|
Games
... or Bread? |
||
|
Take
Action!
Please let the IOC know how you feel and of some of the possible scenarios you predict will be likely to smudge the Olympic PR campaigns given the BC government's redirecting public resources from people with disabilities to two weeks of g-a-m-e-s for those whose basic human rights are already met. Thank you for considering. Please share this action item with other progressive people.
If we can convince IOC members that thousands of desperate and angry disabled and other mis-treated citizens could disrupt the preparations for the games and the games themselves, those IOC members may reject the Vancouver-Whistler bid in July. Snatching away the
2010 games from Gordon Campbell and the smug Biddies should give us "small
s socialists" satisfaction especially when he knows that we did it. To copy and paste the report into body of email message:
By Bill Tieleman
There's something distinctly unsettling in listening to Human Resources Minister Murray Coell tell British Columbians just how much he is "helping" people with disabilities. An example. "Make no mistake: we are not throwing disabled British Columbians off assistance," Coell wrote in a March 5 "opinion editorial" found on the ministry's Web site. But don't be misled by an evasive minister; that's exactly what Coell is doing. He will just say they aren't really disabled when he does it. And, of course, Coell doesn't talk in his editorial about the government's controversial reassessment of 14,000 people with severe disabilities who now receive level-two disability benefits, a process whose deadline was March 15. Coell also doesn't say that those who are rejected after submitting the 23-page form will be forced down to basic welfare as of June 15 and after two years will be cut off altogether. They will immediately lose up to $300 a month in disability benefits, plus supplementary medical and dental benefits and their earnings exemptions for any work they find. Nor does Coell mention that his deputy minister, Robin Ciceri, would have received a $15,400 bonus if she could cut the disability-benefits growth rate by two percent and cut welfare numbers by two percent in her first year on the job, as reported by Monday magazine news editor Russ Francis from a freedom-of-information request. No information on bonus amounts was made public. So, how many people in total do they expect will be rejected by the reassessment-adjudications process? The Ministry of Human Resources won't say, although it now denies the 50-percent rejection rate predicted in an early MHR communications plan dated June 2002, first disclosed in this column last October. "There was never a target at any point. This was not a cost-saving exercise," Richard Chambers, MHR communications director, said in an interview with the Georgia Straight. The B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities vehemently disagrees. "We have no doubt this was a cost-cutting exercise by the ministry. You only have to look at the numbers in the budget," says coalition spokesperson Jane Dyson. "The Ministry of Human Resources has the biggest cut in budget of any ministry in the government." Dyson is right.B.C.'s 2003/04 budget documents released in February show that the Liberals have cut $254 million in MHR expenses from last year's estimates to this year's, from $1,671,801,000 down to $1,417,493,000. It's easily the biggest dollar cut of any ministry, continuing a trend that will see MHR responsible for the lion's share of all program-cost reductions in the Liberals' four-year term of office. But we're not throwing disabled British Columbians off assistance, Murray Coell said. Of course not! The $254 million in savings must be coming from somewhere else, maybe brown-bagging lunches or fewer long-distance calls. All right, then, the ministry has adjudicated 6,000 of the 14,000 people who have to complete the reassessment form. How many will lose their disability benefits so far? "We can't say how many have been rejected. We're waiting until the vast majority have been adjudicated," Chambers said. That number, if revealed, would indicate how many British Columbians Coell is throwing off disability