Overdose, not heat, blamed for
welfare martyr's demise

Globe and Mail Update
Thursday, August 15, 2002
Online Edition, Posted at 3:44 PM EST

By Dareen Yourk

Kimberly Rogers was found dead Aug. 11, 2001 in a sweltering Sudbury, Ont., apartment where she had been serving a six-month conditional sentence for welfare fraud.

The official cause of her death was never released.

A published newspaper report Thursday asserts Ms. Rogers died of an overdose of a prescription antidepressant, not heat stroke or hyperthermia from being confined to her apartment as various media outlets reported.

Those fighting to keep her memory alive and change Ontario's social assistance policies say the way Ms. Rogers died does not change the need to reform the system.

"This doesn't change a single thing as far as we're concerned," said Lorie McGauley, a spokeswoman for the Committee to Remember Kimberly Rogers told globeandmail.com Thursday. "Our position has always been that regardless of what the actual cause of death was, the thing we strongly object to is the way Kimberly Rogers spent the last months of her life."

"...The cause of death, if this is true, just makes it all the more sad that she was brought to those depths."

Ms. McGauley said she spoke to Ms. Rogers' family about the report Thursday morning.

"They didn't know the cause of death," Ms. McGauley said. "This is the way they learned of it, so of course they're totally devastated."

Ms. Rogers, 40, was eight months pregnant when she died.

An inquest into her death begins Oct. 7 in Sudbury.

"Our office indicated in the fall that we had done additional testing and investigation and that we believed that there were other elements that would come out at the inquest in relation to the death beyond the issue of hyperthermia," Ontario's chief coroner Dr. Jim Young told globeandmail.com.

"It clearly is more complicated and there is other evidence that goes beyond hyperthermia."

Dr. Young said he felt it was improper to draw conclusions on the cause of Ms. Rogers' death.

"The facts will come out at the inquest," Dr. Young said. "There's more to it and it will come out in a proper way. Then conclusions can be drawn."

A straight-A social-services student at Cambrian College, Ms. Rogers had pleaded guilty to defrauding the provincial government by taking student loans while still collecting welfare cheques.

Her welfare benefits were cut off and she was ordered to repay the government about $13,300. The ruling left her unable to pay her monthly bills.

On May 14, 2001 Ms. Rogers launched an case under the Charter of Rights that challenged the constitutional validity of Ontario Works regulations that suspended benefits after a conviction of welfare fraud.

Ms. Rogers' was able to have her welfare benefits reinstated May 31, but the court had yet to rule on her challenge at the time of her death.

The Committee to Remember Kimberly Rogers joined with a number of community organizations, unions and provincial anti-poverty organizations to launch the "Justice with Dignity" campaign and continue the fight Ms. Rogers started.

"We're still fighting for policy change," Ms. McGauley said. "As we've come to learn more about her life we know that Kimberly had great courage.... People are still suffering under this Tory government."

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