CONSULTATIONS WITH FEDERAL FINANCE COMMITTEE
Final Report
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=2577724&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=1&File=9
a little taste of who we are....
(Submitted per transcript into the Federal Finance Consultations 2006- (1) and (2) recommendations were accepted into the Federal Report)
Our community-based organization, Response: A Thousand Voices, discusses and evaluates the ongoing conditions and treatment of the most vulnerable of Nova Scotian Canadians: the impoverished, in all of its guises. To paraphrase an adage, one is only as strong as the weakest link, so are the provinces and territories in a nation like Canada. Our most vulnerable Canadian in this vast nation of incredible resources is not immune to the truism in that adage.
The most vulnerable of any Canadian community is the weakest aspect of the nation, and it is here where we find the gaping issues of neglect and concern that can only be remedied with governmental attention and finances allocated to the issues identified as the most important in our respective communities. We strongly believe that humanistic mentalities and programs implemented to address these critical issues here in Nova Scotia can also be applied across Canada and will inevitably improve the quality of life for the most vulnerable of all our natural resources--the Canadian people.By improving the conditions for living of this specific population, we improve all life for all Canadians. To do otherwise is in direct violation of our own statutes, legislation, acts, and Constitution. To do otherwise jeopardizes the quality and therefore the security of the future generations of Canadians still unborn.
If we as Canadians desire to be taken seriously on the global stage, we must first take ourselves seriously.
By addressing the issues of the most vulnerable of any Canadian city, we set into motion a commitment that our people are its greatest natural resource and we are prepared, as a nation, to put whatever money is necessary to ensure that this valuable resource does not become contaminated, or worse, extinct, either through complete assimilation with our neighbours to the south or through the lack of national pride and identity, cohesion, and culture.
By addressing the issues of the most vulnerable of any Canadian city, we set into motion a commitment that our people are its greatest natural resource and we are prepared, as a nation, to put whatever money is necessary to ensure that this valuable resource does not become contaminated, or worse, extinct, either through complete assimilation with our neighbours to the south or through the lack of national pride and identity, cohesion, and culture.
Canada has such a great opportunity to set standards of respect by government for its citizens that can be emulated around the world. There are so many choice remedies of which we can avail ourselves, but only a few sincerely reflect the intelligence and civility that we boast about as people living in a developed nation in the western world. With our most humble resources as a community voice organization, we respectfully submit the following as the topics of critical concern that we know, if put into actualization, will improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
The treatment of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. So too could be said about measuring the civility of Canada on how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. When we, with honest introspection, discover the truth about the conditions of the Canadian poor, we then reveal what we are capable of doing as Canadians, as a nation, in creating these deplorable conditions and creating the solutions to dismantle them.We do not live in a fascist or tyrannical country, so if we ignore the impoverished, then we choose to do that. If we mistreat or abuse our impoverished, then we choose to do that. If we collude with or enable others to abuse or mistreat them, we choose to do that. If we assist the most vulnerable with whatever reasonable remedies will inevitably improve their quality of life, we choose to do that as well.
We think Canada is a nation that chooses to aspire to those standards that are above reproach. This can only be measured in its creation of humane policies and selection of qualified civil servants to implement and enforce them equally and fairly without prejudice and intent to harm.
Some could argue that to aspire to such elevated understandings of humanity is counter-intuitive to the competitive nature of a capitalistic world. We advocate that humanity within governmental policies and commitments improves the integrity and therefore the efficiency of every Canadian, thereby indirectly and directly improving the quality and quantity of their production and earning potential within that family and that community. This will inevitably improve the quality and quantity of Canadian production, influencing the at-home market and international importing and exporting markets. We rely more on the solid character of a strong Canada; we rely less on others we are competing with and for the very resources we already have.
We hold governmental efficiency through efficacy as the very critical attribute of a formidable Canada. With this in place it will keep us in standing, not only as a worthy competitor in the world market, but as an innovator that sets new standards for governing this very market.
We created a new acronym, GETE, governmental efficiency through efficacy. We understand that every government department is a system, much like a machine of production, that is dependent on every other system for functionality. If one of the parts of the system is dysfunctional, we can predict with accuracy what the repercussions will be. To ignore or dismiss the importance...we know that we're giving the last results to the people who can least afford them.
We have five recommendations, and I realize you already have the strategies:
One is a baseline standard for qualifications for civil servants in those departments that interact directly with Canada’s most vulnerable.
Two is a provincial and federal website for the Department of Community Services for (a) appeal decisions and issues; and (b) for those families and individuals who have to migrate to various provinces for work, medical care, or supports, which could include education.
Three is a separate provincial and federal department for housing, with a separate division in Access Nova Scotia to deal with social and public housing issues.
Four, a separate provincial division for persons with disabilities in the Department of Community Services.
And five, a new eclectic department for legal accountability and national responsibility for Canadians to safely report/whistle-blow on civil servants who are breaking the law and/or violating the chartered constitutional rights of its citizens.
We are very pleased that our recommendations were indirectly and directly referenced in the final report. The following are excerpts:
The Committee also heard testimony specific to the training of federal public servants. The Purchasing Management Association of Canada indicated its support for provisions contained in the Federal Accountability Action Plan which indicate that the federal government will provide accreditation and training for procurement officers, and requested that sufficient funding be allocated to achieve this goal. In addition, the federal government was encouraged to endorse professional standards in the day-to-day operation of governments and to provide funding to recruit and train public servants to meet those standards. Response: A Thousand Voices also recommended the establishment of standards regarding minimum qualifications for civil servants in departments that interact directly with low-income Canadians.
( this actually is our submission as vulnerable families which tends to be equated with 'low income' exclusively-it assumes middle and upper families are not vulnerable in their own way which is a misnomer however our presentation for this event was focused on vulnerable families due to poverty.)
The Committee also heard about the value of consistent and integrated social assistance rates and supports across the country. To facilitate interprovincial/territorial migration for work or health reasons, Response: A Thousand Voices proposed the creation of a database containing relevant information about service users, which could serve as a resource for case workers regarding prior case appeals and decisions.
( this was to disallow uneducated case workers from making people wait ridiculous amounts of time for assistance application approvals and appeal hearings -all to be national database as folks also move intra-inter provincially for education/medical/work reasons -untrained staff do create more stressors for these families, with impunity.
Like Margaret Meade said: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. (1901-1978)
Actual Official Submission in Full
(transcript)
SEPTEMBER 5 2006 SUBMISSION TO PRESENT
OCTOBER 24 2006 in HALIFAX
OCTOBER 24 2006 in HALIFAX
RESPONSE: A THOUSAND VOICES
PRE-BUDGET CONSULTATIONS WITH FINANCE COMMITTEE
Respectfully submitted by:
Gayle McIntyre (BAADM, BSW) Chair- on behalf of the Response Team (RT) responsevoices@hotmail.com
Presenting in Halifax Nova Scotia on October 24 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘CANADA’S PLACE IN A COMPETITIVE WORLD’
Please note the case studies provided for each recommendation are real stories/real lives. These are not exhaustive anecdotes and case studies: unfortunately there are just too many to tell. If we are presenting on October 24 in Halifax, it will not be necessary to refer to the case studies as those are for your perusal in meetings.
