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By Bev Boyle

In a land far away and in a time long ago, I was an volunteer advocate worker for the United Association of Injured and Disabled Workers. This was a group on the lower mainland that tried to help people that were going through a tough time with the Workers Compensation Board (now known as WorkSafeBC).

It was heart-wrenching work – seeing these poor souls going through hell and trying to get some justice for their pain and injuries suffered at their jobsites. I even remember recruiting an MLA (can't recall which one now) to come and speak at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre about the travesty known as WCB. Yes, I was a little outspoken and persistent even 25 years ago.

The reason I got involved with the UAIDW was that a friend of mine's husband was injured on a construction site in Vancouver and immediately was granted compensation by the WCB. He was considered permanently disabled with a back injury, but what WCB didn't know was that he really didn't have any lingering pain at all and was totally enjoying cashing all those big cheques and going about his business of having a good time at their expense. That irked me. But when a very close friend was injured at work, and was in so much pain that he couldn't even move his head, he was denied any payment from WCB. They ran him into the ground, accused him of being a psychopath, and frustrated him to the point that he turned into someone I didn't even know. That's when I stepped in and joined the group – to help my friend.

You'd think that, in the last 25 years, things would have improved. Yeah, right.

A couple that are very dear friends of ours are finding out how horribly people on compensation can be treated. They live on a beautiful piece of property and have no neighbours anywhere near to them. Well, he injured his knees at work to the point where he could hardly walk or stand. Oh, he had a long work history in this province and was finally accepted by WCB. So far, so good. It gets worse.

WorkSafeBC decided that he needed retraining so he could go back into the work force. He turns 60 next week. They have now sent him to Richmond, to stay at the Sheraton Richmond West Hotel, for 13 weeks. He had to take their only vehicle to get around there, leaving his wife with no transportation out in the middle of nowhere. Thirteen weeks is a long time for your husband to be away. They cannot afford for him to go back and forth in these weeks.

He goes to 'school' from 9am to 12 noon and then has nothing to do (except homework) for the other 21 hours of the day. (I am getting madder as I write this). Because it took so long for him to get 'compo', he can't afford to leave the hotel. Not to eat elsewhere, not to buy gas to sightsee.

Guess what? They just found out the course he is taking is available by correspondence! I have never heard of anything so absolutely insane and ridiculous in my life. What is wrong with these people? Why wrench a guy hundreds of miles away from his family and pay him to stay in a hotel when he could have done this from home? Gee, I wonder if they'll let him come home for Christmas?

And the friend that was in such pain 25 years ago? He has never received any compensation for all his years of hard work in BC and has been a painkiller addict for all these years. A broken, bitter soul. Like so many others.

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