Gunman holds WCB hostages.

 

The headlines that shook our nation…. or did it?

 

There was a lot of reaction to what happened here and it’s clearly divided along two lines, those who have family who had to deal with WCB, and those who speak from “blind” indignation or more accurately put, speak out of ignorance.

One line that caught my eye in this story was an officer’s comment. "I think actually one of his points was he wanted to talk to the media and get his story out."

Another line that caught my eye was from employees of WCB asking the question of how we can better protect ourselves from Injured Workers.

Those two lines beg the question of what is WCB doing that’s so serious that it’s turning injured workers into terrorists?

It also begs the question "Will the media now step up to the plate and tell this mans story? If they do so, will they isolate the story from the thousands of other WCB claimants who are being denied legitimate funding?"

If this failed terrorist act failed to get the truth out, is the underling message even more frightening? Namely that change will not come about unless there is massive bloodshed?

As it stands the only thing I was able to glean from this story is, WCB is now trying to figure out how bigger and better locks will help them. Have we as a society allowed “WCB” to become a “demigod” that is above public scrutiny?

Maybe the employees of WCB share so much common guilt they would prefer to have armed guards with automated machine guns at every level of the building. Would this help them in achieving a zero claim level, while at the same time drawing on 100K salaries a year with some of the most lucrative retirement packages in Canada?

Would this free up more time for WCB employees to surf the internet and join in on all those online games during working hours? Obviously WCB employees have too much time on their hands, and not enough time to spend all of the money they have rolling in.

I have to ask these final questions, for all of you who believe WCB did not bring this act on themselves.

Why is it that it is against the law for a coroner to get information from the WCB in regards to suicidal deaths? Why is it that the horrific findings that a near majority of suicides deaths in British Columbia were WCB claimants resulted in a policy of "lets never do a again." ( A government survey that has never been repeated by any province in Canada) Further it begs the question of why not?

Why is WCB always ducking behind protecting the privacy of injured workers to commit crimes against them? This is an infallible tool to insure WCB is never held accountable for what it does to any individual, as its against the law for anyone to know what they did!

Why is it against the law for the press to have access to the names of everyone being denied WCB benefits? Or for that matter even the statistics? Have you ever seen them published?

Did you know WCB has a private company who surveys injured workers "receiving payments" as to how they are being treated, however that list never includes injured workers whose benefits were terminated?

How many of you today would believe that not long ago, it was deemed by “WCB”  “grounds for termination” if an injured worker showed anyone the contents of their personal WCB documents.

How many of you today would believe it was not so long ago, and only because of a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, that the WCB was forced to share with injured workers the information they were using against them?

Did you know that WCB routinely hires semi educated people to suggest medical experts erred in their decision making on an injured worker, thus absolving WCB of any responsibility to support the injured worker?

And for the last question, are you stupid enough to trust the WCB now?

We do not endorse violence as the answer to solve injured workers problems, however maybe some of the skeptics can tell us what is the appropriate behavior to follow, when you lose part of you body, follow it by the loss of your occupation, follow it by the loss of your WCB benefits, follow it with WCB telling you there is nothing wrong with you, that you are too lazy to work, follow it by the loss of everything you worked for over the past 30 to 40 years, the loss of your family due to the problems its all created, followed by becoming homeless and hungry, tell me what would you do that fits your description of rational behavior.

Once you have done that show it to your friends and see how many of them think you would be a liar.

This tormented soul that had to resort to such extreme actions in a desperate act to see a fraction of the justice due to him should be treated as a victim, not a criminal. This man should be awarded a massive injury settlement, first what they owe him in unpaid benifets, and then another for punitive damages.

 WCBCANADA STAFF WRITER