assistance. Then there's the question of how many people with disabilities haven't submitted the 23-page form. On March 12, the coalition held a news conference expressing its concern that 3,000 people--according to the ministry's own Web site--had not yet completed the reassessment. But Chambers said the following day that number is no longer accurate. "We know from having contacted clients directly, that with the exception of about 500 people, the clients have mailed them in, have an appointment with a doctor or assessor; they're in the act of completing the process." The coalition is unimpressed. "The ministry has been changing their figures almost weekly," says program director Tom McGregor. "How do you get from 3,000 outstanding to 500 in just one day?" Chambers also said that despite the March 15 deadline, the ministry will try to quickly adjudicate reassessment forms submitted late. "If someone submitted a form on June 12, we will pull out all the stops and try to get an adjudication by June 15," he said. Again, the coalition is not convinced. "We find it totally unbelievable that they could do an adjudication in less than a week, let alone when dealing with hundreds of them," says Robin Loxley, the coalition's codirector of advocacy access. "There are people who have had their reassessment forms in for months and they still haven't heard back." So how long would a new applicant have to wait for a decision by MHR? In a faxed answer, Chambers said "a reasonable expectation for a new client applying for PWD [Persons With Disabilities benefits] is eight to 12 weeks, depending on whether further information was required from health professionals." In the legislature on March 13, Coell accused NDP opposition leader Joy MacPhail of having "fear-mongered....and has frightened people with disabilities." Let's see: Your ministry is cutting $254 million in one year; you are threatening to end the disability benefits of up to 14,000 people, who would be forced onto welfare for two years and then cut off; you deny there is a target number to cut that was in your own document; and you won't tell anyone how many people have already been cut off. But it's "fear-mongering" by the opposition? Give the last word on the ministry to the coalition's Jane Dyson: "Whatever they say, thousands of people will lose their benefits." As Coell says, make no mistake.
Please email
the IOC about the Disabilities Reassessment and how it will affect
the lives of the disabled in British Columbia.
saoc@saudiolympic.org.sa; noc-ngr@hyperia.com; qatarolympic@hotmail.com; info@swissolympic.ch; correo@coe.es; info@noc-ukr.org; international.affairs@noc-nsf.nl; segreteria@coni.it; olimpur@coqui.net; nocz@zamnet.zm; aoc@olympics.com.au; webmaster@coa.ca; cnosg@sotelgui.net.gn; olimpic@terra.com.pe; cnosf@cnosf.org; poc@itextron.com; info@olimpiyatkomitesi.org.tr; hoc@ath.forthnet.gr; secretariat@hkolympic.org; nocil@netvision.net.il; nocmas@tm.net.my; KONI@bit.net.id; nociri@neda.net; cob@cob.org.br; coc@chinaolympic.org.cn; tor.anders.hanssen@nif.idrett.no; admin@olympic-council.ie; noc.denmark@dif.dk; jpn-noc@joc.or.jp; postmaster@olympicthai.or.th; congua@guate.net; nock@iconnect.co.ke; lebolymp@cyberia.net.lb; koc@sports.or.kr; office@noc.fi; coa@wissal.dz; coc@cytanet.com.cy; sekretariat@losv.li; info@sok.se;
cosl@sport-olympic.lu;
cou@adinet.com.uy; mongolianoc@mongol.net; cnot@togotel.net.tg; coc@col1.telecom.com.co;
info@olympic.be; fasanoc@fasanoc.org.fj; Comonaco@monaco.net; c.olimpico@codetel.net.do;
admin@snoc.org.sg; nocug@spacenetuganda.com; cno-civ@aviso.ci; boa@boa.org.uk;
pr@olympic.ru; nocsa@nocsa.co.za; coarg@sinectis.com.ar; mnoc@intnet.mu
; eoc@idsc.net.eg; cop@psi.net.pa; noc.bar@caribsurf.com; ioa@nde.vsnl.net.in;
pkol@pkol.pl; noc.germany@t-online.de; sgeneral@com.org.mx; hoo@hoo.tel.hr;
oeoc@telecom.at; office@olympic.org.nz; olym002@ms25.hinet.net; office@olympic.sk;
sudnoc@sudanmail.net;
Update:
the following emails were removed from the list above after DAWN Ontario
emailed the IOC member, in a test run, and they were undeliverable; the
only bounce backs you'll receive are those whose emails have exceeded
mail quote!
|
||
|
Page last updated March 25, 2003 |
