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Injured Workers’
Speaker School - Sarnia
Student Manual
October 2011
Susan Toth, Project Coordinator
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 519-337-4627 x2335
Fax: 519-337-9442
171 Kendall Street, Point Edward, ON N7V 4G6
Web: http://iwss-sarnia.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/iwss.sarnia
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Why Study Workers Compensation History? ............................................................................................................................... 6 SCHOOL CURRICULUM:............................................................................................................ 7 PHILOSOPHY and PRINCIPLES OF TRAINING ................................................................. 8 1. Sharing Speaking Skills – Learning through Listening ....................................................................................................... 8 2. Principles of Training for Studying History and Developing Speaking Skills ........................................................... 8 3. The Practice of Training I – Roles and Tools to Work in Groups..................................................................................... 8 Group Dynamics & Leadership Skills .................................................................................................................................. 8 4. The Practice of Training II-‐ Essential Components ............................................................................................................... 9 I. Use of Role Play, Games and Experiential Learning. .................................................................................... 9 II. Breathing Practice and Voice Training ..................................................................................................................10 III. Active Listening and Specific Feedback Skills – What Struck You? ................................................10 Step One: Workers’ Compensation Act 1915..............................................................................................................................11 Step Two: Current Issues and Major Changes since 1915: Bill 162, Bill 99 & More..................................................11 Step Three: Injured workers in Sarnia ..........................................................................................................................................11 Step Four: Speaking Out.......................................................................................................................................................................11 ABC’s of WSIB ............................................................................................................................ 12 Speaking Tools– What you can expect to study, practice & learn in class.................. 13 Lesson #1 Plan: Getting Acquainted..................................................................................... 14 1. INTRODUCTIONS: ..............................................................................................................................................................................14 2. ICE BREAKERS.....................................................................................................................................................................................15 3. Activities.................................................................................................................................................................................................16 Activity #1: What holds me back from speaking in public? ................................................................................16 ACTIVITY #2 - Breathing ..............................................................................................................................................................17 4. Listening and Feedback Skills.......................................................................................................................................................18 ACTIVITY #3 – Telling our stories in 3 minutes ..........................................................................................................20 5. EVALUATION: ......................................................................................................................................................................................20 Lesson #2 Plan: Injured Worker History ............................................................................ 21 Before 1915 in Ontario:........................................................................................................................................................................21 Activity #1: What was it like to be a worker before 1915? .................................................................................21 ACTIVITY #2: To SUE or not to SUE? ..................................................................................................................................22 ACTIVITY #3: TRUE FABLE OF INJURED WORKERS? .........................................................................................24 Meredith’s Final Report – Extracts for Study..............................................................................................................................26 ACTIVITY #4: DISCUSS REPORT ............................................................................................................................................27 OPTIONAL ACTIVITY #5: EXTRACT PRINCIPLES ....................................................................................................27 1914 Workman’s Compensation Act -‐ “The Historic Compromise” .................................................................................28 Fundamental Shifts in the Compensation System since 1914.............................................................................................29 ACTIVITY #6: Breathing Practice #2...................................................................................................................................30 OPTIONAL ACTIVITY #7: Role Play and Discussion: In Their Shoes. In Our Shoes.........................31 HOMEWORK ACTVITY - MY FAVOURITE PRINCIPLE ..........................................................................................32 Lesson #3 Plan: Pensions to Deeming: Professor Weiler and Bill 162 ........................ 33 2
A. Review and Recap ........................................................................................................................................................................34 B. The 1980’s - Reshaping Workers’ Compensation in Ontario. ......................................................................35 C. Child’s Play ........................................................................................................................................................................................36 D. Words & Concepts in Bill 162 ............................................................................................................................................38 E. Beware of simple villains: Weiler brought good news and bad news. ....................................................43 Meredith’s Meditation...........................................................................................................................................................................43 OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Breathing through the Thoughts ......................................................................................43 ACTVITY: Breathing Practice #3 ............................................................................................................................................43 ACTIVITY: Role Play Devil’s Advocate ...............................................................................................................................44 Lesson #4 Plan: Compensation to Insurance – Wyatt & Moral Hazard ....................... 45 ACTIVITY: What does compensation mean? .................................................................................................................46 From Meredith to Wyatt – Compensation becomes Insurance ..........................................................................................48 ACTIVITY: Wyatt vs. Meredith.................................................................................................................................................49 Compensation Changes: 1915-‐ 1980..............................................................................................................................................52 Definition of Actuary (Wyatt and Company are actuaries) ..................................................................................................53 HOMEWORK ACTIVITY- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.....................................................................54 PREPARATION ASSIGNMENT: ................................................................................................................................................54 IMAGE HOMEWORK ACTIVITY ALTERNATIVE ........................................................................................................55 Lesson #5 Plan: Myth of Unfunded Liability ..................................................................... 56 ACTIVITY: Go Around: Show Don’t Tell – A Picture is Worth 1000 Words .............................................56 ACTIVITY: Breathing Practice #5 ..........................................................................................................................................57 Definitions of Unfunded and Liability .................................................................................................................................59 How the Unfunded Liability Lead to Bill 99: ...............................................................................................................................59 A Brief HISTORY of the Unfunded Liability in Ontario ...........................................................................................60 More on the Jackson Report: ....................................................................................................................................................62 ACTIVITY: Personal Unfunded Liabilities? .....................................................................................................................63 Lesson #6 Plan: Essential Presentation Skills .................................................................. 66 ACTIVITY: Breathing Practice #6 - Snakes & Bees ...................................................................................................66 Public Speaking Tips-‐ Handout.........................................................................................................................................................67 Basics: .........................................................................................................................................................................................................67 Quote unusual sources, create suspense, and do yourself a big favor—don't ignore the
