Welcome to the website of the Canadian Injured Workers Association of Alberta.
Are you looking for videos from our events? Information about our current and past actions? Visit How to Use This Site.
News from Alberta will be updated on this main page. We also have news pages for B.C. and Ontario that are updated regularly.
The Canadian Injured Workers Association of Alberta would like to thank the Alberta Federation of Labour for their sponsorship of this website.
| Update on National Charter Class Claim (click here for source) In 2021, some three years ago, injured workers form across Canada and even elsewhere came together to identify we are not alone and most importantly the injustices that are happening to each of us are not unique plus a systematic planned institutional fraud! Many different options were discussed over the course of many months of meetings. It was agreed that the best legal option for all was to bring a National Charter Class Claim. The purpose of doing this was two-fold. First, it would confirm that the fraud was not just limited to one jurisdiction in Canada, but was across the entire country. Second, it would deal with the growing concern that workers compensation boards and the appeals commissions/tribunals are not above the rule of law and can be held accountable. This is because the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada and as such is the supreme law of Canada. Three National Charter Class Claims were filed in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. A webpage has been set up for the National Charter Class Claim and a separate webpage for each provincial claim: National Charter Class Claim – Group Meetings National Charter Class Claim – Ontario National Charter Class Claim – Alberta National Charter Class Claim – British Columbia The group decided to first proceed with Ontario’s claim and then the other claims filed in other Provinces afterwards, as well as filing in other Provinces and Territories. At the first case conference for Ontario, the Judge had noted that a class proceeding in Ontario must be represented by a lawyer. As the Class of Plaintiffs were not presently represented by a lawyer the judge required the Plaintiffs to file a motion for appointment of a lawyer or to be allowed to self-representation. The Ontario workers compensation board and appeals tribunal also indicated they would like to make motions to have the National Charter Class Claim dismissed. Over the course of the next two years the Plaintiffs had filed a Notice of Motion, Notice of Constitutional Question, supporting affidavits and joint factum (legal arguments). The materials for the Plaintiffs motion for representation can be found here: https://fightwcb.org/Classactionon.html#PLAIMOT Some materials have not yet been uploaded but it is hoped they will be done before Sunday’s meeting. Additionally, Ontario’s workers compensation board – the WSIB has also filed a Motion and motion materials. The purpose of their motion is to have the National Charter Class Claim dismissed. There motion materials can be found here: https://fightwcb.org/Classactionon.html#WSIBMOT We are still working on the Plaintiff’s response factum (arguments) and hope to have it done and uploaded by Sunday. Additionally, Ontario’s workers compensation appeals tribunal – the WSIAT has also filed a Motion and motion materials. The purpose of their motion is to have the National Charter Class Claim dismissed. There motion materials can be found here: https://fightwcb.org/Classactionon.html#WSIATMOT We are still working on the Plaintiff’s response factum (arguments) and hope to have it done and uploaded by Sunday. The court has schedule January 30, 2025, at 2pm eastern time zone for the Motions to be heard. The motion will be heard by ZOOM video conference. The ZOOM information has been sent out by the court already and will be sent out again the day of the hearing. WE MUST LET THE MEDIA KNOW!! This is why it is extremely important to let people and most importantly the media know to attend the motion hearing. It would be really important to have some media from prominent media outlets attend shed light on our fight, but most important to help us ensure fairness.So please call and e-mail the local and national media, call and e-mail all of them. PLEASE keep calling and e-mailing them until they respond to you – don’t give up! Tell the media that on January 30, 2025, injured workers from across Canada will be to appearing in court to ask the court for help to deal with the fraudulent actions of Canada’s workers compensation system where most workers who are injured or made ill by our employer’s workplace are forced into a life of poverty and homelessness. Also mention to the media that a 2007 study of homeless in Toronto, Ontario revealed that 58% of homeless stated they were injured workers. If each one of us sends 10 or 20 e-mails and makes three phone calls the media will have no choice but to listen to us! Let’s have a media blitz from Monday January 27, 2025, until Thursday January 30, 2025. Where we all do this. It will only take five minutes and could change all our lives for the better! |
| National Charter Class Claim Meeting This Sunday January 26, 2025 at 2pm Eastern, 3pm Central, 4pm Mountain, or 5pm Pacific.ALL ARE WELCOME! To join the meeting CLICK HERE Meeting ID: 998 0448 8692 Passcode: 680735 This meeting will to discuss updates that have occurred and to explain the next steps. All are welcome! ADD THIS EVENT TO YOUR CALENDAR You can add a reminder to your electronic calendar by downloading and importing the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Google Calendar Outlook Calendar (.ics) Yahoo Calendar GET ON SOCIAL MEDIA & SPEAK UP! Probably the easier way for ALL injuries workers to help raise awareness of the plight of injured workers is to start speaking out. One of the most effective ways for us as individuals to speak out is to do so on social media. There are many social media platforms, such as: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and others. While many may see social media as a complete waste of time, it is an extremely powerful tool for promoting a social