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The End of Poverty

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CANADIAN INJURED WORKERS SOCIETY
Pursuing Fairness in Workplace Injury Compensation

"These are not minor failings - they are festering injustices. . . . Thousands of workers whose health has been undermined by their work are not receiving any compensation. . . . a fundamental national rethinking of workers compensation is required . . ." Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

"When the WCB Act is used to deny an injured worker... you can bet a child suffers too." - Injured and Abused Workers Coalition

 
 NEWS:   

VIDEO SENATE HEARINGS - The Failed Workers Compensation System and Poverty in Canada           Workers comp donation to rights museum rapped           McGuinty Reappoints Mahoney Despite Death Rebate 'Embarrassment'           McGuinty Reappoints WSIB Chair Mahoney Despite Call for Firing Over Deaths           PETITION re: Removal of "tyrannical" Privative Clauses          Letter to Gary Goodyear re: Federal Responsibility          NSGEU and CUPE Concerned about WCB Draft Policy          Suicide Blamed on Denied WCB Claim (US)          Darrell Powell and Dr. Lisa Doupe speak on WCB at the Senate          Doug Stanley, CEO of WorkSafe NB "not doing his job"          CIWS Press Release JULY 9 2009          Saskatchewan Worker's Life Worth $8000?          Sask Party Hides Workplace Accidents          Bullying and Medical Malpractice by WorkSafeBC VIDEO          Saskatchewan WCB Slapped By Privacy Commissioner          Forced Back To Work On Heavy Medications VIDEO          Alberta WCB Accumulates Surplus By Illegally Cutting Off Claims          Nothing Left to Lose VIDEO UPDATE          New York Addresses WCB Physician Fraud          Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence Champions Mental Injuries in the Workplace          US Supreme Court Flooded with Briefs in WCB Racketeering (RICO) Case          What WorkSafeBC Does to Workers Everyday          Depraved Indifference (US) AUDIO          BC worker disabled by chemical spills - denied compensation          Forced Back to Work on Heavy Medication          Nothing Left to Lose          Is This Where Canadian Workers Are Heading?          North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation. - WHY?          Wanted: a moral government          CIWS Submission to the Senate Subcommittee on Cities          BC Search and Rescue Suspends Operations After WCB Denial          When did the BURDEN OF PROOF shift to the worker?          CLC Calls On Provinces to Improve Their WCB Systems          MEDIA ADVISORY - IMPACTS OF WORKPLACE INJURY RELEASED          Canadian Senate Ignores Injured Workers in Report           Insurance Industry Opposes Injured Workers (US)          Disabled Atlanta Police Officers Mistreated by WCB (US) (VIDEO)          Injured Workers - IT'S TIME TO BE HEARD! Canadian Museum for Human Rights Holding Cross-Canada Public Input Sessions          WCB PROTEST RALLY June 15th, 2009, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM, at WCB of Manitoba Offices, 333 Broadway Ave. Winnipeg, MB.          Toronto Star's "Working Wounded" Wins Award          WCB Act Not Compliant With NAFTA          2009 Important New Decision: BC Court Strikes Down Wcb Policy On Compensation For Mental Stress - Finds It Discriminatory Under The Charter          Amputee Abandoned by WHSCC (VIDEO)          Last Breaths Spent Fighting WorksafeBC After Campbell Cuts (VIDEO)          Injured Worker Assaulted by WCB Employee          WorkSafeBC Doctors are Corrupt          Insurance Companies Fight Legitimate Claims While Asking for Bailouts (US)          Is This Judicial Fairness?          9/11 Ground Zero Worker Battles Workers Comp (US)          No MLAs to mourn workers          Survivors and crew of sunken B.C. ferry still seeking compensation          WCB Age Discrimination Declared Unconstitutional (US)          Corporate Board of WorksafeNB "Out of Control and Unaccountable"           NEW AUDIO - Darrell Powell April 27 2009           BC Government WCB changes harm injured workers      & amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp;am;p; amp; amp; amp; #160;   Canadian Labour Congress - 2009          International Day of Mourning 2009 Message          Insult to Injury - BCFED recommends sweeping reforms          ONTARIO DISHONOURS DEAD WORKERS                                                                                    more                                 

