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

Disabled Workers in Canada Seek Section 7 Charter Protection

November 30th, 2020

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

Honorable Minister Qualtrough:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We await any reply with united resolve.

Respectful Regards,

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

Why is this important?

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

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

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

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

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

How it will be delivered

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

Links

Updates

2020-12-17 01:20:35 -0500

20). "The Constitution contains three provisions that are relied upon to provide an appropriate remedy to findings of inconsistency with the Charter: section 52(1) of the Constitution Act,1982 provides that a law that is inconsistent with the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect; section 24(1) provides remedies against unconstitutional government action; and section 24(2) provides for the exclusion of evidence obtained in violation of the Charter." (Department of Justice Canada).

2020-12-17 01:20:15 -0500

21). "If disability is one of the great human rights challenges of this century, then within this, psychosocial disability remains one of the most challenging and misunderstood areas of disability."
~ Paul Deany, DRF Program Officer

https://disabilityrightsfund.org/our-impact/insights/psychosocial-disability/

2020-12-15 03:34:10 -0500

December 15th, 2020
Disability in a Human Rights Context

"The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a modern human rights treaty with innovative components. It impacts on disability studies as well as human rights law. Two innovations are scrutinized in this article: the model of disability and the equality and discrimination concepts of the CRPD. It is argued that the CRPD manifests a shift from the medical model to the human rights model of disability."

2020-12-15 03:33:37 -0500

2). "Six propositions are offered why and how the human rights model differs from the social model of disability. It is further maintained that the CRPD introduces a new definition of discrimination into international public law. The underlying equality concept can be categorized as transformative equality with both individual and group oriented components. The applied methodology of this research is legal doctrinal analysis and disability studies model analysis. The main finding is that the human rights model of disability improves the social model of disability. Three different models of disability can be attributed to different concepts of equality. The medical model corresponds with formal equality, while the social model with substantive equality and the human rights model can be linked with transformative equality."

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/5/3/35

2020-12-15 03:25:40 -0500

December 15th, 2020
The Westray Act

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

2020-12-15 03:25:05 -0500

2). Sections of the Criminal Code: The Westray Act.

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

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

2020-12-15 03:24:25 -0500

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

2020-12-15 03:23:52 -0500

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

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

2020-12-15 01:51:10 -0500

December 14th, 2020

Supremacy of the Constitution

"Section 52(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982 states that any law that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution is of no force or effect. Statutes which conflict with the Constitution are invalid in the most radical sense; they do not become law. In Strayer, The Canadian Constitution and the Courts (3d ed., 1988) the author states at p. 32:

Now we need look no further than s. 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982 for the principle of supremacy of the Constitution [...] and for the intended consequence of supremacy; that is, the invalidity of inconsistent laws."

http://www.constitutional-law.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=36#:~:text=Section%2052(1)%20of%20the,they%20do%20not%20become%20law.

2020-12-14 23:36:19 -0500

December 14th, 2020

CBC Vancouver: Impact Team
Mr. Liam Britten
Email: [email protected]

Re: Stabbed in the head and suffering PTSD, ex-employee takes B.C. Corrections to human rights tribunal. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-jail-ptsd-1.5835955

Mr. Britten:

I'm compelled to write you this evening after reading your story online about the plight of Mr. Backeland. There are many former public safety workers across Canada who've suffered this same fate. What I find outrageous is that although many of us have pressed for change to the Workers Compensation Act over many years, we've obviously not done enough. I find this circumstance with the employer criminal.

2020-12-14 23:36:03 -0500

2). I am a former paramedic. I write as a member in many groups of injured, ill and/or disabled workers across Canada. We number in the 1000's. We are all victims of human rights abuse due to our Workers Compensation Acts in every jurisdiction and thoughtless decisions made by policy-makers.

The law legalizes violations of our rights. In full breach of Charter Provisions.

This is the situation as I see it for Mr. Backeland.

2020-12-14 23:35:36 -0500

3). There's a term for what the employer and WorkSafeBC are doing in Mr. Backeland's case: He is suffering additional 'moral injury'.

The assault here is coined, 'sanctuary trauma': "Sanctuary trauma occurs when an individual who suffered a severe stressor next encounters what was expected to be a supportive and protective environment' and discovers only more trauma.”

2020-12-14 23:35:09 -0500

4). Such assault, inflicting additional trauma, on top of already serious traumatic-stress injury and resulting PTSD is a criminal matter. "Criminal Negligence Causing Bodily Harm".

The law recognizes inflicting of psychological harm as bodily harm for purposes of seeking criminal charges against the employer; and/or for seeking damages through a civil action.

I agree in full: Mr. Backeland's fundamental rights under provisions of the Charter are breached.

I've included a reference to a campaign we've launched. This action intends to expose long-standing troubling concerns with our BC compensation system and past Liberal Party governments.

2020-12-14 23:34:33 -0500

5). Mr. Backeland needs a peer-support person to stand-up for him. As I live in BC and have been at this specific issue a long time (PTSD), I'm more than willing to speak with your team. If Mr. Backeland is open to a conversation, please, feel free to provide him with my email address.

I would very much like to speak to you. Not only to discuss the campaign. To stand up for a brother abandoned by his own. Myself and those working this campaign, and my public safety peers across Canada, know this story well.

I look forward to an invitation from yourself and your team, at your best convenience.

This is an invitation, I'll be honored to accept.

Best Regards,

Darren Gregory
www.traumarecoverybc.com

2020-12-14 18:33:27 -0500

December 14th: Update
DMG

The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives BC Office
BC Solutions
October 2020

"A province-wide survey commissioned earlier this year by the CCPA-BC sheds light on British Columbians’ experiences of the pandemic, what they think about the provincial and federal responses, and what they’d like to see in recovery plans. The online survey of 2,289 BC residents was conducted by McAllister Research from May 16 to June 1, 2020."

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2020/10/ccpa-bc_BC-Solutions-Magazine_Oct2020.pdf