squirrel. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................69 The Art of Choosing Words:.........................................................................................................................................................73 Fear of Public Speaking..................................................................................................................................................................74 Being prepared: Guidelines for Thinking Ahead: ........................................................................................................76 Speech Writing .........................................................................................................................................................................................77 Speech Writing: Be Brief! .............................................................................................................................................................77 Ten Strategies For Crafting Excellent Speeches .........................................................................................................79 Three Bonus Tips For Writing A Great Speech .............................................................................................................80 Interview with Al Gore’s Chief Speechwriter, Daniel Pink: ................................................................................81 Top ten speeches:....................................................................................................................................................................................84 Socrates .....................................................................................................................................................................................................84 Patrick Henry........................................................................................................................................................................................85 Frederick Douglass ...........................................................................................................................................................................86 Abraham Lincoln ................................................................................................................................................................................87 Susan B. Anthony ...............................................................................................................................................................................88 Winston Churchill ..............................................................................................................................................................................89 William Wilberforce, “Abolition Speech” ...........................................................................................................................90 Socrates, “Apology” ..........................................................................................................................................................................91 3
How to Create a Speech........................................................................................................................................................................92 A List of Elements of a Speech to use for Giving Feedback ...................................................................................................94 Lesson #7 Plan: Review: Injured Worker History DVD................................................... 95 ACTIVITY: Go Around 1 minute each – “What struck you” about history so far ? ............................95 OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Injured Worker History Line Up........................................................................................95 ACTIVITY: Whole Group Discussion framed around these questions: ........................................................95 Lesson #8 Plan: Sarnia’s Environment ............................................................................... 96 ACTVITIES...............................................................................................................................................................................................96 Environmental Exposure in Sarnia .................................................................................................................................................97 1. Background: CANADA'S CHEMICAL VALLEY – Eco Justice Report ..............................................................................97 2. Asbestos Exposure: ...........................................................................................................................................................................99 Dying For A Living – Globe and Mail, March 13, 2004 ..........................................................................................99 3. Respiratory Illnesses .....................................................................................................................................................................107 Impact of Air Pollution – Environmental Health Journal ................................................................................. 107 4a. Aamjiwnaang-‐ Charter Challenge ..........................................................................................................................................110 Chemical Valley charter challenge – Ecojustice Media Release ................................................................... 110 4b. Aaamjiwnaang-‐ Birth sex ratio ...............................................................................................................................................112 Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Sarnia sounds alarm over toxins - CBC .................................................... 112 Lesson #9 Plan: Experience Rating .................................................................................... 117 Role Play: Poverty is No Accident .................................................................................................................................................118 Experience Rating: From Security of Benefits to Million Dollar Rebates ....................................................................120 Lesson #10 Plan: Injured Workers Victories ................................................................... 126 ACTIVITY: Highlights of Injured Worker History: Unfortunately/Fortunately ................................ 126 Optional Activity: Impromptu speeches ......................................................................................................................... 130 Lesson #11 Plan: GRADUATION ......................................................................................... 131 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................ 133 Workers’ Compensation in Ontario: One Page History Overview ..................................................................................134 Breathing Practices .............................................................................................................................................................................135 Speaking Skills Essentials.................................................................................................................................................................147 Speakers School– What you can expect to study, practice & learn in class ........................................ 147 Speech Creation ....................................................................................................................................................................................148 Intention ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 149 A List of Elements of a Speech to use for Giving Feedback .............................................................................. 150 Sample Speeches from Different Sources ..................................................................................................................... 151 Link to speeches online: ............................................................................................................................................................. 154 Graduation Speech...............................................................................................................................................................................160 4
Introduction
Welcome to Injured Workers’ Speaker School in Sarnia, Ontario!
Our aim is to restore dignity to injured workers and improve the system for all.
In order to this, we need to understand the history of workers compensation, and learn
how to be effective communicators.
Purpose of the School:
To develop leaders who will use their own stories as well as the collective history of
injured workers in Ontario, and their newly acquired speaking skills to lobby and fight
for change for all injured workers.
Goals for the School:
-
to study the principles of the compensation system
to learn about our history as injured workers
to learn to listen, provide feedback and work effectively with others in a group
to share our stories and develop public speaking skills
to learn about the Sarnia-specific injured workers issues
to have fun!
Desired Outcomes:
We will develop confidence and skills in speaking out to effect change through gaining
knowledge and public speaking skills.
We will use these skills to speak to politicians, policy makers, the media, and to rally
members of our community.
We will use these skills to provide leadership within the injured worker community
We will move from venting to convincing!
Graduation
At the end of the course everyone will give a 3 minute speech to an invited panel in
front of an audience of friends and media. It will be recorded and you will receive a copy
of the DVD.
Graduation date is December 12, 2011.
Classes:
Start October 3, 2011. Every Monday until December 12, 2011. Classes will be at the
OHCOW offices at 171 Kendall Street, Point Edward.
6:00-6:30pm – dinner and refreshments will be offered
6:30pm-8:30pm – classes (with a 15 minute break)
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Why Study Workers Compensation History?