Please also note that all information in the provided case studies has already been entered into testimony into various courts in Nova Scotia and /or substantiated by several medical and legal documents and sources. They are provided in this presentation for illustration purpose. Due to the honest nature of the illustrations: please read with care as it may be shocking to some who have not interacted with the Impoverished in Canada.
RESPONSE: A THOUSAND VOICES
Our community based organization, RESPONSE: A THOUSAND VOICES discusses and evaluates the ongoing conditions and treatment of the most vulnerable of Nova Scotian- Canadians: the Impoverished, in all of its guises. To paraphrase an adage: one is ‘only as strong as the weakest link’: so are the provinces and territories in a nation like Canada. Our most vulnerable Canadian in this vast nation of incredible resources is not immune to the truism in that adage. The most vulnerable of any Canadian community is the ‘weakest’ aspect of the nation and it is here where we find the gaping issues of neglect and concern that can only be remedied with governmental attention and finances allocated to the issues identified as the most important in our respective communities. We strongly believe that humanistic mentalities and programs implemented to address these critical issues here in Nova Scotia can also be applied across Canada and inevitably improve the quality of life for the most vulnerable of all our natural resources: the Canadian people.
By improving the conditions for living of this specific population we improve all life for all Canadians. To do otherwise would be in direct violation to our own Statutes, Legislations, Acts and Constitution. To do otherwise jeopardizes the quality and therefore the security of the future generations of Canadians still unborn.
If we as Canadians desire to be taken seriously on the global stage then we must first take ourselves seriously. By addressing the issues of the most vulnerable in any Canadian city we set into motion a commitment that our people are its greatest natural resource and we are prepared as a nation to put whatever monies necessary to ensure that this valuable resource does not become contaminated or worse: extinct, either through complete assimilation into our neighbours to the south or through the lack of national pride and identity, cohesion and culture.
To use a farming analogy: there are all kinds of planting soils however it can be agreed that the greatest quality of ‘produce’ is grown in the richest and most fertile of soils. By providing Canadians the opportunity to grow within a well maintained and healthy soil can only produce the best quality of Canadian. The strictest guidelines for care or maintenance of this soil and crop must also be produced as there is always ‘something’ waiting for the right ‘season’ to ruin the crop.
Canada has such a great opportunity to set standards of respect from government for its citizens that can be emulated around the world. There are so many choice ‘remedies’ that we can avail ourselves with but only a few are sincerely reflecting the intelligence and civility that we boast about as people living in a developed nation in the western world. With our most humbled resources as a community voice organization we respectfully submit the following as those topics of critical concern that we know if put into actualization, will improve the quality of life for those who have none.
The treatment of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons
(Fyodor Dostoevsky)
(Fyodor Dostoevsky)
So could be said about measuring the civility of Canada in how it treats its most vulnerable citizen. When we, with honest introspection, discover the truth about the conditions of the Canadian Poor we then reveal what we are capable of doing as Canadians, as a nation both in creating these deplorable conditions and in creating solutions to dismantle them. We do not live in a fascist or tyrannical country so if we ignore our Impoverished then we choose to do that. If we mistreat or abuse our Impoverished then we choose to do that. If we collude with or enable others to abuse or mistreat our most vulnerable, then we choose to do that too.
I have expressed an opinion on public issues whenever they appeared to me so bad and unfortunate the silence would have made me feel guilty of complicity. (Albert Einstein)
If we assist the most vulnerable with whatever reasonable remedies that will inevitably improve their quality of life, thus giving them life, then we choose to that as well.
We think Canada is a nation that chooses to aspire to those standards that are above reproach. This can only be measured in its creation of humane policies and selection of qualified civil servants to implement and enforce them equally and fairly without prejudice and intent to harm.
Some could argue that to aspire to such elevated understandings of humanity is counter-intuitive to the competitive nature of a capitalistic world. We advocate that such humanity within governmental policies and commitments improves the integrity therefore the efficiency of every Canadian thereby indirectly and directly improving the quality and quantity of their production and earning potential within that family and within that community. This inevitably will improve the quality and quantity of all Canadian production influencing the ‘at home’ market and international importing and exporting markets. By relying more on the solid character of a strong Canada, we rely less on others who are competing with and for the very resources we have.
We hold governmental efficiency through efficacy as the very critical attribute of a formidable Canada and with this in place it will keep us in standing, not only as a worthy competitor in the world market, but as an innovator that sets new standards for governing this very market.
Governmental Efficiency Through Efficacy (GETE)
Every governmental department is a system much like a machine of production that is dependent on systems for functionality. If one part of any system is dysfunctional we can predict with accuracy what the repercussions will be, not only of that particular dysfunction but of any attempts to ignore these ‘glitches’. To ignore or dismiss the importance and synergistic involvement of each civil servant within each department will always having long lasting results which are then passed on to the very people who can least afford them. As most Nova Scotian-Canadians who are Impoverished have various interactions with the Department of Community Services, the Department of Justice and/or the Department of Health, that is our focus for this submission.
As mentioned we are in Nova Scotia and our information applies to the experiences of those living here however we are fully aware that the issues created by governmental systems with regards to poverty and its manifestations can apply throughout this nation to any province and territory respectively.
We are recommending the following amendments, remedies and creations for consideration by your finance committee for allocation of tax revenues in keeping with the Governmental Efficiency Through Efficacy (GETE) theme of our submission. We ask that you consider each of these recommendations on their own merit and then collectively as addressing various gaping voids in the systems that are causing detrimental affects to many Canadians, Canadians who rarely have the opportunity to voice their own suffering and rely heavily on community based organizations such as ours to do that bidding on their behalf.
Please excuse the over simplification as we are trying to be brief in the allotted page specificity. This brevity in no way reflects the lack of urgency or importance and they are equal in our concern, they are in not in a particular order of priority. We, at RESPONSE: A THOUSAND VOICES recommend the following:
1. A baseline standard for qualifications for civil servants in those departments that interact directly with Canada’s most vulnerable.
2. A provincial and federal website for the Department of Community Services for : a) appeal issues and decisions (b) for those individuals/ families that have to migrate to various provinces to find work and/or appropriate medical care and /or supports.
3. A separate provincial and federal department for Housing with a separate division in Access Nova Scotia to deal with Social/Public Housing issues.
4. A separate provincial division for persons with disabilities in the Department of Community Services
5. A new eclectic department for legal accountability and national
responsibility for Canadians to safely report/whistle blow on civil servants that are breaking the law and/or violating chartered constitutional rights of its citizens.
RECOMMENDATION :
1. A baseline standard for qualifications for civil servants in those departments that interact directly with Canada’s most vulnerable.
We do not claim to know what each employee has as qualifications, experience or academic training but what we do know that in Nova Scotia we are shamefully failing all expectations in dealing with every category of Impoverished people from the elderly to the disabled to the single moms with young children. Is this a lack of sufficient funds or the lack of employees with skills to know how to allocate those funds and services appropriately in a manner that is actually meaningful to the individual?
