SIGN THE PETITION!
TAKE ACTION
JOIN the CIWS
What's Wrong with Workers Compensation?
NEWS
Injured Workers' Stories
About Us
Current Activities
Past Activities
Commissions & Reports
Law Court Decisions
Related Articles
Medical Professionals
Employees' Info
Employers' Info
Politicians' Info
Resources
Privacy and Copyright
Contact
Home
SIGN THE PETITION!
|
Back to Article
Index February 16, 2009
CBC NEWS VIDEO: WCB Keeps Disabled Man in Poverty for 30 Years"Thirty years of doing battle with workers compensation has made Fred Palmer a very angry man. He says it's kept him spinning in a viscious circle of poverty. . . Palmer was seriously injured in a railway accident thirty years ago. Among his stacks of documents are any number of letters by doctors declaring him disabled. All he has to show for it is a disability pension of $200 a month. He says all his efforts to get more have run into red tape and slammed doors . . . he feels his right to justice and happiness has been taken away."(Note: Worker was injured in Ontario and his claim is under the WSIB. He now lives in NFLD)VIDEO LINK - provided by wcbcanada.com TRANSCRIPT OF CBC NEWS VIDEO From "HERE AND NOW" - NFLD, St John's: CBC ANCHOR (Jonathan Crowe): He was injured on the job 30 years ago and tonight, a St John's man is pointing the finger at workers compensation, blaming them for keeping him in a state of poverty. "Here and Now's" Azzo Rezori reports. REPORTER (Azzo Rezori): Thirty years of doing battle with workers compensation has made Fred Palmer a very angry man. He says it's kept him spinning in a viscious circle of poverty. DISABLED WORKER (Fred Palmer): "Because you're constantly fighting, you're constantly in litigation, and in the meantime you're forced into poverty, you haven't got nothing to eat, you can't move ahead or get we-- . . . you can't get well!" REPORTER (Azzo Rezori): Palmer was seriously injured in a railway accident thirty years ago. Among his stacks of documents are any number of letters by doctors declaring him disabled. All he has to show for it is a disability pension of $200 a month. He says all his efforts to get more have run into red tape and slammed doors. DISABLED WORKER (Fred Palmer, distraught): ". . . two hundred and fifty dollars! I owe a hundred dollars . . . " REPORTER (Azzo Rezori): He keeps trying get out of the trap he's in, like taking correspondence courses to upgrade his high school education. But it always seems to turn into one step forward and two steps backward. The more he fights for what he thinks he's owed, the angrier he gets, and the anger is crippling him even more. DISABLED WORKER (Fred Palmer, distraught): ". . . They're trying to kill me. That's the only thing I can think of. They're trying to kill me with pain; they're trying to kill me with stress and they're trying to kill me with poverty!" REPORTER (Azzo Rezori): There are days when, in Palmer's mind, 'they' is 'everybody' because he feels his right to justice and happiness has been taken away. And then, his poverty deepens even more because he's reduced to demanding justice from a world in which he has lost all faith. Azzo Rezori, CBC News, St John's VIDEO LINK - provided by wcbcanada.com (Note: Worker was injured in Ontario and his claim is under the WSIB. He now lives in NFLD) Back to Article Index |