Email Address.
[email protected]

I'll keep moving forward. Cheers.
Darren Gregory

2020-12-01 20:04:11 -0500

December 1st, 2020

Hon Harry Bains
Minister of Labor
Email: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
RE: Disabled Worker Seeks Section 7 Charter Protection.

Minister Bains:

I write today to inform you of the above referenced request.

Having no avenues readily prepared to hear from me with integrity, I turn to the Minister of Labor for help.

I trust that the documents attached are clear. This links to the report of Dr. Barnetson in full.

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

Should the Minister require clarification, don't hesitate to ask.

Respectfully,
Darren Gregory

2020-12-01 19:55:08 -0500

1). 'The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada'.
~ Dr. Bob Barnetson, 2010.
https://www.aupress.ca/books/120178-political-economy-of-workplace-injury-in-canada/

2020-12-01 19:53:03 -0500

2). "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."

2020-12-01 19:52:09 -0500

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

2020-12-01 12:59:37 -0500

50 signatures reached

2020-12-01 08:54:07 -0500

25 signatures reached