1. Because compensation has been a legal right since 1915
(See Maclean’s Magazine, April 1, 1915)
2. Because knowledge of history adds our story to a larger picture
a. History helps us understand how we arrived at where we are today
b. History then moves us from individual testimony to public testimony
3. To late a look at first principles… then fight for them
4. Because history is on our side
a. History shows that fighting works—injured workers have won victories
6
SCHOOL CURRICULUM:
Class Date:
1
Oct 3
Topic
Guest Speaker
None
Getting Acquainted – Telling our stories
-
Oct 10
Thanksgiving – No classes
2
Oct 17
Pensions to deeming – Professor Weiler and
Bill 162
Orlando Buonastella
– Injured Worker
Consultants
(Toronto)
Andrew Bolter, ED of
Community Legal
Assistance-Sarnia
Compensation to Insurance – Wyatt &
moral hazard
First Nations: Jeff
Plain, Wilson Plain
Myth of Unfunded Liability – Bill 99
TBA
Essential Presentation skills
Public speaking –
Mike Moore
Injured Worker History/Historic
Compromise
3
4
5
6
Oct 24
Oct 31
Nov 7
Nov 14
7
Nov 21
8
Nov 28
Review: Injured Worker History DVD
Sarnia’s Environment
9
Dec 5
Experience Rating System
10
Dec 12
Injured Worker Victories
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n/a
Dec 19
GRADUATION
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Speaking to the
Media – Mary Ann
Colihan- CBC
Jim and Marg
Brophy- Enviroment
Paul LaPorte, Injured
Worker Advisor,
WSIB overview
Justin Duncan,
Lawyer with
EcoJustice
PHILOSOPHY and PRINCIPLES OF TRAINING
1. Sharing Speaking Skills – Learning through Listening
In my experience all injured workers have something to say and a story to tell.
They simply have no practice in being heard. So our philosophy in class is to
exercise active listening skills – we ask the injured workers to listen to each
other, to give accurate specific feedback, and to focus on what effect/action
they want from their words.
~ Kate Lushington, speaking skills instructor
2. Principles of Training for Studying History and Developing
Speaking Skills
1. Group participation – we teach each other.
2. Feedback skills – listen and reflect.
3. Observation & Evaluation: what works, what doesn’t.
4. Breathing Room – allowing time and space to absorb material
5. One Important Thing – focus on one main idea– use for class and speeches
6. Timing – less is more – set limits for speakers and games
7. Role Model - the facilitator models principles and practice
8. Practice Practice Practice – everyone speaks every week
9. Experience is best teacher – classes are interactive, hands on
10. Repetition and Review – Say it again, Sam - no one gets it the first time!
3. The Practice of Training I – Roles and Tools to Work in Groups
Group Dynamics & Leadership Skills
It is important that everyone has the chance to participate and to take on every
role.
~ Steve Mantis
•
Chairing – this is a very important role to make sure the group stays on track,
on time and on topic. The Chair pays attention to the time and is able to judge
whether someone is going off topic. They must be able to gently but firmly ask
the person to address the topic at hand or move on. The Chair does not have as
much opportunity to speak themselves. They listen.
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•
Timekeeping – this role is especially useful when people are making speeches someone watches the clock and rings the bell after the designated time (2 min, 3
min, etc). Nowadays can be superseded by electronic timers, which allow
everyone to listen.
•
Minute taking – in some groups the participants take turns in jotting down the
discussions and ideas raised, and handing them out to the group at the next
session. In others the teaching teams take turns, with the teacher who is not
taking the lead taking minutes, and one person making a record of each class.
•
Go Arounds – in this method, everyone takes a turn to speak, answering a
question or just checking in, going around the table. Everyone else keeps quiet. If
someone wishes to respond to something said by another person, they can make
a note and address it when it is their turn.
•
Brainstorm – everyone calls out brief ideas, words or phrases around a topic.
These are noted on a flip chart. There is no formal order or turns taken, but
people try not to talk at once.
•
Evaluation – there is time scheduled at the end of each session to go round the
room and ask two questions of each participant: what worked, and what needs
improvement? The Evaluator stands at the flip chart to record the responses.
Important: Facilitator transcribes the flip chart and distributes it to the teaching
team to help with ongoing planning.
4. The Practice of Training II- Essential Components
People learn in different ways – reading, listening, moving – variety & active
participation is key.
I.
Use of Role Play, Games and Experiential Learning.
There will be suggestions for group activities that use games and role playing in the
weekly annotated sessions. We encourage you to develop your own and let us know, so
that we can eventually have a collection of different ideas that have worked.
Role plays are a vital element in the course, both as a way to practice speaking in a
specific situation about a specific topic, and as a way to study course content (history,
principles, arguments etc) through active engagement of the whole person.
Role plays offer people a chance to play “the Devil’s Advocate”, stepping into other
people’s shoes even if you don’t agree with them. As one student put it:
I never wanted to play an employer or a business person, but when I finally had to, it
was very liberating. I really enjoyed myself and felt I got to “know my enemy”
Wendy Knelsen, Injured9Worker Speaker School Participant, 07/08
II.
Breathing Practice and Voice Training
This is an ongoing weekly group practice to help make the most of speaking
nerves (butterflies), presence, confidence and filling a room, voice power and
what is often called “projection” – being heard without shouting – and other
essential presentation skills.
III.
Active Listening and Specific Feedback Skills – What Struck You?
This practice is fundamental to developing critical thinking and empowered
speaking. It is used as a routine from the beginning. Details are found in the
section on Speaking Skills Essentials.
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PURPOSE: What can students expect to know by the end of the course?
A Journey in Four Steps
Step One:
Step Two:
Step Three:
Step Four:
We are here to learn the history of the workers’ compensation system.
