Widow who lost Supreme Court case still hopes for pension deal
Source: CBC News
Posted: 01/30/09 12:27PM
Filed Under: Canada
A Saskatchewan widow whose pension lawsuit was stymied by the Supreme Court of Canada says her fight for compensation is not over.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Laura Ravndahl of Big River had waited too long to file a lawsuit against the province over her husband's death benefits.
Ravndahl started receiving pension cheques after her husband was killed in a workplace accident in the mid-1970s.
About a decade later, she remarried. Following a standard practice at the time, the province cut off her pension payments, along with those of 265 other spouses in the same situation.
The practice was changed in 1985, when the province determined it was discriminatory and went against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Saskatchewan government offered the widows $80,000 lump sum payments, but Ravndahl rejected the money.
She sued the provincial government and the Workers Compensation Board for the entire amount of money she lost.
Now, even though the Supreme Court dismissed her appeal, Ravndahl says she's going to re-apply for the $80,000.
"I'm going to try and get it," she said. "I don't know if they'll give it to me, because they did put a limit on it when you had to apply for it. But there have been other people who have got it since then, I understand."
Tom Campbell, Ravndahl's lawyer, said many of the women in his client's situation have been talking to their MLAs about the case, asking for full compensation.
Since other provinces have fully compensated their widows, it is hoped the Saskatchewan government will follow suit, Campbell said.
"Well, now the matter is not really before the courts anymore, so we're hoping the new government, the government now, will review the matter," he said.
A spokesperson for the Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Ministry said the ministry is reviewing the Supreme Court ruling and will comment later.
Editors Note: There is an all out war against paying victims of injury by the Workers Compensation Board. Every method that they have available to deny victims is being applied, and in many cases they continue to alter legislation for the sole purpose of denying even more legitimate claimants who are "Victims" not freeloaders.
All Canadians that work for a living need to put more pressure on our leaders to take a greater moral responsibility in Parliament on behalf of the people they serve.
This is at very least a true case of "Legitimized Highway Robbery"
