In protest to Manitoba Government's lack of support for persons with mental illness, I have decided to stop taking my medication for bipolar disorder which to date has enabled me to maintain and sustain recovery (give or take a few slips) for the past 21 years.
Imagine if government blamed you for having cancer?
Growing up on a farm outside of Winnipeg, life was simple: If you wanted cookies – you baked them--you planted grain and had a garden for vegetables. On Sundays everyone went to church and prayed. When there was a threat of tornado or flood–we prayed. When we were grateful for what we had... we prayed. Even when things happened that couldn't be fixed, prayers helped because those things were just part of God's plan--as much comfort as that can bring when you see your dad take the rifle behind the barn with your sick pet--but for the most part, there were civilized codes of conduct--rules.
I used to believe that bullies and thugs were not of my world. However, the sad reality is--it is the bullies and thugs that rule the world. Through no fault of my own, I feel I am trapped in some biblical crisis of God vs. the devil. Power is distributed according to wealth, not wisdom or compassion. Manitoba Justice has weaponized language and its bullet is its slanted "decisions", aimed to objectify, de-personalize and de-humanize those who can't fight back.
It is no accident that Justice did not factor mental illness in its call for action from the beginning going back all the way to 2008. It obviously did not want the rules for civilized and decent behaviour to get in the way. Although disability was always known and confirmed, there is only a nuance as to a 'claim' of mental illness as mentioned in Master Berthaudin's decision.
I used to believe that bullies and thugs were not of my world. However, the sad reality is--it is the bullies and thugs that rule the world. Through no fault of my own, I feel I am trapped in some biblical crisis of God vs. the devil. Power is distributed according to wealth, not wisdom or compassion. Manitoba Justice has weaponized language and its bullet is its slanted "decisions", aimed to objectify, de-personalize and de-humanize those who can't fight back.
It is no accident that Justice did not factor mental illness in its call for action from the beginning going back all the way to 2008. It obviously did not want the rules for civilized and decent behaviour to get in the way. Although disability was always known and confirmed, there is only a nuance as to a 'claim' of mental illness as mentioned in Master Berthaudin's decision.
The moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. - Hubert H. Humphrey
As indicated in the Canadian Lawyers Insurance Association "Safe and Effective Practice" (aka "How to Screw the Public out of their Rights: Law 101) the following excerpt is quite telling:
"The lawyer who has been negligent (emphasis added) should not try to be the one who repairs the situation....But it is important to realize that if the Law Society makes use of able and imaginative lawyers from the earliest possible moment ... the number of ways in which this may be done are infinite... It is very instructive to see what can sometimes be done in what is usually assumed to be the most hopeless of cases..."
To that end The Law Society hired Aikins MacAulay Thorvaldson's, Ted E. Bock and Thomas K. Reimer. And then there are the defendants themselves, the law firm of Thompson Dorfman Sweatman who as recently as September 5, 2012 continued to play hard ball... having no interest to discuss, or inquire as to what a 'mutually satisfactory / reasonable resolution' was in my mind.
You will find no mention in the Master's decision, Rowan v. Thompson Dorfman Sweatman that on March 15, 2012 paramedics were called and hospital attention was required. That it was stated in the Claim that I found 'dealing with the defendants "too much" and wanted to die.
Common sense would tell you that a pendulum swings just as far to the left, as it does to the right. And what goes down must come UP. Considering all the odds were against me, a person of sober judgment would have concluded that going up against the likes of the powers that be, would be insane but instead, much like Daniel in the Lion's Den I threw all caution to the wind and put my faith in God.
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Too bad one has to die before someone cares.
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How low can lawyers get? Along with a sympathy card from a senior lawyer at Aikins Law on the occasion of my father's death from cancer, on that same day I received from Aikins Law, a Bill of Costs claiming I owed them $3500. It is hard to tell whether the cost of the sympathy card and postage was included in the Bill of Costs but I would certainly not put that past them. In any event $3500 to not be allowed a trial is ludicrous!!
Costs are not meant to be punitive, nor should it be used as a deterrent from keeping people like me, with a valid complaint from coming forward. And then, for whatever trumped up reason, particularly in my case where I am unrepresented and vulnerable due to a mental disability, gets 'out-played' by having a provincial civil servant strike out a claim that could and would make the Province come across as looking bullish.