How it has changed over the years.
Sarnia and First Nations: specific challenges, the environment,
Speaking Effectively
We’ll take it step by step. At the end of the course, participants will be able to answer the
following questions – some are factual (there is a straight answer) and some are personal.
Step One: Workers’ Compensation Act 1915
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why was the workers’ compensation system set up?
What was the purpose?
Who would benefit? Who would pay?
What were the guiding principles?
Were any of these principles broken (or upheld) in our own stories?
Step Two: Current Issues and Major Changes since 1915: Bill 162, Bill
99 & More
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is the difference between compensation and insurance?
What is the unfunded liability; how does it affect injured workers?
What is deeming and how does it work?
What is experience rating; how does it affect injured workers?
What victories have injured workers accomplished?
Step Three: Injured workers in Sarnia
1.
2.
3.
4.
What specific environmental occupational exposure exists?
History of Chemical Valley
Local support and local WSIB system
First Nations- Aamjiwnaang perspective
Step Four: Speaking Out
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How can we use our history and knowledge of the system?
How can we work together for change?
Who can we tell our stories to?
How can we be heard? How do we speak effectively to media?
How do we become effective public speakers?
Optional Exercise: How many questions can people answer at the beginning? Compare with the
end.
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ABC’s of WSIB
A is for Actuary
B is for Bancroft
C is for Compensation & COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment)
D is for Deeming & Dual Award, & Discourse of Abuse
E is for Experience Rating
F is for Friedland Formula
G is for Groundhog
H is for Historic Compromise
I is for Insurance & Ison
J is for Justice, Full not Half Measures
K is for Kafka
L is for Liability & LMR (Labour Market Re-entry)
M is for Meredith, Meat Chart & Moral Hazard
N is for NEL & FEL the Twins from Hell
O is for Overinsurance
P is for Principle & Pensions for life
Q is for Questions
R is for RTW: Return to Work (Early & (un)Safe)
S is for Stigma & SEB (Suitable Employment or Business)
T is for Time, as in Lost Time Claims
U is for Unfunded Liability
V is for Victories & Vocational Rehabilitation
W is for Wegenast, Wyatt, & Weiler
X is for X posure to hazards at work
Y is for Young workers, hurt or killed on the job
Z is for Zero (the Road to)
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Speaking Tools– What you can expect to study, practice &
learn in class
1. Speakers School Summary of Essentials:
Tools for Making a Speech through Listening and Group Feedback
a. Breathing and Voice [Practice]
i)
Breathing practice – every class
ii)
How your voice works – nerves and butterflies
iii)
Connecting to an audience - listening
b. Speech Creation/Composition [Content]
i)
Know your intention – to inform, to move, to inspire etc
ii)
Know your audience – WSIB, MPP’s, researchers, media
iii)
Decide what you want them to hear – one important thing
iv)
Decide what you want them to do – a call to action
v)
Choose words that make people see – images and pictures
vi)
Anatomy of a Speech – beginning, middle and end
vii)
Focus again – less is more – one important thing
c. Speech Presentation Skills [Form]
i)
Breathing – being heard (“projection”), pausing
ii)
Presence & grounding – 360 degrees
iii)
Making contact – where to look
iv)
Gestures and body language
v)
Using props & visual aids
vi)
Listening – to yourself and audience
d. Graduation Speech [Final Production]
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Lesson #1 Plan: Getting Acquainted
Date: October 3, 2011
Material for Participants: Binders with Course Curriculum, Intro, Week 1 & 2
6:00pm-6:30pm –
Refreshments and Greetings
6:30-6:45pm
Welcome
Welcome to IWSS
What can we expect?
6:45-7:30pm
Introductions & Ice Breakers
1. INTRODUCTIONS:
OPEN GO AROUND: A quick check in and go around with your name, where you came
from, let’s find out who traveled the furthest?
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2. ICE BREAKERS
Ice Breaker #1: Walkaround
Find something in common with someone…
Ice Breaker #2: Talk in Partners –
SUMMARY: Find out about each other:
a. why are you taking this course
b. tell an interesting and little known fact about yourself
c. return to group, each person introduce your partner in a go around
7:30-7:45pm
Break
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7:45-8:15
Activities
3. Activities
Activity #1: What holds me back from speaking in public?
SUMMARY:- One Important Thing
- IBell & Timekeeper- everyone has 1 minute –use less time if you like
- Instructors take notes OR use flip chart. Keep as a record.
- Go Around with Time Limits
16
ACTIVITY #2 - Breathing
Breathing for our purposes isn’t about relaxation, it’s about being ready to
speak.
Now, lets learn about listening and giving feedback…
17
4. Listening and Feedback Skills
One Effective Way to Develop Listening Skills and Feedback Accuracy over
Time – Using “What Struck You” technique:
What Struck You? What more would you like to know? Do you have a
question?
From the beginning, we will ask everyone to practice listening by paying
attention to what they actually hear. You will never hear everything. Maybe
about 30% of what is being said! Ask yourself, what “struck you” about what
you heard.
A routine for practicing listening during speeches and stories:
1. While someone is speaking, we listen without writing notes- watching
for body language as well as specific words and phrases that jump out.
What do you notice? What strikes you?
2. Take a moment of quiet after the person finishes to jot down what we
heard, observed or saw. Just one thing is enough – more if you wish.
3. Be as specific as possible. We found it helps to tell people one or two
actual words you heard, or a gesture you saw.
4. After everyone has taken their turn speaking, we brainstorm: throwing
out words or gestures that struck us, in no particular order, and not
focusing on any one speaker.
