Once again the emails pour across my desk, in regards to the upcoming day of mourning for those who died on the job.

Why even torment the families of those who died on the job? Has the media ever spent time talking to the families of those fallen workers? Has anyone in our governments across Canada provincial or federal, taken any time to see if those families were treated with respect from the authorities in charge? I refer to the Workers Compensation Board, not just in one province but in every province in Canada as well as Territory.

Would it be politically incorrect for me to suggest they may in fact be celebrating the event? As is often quoted in legal circles, "they do have the motive" and the motive saves the WCB as well as the corporate world billions of dollars in payouts. Since when have the deceased been able to get out of their graves and tell the truth about how their families were treated by the WCB?

Maybe the dead cannot speak, however long term injured workers all across Canada do speak, on deaf ears, but they do speak out, today and every day.

The real question I am left with is, why does the Canadian Labor Congress close their eyes, mouths and hearts?  I cannot help but wonder who is paying who to sacrifice you and your children if they get hurt, or killed in the workplace.

If you cannot trust your Governments to protect you from its own creation, (the vultures at WCB), then just who can you trust? Maybe those who cozy up to the WCB pretending they care about our fallen brothers and sisters?

Reinier Kanis

"2008 Darrell Powell -Day of Mourning - Affirmative Action Special"

 Reviewing the service and effect of Worker Compensation Schemes in Canada and Population Health

Dedicated to all those who have suffered and fallen due to workplace injury, disability and Worker Compensation schemes in Canada

"Wake Up With Co-Op!" with Charles Boylan

- Host /Producer

   A one and one half hour special show

 April 28^th, 2008

  7:30-9:00 a.m. PST // 10:30 - 12:00 EST

Listen to 102.7 F.M. - CFRO -FM Vancouver BC, Can.  

Live: http://www.coopradio.org/  [also BC Shaw Cable listings]

Archived: http://www.wakeupwithcoop.org/

Narrated and Co-produced by

 Darrell Powell

[Official Witness to the Senate Committee on Mental Health, testifying as an 'Individual- Person Disabled Due to Occupation and the WCB Process,' Darrell Powell has traveled and met extensively with leaders of NGOs in health, Mental & Physical Health providers , medical associations/ governing bodies of health, researchers and academics, representatives in both Federal and Provincial Governments, peer and advocacy groups, labour, legal community as well as individuals affected by disability and associative issues of health, acceptance and recovery.  He has worked extensively during and after the Standing Senate Committee Social, Science and Technology - Mental Health hearings to raise awareness about the injustices disabled workers and their families experience and to make sure initiatives and developments in health and rights law include the disabled worker community.  He is set to testify at the Senate Subcommittee on Population Health, presently underway.]

..."2008 is a special year, as world leaders in health and social policy look to the cause of the causes of ill health in populations, WCBs in Canada and elsewhere are coming under scrutiny for methods that are representative of negative social structural determinants of health, creating barriers to health for the individual, increasing vulnerabilities to those disabled due to occupation. This is negatively impacting the population and it is time that a paradigm shift in view to health, disability and social policy occurs, and the social agreement with Canadians is reviewed for the sake of Canadians, It is time for affirmative action." -Darrell Powell

Moderator, Charles Boylan, Producer/Co-Host, Wake Up With Co-Op!