A YEAR'S END LAMENT

Poverty is with us. Some of it can be claimed to be the result of self destruction such as alcohol and drug abuse. The reality is that many addictions start by self-medication required to ease psychological pain. Guilt, worry and past traumas haunt human beings. None of us are perfect and all of us mess up in our lives.

People in jail over Christmas we might think are there because of their own fault. The trouble is the percentages of Canadian/Ontario or others in jail who to date are unconvicted is shocking. At any time more than fifty percent of those imprisoned in this province are awaiting their trials and undoubtedly many will not be convicted of the offence of which they are charged. Others will be yet the courts tend generally not to look at mitigating circumstances except perhaps in the severity of the sentences. I recall being absolutely stunned that Daniel P. Reeves, here in Kitchener-Waterloo, spent five years in pre-trial custody. Good Lord and this is Canada, a democracy. Yes he was eventually convicted of fraud but why the hell, for an non-violent offence, did he spend five years behind bars prior to conviction?

Politically we have idiots in charge of the asylum. Trump to the south and Doug Ford down in Toronto are the most obvious. Ford is attempting to destroy the Clean Water Act and the Greenbelt Act. He would like to undo environmental protections because he believes that the environment is no more than a left wing conspiracy. How do you argue, enlighten or consult with minds like that?

We like to think that we are progressive and that all human beings, at least here in Canada, are treated equally. That is a joke as well. The rich are always treated much better than the middle class or the poor including by our own government and courts. Women are making progress only for us to learn how badly powerful and influential males in Hollywood have gotten away with bullying and harassment forever. Our own female police officers face rude, ignorant and even illegal behaviour by males from the Waterloo Region Police Services. No recent news on the fate of their class action lawsuit but our courts,money and entropy will ensure that it will be a long time before that is resolved. Women in other police forces, the military and yes even in Parliament face nasty behaviour. Sometimes even our universities are not as inclusive as they should be whether for undergrads, grads or professors. There is even the unequal treatment of those teachers/profs who haven't gotten onto the tenure highway or achieved permanent employee status and are living contract to contract.

Swinging back to our judicial system there is an old saying that we have the best judicial system in the world ... that money can buy. If you have a million dollars available you can buy top notch, long term, professional legal representation when you need it. Believe me you need it each and every time you step into a courtroom no matter how honest and law abiding you are or have been. That perversion must change but the vested interests involved are in control just like in our educational, police, and health systems. Improvement will not come as long as some within the system are doing just fine thank you.

WE THE SHEEP MUST BE MOLLIFIED

So refreshing to know that Liz Witmer, chair of the (corrupt?) WSIB, has ordered a review of the files of 300 hundred former rubber workers. Of course there may very well have been 3,000 whose health and lives were affected by the working conditions in various rubber related factories around Kitchener-Waterloo but that's beside the point for the WSIB, the Ministry of Labour and our provincial government. It's all about scoping at the very start so just in case an adverse decision results, you've already limited the financial damages to your budget and the damages to your credibility and reputation.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following story titled "Rubber Town: Workers, families hope for answers from WSIB review". The skeptics aka knowledgeable people are blunt in their assessment of the alleged promised review. "It's a public relations exercise." It's also a bureaucratic, minimum one year exercise by the WSIB. Allegedly it's all about the science and the records and what individual workers can prove they were exposed to according to Scott Wilson a WSIB board member. I believe that that is primarily nonsense. Why should the workers who are now sick and dying have to "prove" anything other than where they worked and from when until when? They were never given the records of which chemicals were in which departments. They were never given written lists of the chemicals in the products by the factories. The science of solvent poisoning has been available since the late 1800s and in the ensuing 100 years and more the science has only become more definitive and more obviously hazardous.

WSIB spokesperson Christine Arnott suggested that they want to undertake a review in a "thoughtful and deliberate way using the best approach." She also advised that they are working deliberately to put a plan in place as soon as possible." Isn't that just sweet? In my opinion they will indeed be deliberate and thoughtful in putting together a plan. They will deliberately take as long as humanly possible in order for as many as possible sick rubber workers to pass on thus lowering the financial liability of the WSIB. Is it even possible that managerial bonuses are at stake based upon the numbers of rejected claims that are overturned in the review as in the fewer overturned past decisions the higher the bonuses?

My father worked for Uniroyal in Elmira for twelve years and then for thirteen years at the Breithaupt Street plant. The Breithaupt Street plant has been mentioned twice in this series as having very polluted air. I wonder as in Elmira if the neighbours were also adversely affected by the fumes from the plant? By the way my father became sick a year after retiring and died at age seventy-three.

OH THANK GOD, ELIZABETH WITMER IS CONCERNED

Well her concern plus twenty-five cents that sick or dead rubber workers did not receive from Workman's Compensation won't buy them a cup of coffee. That is exactly what her "concern" is worth, that is nothing. Gee where was her concern when many of them fought the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) for years and lost to get their rightfully owed financial compensation to pay for lost work, lost wages and lost family members? While she was collecting her six figure plus salary, sitting in a plush air conditioned office accepting huge work related risks such as a papercut from her paycheque, rubber workers in Kitchener-Waterloo were being poisoned and dosed with carcinogenic chemicals all day long. Carcinogenic chemicals that their employers, scientists, chemists and the government have known about for many, many decades. Some of those same chemicals caused the first diagnosed bladder cancers in Germany in the late 1800s for God's sake!

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries this story titled "Rubber workers' claims to be reviewed." Allegedly a "dedicated review team" from the WSIB will re-examine more than 300 claims filed by rubber workers. Odd but I wonder what that "dedicated review team" are doing right now? The WSIB are understaffed we are told so which other claims will now be set aside to free up staff for this review? I also wonder if the WSIB will re-examine claims from dead rubber workers. Or how about dead rubber workers who either do not have immediate family or they too have passed on? Will the WSIB compensate the estates of rubber workers who lost everything; their health and all their assets paying for health care and prescriptions?

This is simply one more sham by government on the people as the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Kudos to the Record for their series of articles and shame on both the Liberals and Conservatives for continuing to serve the wishes of their corporate clients at the expense of the health, safety and financial needs of the public.