Over time this little routine will train our observational skills: listening,
watching, and being specific about what we saw and heard. And it helps people
from the very beginning to hear their own words back, so they could know they
are being heard.
Giving Feedback
Feedback is sometimes thought of as criticism, whether positive, negative, or
constructive. In our class, we begin with establishing the routine above, learning
to simply “feed back” or reflect what someone has said that made an impact;
that struck us.
It really helps a person making a speech to know what people actually heard,
what came through.
18
To do this effectively, we try to reflect words and phrases as accurately as
possible.
For example:
Speaker: “I went into my husband’s workshop and saw him working with his
vice grip. My pain is like that.” (She clenches her fists and turns them round
and round)
Listeners: “vice grip” “pain” “pain like a vice grip”
As well as words and phrases or images, ie “what” people said, you can mention
gestures or pauses, or body language, ie “how” someone said it.
For example:
vice grip. My pain is like that.” (she clenches her fists and turns them round and
round)
Listener: “the way she moved her hands”
Once you have said what struck you, you can add how it made you feel.
For example:
round)
Listener: “when she moved her hands it made my stomach clench” “when she
talked about her husband’s workshop I felt sad”
To sum up:
- We practice from the beginning giving accurate specific feedback –
useful information that speakers can learn from
-
together we will discover what works - and what doesn’t so much
-
the speaker will find out what is effective in communicating by
hearing back what they have communicated
-
in this approach, we try avoid correcting (“it would be better if you
said…”) and being positive (you were really good…)
19
ACTIVITY #3 – Telling our stories in 3 minutes
Summary:
- Each participant tells their story, timekeeper sounds bell after 3 minutes.
- Everyone has a job. If you are not speaking then you are listening.
- Try not to take notes while someone is speaking, but to listen carefully to what you hear from
each speaker.
- Take a moment after each speaker for group to jot down “what struck you” – a word or a phrase
you heard
- After everyone is finished telling their stories, we are going to brainstorm what struck us and
write it on a flipchart.
- This time we won’t do it in a Go Around order, just call out anything
8:10-8:30
Evaluation & Wrap Up
HAND OUT: Meredith’s Report
5. EVALUATION:
SUMMARY:
- At the end of each class, we will hold an evaluation. For the first class, the instructor
will be the Evaluator, however, we will take turns playing this role as classes progress.
- Flip chart will be divided into two columns, marked Worked and Needs Improvement
- We will go around and ask each of you to add something to each column
- Try to be specific
- You can pass if you wish
Thanks very much everyone, we’ll see you next week at the same time!
And don’t forget to bring your binders each week!
20
Lesson #2 Plan: Injured Worker History
Date: October 17, 2011 (no class on Oct 10 – thanksgiving holiday)
GUEST SPEAKER: Orlando Buonastella, from Injured Worker Consultants,
Toronto
6:00-6:30
Refreshments & Greetings
6:30 – 7:00pm
Injured worker history: pre-1915, intro to Meredith
Injured Worker History (you may also refer to “One Page History Overview” in
your Appendix)
Before 1915 in Ontario:
Activity #1: What was it like to be a worker before 1915?
“That the existing law inflicts injustice on the workingman is admitted by all”
- Judge William Meredith
- Final Report for Royal Commission on Workmen’s Compensation,
1913
• Industrial revolution meant many more people working in factories.
• Long working hours: 14-16 hours, six days a week.
• Industrial accidents and injuries were frequent and severe.
• Workplace accidents were dealt with under common “tort” law.
• Workers could sue their employer but had to prove the employer was at fault.
• The existing law made this almost impossible.
REMEMBER:
There were NO taxpayers………………………………..…… income tax was introduced in 1917
There was NO welfare…………………….this idea arrived in the Great Depression in 1930’s
(Ontario introduced Welfare Act in 1950’s)
There was NO unemployment insurance………………………...introduced federally in 1941
There was NO healthcare……………………...Medical Care Act introduced federally in 1966
21
“In these days of social and industrial unrest”
In a report commissioned during this time to look at setting up a Worker’s
Compensation System, the author mentions: “in these days of social and
industrial unrest…”. What does he mean by “social unrest?”
Social Unrest in the early 1900s:
Women were agitating for the vote, unions were demanding an 8 hour day, 40
hour week, strikes and demonstrations were frequent and often violent.
1912
1914
1917
1918
1919
Lawrence textile strike, USA
First World War
Revolution in Russia
Votes for Women in Canada
Winnipeg General Strike
Meredith listened to all sides. He recognized the need for a worker’s compensation
system, not only to protect injured workers but as a means of promoting social
stability.
“I believe the true aim of a compensation law is to provide for the injured
workman and his dependants and to prevent their becoming a charge upon their
relatives or friends, or upon the community at large”
ACTIVITY #2: To SUE or not to SUE?
1. What problems did suing cause for injured workers?
2. What problems did suing cause for employers?
a. How did suing affect the relationship of workers & employees?
Define the words: adversary/adversarial, compromise
(see next page)
22
Adversary:
1. An opponent; an enemy.
2. a person or group that is hostile to someone; enemy
Adversarial:
1. pertaining to or characterized by antagonism and conflict
Compromise:
1. A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions.
Despite this, juries began to sympathize with injured workers and when they
won, the employer was at risk of going bankrupt.
SO…
Sir William Meredith was appointed to a Royal Commission to look into a
compensation system to avoid law suits & provide benefits.