NEW VIDEO - June 18 2009:
Darrell Powell and Dr. Lisa Doupe speak about workers compensation at
the Senate Subcommittee on Cities:
SENATE HEARINGS - The Failed Workers Compensation System and Poverty in Canada


Injured Workers - IT'S TIME TO BE HEARD!
Canadian Museum for Human Rights Holding Cross-Canada Public Input Sessions - (The CIWS has submitted a written document outlining how the workers compensation system in Canada violates the human rights of workers disabled by occupation but: SHARING YOUR OWN PERSONAL STORY IS ESSENTIAL to reinforce our message. Please visit the Canadian Human Rights Museum website to SHARE YOUR STORY and consider attending one of the cross-Canada public sessions over the next year.)


"It cannot be said that the Board is independent insofar as the worker is concerned. It is a Board set up to protect the employers. . . . This is not a level playing field, it is not fair, and it offends the basic principles of natural justice."
- Justice Maclean - Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta
Wilson v. Medicine Hat (City) [1999] A. J. No. 269 (February 3, 1999)


"Workers Compensation neither WORKS nor COMPENSATES."

What are the main issues?
  • contrary to popular belief, workers compensation boards, WCBs, ARE NOT FUNDED BY TAXPAYERS. They are provincial government administrative boards that are funded by fees to corporations, not by general taxation. So it's only when WCB REFUSES to pay a claim that the costs get downloaded onto taxpayers.

  • thousands of disabled workers (and their families) are forced into poverty every year when WCBs illegally deny legitimate injury claims. Some commit suicide.

  • provincial governments allow this abuse of disabled workers because they are in a conflict of interest that prefers to offer corporations low WCB fees to stimulate corporate investment in their provinces.

  • the families of disabled workers often become a burden on society when WCBs and governments fail to hold corporations accountable for the costs of workplace injuries

  • WCBs give out false workplace injury statistics. Whenever WCB denies a claim, that injury goes uninvestigated. Unsafe employers do not address safety hazards if they are not held financially accountable for the resulting injuries. Also, WCB gives corporations rebates for low claim rates - so corporations just hide injuries!

  • WCBs use an adversarial process against injured wortkers that not only acts as a barrier to health for disabled workers but also does harm to this vulnerable group

  • the harmful propaganda, social marketing campaigns and false statistics put out by WCBs marginalize disabled workers and give the public the false perception that WCBs provide the assistance required

  • developments in civil law have not afforded protections for disabled workers because WCBs have quasi-judicial status and often ignore Supreme Court decisions, take years to implement them or find creative ways to circumvent the decision.

  • WCBs have made inappropriate lateral moves into health care and medical research, co-opting these areas and threatening physicians' medical autonomy and research impartiality.

  • abuse of their quasi-judicial power by WCBs has the effect of negating the protections afforded to this vulnerable group of disabled workers under the Charter.

  • the social determinants of health of disabled workers are not being recognized by WCBs or governments

  • the service provided by workers compensation boards has not been honestly portrayed and a national review is required. No such review has been done since the inception of the Charter.



Report misconduct by your workers compensation system to:

We will use your info anonymously to compile a list of WCB wrongdoing.

This will be done anonymously. We will NOT reveal your identity without your express permission.

(We do not act as advocates for individual cases.)
The CIWS is calling for a FEDERAL PUBLIC JUDICIAL INQUIRY into wrongdoing by workers compensation systems across Canada.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!


The CIWS is also helping bring attention to the work of Darrell Powell who has opened up a historic national dialogue on disabled workers' concerns. He:
  1. has identified the WCB process itself as a negative social determinant of health
  2. is poised to represent disabled workers at the Senate Committee hearings on Population Health in 2008
  3. has achieved stakeholder status for disabled workers with the new Mental Health Commission of Canada


HEAR DARRELL POWELL'S AUDIO ARCHIVE

Darrell Powell says:
"Everyone needs to know there is a cost to this effort and in order to be able to physically attend important events and ensure that a review of the WCB system in Canada occurs, it is IMPERATIVE that everyone support the CIWS now. The dialogues taking place RIGHT NOW are a window of opportunity that may not last. We need to act NOW, but need your support to do this."
TAKE ACTION!
Become a member of the CIWS

(The CIWS is funded solely by memberships and donations.
We do not accept any money from workers compensation boards or their affiliates.)



