Kimberly Rogers Inquest Alerts

The Inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers:
WHO SHOULD CARE, AND WHY?

by Pam Kapoor, NAPO

Since 1995, after the elimination of the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) and the introduction of the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST), the second-class citizenship of poor people in this country has become more assured. Our society, not helped by regressive governmental policies and seemingly institutionalized discriminatory attitudes, encourages negative attitudes toward low-income people and the perpetuation of stereotypes. We have become a culture tolerant of blatant discrimination, complacent about the oppression of more than 5 million low-income people in Canada.

The sport of portraying social assistance recipients as “cheats” or “thieves” or “bums” has become a cornerstone of government electioneering and social policy. Governments, mainstream media, and segments of the corporate culture have assisted in the development of hostility toward poor people – a result of increased societal acceptance of poor bashing. In recent years, poor-bashing has reached the point of widespread blatant violations of the most fundamental human rights of poor people. The most blatant example is the lifetime ban on receiving welfare imposed as a penalty for so-called “welfare fraud”, often the survival strategies of those condemned to live and try to provide for their children on criminally low levels of financial assistance.

So how do we combat the image of welfare recipients, and others on income support, as lazy abusers of the system? The economically secure may always have a tendency to look down upon low or no income members of society, but what is the bridge between individual behaviours and government choices? What about political will?

The Ontario Provincial Coroner’s inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers provides a forum through which some of these questions may be explored. In an effort to expose government culpability in the tragic death of a pregnant woman convicted of welfare fraud and sentenced to house arrest, even when the prosecutor and the judge knew she would be banned from receiving welfare and would be utterly unable to provide for basic necessities, public interest groups intervening in the case (and our allies) are, not surprisingly, coming up against disparaging criticism about Kimberly’s life and offensive generalizations about “choices” and “lifestyles” of low income people.

While understanding this as an important moment in the struggle to expose and eliminate systemic imbalances that deliver economic disadvantage to millions of people in Canada, the dignity of Kimberly must remain paramount. Her life ended too soon due to scandalous and violent politics. Our challenge is to carry our message respectfully while seizing this opportunity to put the facts on the public record and build another critical stepping stone towards a just society.

Who should care about this inquest and its outcome?

The millions of people living in poverty in Canada today. Advocates who represent poor people, many of whom are poor themselves, in the face of oppressive and demeaning government bureaucracy and scrutiny. Activists who take on the system and fight for a voice for poor people. People who are incensed by government policies – federal, provincial and territorial – that criminalize poor people and increase poverty. People who are fighting to claim human rights for all of us. We are the anti-poverty movement.

We all know (many of us first hand) what dire impact the latest onslaught of government policies are having on poor people. We know that though Kimberly lived and died in Ontario, this tragedy could have taken place in any community anywhere in Canada. The Ontario government is certainly not alone in implementing discriminatory and dangerous policies. We need only look at contemporary British Columbia to know that some regions are swiftly eclipsing even the Ontario Tories in terms of income support slashing, program dismantling, resource canceling – wholesale desertion of poor people and poverty issues.

Every single one of us has a vested interest in the recommendations that will be handed down by the five-member inquest jury in mid-November. Emblazoned on the public record may be insightful citations of the direct link between government policies that violate fundamental human rights and the increasing criminalization of poor people.

We are looking for recommendations that point to the cascading nature of institutionalized discrimination towards poor people in Canada as illustrated through …

… the cancellation of CAP and the introduction of the CHST – key examples of federal abandonment of responsibilities

… subsequent fatal tampering by a provincial government with income assistance programs leading to inadequate welfare rates and heightened paranoia about welfare fraud

… discriminatory sentencing schemes set up by the federal government post-CAP that have contributed significantly to ongoing criminalization of poor people [everyone should have equal access to conditional sentencing but it should not be imposed discriminatorily on poor people, and not without at the same time ordering the provision of adequate assistance]

… the disproportionate prosecution of women for welfare fraud and a gendered analysis of conditional sentencing and low-income women’s unique survival strategies

… governments’ blatant disregard of international human rights obligations and concerns raised by U.N. human rights bodies about the situation of poor people in Canada

An inquest jury’s recommendations, however, carry no weight and are in no way legally binding. For that reason, it is imperative that we coalesce, as a movement, around the positive and useful aspects of those pending recommendations. In many ways, the real impact of such an inquest emerges long after the courthouse doors have closed. It is entirely up to us to mount public pressure in an effort to press governments to implement useful recommendations. What comes out of this inquest may be, for the anti-poverty movement, another prong in our platform for government action, campaign for change, our struggle for human rights.

For information about the inquest, the interveners, the policies, and to learn more about Kimberly’s story:

Justice With Dignity – the Committee to Remember Kimberly Rogers
http://dawn.thot.net/Kimberly_Rogers

Source: NAPO's Inquest Information # 6 dd October 24, 2002