Becoming Disabled

A person without a disability may recognize someone using a wheelchair, a guide dog or a prosthetic limb, or someone with Down syndrome, but most don’t conceptualize these people as having a shared social identity and a political status. “They” merely seem to be people to whom something unfortunate has happened, for whom something has gone terribly wrong. The one thing most people do know about being disabled is that they don’t want to be that.

Source/more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/opinion/sunday/becoming-disabled.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

These Are The Hidden Costs Of Living With A Disability

Do you know how much a manual wheelchair costs? Not the kind you buy from the Sears catalogue when you break your leg and need someone to push you around for six weeks. I'm talking about the kind that a paraplegic might need, that offers the correct ergonomic support and fits the lifestyle of the person who will rely on it for years.

Source/more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jacki-andre/the-hidden-costs-of-havin_b_11647994.html

How people suffering from Invisible Disability are subject to wrong judgment and discrimination

When people hear the word ‘disability’, they typically create the image of a person in a wheelchair in their mind. However, what many people are unaware of is the fact that disability doesn’t have to visible. There are millions of disabled people around the world who show no signs of disability on the outside, because their disability is usually linked to their internal body system. This makes it very difficult for people with invisible disabilities to explain their situation to others and why they are entitle d to use disabled facilities as much as the visibly disabled.

Source/more:

http://disabilitycreditcanada.com/invisible-disabilities-discrimination/

ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE UPDATE

ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE UPDATE

Below are the email addresses and Twitter handles for all Ontario MPPs as of February 28, 2016, broken down by their political party, and then listed in alphabetical order for each party.

Source/more:

http://www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/02292016-ontario-mp-by-party.asp

Access denied: legit disability claims lost in shuffle

People with legitimate disabilities are being denied long-term benefits because the system of filing and internally appealing insurance claims is convoluted and complex, says Toronto personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer Paul Cahill.

Source/more:

http://www.advocatedaily.com/paul-cahill-access-denied-legit-disability-claims-lost-in-shuffle-1.html

Petition to the Government of Canada

We, the undersigned, Citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to implement a National Disability Assistance Program for Canadians with chronic disabilities to fund life-sustaining medical equipment and to provide access to the necessary services to allow them to optimize their functionality over the course of their lifetime.

Source/more:
https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-41

Persons with Disabilities 120% tax rate applied

Mr. Speaker, like young people, disabled Canadians want the opportunity to
work. A million of them already do, and private sector companies like Tim
Hortons, RBC, and KPMG want to continue hiring them, but a disabled worker
earning minimum wage can lose as much as $1.20 in clawbacks and taxes on
every new dollar he earns. 

No one can afford to work with a 120% tax rate.
Will the finance minister show leadership to remove this poverty trap and
make work pay?

 Source: http://openparliament.ca/debates/2016/10/26/pierre-poilievre-2/ 

Van Galder v. Economical Mutual Insurance Company

[11] There is no issue that the respondent was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident on January 20, 2004. She suffered significant physical injuries to both legs. Since the date of the accident, she has been unable to walk unaided and is now wheelchair-bound. Subsequent complications and surgeries that followed over the next several years resulted in the amputation of her lower right leg and left her with chronic pain.

[93] The appellant submits that the application judge’s order has the opposite effect: it “incentivizes” an insured person to delay his or her catastrophic application as long as possible in order to accrue tremendous amounts of interest in the interim. According to the appellant, this would also create difficulty for insurers in properly establishing reserves for claims files open beyond the 104 (or 260)-week period.

[94] These arguments were submitted to and rejected by the application judge. I also would not give effect to them.

[95] First and foremost, it defies common sense that a catastrophically impaired insured person would delay making an application that would open the door to desperately needed enhanced catastrophic benefits. I agree with the application judge’s observations in this regard:

A catastrophic injury is a serious one; catastrophically injured people require assistance to perform their activities of everyday living and to cover medical expenses. The nature of these expenses are such that they cannot be forgone by a victim or denied by an insurer, with the aim of accruing or avoiding costs.

[96] There is no question that the SABS requires an insured person to make the necessary applications and provide the required information to an insurer. However, these obligations must be understood in the context of a catastrophic impairment. The nature of many catastrophic impairments may necessarily render a catastrophically impaired insured person incapable of navigating and completing the complicated and detailed application process for a catastrophic impairment determination. As the application judge found, this is clearly what happened in the present case.

