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A report from the field... by Orlando Buonastella (IWC)

The event went well, and was upbeat. This was the 25th anniversary of June First, IW day. A silver anniversary always brings out the best moments of our history. IAVGO and IWC mounted a temporary "museum" of historical documents and props, from the golden toilet, to the "cap in hand" puppet to the "Goddess of Justice" we used to prevent the infamous "Megatribunal" that would have wiped out the WCAT WSIAT. John McKinnon described the significance of all these symbols and we paid tribute to the resilience and creativity of injured workers who stuck it out for all these years.

Our demands focussed on the fight against "deeming", for full automatic cost of living, for WSIB coverage for all, and against "experience rating". We were moved by the injured worker speeches. Djamal Salhi talked about his ordeal of being forced to work out of his bed while elevating his broken leg, and connected it to our demands and original purpose of our WC system. We were all in tears hearing from the 13 - year old daughter of Maryam Nazemi, whose mother is permanently disabled but without WC coverage. Young Neekey said she was so scared for the future she would cry herself to sleep many nights.

For the first year since the Liberals returned to power, the Minister of Labour was absent. The office said he was away at the Cabinet meeting in Quebec. The Minister did send a message outlining the desire to bring a brighter future to injured workers but within the realm of "financial sustainability".

The various speakers from the ONIWG and the OFL and other unions also addressed the same dynamic. However, it was from the point of view that "there is money in the bank" and that injured workers should not have to wait any longer for justice and a "bright future", now is the time! Injured workers are picking up the promise of a "brighter future" and wearing sunglasses in preparation for the coming day….If justice is missing, satire never is, it keeps the old spirit alive.

After the June First event was over and birthday cake was had by all, a group of injured workers stayed for an overnight vigil, which also attracted a lot of media attention. The media picked up their message that "injured workers are not sleeping and are not going away". In the morning, we all went inside the Legislature for Question Period. NDP WSIB critic Paul Miller asked Deputy Leader Smitherman why "deeming" and "experience rating" were still taking place. While the answer was as elusive as we can expect at Question Period, the Deputy Leader did admit that "more needs to be done for injured workers".

At that point the "marathon" was over and some tired injured workers finally did go get some sleep….