7:00pm – 7:30pm
Guest Speaker: Orlando Buonastella – Meredith’s Principles
23
ACTIVITY #3: TRUE FABLE OF INJURED WORKERS?
A True Fable of Injured Workers, Unjust Laws and a Good Judge
Some people learn from facts, some people learn from stories. Here’s a story that came
up in class – a retelling of the beginnings of compensation
Once upon a time in a land long ago but not so far away there was an Industrial
Revolution. Men, women and children no longer worked on the land, but instead toiled
long hours in dirty, dangerous factories. It was a land of pain and sorrow. If you were a
worker, you could easily lose fingers, arms, legs, or your life.
In this land long ago, no one paid taxes, and there was no such thing as healthcare,
welfare or social assistance. If you got hurt at work you were out of luck, you depended
on your family, or on charity. You didn’t get any money unless you sued the factory
owner.
But you had to prove it was his fault that you got hurt. And the tort laws of the time
were on the factory owner’s side (tort is a Latin word that means “who’s wrong”).
“It’s your fault,” he’d say, “you agreed to do a dangerous job.” (tort law: voluntary
assumption of risk)
Or “It’s your fault – you were probably drinking, or you forgot to put on the safety
device.”
(tort law: contributory negligence)
Or “Perhaps it’s the fault of your co-worker.” (tort law: fellow-servant rule)
“It’s certainly not my fault,” he’d say, “Besides, I don’t have any money; I’ll go
bankrupt. And then no one will have a job.”
The rulers of this land didn’t want trouble. They wanted the land of pain and sorrow to
be a land of fairness and justice for all. And besides, once in a while, workers did win by
suing. This cost the factory owners a lot of money, and it was bad for business.
So the rulers asked a famous man to help. His name was Sir William Meredith, and he
sat on a Royal Commission to find ways to compensate injured workers for their lost
wages and their pain, and to protect the interests of business people too.
Sir William Meredith was a ruler himself, a leader of the Progressive Conservative
Party. He was also a judge, and he believed in justice for everybody, so that the land
would be safe and prosperous, and free of social unrest.
Meredith listened to many people to decide important questions about compensation
like: how much, for how long, and who pays?
24
He listened to Wegenast, the leader of the factory owners (manufacturers), who
wanted to pay as little as possible for as short a time as possible. Wegenast blamed
workers for their injuries and spread fears of economic disaster if manufacturers had
to pay.
He listened to Bancroft, the leader of the workers, who wanted the manufacturers to
pay for retraining, medical care, full wages and if not, to keep the right to sue for more.
Sir William Justice Meredith made a compromise between the two sides based on
principles that are enshrined to this day in the literature of the WSIB. He called for
Full Justice, No Half Measures
He set up a no fault system of guaranteed compensation for as long as a disability
lasts, paid for by employers as a group into a collective fund for this purpose, to be
administered by an independent agency free of political partisanship.
In return, injured workers forever gave up their right to sue, even if it was the
employer’s fault that they got hurt. That was nearly a hundred years ago:
7:30-7:45pm
Break
7:45-8:00
Meredith’s Report & Activities
25
Meredith’s Final Report – Extracts for Study
Sir William Ralph Meredith
I believe the true aim of a compensation law is to provide for the injured workman and
his dependants and to prevent their becoming a charge upon their relatives or friends,
or upon the community at large....A just compensation law …ought to provide that the
compensation should continue to be paid as long as the disability caused by the
accident lasts, and the amount of compensation should have relation to the earning
power of the injured workman.
…
In these days of social and industrial unrest it is, in my judgment, of the gravest
importance to the community that every proved injustice to any sections or class
resulting from bad or unfair laws should be promptly removed by the enactment of
remedial legislation and I do not doubt that the country whose Legislature is quick to
discern and prompt to remove injustice will enjoy, and that deservedly, the blessing of
industrial peace and freedom from social unrest.
Half measures which mitigate but do not remove injustice are, in my judgment, to be
avoided. That the existing law inflicts injustice on the workingman is admitted by all.
From that injustice he has long suffered, and it would, in my judgment, be the gravest
mistake if questions as to the scope and character of the proposed remedial legislation
were to be determined, not by a consideration of what is just to the workingman, but of
what is the least he can be put off with, or if the Legislature were to be deterred from
passing a law designed to do full justice owing to groundless fears that disaster to the
industries of the Province would follow from the enactment of it.
26
ACTIVITY #4: DISCUSS REPORT
Look closely at the extracts from Meredith’s Final Report.
Please consider the following questions for discussion:
1. What words strike you? Pick a favourite word or phrase and be prepared to say
why you like it.
2. Pick a word or phrase that you don’t understand. Look it up in the dictionary.
3. What does Judge Meredith actually mean? Could you retell it in your own words?
4. Can you find any guiding principles in these words? What are they?
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY #5: EXTRACT PRINCIPLES
Define Principle:
• a basic truth, law or assumption, from a Latin word meaning “beginning”
• a basic idea or rule that explains or controls how something happens or
works
In exchange for the ban on suing, Justice Meredith set out a number of
principles or guidelines that would govern the workers’ compensation system.
He did not issue a list of principles like the “10 Commandments” - therefore his
principles need to be extracted from the Final Report.
Let’s try to extract these principles. Based on your homework questions, what
principles, or essential points, do you think are contained in the Meredith
Report?
Ask yourself:
What is Meredith saying?
What words or phrases strike you?
What are some principles you see?
