Tag Archives: Ontario Disability Support Program

07.14.12
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Will provincial dithering ignite EMDC powderkeg?


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Just ahead of us on page 5 of Saturday’s T-J is a grim accounting of life for both the guards and inmates at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre.
“There’s going to be a riot within the next couple of months,” warns Trish Goden, a veteran of a riot in the Whitby jail and president of Local 108 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union representing jail guards.
Goden continues: “That’s the way it’s heading. The inmates are saying it was peaceful this time, but next time it’s not going to be. They don’t like being locked in all the time. They don’t like being crammed in. I understand the reason they are agitated and I don’t see those reasons going away.”

Interior of a holding cell for two inmates at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre.

Take a close look at the photo at right of a cell housing two inmates. Goden suggests you wouldn’t treat dogs in this manner.
“If you had the same amount of dogs in that space, you’d be fined. They’d take them away from you. But for some reason, humans are different. I know they’re incarcerated, but there has to be a standard of life here.”
Coincidentally, what should arrive in the electronic mailbag Friday afternoon but a high-octane media release from MPP Jeff Yurek who takes a jab at the Libs “for letting conditions deteriorate so drastically.”
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05.26.12
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Health unit ‘reverses and changes’ will impact ratepayers, warns London developer


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We opened up City Scope seven days ago by suggesting the ball was in the court of London developer Shmuel Farhi.
The comment was in reference to the decision by Elgin St. Thomas Public Health to seek new digs, not located on property owned by Farhi in the city’s west end.
Well, Farhi has rifled the ball back into this corner in convincing fashion.
He is most upset at a comment we made as to where the allegiance of members of council lie.
Specifically, my observation “any dissenting voice on city council (on a minor zoning variation needed by Family and Children’s of St. Thomas and Elgin to move into the 99 Edward St. location that is the current home of the health unit) would certainly be based on allegiance to Farhi . . . rather than to city ratepayers.
That prompted a terse email from Farhi, who asserts he had a deal in place with the health unit for his Talbot Street property.

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08.01.09
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Falling through the cracks — the innocent victims of futility


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Elizabeth Dye is a strong-willed woman — whose sense of pride and work ethic prompted her to write this corner to urge the time has come to stop judging and start helping others.
She speaks not of herself, in spite of the fact she has had to “downgrade everything,” but instead for those she notes, “who don’t fit into the neat little categories society sets out as the norm.”
Those neither sick enough to be hospitalized nor healthy enough to function effectively in our society.
“They are cast aside and fall through the cracks,” she advises. “In short their family, friends and advocates just fade away when they realize the futility of the fight.”
The RPN, off work for two years dealing with her own emotional issues, wishes to draw attention to the pitiful sum handed out monthly via the Ontario Disability Support Program.
Especially in light of the fact, whether physically or psychologically unable to work, no one sets out to be in this position.
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