Source/more: 2016  ONCA 804 (CanLII), < http://canlii.ca/t/gvd47

Inquiry into Medical Evidence petition

Link to: Inquiry into Medical Evidence petition

FAIR has put together a paper version of the petition calling for a Public Inquiry into the medical evidence used in our courts and administrative tribunals. It is the same as the one we have asked you to sign online.

The Ontario Legislature ONLY accepts ORIGINAL petitions, on paper, with ‘hand signed’ signatures. There are strict rules for petitions so NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh’s office has generously agreed to receive the paper petition in his office and present it at Queen’s Park.

If you or a loved one were injured in an auto accident, at work or elsewhere wouldn’t you want an honest, unbiased and qualified medical opinion/report of your injuries? That’s just not happening in Ontario for injured and disabled individuals who make a claim for benefits through their private or public insurers. What if it was your fault that something happens to someone else? You’d want them to have the best chance at recovery wouldn’t you?

Please print, sign and circulate the petition because quality and qualified medical evidence shouldn’t be something we need – it should be something we already have because there is no real justice without it.

Make a copy and mail the ORIGINAL copies to: MPP Jagmeet Singh, Room 172 Main Legislative Building, Queen’s Park 111 Wellesley St. Toronto, ON M7A 1A5

Thanks for being part of the collective voice needed for change!

Other On-line petition: https://www.change.org/p/the-legislative-assembly-of-ontario-support-a-public-inquiry-into-medical-evidence-in-ontario-s-courts-and-tribunals (these signatures are also important to make our point elsewhere and it gives those on-line the power and opportunity to use their voice)

Source: http://www.fairassociation.ca/

Auto insurance changes

Auto insurance changes with @IBAOntario and Jokelee Vanderkop http://www.zoomerradio.ca/show/fight-back-on-zoomer-radio/michael-brattman-jokelee-vandekop-june-1/ …

Canadian Insurance News encrypted connection

All visitors are now able to view Canadian Insurance News over an encrypted connection by visiting https://cinsurancenews.blogspot.com.

Existing links and bookmarks to Canadian Insurance News will continue to work.

Administrator,
Canadian Insurance News

People with back injuries treated with opioids off work longer: study

Disability claimants who are off work because of low back pain stay off longer if they're being treated with opioids, according to a new study out of McMaster University....

Painkillers linked to hundreds of deaths....

More:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/people-with-back-injuries-treated-with-opioids-off-work-longer-study-1.3206219

Social Security Tribunal appeal stacked against claimant

Monday, July 27, 2015
Social Security Tribunal appeal stacked against claimant


Via Facsimile 1-855-814-4117 Social Security Tribunal of Canada
RE: IN THE MATTER OF APPEAL GP-xx-xxx

Dear Social Security Tribunal:

I acknowledge receipt of a letter by xxx -IS Operations Manager, General Division Dated July 16, 2015 informing me that your are now “ready to proceed” with my Appeal.

I do not understand how you can be ready to proceed without fulfilling your obligation to provide me a copy of my previously requested file.

Until I am able to receive a complete copy of my file I am unable to proceed in defending myself and presenting the facts.

As you know my file represents the how, when, and why I have an appeal with you, and is the record of events for any future actions against the Social Security Tribunal in the event of the continuation of these unjust denials. Its all relevant. I wish to discuss with the Member assigned my file all relevant information regarding my file and my Appeal. So again, I kindly ask for an updated copy of my file.

Even if I am unsuccessful in my Appeal I still require everything that I sent to the Tribunal to be part of the record as it confirms and demonstrates the facts of my long journey through this preconceived nightmare designed to deny, humiliate and thoroughly frustrate legitimate victims that have already been threw enough interrogations from their insurance companies hired guns and wordhirelings. All orchestrated by the IBC and bad politicians that pray on the week, sick, and injured, for profit.

Doctors that don't stand up for legitimately injured patients are most to blame in this charade of politics and money makers. My 7 year Appeal process is just another example of an upside down world where the money doesn’t go to where its suppose to. Bad Doctors that don't properly investigate are at the core of the backlog problems at F.S.C.O, our courts, and the Social Security Tribunal of Canada.