Our Mission Statement: "To promote fair and equitable compensation for injured workers in Canada, to address the mistreatment of injured workers and to voice the common concerns of injured workers across Canada."



Please do not write asking for advice with your claim. We do not have the resources to answer specific questions regarding your claim. For peer-to-peer support, you can register at the Community of Injured Workers in Canada where other injured workers may have advice for you or experience with your specific situation in your province.


TAKE ACTION:

SIGN THE PETITION!


AND


JOIN the CIWS
workers compensation Canadian Injured Workers Society for workers compensation reform


" It cannot be said that the Board is independent insofar as the worker is concerned. It is a Board set up to protect the employers. The Board is funded by the employers, and the Board has a duty and probably a primary duty to protect the employer. In relation to the worker, the Board has an overwhelming wealth of knowledge and experience. It has the financial ability to fund sophisticated investigations involving highly qualified experts and have the material presented to them, guided, orchestrated and propounded by its in-house counsel responsible to the Board and paid for by the Board. The application of any standards under the rules of natural justice would identify such circumstances as being unequal in negotiating ability and unfair. This is not a level playing field, it is not fair, and it offends the basic principles of natural justice."
- Justice Maclean - Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta
Wilson v. Medicine Hat (City) [1999] A. J. No. 269 (February 3, 1999)





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UNNATURAL CAUSES - Is Inequality Making Us Sick UNNATURAL CAUSES - Is Inequality Making Us Sick




CIWS on TWITTER
WCB IS SICKO
ELECTION WATCH
EMPLOYEE ALERT

FEATURED VIDEOS:
SENATE HEARINGS - The Failed Workers Compensation System and Poverty in Canada - Darrell Powell and Dr. Lisa Doupe

Who Enforces the WCB Act? THE CATCH 22


BULLYING: The seriously injured are bullied the most by WCB


Forced Back to Work on Heavy Medication

MORE EPISODES HERE



Broken, Beat and Scared Fighting WorkSafeBC


"NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE" - VIDEO DIARY of family losing house and children due to WCB wrongdoing

MORE EPISODES HERE


US: Disabled Atlanta Police Officers Mistreated by WCB


Last Breaths Spent Fighting WorksafeBC After Campbell Cuts


CBC NEWS VIDEO:
WCB Keeps Disabled Man in Poverty for 30 Years


WCB DOWNLOADS COSTS ONTO WELFARE

MORE WCB-FUNDED MEDICAL MALPRACTICE


WCB-FUNDED MEDICAL MALPRACTICE - PART 1

SEE PARTS 2 + 3 HERE


BC CHILD POVERTY AND WorkSafeBC


THE PRICE OF WCB CORRUPTION



HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND WCB


SUICIDE AND WCB:


see - The Jeff Thompson Story - DID THE WCB KILL JEFF THOMPSON? WSIB Blamed for Man's Death - Stress of fight to prove injury claim blamed for man's death

(This story was first reported by Darrell Powell on the April 28th Day of Mourning radio special

see Darrell Powell's FULL RADIO SERIES



OTHER VIDEOS:
Worker Harmed By Mold in the Richmond WCB Office


One of thirty - Disabled by toxic chemicals - Denied by Worksafe BC


WCB Injustice


LORNE'S VOICE


The EVIDENCE Pt 2/ Fighting WorkSafe B.C


John Berfelo - WorkSafe B.C makes you fight for your life


Lorne's Story
- WorkSafeBC Sucks



Newfoundland Rally:Newfoundland news video - NTV Newfoundland news video - NTV
More videos

         

Privacy and Copyright

References to "WCB" throughout this site refer to the various provincial workers compensation systems throughout Canada.
Because they are named differently in each province (WCB, WSIB, WorksafeBC, WHSCC, WCHSB, CSST) we do this for brevity.


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Copyright © Canadian Injured Workers Society 2005