We can successfully argue that it is a combination of both however we tend to lean to the latter as being the most problematic as the waste of funds and lack of access to necessary services is a disgrace especially when it is clear that if they were just allocated in smart manner the desired result has the eventuality of being actualized. Those who have the most options to their avail ultimately have the most viable solutions. Because financial decisions are life decisions for the Impoverished, having under-qualified civil servants making life decisions for the most vulnerable is pouring water into sieve.
One does not need to have a university degree in Keynesian economics to ascertain that what and how much we invest today will determine the investments Canadians will have to make tomorrow. If we value and appreciate our assets today it will decrease our liabilities tomorrow.
Case study:
From 1976 onward the Dartmouth Community Services Child Protection Services (CPS) were fully aware of calls they received twice anonymously from neighbours on the abuse in a childhood home. They ONLY came twice in 4 years and in front of two of the perpetrators the children were asked if they were being abused. Having been brainwashed with a very misleading definition of what abuse means, the children all negated that inquiry. So the physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse continued without respite.
Now without any meaningful intervention at any time, in 1992 over 10 years later, one of the siblings was found living on the streets prostituting although the Community Services, same office, was ’involved’ with an open file this entire time. The oldest already made ward of the court in 1980, was the one who found him and contacted the office. Not one thorough investigation legal or otherwise was ever conducted on 4 abused children, all siblings. The oldest then, against her will and under false pretenses of the office, had to assist the office to bring a case to the family courts. This woman had left all this abuse behind many years earlier and went on with successful lifestyle and family.
The first family court matters were in 1992 that should have been dealt with over a decade earlier. Disclosures were made during these court hearings and unbeknownst to the woman sent to the crown’s office for criminal charges that should have been laid in 1980. Against her will she was forced to testify against her childhood rapist she had not seen for over a decade. The CPS-Dartmouth and police knew all about this crime on May 25 1980 yet did nothing about laying criminal charges against this pedophile. Victim Services then since 1994 denied every one of her medical expenses though substantiated by several doctors that the trauma of being forced to testify on matters that were psychologically dead, caused 4 chronic illnesses. Victim Services fought with this woman violating an existing court order, until 2003 when the NS Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in the woman’s favour calling the Department of Justice, Crown and Victim Services ‘dangerous…inventing their own policies and laws as they went along’.
A woman with three university degrees and once a provincial employee is now living in criminal poverty and chronic daily pain from this outrageous display of civil servants not acting with an integrity and decorum worthy of their government positions. She is now locked for life in a relationship with the very system that left her in home to be abused as a child. The department of Community Services and Justice crippled this woman who once worked full time for the government and part-time as community advocate with the most vulnerable issues. She and her son are now in and out the health system due to the entire trauma inflicted on them by civil servants due to a lack of appropriate and sufficient qualifications.
Was this avoidable? Yes. Had the police and child welfare charged this pedophile in 1980 when they first knew about it. The entire destruction of this family unit living in Canada would have been avoided. This woman and her son paid a horrific price for the lack of standards of many civil servants in 3 departments: Community Services, Justice and Health. Strained energies are now being wasted living in poverty fighting for rights and money already legislated rather than putting those energies toward being a quality employee, advocate and parent raising a strong healthy family in Canada.
STRATEGY: To have federal and provincial regulators agree that the lowest qualification for a Community Services case worker is at least a Bachelor of Social Work by an accredited program/university in Canada with a pre-requisite of a Humanity degree in Cultural and Gender Interactions and Community Development.
To review and amend the qualifications for police staff who work with
crimes committed against persons. To have at least a Bachelor of Arts or Sciences degree in Humanities: Victimology, Cultural and Gender Interactions and Community.
Community Services: It would be the responsibility of each potential employee and those now employed to complete this degree without credit or grandfathering. I attended the Maritime School of Social Work in 1994-1996, and I am told it is still below standard, producing students incapable of interacting in a diverse meaningful way with the most vulnerable. While I was there a few employed persons where being grandfathered in with credits for being in the field for years: they were the most classist, sexist, racist, spiteful of each class.
It is imperative that each potential staff member for Community Services is NOT given credit for time served. Of course this recommendation is based on the given that the social work program is of a standard boastful of integrity, intelligence and humanity such as we can find in Ontario social work programming.
Justice: The lack of appropriate qualifications for police who interact with the most vulnerable is shameful. Nova Scotia failed the last national report card on violence then had the audacity to blame it on the marginalized group called ‘youth’. Those of us who are working with community who are abused regularly by police, know the real culprits are and that would include those hiding the truth about the state of chaos throughout every division of our department of justice. This, combined with the lack of any real qualifications for civil servants interacting with victims, creates every opportunity for further revictimization and trauma again draining valuable energies best used elsewhere.
Was this avoidable? Yes. Had the police and child welfare charged this pedophile in 1980 when they first knew about it. The entire destruction of this family unit living in Canada would have been avoided. This woman and her son paid a horrific price for the lack of standards of many civil servants in 3 departments: Community Services, Justice and Health. Strained energies are now being wasted living in poverty fighting for rights and money already legislated rather than putting those energies toward being a quality employee, advocate and parent raising a strong healthy family in Canada.
STRATEGY: To have federal and provincial regulators agree that the lowest qualification for a Community Services case worker is at least a Bachelor of Social Work by an accredited program/university in Canada with a pre-requisite of a Humanity degree in Cultural and Gender Interactions and Community Development.
To review and amend the qualifications for police staff who work with
crimes committed against persons. To have at least a Bachelor of Arts or Sciences degree in Humanities: Victimology, Cultural and Gender Interactions and Community.
Community Services: It would be the responsibility of each potential employee and those now employed to complete this degree without credit or grandfathering. I attended the Maritime School of Social Work in 1994-1996, and I am told it is still below standard, producing students incapable of interacting in a diverse meaningful way with the most vulnerable. While I was there a few employed persons where being grandfathered in with credits for being in the field for years: they were the most classist, sexist, racist, spiteful of each class.
It is imperative that each potential staff member for Community Services is NOT given credit for time served. Of course this recommendation is based on the given that the social work program is of a standard boastful of integrity, intelligence and humanity such as we can find in Ontario social work programming.
Justice: The lack of appropriate qualifications for police who interact with the most vulnerable is shameful. Nova Scotia failed the last national report card on violence then had the audacity to blame it on the marginalized group called ‘youth’. Those of us who are working with community who are abused regularly by police, know the real culprits are and that would include those hiding the truth about the state of chaos throughout every division of our department of justice. This, combined with the lack of any real qualifications for civil servants interacting with victims, creates every opportunity for further revictimization and trauma again draining valuable energies best used elsewhere.
The Justice and Community Services systems both create so much avoidable injury that in turn drains the health services and further harms the victim as they will not and do not work in a supportive modality with service users. These systems are set up in adversarial roles with any service users who tend to be the most vulnerable of Canadians. The ’inmates are running the asylum’ and this is due to the lack of any real leadership in the last decade in both departments.