issue. Such as, raising awareness of the injustices shown to injured workers by governments, employers, and society as a whole. For example in an article by Manchester Digital it states: “Social media gives its users the power to build communities around a cause and encourage supporters to take action. This is done by sharing images, stories, and videos to raise awareness and facilitate discussion. News spreads quickly online and it can take just minutes for a post to go viral. The power of social media for raising awareness was seen during the Black Lives Matter protests and riots in 2020. Social media became a powerful tool in this instance: the video footage of George Floyd’s murder spread quickly and caused mass outrage...” Social media can help you raise awareness of your own story as well and most importantly about he overall negative treatment of injured workers. For example, posting comments and/or a video about the injustices you experienced on Twitter, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn, or a video of you telling your story on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok; or posting photos of your story on Snapchat, Instagram, and others, also really gets your story and the issues of injured workers out there for all to start to understand. Interestingly enough, many of Canada’s workers compensation boards and executives are on social media. This means social media gives you a way to reach people you were previously unable to reach. You can do this by doing what’s called as tagging them in a post. Then they will receive notification of you tagging them. For example, Ontario’s WSIB is on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. As is the President of WSIB, who is on Twitter and LinkedIn He actually is now off them or has blocked us! LOL! but it proves social movements through social media works! Other Compensation Boards are also on Social Media a list has been prepared here. The best social media to make change is to be on LinkedIn where not only WCBs are on but also their staff! PLEASE always approach them online with respect and try and convince them what the WCB is doing is harming us all. DO NTO EVER THREATEN ANYONE, it is wrong and illegal! So get online and start Tweeting, posting and video blogging! ALSO PELEEEEEEASE LET OTHERS KNOW OF THIS MEETING AND OTHER INJURED WORKER EVENTS by simply asking them to sign up here for important injured worker updates and events! or send them to https://fightwcb.org/signup.html Individually our voices are silent and unheard, but together our voices our thunderous! So PLEASE help spread the WORD! The legal mumbo jumbo the lawyers make us say…(1)Please note that Paul Taylor’s legal advise in no way constitutes an agreement between Paul Taylor, and anyone Paul Taylor provides the legal advice to during this meeting. The legal advice provided by Paul Taylor as a Licensed Paralegal is pro bono summary legal services and is provided in a non-profit capacity. This is in accordance with Rule 3.02(17)(e) of the Law Society’s Paralegal Rules of Conduct. Moreover, it is not Paul Taylor’s intention to solicit clients at these meetings but merely to give back. Finally, anything discussed in the open meeting or in one-one breakout rooms must be considered not secure communications, not private, and as such assume any associative risks thereof. |
New Book Explores Ontario’s Workers Compensation System’s Impact on Injured Workers.
Who Killed Sir William is a new book that evolved from a research project. “The collaborative project, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), brought members of the injured worker and academic communities together to examine how Ontario’s workers compensation system was impacting injured workers’ economic, health and social well-being, in particular for those suffering work-related permanent disability” (Injured Workers Online blog). Read the full review here, which includes a link on how to order a copy.
Lawyers/Legal Help Wanted
Injured workers in Alberta face a daunting challenge in finding legal representation to navigate the complex workers’ compensation system. With legal aid and lawyer referral services unavailable for these cases, many are left to navigate the system alone. We urgently need lawyers specializing in workers’ compensation law to step forward and offer their expertise.
The struggles injured workers face include:
– Delayed or denied claims, leading to financial hardship and mental health struggles
– Navigating a complex system without proper support
– Lack of accountability and transparency within the WCB and AC
– Personal stories of struggle and resilience
If you are a lawyer willing to take on these cases or an injured worker who has found legal support, please share your story with us. Together, we can:
– Advocate for change and ensure injured workers receive the legal support they deserve
– Encourage legal professionals to specialize in workers’ compensation law
– Establish a legal clinic or resource dedicated to supporting injured workers in Alberta
Let’s unite to create a safer, more supportive system for injured workers. Share your experiences, recommendations, and ideas with us. Together, we can make a difference!”
Wealth Inequality
Underlying so much polarization in Canada is income and wealth inequality. What’s happening with injured workers is in this broader context, where whole segments of the population are slipping further and further behind. In their economic desperation, some of them turn to promises by people like Trump.
Here’s an excellent piece that provides insights on some of the basics.
This shows that there is tremendous potential of improving the situation of poor and working people just by restoring some balance in the distribution of wealth.
Workers compensation is one of the tools governments are using to increase income inequality. The recent announcement of $2.5 billion being sent to corporations while injured workers fall further into poverty makes the intentions of the Ontario government clear.
It’s time to speak out and stand up for those being left behind. Here is a recent article from Thunder Bay along these lines. You can do it too.
