MPP
Cheri DiNovo’s Bill 67 [ Now Called Bill 2 ]will help first-responders suffering from PTSD
Private member’s bill
passed second reading, Feb. 27
Bill 67
Staff
photo/ERIN HATFIELD
Shannon
Bertrand and Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo at the Legislative Assembly of
Ontario, Feb. 27. Bertrand, a Toronto Paramedic, suffers from post-traumatic
stress disorder, and inspired DiNovo's private member's Bill 67.
Parkdale
Villager
Shannon
Bertrand was living in Parkdale when she wandered into NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo’s
constituency office in 2008, desperate for help.
Bertrand,
who now lives in Mississauga, has been a paramedic for the City of Toronto for
the past 17 years. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
suffered at work.
“I could
not find any help or resources,” Bertrand said. “So I put in a WSIB (Workplace
Safety and Insurance Board) claim, which is now in it’s eighth year.”
The
claim, Bertrand said, has been denied because it has not been deemed “an acute
reaction to a life-threatening event”.
Bertrand
had knocked on every door she could think of from ombudsmen to labour relations
and human rights organizations.
“Then I
found Cheri and she was the one who listened,” Bertrand said.
Bertrand’s
pleas served as the inspiration for DiNovo’s Bill 67, a private member’s bill
to amend the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act with regards to PTSD. The bill
passed second reading Feb. 27.
“We’re
one stop closer to easing the process for first responders with PTSD,” said
DiNovo, the MPP for Parkdale-High Park. “These changes will help them come
forward, get the necessary treatment, and heal.”
Bill 67
proposes that if police, fire fighters and paramedics suffer from PTSD, the
disorder is presumed to be an occupational disease that occurred due to the
employment as an emergency response worker, unless the contrary is shown.
In a
press conference prior to the second reading of Bill 67, DiNovo explained a
presumed diagnosis would mean first responders wouldn’t have to go through a
lengthy process of proving the PTSD is a result of their work.
“We are
talking about dignity and support for our first responders,” DiNovo said.
“These are men and women who run into danger when we are running out. What they
deal with is reality, and it is a traumatic reality.”
Those
first responders who develop PTSD from their job, DiNovo said, should not have
to be re-traumatized by having to prove they came down with PTSD because if
their work.
“This
should be an assumption on our part,” DiNovo said. “We need to do all we can do
to protect those who protect us.”
Joining
DiNovo at the press conference was David Whitley, an advanced care paramedic
with York EMS, Bruce Kruger, retired detective with the Ontario Provincial
Police (OPP) and Jeffery Balch, with the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters
Association. All three men have struggled with PTSD and with making WSIB
claims, and were at Queen’s Park to voice their support for the bill.
Whitley
was T-boned while responding to a call in the ambulance.
“In the
days and weeks after, the sense of fear and anxiety was overwhelming,” Whitley
said. “I was locked in my trauma, I felt stranded and I couldn’t share my
experience with my employer and my colleagues.”
He said
he felt he couldn’t risk the ridicule and humiliation he said he felt would
come with making a WSIB claim for PTSD.
“I didn’t
want to be re-traumatized,” he said “It was just too much.”
Presumed
diagnosis for first responders has been in place in Alberta since 2012.
This is
the third time DiNovo has tabled this bill. It was previously tabled in 2010
and 2012, but this is the first time it has made it to and passed second
reading.
It passed
second reading unanimously and an effort will be made to have it enacted by May
1, which is First Responders Day.
“Cheri
has had the political tenacity of a bull dog in not letting this go,” Bertrand
said. “I believe she recognizes people are not able to reach the types of
treatments and resources they need to get better and get back to work.”
|
OPP Association Offers Support at 2nd Reading of Bill 67
BARRIE, ON,
Feb. 27,
2014 /CNW/ -
Members of the Ontario Provincial Police Association
(OPPA) Board of Directors and OPP Association members were at the
Ontario legislature on
Thursday
February 27th to show the Association's support for MPP Cheri
DiNovo's Private Members Bill 67 - which would amend the Workplace Safety and
Insurance Act to provide better support for front line officers suffering from
Post-Traumatic Stress disorder.
"The OPP Association believes strongly in Bill 67 and is very grateful
to MPP DiNovo for championing this issue," said President
Jim Christie. "'We hope that all three parties
will work together to rapidly advance this important bill in the coming
weeks." It is estimated that up to 15% of police officers will
experience PTSD over the course of their careers. Despite the fact that the
vast majority of these cases are work-related, impacted officers currently have
to undergo an exhausting, intrusive and at times unfair process to prove that
their illness is work related. Bill 67 would cut red tape and streamline this
process so that PTSD sufferers are not re-victimized through their appeal for
support.
"Right now, many of our members will not seek help for job-related PTSD
as a result of the application process. A process which they feel forces them
to re-live the very trauma that created their illness in the first place.
Simply put, this is wrong and needs to be fixed. These brave officers have
confronted some of the most horrible things imaginable so that our citizens are
safe. In return we have an obligation to give them the support they need in
dealing with the aftermath." said President
Jim
Christie.
To become law, Bill 67 will have to be heard by committee and then returned
to the legislature for third and final reading. For this to occur, all parties
will have to work together to ensure that the process unfolds in a speedy
manner.
"There is no controversy around this bill in its current form - it is
simple, straightforward and eminently reasonable. To MPP's I say If you believe
that the work police personnel do matters, if you believe that our police
personnel as people matter, then I strongly urge you to move this important
piece of legislation forward in as quick a manner as possible." said
President
Jim Christie.
To learn more about Bill 67, please visit
www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&BillID=2789.
To learn more about the OPP Association, the largest police association of its
kind in
Canada, please visit
www.oppa.ca or
www.facebook.com/OPPAssociation.
SOURCE Ontario Provincial Police Association
For further information:
Jim Christie, President, OPP Association,
(705) 728-6161