In summation government systems create their own chaos, damage and injury that in turn reverberates in other systems: government creating its own business. This is a disgraceful waste of human and financial resources: money and efforts best used in promoting a healthy and strong Canada. Civil servants have a lot of unmonitored discretionary powers, to give that type of authority to those not equipped psychologically, ethically or academically is equivalent to the casualties left behind after a drive-by shooting.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation: ZERO.
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
RECOMMENDATION:
2. A provincial and federal website for the Department of Community Services for : a) appeal issues and decisions (b) for those individuals/ families that have to migrate to various provinces to find work and/or appropriate medical care and /or supports.
At this time we do not have a provincial or national data base for this information. In keeping with the theme of efficiency: it is vital to have such a website/database for both the civil servant and service users to save immeasurable time, stress and peripheral services that at this time only seek to exhaust and frustrate already exhausted and frustrated service users.
By having a networking system that can store and process the information of any service user of Community Services that information can get passed within minutes to a another province for a family deciding to migrate, for whatever reasons. As it is set up now some are waiting 3 months to have their applications processed in a new province when they had already been in a province assistance program in the last residing province. The 3 month wait or any wait other than a week is unreasonable as the individual and usually the family unit cannot sustain the financial stress for that length of time. With apartment deposits to groceries for hungry family members how are they to survive and maintain wellness for any person over a week?
This is inhumane by civilized standards. A data base will allow a family to migrate to any province or territory for work or health reasons with the least amount of stressors that take energy away from the intended purpose of migrating. Within minutes they can be processed without any undue hardships to that family as well as save the paper trails that only cause more delays that are unnecessary. Energy then is put into productive outlets instead of being exhausted in stress and worry, notwithstanding saving the cost to that family unit’s ‘sanity’ as they are forced to survive in that chaos.
The other more important need for a provincial national website is to eliminate the abuse and retaliation of case workers to service users already in various stages of suffering as persons living in poverty in Canada. As you know again Nova Scotia with shamefully failed in addressing various needs for poverty issues as Community Services has neglected to look after its own even at a basic humane level. Too often when case workers who are unqualified to handle the issues of the daily work choose to make hasty decisions dismissing the needs of that person, then refer the individual casually over to the appeals process. Often these individuals are not equipped medically, cognitively, socially or legally to present their own case, many just do not get to the appeals process to have what it is they are requesting.
The appeals process is abused by lazy and retaliatory case workers instead of using it as a last resort. Too often needs are substantiated by doctor notes for services and /or prescriptions not covered by our provincial MSI and leaving the individual without items they need for basic living and reduction of pain. This person so often is too ill to apply for an appeal and that decision goes unchallenged thus violating at least one of their constitutional rights.
We often have service users who are marked in an office regardless of the case worker. This person becomes the target of unbelievable retaliation and undue hardship often supported by supervisors and managers who are also unqualified. This is not only unethical but illegal as well yet goes unpunished. The appeals referral is the abuser’s best tool in that it goes under the radar as a means to cause immeasurable stressors for that target. Unethical workers are the first to hold as shield ‘but it is policy’ as they have become so accustomed to using the lax interpretations and unmonitored discretionary powers as defenses for deplorable working standards.
Then we have the issue of redundancy. If a person needs a prescription and the case worker denies access that person may appeal that decision. It usually takes about 3 months for an appeal when the person needed the prescription yesterday. What is unacceptable in this is that often at least one other person has already been approved by a case worker or an appeal decision. Why is this sick person expected to go through the hassle of waiting in pain when this drug was already approved for someone else? By having this information on a database the case worker can feel confident making a decision and avoiding the appeals process instead of exhausting a person to appeals.
With this type of humane system an individual or the advocate can print off this information as supporting information to take to their appeals hearing as proof that the drug has already been approved. To expect infirmed people to fight for what they need is appalling especially when the case worker knows that with their unmonitored discretion they allow some of their clients the very things they deny, usually for personal reasons, to others.
One of the more hidden areas of abuse is cutting people off of funding without notice. There is already a ridiculous amount of time being wasted processing individuals to then cut them off when the communication issue usually rests with Community Services. This is frustrating for anybody which in turn effects how they function. Too often the person does not even get their mail to be notified of a case worker meeting and is cut off without notice. The case worker will say they sent out a notice in the mail but we are yet to know of anyone who has received one prior to being cut off. The case worker cannot prove they sent one. This leaves that family and /or individual in barbaric hardship as they usually find out they have been cut off when the landlord asks them for the NSF charges for lack of rent money.
By this time it is too late and the stress often too unbearable to even get to apply for an appeal - this person usually ends up homeless and in further destitution. All this is avoidable if the case worker acted in a humane manner instead of the highly prejudicial and adversarial manner toward their case load persons. It is as easy to think of solutions that reflect civility by acting in a manner and making decisions that avoid undue hardship. Ethical people naturally think and work within this framework.
It defies surviving to deliberately not show for meetings that you know will result in your monthly allotment being cut off. It begs the question: who would jeopardize their own home and food for a meeting as required? It also begs for humanity and intelligence that no one would deliberately jeopardize their own living funds. But case workers across the board will cut these people off without notice with the suspicions that these people are criminals, liars or lazy.
Please read enclosed transcript of my presentation to the Standing Committee for Community Services on this very issue of case worker abuse, appeals and databases-all were approved and supported by the Standing Committee but rejected by the newly replaced minister, David Morse.
No one should be cut off without the benefit of an ethical and structured independent appeals hearing FIRST. To treat vulnerable Canadians as if they are guilty before they are proven ‘guilty’ is draconian and goes against our legal premise and right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. But why do we see this unethical pattern and mentality amongst civil servants in a Canadian system that is supposed to be mandated to be about humanity and rehabilitation to alleviate some of the struggles so that people may find quality of life?
Although the cost to that person’s health, self esteem, family unit, quality of life and ability to strive, albeit immeasurable, is confidently determined to be detrimental often beyond repair. Yet we continue to employee, with tax payer’s money, unqualified case workers who, in the guise of acting administratively, misuse and abuse the appeals process.
Canada needs to stop punishing and degrading its poor.
Case Study:
Youth goes to file for an application with Community Services for disability but only can get a few of his part-time employers to co-operate with letters of employment proof as required. As he spends this time trying to get the required documentation he is told that he took too long and must start again. Keep in mind he needs medical assistance with funds. This youth went through 7 months of this rejection for no reason other than the Community Services sought to be adversarial and not compassionate while retaliating against this youth’s mother also on disability. Because of this ongoing stress and lack of money this youth is rendered homeless and starts to couch surf.
After seven months of this circular waste of time and energy that left this youth hungry, homeless and trauma he is finally approved only be cut off the next month. He did not show for his employment meeting, he did not know about it. Case worker lets that one go, was told youth did not get notice in the mail. He missed the next meeting again he did not have a notice, he gets a warning rather than the case worker putting something in place to ensure he is receiving his notice at an agreed upon address. He misses the last meeting and did get notice on the very day of the meeting only in the afternoon but the meeting was in the morning. So this youth who did not get all three notices was cut off with case worker hiding behind the pathetic and enabling excuse that the youth violated policy. Then proof was requested by youth and mother who collects the mail. The case worker could not show proof that of any of the three meeting notices were received or received within a reasonable time. Yet this entire time money was deducted taken from his mother’s cheque yet the same office knew son was not giving her money for rent as they were not giving him any money.