Injured Workers call WSIB announcement ‘totally unfair’
Reform Alberta
Ontario has taken a significant step towards protecting workers’ rights with their new act, which aims to provide justice, accountability , oversight and respect for workers rights. In Alberta there is no oversight or accountability when WCB and AC don’t comply with policy or the law. They are not held accountable even when they intentionally break the law or intentionally because they are ignorant of their own policies and law. Because they are not held accountable they been telling the government you’re arm’s length to what we do to the vulnerable citizens of Alberta
How Ontario’s legislation compares to Alberta’s – Key Features of Ontario’s New Act include:
– Strengthening political accountability
– Increasing transparency in government
– Giving more power to workers ³ ⁴
This development helps vulnerable citizens
Meredith Act Released in Ontario
The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) is proud to announce the release of the Meredith Act!
Collaborating with the Ontario NDP Critic for Injured Workers, WSIB and Seniors, Lise Vaugeois, ONIWG took the lead to create a A New Workers’ Compensation Act, called the Meredith Act. MPP Vaugeois plans to introduce it as a private members bill in the Spring of 2025.
The new act is based on the Platform for Change, a position paper developed by the injured worker community, revised and updated over the last two decades. ONIWG worked together with community partners to take the principles outlined in the Platform for Change into legal language. Retired lawyer Kendal McKinney did amazing work as the secretary and writer on the new act that is named after the founding father of workers comp, Sir William Meredith.
Congratulations and thanks to the many workers who participated in this process to create a vision for the future. A future that could include Justice for Injured Workers.
Former Crown lawyer files Charter challenge over workers’ compensation system
Even the doctor has had enough.
Injured workers don’t stand a chance to get medical care when the whole system is flawed. The WCB office clerk in charge of your medical care consistently makes the wrong medical opinion to deny desperately needed medical care, and has no boss to help change their unqualified medical decisions.
No one is watching. The doctors don’t have time to advocate on behalf of the injured worker to teach the office clerk how to practice medicine in 20 seconds or less. Government and WCB refuses to provide oversight so these office clerks continue to abuse their power. The government should not allow office clerks to have this kind of medical and legal power without oversight.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1839745972844327004.html
Important Articles for Albertans
WCB in Alberta still practices deeming Alberta workers into pretend jobs that don’t exist and which the workers would be too disabled to work at if these pretend jobs did exist in Alberta . Why don’t Alberta workers have people wanting to get involved to help their fellow Albertans to put a stop to the case managers (clerks) from treating Alberta’s workers carelessly by deeming them to work in pretend jobs, forcing them into poverty, disabled from work injuries? The people in Ontario got involved.
This article is about the deeming of migrant farm workers: Despite Ontario workers’ compensation reforms, migrant workers are still being left behind
This second piece is the Montreal Manifesto on Precarious Work, Workforce Diversity, International Migration and Occupational Health and Safety (PDF). This comes out of a gathering last year with a large contingent from Quebec.
INJURED AT WORK = HOMELESS IN ALBERTA
BEST KEPT SECRET OF WCB
– WCB representatives, lacking medical qualifications and legal training, are unlicensed to practice medicine or law, yet they wield absolute power to decide injured workers’ fate.
– Despite their lack of expertise, they create their own medical opinions and law, contradicting factual evidence and legislation, and deny compensation to injured workers.
– These unqualified representatives claim to be in charge, with absolute authority over injured workers’ claims, yet they have no apparent boss or oversight, raising questions about who grants them this power and why they are unaccountable.
– Injured workers are told that these representatives have the final say, with no possibility of escalation or review by a higher authority, despite being employed by a government organization that supposedly answers to the public.
– This lack of accountability and transparency allows them to make life-altering decisions without any checks or balances, leading to predictable errors and abuse of power.
– The Workers Compensation ACT requires the board to weigh all evidence and provide compensation entitlement based on medical probability, but unqualified clerks are allowed to ignore the existence of the WCA , prioritizing denial of compensation.
– If injured workers become unemployable, it’s a no-win situation, trapping them in a long-term cycle of denial and appeal, until they eventually succumb to their injuries or die waiting for justice.
In summary, it’s absurd to grant unqualified individuals the power to make critical medical and legal decisions, leading to a system where injured workers are denied rightful compensation, forced into poverty, and left to suffer. This systemic failure highlights the urgent need for reform and accountability within the WCB. Moreover, it is appalling that the people of Alberta and organizations who are aware of this abuse have remained silent and inactive, allowing this injustice to persist.
Recent media coverage supporting injured workers in other provinces. Alberta needs more media coverage on this topic.
Legislative amendments aim to improve benefits for injured workers
Ontario to change how it compensates injured migrant agricultural workers
Read the KMPG Value for Money Audit
To see activity and justice in another province look under News – Ontario. We apologize for no updates in Alberta regarding the WCB and Appeals Commission. There appears to be not much interest in workers dealing with injuries, homelessness, and death – it’s been frustrating to garner support.