Meredith’s report resulted in:
“The Historic Compromise”
8:00-8:30pm
Historic Compromise & Activities
27
1914 Workman’s Compensation Act - “The Historic Compromise”
Workers gave up the right to sue in exchange for security of compensation
Employers received protection from lawsuits and agreed to pay predictable
costs.
The compensation system that enshrined this historic compromise was based on
a number of principles, which we will refer to as The Meredith Principles.
1. No Fault – no need to prove the accident was employer’s fault, no extra
charge on employer
2. Non-Adversarial – enquiry system; worker’s claim cannot be challenged
in court; no blame,
3. Security of Benefits – worker can depend on prompt payment for as long
as disability lasts
4. Compensation as long as disability lasts
5. Employer pays – because can pass cost on to others; worker pays through
lost income & pain
6. Collective liability – employers all pay into one accident fund; no impact
from specific accident. (Note: some employers are in “Schedule II” – they
are billed for all costs of accidents/illness to their workers and often fight
these claims; eg Railways, etc)
7. Independent Agency – set up to administer assessments and handle
claims; non-partisan
28
Fundamental Shifts in the Compensation System since 1914
Original Intention:
Arms length non-adversarial compensation system delivered by non-partisan
independent agency intended to promote stable relations between employers and
workers, with predictable costs for one and security of benefits for as long as disability
lasts for the other.
Current Reality
Highly adversarial insurance-style system; with millions of dollars at stake for
employers, and poverty, fear and perpetual probation the result for injured workers.
What happened to Full Justice, no Half measures?
1. Change in attitude to workers:
Concept of justice for injured workers replaced by concept of fraud and cheating
by injured workers– Wyatt Company Report 1978
2. Change in duration & calculation of benefits:
Pensions for life replaced by deeming – phantom jobs, phantom wages
Professor Paul Weiler’s report 1980, Bill 162 eliminates pensions as of 1990
3. Change in way employer pays:
Assessment rates based only on risk of group (collective liability) changed by
introduction of experience rating (individual, highly adversarial) 1980s, 90s
4. Change in name of system:
From Workers’ Compensation Board to Workplace, Safety and Insurance Board
To better reflect shift from public compensation to private insurance principles
Hon. Cam Jackson’s New Directions, resulting in Bill 99, takes effect 1998.
5. Change in financial confidence and model:
•
•
•
•
•
Fears of economic disaster groundless (Meredith 1913)
UFL no threat to fiscal soundness - full funding not good for employers (Weiler 1980)
These ideas replaced by escalating fear of unfunded liability & financial crisis:
High unfunded liability and correspondingly high assessment rates affect the
province’s ability to retain and attract investment. (Cam Jackson Report 1996)
UFL could threaten future benefits (Auditor General Report 2009)
Harry Arthurs’ WSIB Funding Review 2010/11
29
8:30
Breathing Excercise
ACTIVITY #6: Breathing Practice #2
Reminder: You can take a rest after you breathe out – don’t hold your breath!
Breathing Out is more Important than Breathing In
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
If you get nervous when speaking or about to speak, always focus on breathing
OUT. Breathing in will take care of itself if you let it.
Never hold your breath after breathing IN.
You will be retaining carbon monoxide. It may make you dizzy.
This is called hyperventilating.
Notice that whenever we prepare to speak, we tend to “take a breath” and hold it.
This will make us more nervous and not give us enough air.
If you notice yourself “take a breath”, let it go, just let it out right away in a little
sigh: “haaaaa”
Start Ten minute Breathing Practice
30
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY #7: Role Play and Discussion: In Their Shoes. In Our
Shoes
Featuring:
Mr. E. C. Hunt, Mr. F. W. Wegenast,
Mr. Fred Bancroft, Sir William Meredith

Groups with four in each. Each person to be assigned/chose one of the
characters of the time:
Hunt
Wegenast
Bancroft
Meredith
[If an extra person—can play media – ask questions]
31
8:30-8:45
Assign Homework and Evaluation
HOMEWORK ACTVITY - MY FAVOURITE PRINCIPLE
Prepare to give a 2 Minute Speech in class next week
Topic: Your thoughts or story on the following:
1. My favourite principle (pick one)
2. Has it been broken or upheld in my own experience with the
compensation system?
Then prepare for next class by reflecting on these questions:
3. What do you think has changed since 1915?
- in society?
- in compensation system?
4. What has happened to Meredith’s founding principles?
Meredith’s Principles: Full Justice, No Half Measures:
No Fault
Non-Adversarial
Security of Benefits
Prompt Settlement
Compensation as long as disability lasts
Employer pays
Collective liability
Independent Agency
32
Lesson #3 Plan: Pensions to Deeming: Professor Weiler and
Bill 162
Guest Speaker: Andrew Bolter, ED of CLAS
6:00-6:30
6:30-6:45pm
Homework Activity
HOMEWORK ACTIVITY: Go Around: 2 minute speeches
1. What is your favourite principle?
2. Has it been broken or upheld in your own experience with the
compensation system?
Instructions:
1. Each person has 2 minutes to answer questions in a Go Around.
2. Flip chart “what struck us” – words and phrases from listening
to speeches.
3. What were people’s favourite principles? Flip chart these too.
6:45-7:15
GUEST SPEAKER-ANDREW BOLTER, CLAS
33
From Pensions to Deeming: Hand outs to accompany Guest Speaker
Summary:
From 1915-1990 injured workers with permanent disability whose claims were
recognized by the Board were given pensions for life, abiding by Meredith’s principles
of Security of Benefits, and Compensation as Long as Disability Lasts.