The matter finally goes to appeals after 6 months of asking for an appeals date. The adjudicator completely ignores the request for monies to be awarded retrospectively, decision only tells youth to re-apply. The lack of any meaningful decision at appeals enables case workers to continue with abuse of authority that inflicts undue hardship. Youth must wait 3 more months while being homeless then moves to another office district which is unavoidable. New office knows new address but send notice to old temporary address per registered mail as agreed upon in the appeals hearing. Youth is cut off though office knows he no longer was at the address on the registered mail. He has to re-apply at new office due to this cut off.
At the new office after 2 months of waiting he is cut off after a couple of months with no received no communications per registered mail as agreed upon. He is homeless again due mother using Community Services of disabilities-there just is not enough money to go around. Case worker and intake worker were told several times by mother that son is in desperate need of medical assistance/respite and drug and anger counseling for trauma. Community Services cut him off nonetheless. Finally after a year and a half this youth mother has to charge him criminally three times for anger issues to try to get him the very help Community Services refused to assist with. This youth then applies again. The new case worker made one phone call to this youth and cut him off with no registered mail notices. Registered mail was put in place at previous office and per appeals discussion as youth is so traumatized that needs this type of communication as well as assists mother to keep tabs on requirements on son’s behalf, plus proof was entered that mail was often stolen, plus proof was enter signed by another case worker who stated in writing that not all mail is received due to mismailing or forgetfulness of case workers.
Reason: he is finally told that he did not get back with any information about his address yet case worker called him at his home on the land line. His mother had kept her own case worker informed to the going-ons and she knew the son was at this address as moneys again would get taken from her cheque if he is living in the same home. There was no registered mail communications at all on meetings or required information.
An appeal date has been requested over 2 months 7 times by mother/advocate and the offending office is refusing to set one up telling the youth to just re-apply. They wrongfully cut of the youth so many times and are refusing to give him an appeals date saying they are no required to do so yet they are the ones in the constitutional and policy wrong. This office wished to hide behind excuses and refuses to give an appeal date to this day. They have told the youth to get in contact with the last worker. It was pointed out to the manager of that office that this same worker abused this youth’s rights and left him homeless and without services. This youth was accepted into university two years consecutively but was not well enough both times to attend due to chronic instability, lack of appropriate treatments in place and homelessness brought on by ongoing incompetent case workers over 3 years. They were told that to demand the youth to engage with this same worker is akin to telling an abused wife to go back to her abusive husband.
These workers are so incompetent yet do know what damage they are doing to individuals thus families. The office is refusing to give this youth a new worker and this youth refuses to talk to this worker that left him homeless, without treatment and hope all because he did not call him back by an ambiguous set time unbeknownst to the youth and with the information already confirmed. This office has refuses to comply although acknowledges that registered mail was agreed upon in the last office two years earlier. They are openly and knowingly violating this youth’s rights. They are refusing to assist this youth until he talks to the very worker who treated him like garbage. The youth has had enough of fighting with Community Services for moneys he is legislatively entitled to, he knows he runs the risk of homelessness but he cannot take the abuse any more from workers.
The new reason dated August 24 2996 for the appeal to not go forward now is that this youth violate the thirty day policy of filing an appeal. Yet this appeals manager (AM) and office manager (OM) is fully aware that an appeal was requested by phone several times and that the manager asked to investigate it first. Four weeks later she left a very ignorant and patronizing voice mail on the same phone for both the youth and mother (yet youth was cut off as the address was not confirmed for the second time for this number) and in this voice mail the OM stated that she seen nothing wrong. So it was the OM who knowingly violated the 30 day notice to appeal as set out by the policy (Section 12 Appeals Policy Nova Scotia). This is the type of unethical practice that protects these workers from accountability, abuse needs privacy to thrive. This is the very unethical practice that continues to harm, with impunity, the most vulnerable of Canadians.
STRATEGY: To have an intra/inter provincial data base set up so that case workers and individuals can access the relevant informations while respecting client confidentiality as case decisions are also assigned numbers, that each case worker would be required to do searches on this data base on relevant topics before rendering a decision. The decision to cut people off of funds can ONLY take place AFTER an appeals hearing determines this as the last resort and that all alternatives should be exhausted before being referred to an appeals process which should ONLY be used as a last resort .
To have computers set up in each waiting room of a Community
Service office so that service users can, without fear of retaliation, access this information per topic key word if the matter does go to appeals. Cases to be recorded by number only.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation: allocation of minimal funds to create this data base throughout each office across Canada and /or within each province will be less that the cost to keep this dysfunctional system going with redundancy hearings and paper work, and ultimate costs being absorbed in insulting human life while being degraded and abused and forced to use other systems. This entire process from waiting for months for an application to be approved to being put needlessly through appeals is taking energy away from individuals who could be using that energy and focus on being productive in other areas.
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
RECOMMENDATION:
3. A separate provincial department for Housing with a separate division in Access Nova Scotia to deal with Public Housing issues.
In Nova Scotia there used to be separate department for Housing. We are not suggesting that it ran efficiently or existed without issue in fact quite the opposite. What we do know is since its complete inclusion into the Department of Community Services the abuse, issues, neglect, corruption and misallocation of Federal Housing funds has found a new home to hide.
With the Federal-Provincial Transfer money talks and the SCPI moneys to be spent on Housing initiatives it is crucial to have the most effective and educated persons in charge of these great projects. The Housing division in Nova Scotia is embarrassingly criminal in how it violates constitutional rights of the Impoverished and bastardizes the Residential Tenancy Act sections on a daily basis.
We need to, at least here in this province, have a separate department to handle, process and administer all Social/Public Housing issues. With the increase in homelessness across this nation and the depravity that is overflowing in our public housing systems we need to have the most educated staff to execute the daily functions that serve this very diverse and vulnerable special needs population of poverty. We know other provinces are worried about the same social ills and to ignore the need for a separate department both provincially and federally is to decide to let this problem to get out of control draining other services such as health care and police services including increased numbers of incarcerated Canadians.
In Nova Scotia if you have a Social/Public housing issue or an issue with any home in the government program you must file with Access Nova Scotia- Residential Tenancy Board. We find that to be a great disadvantage to Impoverished persons for a few reasons:
(a) this is NOT a landlord tenant situation in that the landlord is usually a
private landowner where monies for profit are exchanged and we feel the limitations of the Act are in that they speak to the financial relationship that does exist in the private renting market between landlord and tenant. In Social/Public Housing the government is the property manager NOT the landlord. This manager has a different relationship with the tenant in that this is often a result of poverty therefore not a mutual agreed upon/equal power legal relationship, in fact most live, not by choice, in depraved geographical environments, criminality and violence. The commonality among all housing in this program is that all the residents are Impoverished or are at least pretend to be. Too often the deplorable conditions of abuse and lack of appropriate management in public housing is neglected as they have unmonitored authority which are abused to the point that residents have killed themselves out of desperation here in HRM. This goes without notice as who cares about a ‘dead poverty pigeon in public housing’? (note sarcasm)
In HRM we have property managers inventing their own laws as they go along often inciting a posse mentality to control those residents that do not wish to conform to the criminality often breeding in public housing. When we find residents wanting to file or submit grievances they are often threatened by Housing staff as most owe rents due to the chronic state of their lack of funds living in poverty. The constant threat by staff to control the residents into submission or an automatic eviction is criminal beyond words yet it continues regularly and has for generations.