As Service Canada has used my blogging (about them) as an excuse not to pay my disability benefits attached you will find my latest blog entry advocating for the thousands of people waiting at your Tribunal because of bad decisions by disgraceful, dishonourable and unprofessional Service Canada employees.



As you know my faxes to you and my blog still asks for the Chairperson of the Social Security Tribunal xxx to answers numerous, unanswered, questions.
I have no acknowledgement that the Chair is getting my correspondences. Is she receiving anything? Should I resend?

Also, will I be permitted to audio/video record my appeal hearing?

Finally, attached you will find my completed “Hearing Information Form”. You will notice that I have not answered the witness question at this time. What are the rules for witnesses?
I submit that anyone that has correspondences, investigations, or relevant knowledge of this appeal makes them a witness to this Appeal. Furthermore, is there a limit to the number of witnesses?

With my injuries, no consumer protection, no consultation or mind reading skills I continue to have difficult understanding why this process is designed so difficult for a legitimately injured person. You should all be ashamed.

Looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible in this regard.



Thanks to all those who help me write my letters and blog postings since 2007.


Cc: undisclosed

Source: http://survivingacollision.blogspot.ca/2015/07/social-security-tribunal-appeal-stacked.html

Simplify ODSP process

Published on Fri May 29 2015

 

Re: Ontario rethinks complex disability reviews, May 17 

Ontario rethinks complex disability reviews, May 17

In her interview with Laurie Monsebraaten, Mary Marrone of the Income Security Advocacy Centre gives us pause when she describes the process of Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) medical reviews as flawed, wasteful, and “careless with people’s lives.” 

As a physician and a member of the Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions, being careless with people’s lives is the last thing Helena Jaczek, the Minister of Community and Social Services, would want.

That’s why Ontario’s registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing students urge her to simplify the ODSP application process. Right now, it is so complicated that more than half of community legal clinic cases involve ODSP appeals. 

With more than half of these appeals being eventually approved by the Social Benefits Tribunal, this is not accountability but “denial by design.” We can and must be ever careful with the lives of every Ontarian, especially those most in danger due to health and disability challenges.

Doris Grinspun, CEO, Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, Toronto

Source: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2015/05/29/simplify-odsp-process.html

 

Holding on to disability benefits an unfair struggle

They say the character of a society is judged by how we treat the most vulnerable amongst us. Those who live with a disability, whether physical or mental, that restricts their ability to work to support themselves and their families fall squarely into this group. The purpose of the Ontario Disability Support Program is to provide income to these individuals so they can survive. It's not a lot of money, and the benefits are notoriously difficult to obtain, but it serves as a crucial lifeline for many people in this province.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/05/28/holding-on-to-disability-benefits-an-unfair-struggle.html

People with disabilities deceived

The provincial system for disability assistance for those who require some assistance (either permanent or temporary) has many, many deceitful regulations. 

In 2009, the Wesley Urban Ministry group produced a study called "No Community Stands Alone" and one sad reality from that study is adults end up on assistance for a variety of reasons, including a sudden illness, car accident or work injury for which there is no coverage.

http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/5593153-people-with-disabilities-deceived/

IBC Fact Check: Trial lawyers’ 40% fees gut victims’ benefits

40%: That’s the share that some personal injury lawyers in Ontario take from accident victims in contingency fees. While many lawyers take less – a quarter or a third – insurers and drivers all agree: lawyers’ fees are simply too high and have a significant impact on the cost of auto insurance.

More/source:
http://www.ilstv.com/ibc-fact-check-trial-lawyers-40-fees-gut-victims-benefits/#.VS6aHfBqS1A

Question Period: Social Security Tribunal

https://www.youtube.com/embed/61KIM-q5-pc

Doctors can bully patients with disabilities: Goar

Woman in wheelchair stands up to the doctor who she says refused to remove her malignant tumour 

Her aim is to show people in the disabled community they can stand up to doctors who bully, patronize or silence them. Her ultimate objective is to change the pattern of medical discrimination against patients with disabilities.  

More/source:

http://www.ourwindsor.ca/opinion-story/5550780-doctors-can-bully-patients-with-disabilities-goar/

Clinics bogged down by disability support applications

A deluge of disability appeal work rooted in flawed Ontario Disability Support Program application and medical review processes may eat up a big chunk of newly available funds for expanded legal aid services, according to legal clinics.

More/source:

http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201504064592/headline-news/tribunals