(b)If you are able you can file with Access Nova Scotia there is no real confidence of having your rights honoured. We strongly believe that this is an inherent conflict of interest as both Housing and Residential Tenancies are governmental agencies and have often worked in concert to hide each other’s corruption thus enabling each other, with impunity, to continue to rape the rights of the Impoverished.
(c) We also strongly advocate for the waiving of the administration fee (now $25.00) for social/income/disability/employment assistance recipients. Asking for this fee from people already starving and near homelessness is absurd. This fee is being taken out of rent or grocery money, government money, to then be given back to another government agency: again government creating its own business and taking from those who have nothing to give. The most abused in Housing are too poor to fight for their rights and are left to live in the most oppressive tyrannical conditions in a free nation that has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Case Study:
Mother with disabilities is forced to live in public housing as her monthly allotment does not give her choice of neighbourhood. She is forced to endure depraved criminality only read about in newspapers. Being a community advocate she exhausts all avenues from Housing district managers, ministers to mayor trying to have the matter of police corruption and violence in housing to be investigation for the safety of all in and around each public housing system. Instead of these documented and substantiated grievances being viewed as a humane opportunity, those most guilty, all civil servants, organized a movement to have her evicted on fabricated issues. For 3 years the property manager incited racial violence against this woman and her family and property. This manager’s son is a police officer so they felt no need to help her every time she phones police as this manager refuses to enforce the laws and Acts governing public housing for public safety.
The police went out of their way not to help this woman as they prefer the status quo of not having to do any real work in public housing hiding behind their prejudices that all poor people are animals anyway. This woman, already on permanent disability because of Justice department, is so abused by HRM Housing staff , Police and by those who all knew about the systemic abuse and malicious persecution and did nothing: she had to attempt to take her life to stop the abuse. She survives and the abuse continues with impunity. Prior to this she has filed with Residential at a huge cost to her in many ways. The Housing MRHA Board of Directors ignored her pleas for help and colluded with the corruption though silence. She loses the first round but Appeals unanimously rule in her favour. She files against the with the tenancies manager another civil servant, for nepotism, for obstruction of justice and unethical practices obvious during the first hearing and decision that had her evicted and called her ‘the danger to the community’.
The Access NS manager ignored several requests for an internal investigation into what is clearly illegal activity by civil servants. Now after the attempt to take her life she is in a new community but Housing fabricated the inspection as they are accustomed to produce less than professional work. This new residence is greatly damaged and toxic and she now has new medical concerns and costs that are on top of those she is already suffering from daily. She again files with Residential Tenancy who now is playing a dangerous semantic game stating that since Housing is no longer the real landlord they are not obligated for damages. The woman points out that Housing is still one of two property managers now in a new Housing program RSP and also points out that damages are the direct result of the fabricated inspection and they know this as Small Claims already determined that fact on other items at an earlier date.
To date Residential Tenancies are refusing to assign a hearing appeal date to this woman so they can hide, as usual, the systemic corruption and violations to several Acts and polices. They do this as they know they can get away with it. Due to new medical concerns there is an immediate increase and further dependency on the MSI health care system for weekly medical services. Medical services and needs prescribed by several doctors are being ignored by the case workers and managers yet they have crippled this woman. They deny request after request referring her to appeals after appeals after appeals knowing she is in critical trauma on a daily basis due to their ongoing abuse that has not stopped in over a decade. All of this after she already tried to take her own life partly so she did not ever have to spend another day abused by Community Services and its many sociopathic workers. Access Nova Scotia is truly not accessible to or for the Poor.
STRATEGY: To have employed only those who have sufficient qualifications: Masters in Social Work and Community Development.
To waive all administration filing fees for Housing matters for those living on a governmental allotted assistance program.
To set up an independent Housing department set aside from other Community Services programming and assistance.
To set up a review/grievance/appeal board with the latter having a
minority of civil servants, the majority being community and /or private members to decide the matters of public/social housing grievances. ( the Community Service appeals process uses adjudicators from the community who are NOT government employees).
To have annual inspections and evaluations on performances of Housing
staff and property managers in the most vulnerable of any Canadian community.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation: allocate funds from Residential Tenancy to this new board. With encouraging the most abused to come forward to have their issues of maintenance and legislative rights will inevitably improve the safety of every social housing community without fear of retaliation or eviction as punishment.
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
RECOMMENDATION :
4) A separate provincial division for persons with disabilities in the Department of Community Services.
As you know recently the new LICO pharma-care plan is being put into place and already there is much concern: it clearly excludes person who do not fit into the LICO. Thankfully many Canadians will benefit from this new assistance to families with medical needs however it is ONLY assessable to those receiving child tax benefits and too many Impoverished do not fit into this qualifier.
Many disabled elderly who are in desperate need of pharma-care assistance may not have children or their children are too old to qualify. The same type of program must be set up for those with disabled but do NOT have offspring biological or otherwise. But first we need to start restructuring the list of approved medical items, services and prescriptions: again government generating its own business keeping the sick disabled.
For anyone with disabilities: too many medical items, services and prescriptions are being rejected by case workers claiming that since they are not itemized on the MSI list they do not have to approve them, this despite the realities that in several cases at least 2-4 specialists have requested a particular item. So despite having medical expertise making requests on behalf of disabled service users we have the least educated case worker then hiding comfortably behind the policy that if MSI does not cover it they do not have to approve it. The sad thing is that Community Services should be acting on behalf of every service user and if enough people are requesting the same item they should be acting on their behalf to have stated items included on the MSI list. There are items however that are NOT approved by MSI that are being approved by case workers and again we are back to the favoritism- retaliation model case workers use with impunity.
The avoidable stress brought on by case workers and endless appeals inevitably cause further medical complications, one does not need a medical degree to understand that result.
Disabled persons are a greatly ignored group of all vulnerable Canadians.
Case Study:
Woman presents case at appeals in 1999 on a program that if in place will get her back to work full-time without any need of further Community Service (CS) monies. She wants to go back to work full time to use her 8 years of education. Her presentation shows the appeals people and case workers, substantiated by medical documentation and a medical presenter that her plan will cost one half of what CS was willing to pay on garbage drugs. She needed to do holistic/naturopathic as she has sensitive to synthetic drugs. Case workers and appeals said NO.
STRATEGY: To have employed only those who have sufficient qualifications: Masters in Social Work and Community Development.
To waive all administration filing fees for Housing matters for those living on a governmental allotted assistance program.
To set up an independent Housing department set aside from other Community Services programming and assistance.
To set up a review/grievance/appeal board with the latter having a
minority of civil servants, the majority being community and /or private members to decide the matters of public/social housing grievances. ( the Community Service appeals process uses adjudicators from the community who are NOT government employees).
To have annual inspections and evaluations on performances of Housing
staff and property managers in the most vulnerable of any Canadian community.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation: allocate funds from Residential Tenancy to this new board. With encouraging the most abused to come forward to have their issues of maintenance and legislative rights will inevitably improve the safety of every social housing community without fear of retaliation or eviction as punishment.
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
RECOMMENDATION :
4) A separate provincial division for persons with disabilities in the Department of Community Services.
As you know recently the new LICO pharma-care plan is being put into place and already there is much concern: it clearly excludes person who do not fit into the LICO. Thankfully many Canadians will benefit from this new assistance to families with medical needs however it is ONLY assessable to those receiving child tax benefits and too many Impoverished do not fit into this qualifier.
Many disabled elderly who are in desperate need of pharma-care assistance may not have children or their children are too old to qualify. The same type of program must be set up for those with disabled but do NOT have offspring biological or otherwise. But first we need to start restructuring the list of approved medical items, services and prescriptions: again government generating its own business keeping the sick disabled.
For anyone with disabilities: too many medical items, services and prescriptions are being rejected by case workers claiming that since they are not itemized on the MSI list they do not have to approve them, this despite the realities that in several cases at least 2-4 specialists have requested a particular item. So despite having medical expertise making requests on behalf of disabled service users we have the least educated case worker then hiding comfortably behind the policy that if MSI does not cover it they do not have to approve it. The sad thing is that Community Services should be acting on behalf of every service user and if enough people are requesting the same item they should be acting on their behalf to have stated items included on the MSI list. There are items however that are NOT approved by MSI that are being approved by case workers and again we are back to the favoritism- retaliation model case workers use with impunity.
The avoidable stress brought on by case workers and endless appeals inevitably cause further medical complications, one does not need a medical degree to understand that result.
Disabled persons are a greatly ignored group of all vulnerable Canadians.
Case Study:
Woman presents case at appeals in 1999 on a program that if in place will get her back to work full-time without any need of further Community Service (CS) monies. She wants to go back to work full time to use her 8 years of education. Her presentation shows the appeals people and case workers, substantiated by medical documentation and a medical presenter that her plan will cost one half of what CS was willing to pay on garbage drugs. She needed to do holistic/naturopathic as she has sensitive to synthetic drugs. Case workers and appeals said NO.
Woman gets sicker as CS has her in and out of appeals, she is so sick she has to move into public housing where she gets so traumatized from ongoing civil servant abuse she attempts to take her life. Her entire day is now about controlling rage and pain, she is a medical recluse. She will never be able to get back to work now that there are more medical damage brought on by civil servants. Because CS refused to help her she was forced as sick as she was to fight with Victim Services/Justice for 9 years to get medical moneys for services only needed because she was a victim of CS. CS forgot to charge her perpetrator when she was a child.
This highly functional woman is now medically crippled for the rest of her life all due to the lack of appropriate services and properly trained case workers to deal with special needs service users. She will drain the moneys for the rest of her life because there is a serious shortage of intelligent and humane civil servants who disabled this women, she will never regain her hyper- functionality and productivity and quality of life her family was accustomed to.
STRATEGY: To put back in place a separate division in Community Services for persons with disabilities, individuals and/or families as their needs are not the same as others service users, in a partnership with the Department of Health.
To staff these divisions with no less than a Bachelor of Social Work and at least one course in medicines/nursing or rehabilitative care.
To have decisions regarding medical items to include the service user’s own medical team as expert and equal testimony and part of any decision regarding the person’s care, with decisions to be placed on website/database for others.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation: allocation of funds
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
RECOMMENDATION:
5) A new department for national and provincial accountability and responsibility for Canadians to safely report/whistle blow on civil servants that are breaking the law and/or violating chartered constitutional rights of its citizens.
In Nova Scotia we have a serious, pervasive and incestuous problem of retaliation-persecution, nepotism, and unethical practices in our Community Services and Justice Departments in all divisions: social/income /employment assistance, disabilities, child welfare, housing, policing, crown, victim services etc.
The Usual Suspects are enjoying tax-paid waged upward mobility in the ranks leaving a trail of poison bread crumbs causing outrageous damages, destroying individuals, families, lives and communities. If I am a civil servant and I come forward with information to restore the integrity of a responsible Canadian government I am saluted as being brave ethical soul. If I am a vulnerable soul being abused by a civil servant and come forward in hope of having any Canadian legislation set out to protect me honoured, I am further abused and degraded by other civil servants into silence and sometimes death.
STRATEGY: To have annual evaluations on civil servants performance by an Independent Review Board (IRB), will automatically keep a monitored check on those with incredible powers with meaningful inquiry and repercussion for offenders/violators.
To use the new recommended appeals process to monitor the number of appeals per case worker, abuse and misuse will be obvious for further review.
To develop an Independent Review Board for Service Users (IRBSU) whose
grievances are to be viewed as equal and as important as those submitted by whistle blowers. Victims of governmental abuse are not confused about who is abusing them and how. The problem is so many other civil servants are in place waiting to smother that voice so that the status quo of complacency and unethical practices can prevail. Having this review board will encourage people to come forward without fear of retaliation to bring serious issues that benefit everyone. Tax payers do not want their hard earned money paying wages for lazy or corrupt civil servants.
To set up this IRBSU provincially with report backs to federal level-federal
members (IRB) who can be provincial reps with each province also having community members selected through applications from each province, both to be changed every five years, separate from elections or partisan party involvement. The present disjointed relationship between provinces/territories and federal levels are being felt by those most using the systems: the Canadian Poor.
Recognizing the Canadian Constitution allows for separate powers for federal and province there are some critical issues that should not be allowed to be disconnected and that would be of national and community safety, health, development and unethical practices committed by too many waged civil servants employed and paid by Canadian tax payers.
To have findings from IRBSU being given to IRB who will be including this with
their own findings from their internal inquiries and other sources such as whistle blowers; review the efficiency of civil servants as it is measured by improving quality of life of the most vulnerable.
The left hand should know what the right hand is doing.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation:-allocation of funds from relevant departments that will also make up some of the members on this IRB, funds also to be allocated to provinces for IRBSU, splitting funds between the IRBSU and IRB. Convenient and acceptable indicators: meaningful decreases in judicial involvement, health care program /prescription usage and recipients to social assistance programs, all of which have, to date, been the ignored measures of failing governmental systems.
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
CONCLUSION:
The sad and embarrassing reality is that energies and resources of the Impoverished and vulnerable are already exhausted and limited. What they do have is for combat as they constantly fight for rights that are already codified municipally, provincially and /or federally.
To put the most vulnerable Canadians in such a position of third-class citizenship is unforgivable, uncivil and morally unconscionable. How can we expect let alone demand respect from the international powers when we lack the necessary respects for our own people?
The people portrayed in each case study are from the same family. The aggregate amount of suffering cannot be calculated. The inhumane and uncivilized suffering one family endures when the system lacks the suggested recommendations cannot be measured other than through the lack of dignity, the waste of human life and futuristic hope. This is what happens when we have Canadian systems insulting the integrity of ethics and human life.
At this time Canada is not functioning at an optimal level worthy for worldly competition. As with any building structure we know the endurance and quality of that foundation determines the longevity of that structure. Canada, provincially and federally, needs to sincerely and with purpose evaluate the lack of synergistic functionality within and among its own systems that are draining our most valuable resources: the Canadian people. We know that if we do not give the engine of our cars the proper attention, required maintenance and necessary energy substance the engine will collapse leaving us quite without a vehicle for motion and mobility.
For Canada to find a place in the competitive world it must first strive to compete with its self on its own merit. To set one’s own standards, which should be above reproach, is to confidently accept the challenges from any other source or nation. When we can meet our own new standards of measure for integrity, ethics, excellence and humanity then not only can we, as a solid nation, stand out as setters for a new global expectation, we will inevitably demand others to ‘stand on guard’ for Canada as a country to be worthy of international multi-dynamic competition and eventual envious assimilation to our quality of life.
Now is the opportunity for Canada to demand the best from itself, we should not settle for less. If we continue to expect less of our selves and underestimate our capabilities, then other nations, with our consent, will continue do expect nothing from us either.
The question is: Does the Canadian government need to invest in its own greatest product: the Canadian people? … if the answer is ‘yes’: what is the government prepared to do ?
Canada as a nation and government cannot expect others to find value in its natural resources if Canada itself does not find the value there first and foremost. We cannot expect from others that which we do not first demand from ourselves.
STRATEGY: To put back in place a separate division in Community Services for persons with disabilities, individuals and/or families as their needs are not the same as others service users, in a partnership with the Department of Health.
To staff these divisions with no less than a Bachelor of Social Work and at least one course in medicines/nursing or rehabilitative care.
To have decisions regarding medical items to include the service user’s own medical team as expert and equal testimony and part of any decision regarding the person’s care, with decisions to be placed on website/database for others.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation: allocation of funds
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
RECOMMENDATION:
5) A new department for national and provincial accountability and responsibility for Canadians to safely report/whistle blow on civil servants that are breaking the law and/or violating chartered constitutional rights of its citizens.
In Nova Scotia we have a serious, pervasive and incestuous problem of retaliation-persecution, nepotism, and unethical practices in our Community Services and Justice Departments in all divisions: social/income /employment assistance, disabilities, child welfare, housing, policing, crown, victim services etc.
The Usual Suspects are enjoying tax-paid waged upward mobility in the ranks leaving a trail of poison bread crumbs causing outrageous damages, destroying individuals, families, lives and communities. If I am a civil servant and I come forward with information to restore the integrity of a responsible Canadian government I am saluted as being brave ethical soul. If I am a vulnerable soul being abused by a civil servant and come forward in hope of having any Canadian legislation set out to protect me honoured, I am further abused and degraded by other civil servants into silence and sometimes death.
STRATEGY: To have annual evaluations on civil servants performance by an Independent Review Board (IRB), will automatically keep a monitored check on those with incredible powers with meaningful inquiry and repercussion for offenders/violators.
To use the new recommended appeals process to monitor the number of appeals per case worker, abuse and misuse will be obvious for further review.
To develop an Independent Review Board for Service Users (IRBSU) whose
grievances are to be viewed as equal and as important as those submitted by whistle blowers. Victims of governmental abuse are not confused about who is abusing them and how. The problem is so many other civil servants are in place waiting to smother that voice so that the status quo of complacency and unethical practices can prevail. Having this review board will encourage people to come forward without fear of retaliation to bring serious issues that benefit everyone. Tax payers do not want their hard earned money paying wages for lazy or corrupt civil servants.
To set up this IRBSU provincially with report backs to federal level-federal
members (IRB) who can be provincial reps with each province also having community members selected through applications from each province, both to be changed every five years, separate from elections or partisan party involvement. The present disjointed relationship between provinces/territories and federal levels are being felt by those most using the systems: the Canadian Poor.
Recognizing the Canadian Constitution allows for separate powers for federal and province there are some critical issues that should not be allowed to be disconnected and that would be of national and community safety, health, development and unethical practices committed by too many waged civil servants employed and paid by Canadian tax payers.
To have findings from IRBSU being given to IRB who will be including this with
their own findings from their internal inquiries and other sources such as whistle blowers; review the efficiency of civil servants as it is measured by improving quality of life of the most vulnerable.
The left hand should know what the right hand is doing.
The cost to Canadians to implement this recommendation:-allocation of funds from relevant departments that will also make up some of the members on this IRB, funds also to be allocated to provinces for IRBSU, splitting funds between the IRBSU and IRB. Convenient and acceptable indicators: meaningful decreases in judicial involvement, health care program /prescription usage and recipients to social assistance programs, all of which have, to date, been the ignored measures of failing governmental systems.
Benefit to all Canadians: PRICELESS
Cost to Canadians if not implemented: IMMEASURABLE
CONCLUSION:
You are going to let fear of poverty govern your life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live. (George Bernard Shaw.)
The sad and embarrassing reality is that energies and resources of the Impoverished and vulnerable are already exhausted and limited. What they do have is for combat as they constantly fight for rights that are already codified municipally, provincially and /or federally.
To put the most vulnerable Canadians in such a position of third-class citizenship is unforgivable, uncivil and morally unconscionable. How can we expect let alone demand respect from the international powers when we lack the necessary respects for our own people?
The people portrayed in each case study are from the same family. The aggregate amount of suffering cannot be calculated. The inhumane and uncivilized suffering one family endures when the system lacks the suggested recommendations cannot be measured other than through the lack of dignity, the waste of human life and futuristic hope. This is what happens when we have Canadian systems insulting the integrity of ethics and human life.
At this time Canada is not functioning at an optimal level worthy for worldly competition. As with any building structure we know the endurance and quality of that foundation determines the longevity of that structure. Canada, provincially and federally, needs to sincerely and with purpose evaluate the lack of synergistic functionality within and among its own systems that are draining our most valuable resources: the Canadian people. We know that if we do not give the engine of our cars the proper attention, required maintenance and necessary energy substance the engine will collapse leaving us quite without a vehicle for motion and mobility.
For Canada to find a place in the competitive world it must first strive to compete with its self on its own merit. To set one’s own standards, which should be above reproach, is to confidently accept the challenges from any other source or nation. When we can meet our own new standards of measure for integrity, ethics, excellence and humanity then not only can we, as a solid nation, stand out as setters for a new global expectation, we will inevitably demand others to ‘stand on guard’ for Canada as a country to be worthy of international multi-dynamic competition and eventual envious assimilation to our quality of life.
Now is the opportunity for Canada to demand the best from itself, we should not settle for less. If we continue to expect less of our selves and underestimate our capabilities, then other nations, with our consent, will continue do expect nothing from us either.
The question is: Does the Canadian government need to invest in its own greatest product: the Canadian people? … if the answer is ‘yes’: what is the government prepared to do ?
Canada as a nation and government cannot expect others to find value in its natural resources if Canada itself does not find the value there first and foremost. We cannot expect from others that which we do not first demand from ourselves.
RESPONSE: A THOUSAND VOICES