In 1990, that changed. Pensions were replaced by a wage-loss system, which
undermined both of those principles and introduced the concept of deeming. How did
this happen?
A. Review and Recap
First Principles- Compensation as Long as Disability Lasts
Let’s go back to the “Bible”, Sir William Meredith’s Final Report.
A just compensation law…ought to provide that the compensation should continue to be paid
as long as the disability caused by the accident lasts, and the amount of compensation should
have relation to the earning power of the injured workman.
To limit the period during which the compensation is to be paid regardless of the duration of
the liability… is, in my opinion, not only inconsistent with the principle upon which a true
compensation law is based, but unjust to the injured workman.
If the disability continues beyond the prescribed period he will be left with his impaired
earning power or, if he is totally disabled, without any earning power… to become a burden on
his relatives or friends or upon the community.
Wyatt Report: Disability will Last as long as Compensation is Available
Nearly 70 years later, by the time The Wyatt Company released its report, the tides of
opinion are turning. Injured workers are “only human”, suffer from “moral hazard”,
and are likely to cheat.
It is highly probable that access to adequate levels of disability income will increase
both the incidence and the length of disability…in part the effect will be caused by
persons taking advantage of the system.
The Wyatt Report, 1978
Meredith’s Principle of “just compensation” has been replaced by a “self-evident
truth”* about human nature. If there are adequate benefits for enough time, people
will get hurt.
This report inspired and informed Bill 99, passed in 1998 by the Harris and
the PC Government. (more on this bill, which changed Compensation to
Insurance, in Class #4)
* (Ed note: Compare US Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal”. Did Wyatt Co (a US based firm) deliberately use this language?)
34
B. The 1980’s - Reshaping Workers’ Compensation in Ontario.
Who’s Who in the War of Words – The Clash of the Titans (Professors)
Professor Paul Weiler
Law Professor at Harvard University, originally Canadian, described by the Financial
Post as "the foremost labour law scholar in North America " – wrote “Reshaping
Workers’ Compensation in Ontario” 1980
Professor Terence Ison
Law Professor at University of Toronto, wrote “Workers Compensation in Ontario. A
Commentary on the Report Entitled Reshaping Workers’ Compensation in Ontario by
Paul C. Weiler” 1981
1980 - Harvard Professor Paul Weiler is asked by the Liberal government to look into
problems with Workers’ Compensation. Unlike Meredith he holds no public
consultations. He publishes his ideas and analysis in a paper called Reshaping
Workers’ Compensation in Ontario.
The permanent partial disability claim is by far the most troublesome and intractable
problem with which the WCB must contend.
Despite his earlier industrial accident and current physical impairment, the compensation
claimant is capable of working, and there is a job slot waiting for him. If he declines
this job, then the earnings he loses should be imputed to his choice, not to the original
accident. The shortfall in income should not be the responsibility of those who must foot the
bill for workers’ compensation. (emphasis mine)
~ Professor Paul Weiler, Reshaping Worker’s Compensation, 1980
Weiler did not believe in paying compensation as long as the disability lasts if the
injured worker could be working. The Board, he believed, should focus on better
vocational rehabilitation to get people working and review their benefits according to
their new wages.
He recommended a “true wage loss system”, that would replace the old system of
pensions for life calculated by a percentage of “impaired earning power” according to
the body part affected.
Weiler claimed this would be a fairer system for all, as at present some workers were
paid too much, while others were paid too little. He explained, calling his examples
“Child’s Play:”
His report inspired Bill 162 and the concepts of deeming, dual award systems,
labour market reentry, and eliminating lifetime pensions (see below)… However,
workers managed to successfully fight the bill for 10 years. Proposed in 1980, it
was not passed until 1989, and did not come into effect until 1990.
35
C. Child’s
Play
The notorious “meat chart” is the logical result (of the pension system)
dictating that the loss of an arm will produce a pension benefit of 70% of
previous earnings loss of a leg 50% and so on. It is child’s play to sketch
examples which show the anomalous even absurd results. A staff lawyer who
loses his left hand (perhaps in a car accident while driving to court) would
receive a lifetime pension much higher in amount than would a labourer
because of the difference in their previous earnings to which the percentage
rating is applied. This is so even though the lawyer would suffer no long-term
income loss as all while the labourer who might be theoretically capable of
performing a different job might be unable to find suitable and available work…”
(emphasis mine)
Professor Paul Weiler, Reshaping Workers’ Compensation in Ontario1980
Childs Play: A Fable of Fat Cats and Skinny Mice: A Tall Tale Told by Professor Weiler
Someone in our class described the two kinds of injured worker as fat cats & skinny
mice. The image turned into a story:
Once upon a time, team, in the last century, way, way back in 1980, there were two
kinds of injured workers.
Some had it good, oh so good. They had been lawyers and other professionals. And even
though they had lost an arm in an accident in the course of work, say, driving to court,
they still made a good living in their old job, quite unaffected by only using one arm.
After all, they had secretaries to do all their typing. And not only that, they had lifetime
pensions based on the high, high earnings they made before they were injured. They
were the fat cats.
Then there were the poor little starving mice. Some of them had lost an arm too,
working on dangerous machinery at the only job they knew: manual labour, making a
living with their own two hands - till now. Now they couldn’t go back to their old job,
and they couldn’t find another - they needed both arms to work, and their pensions
were skinny too, based on their much, much lower earnings before they got hurt.
Well team, isn’t this a terrible shame? The fat cats get all the compensation cake, and
the skinny mice get hardly even a crumb. No fair.
Then along came a jolly professor, a very smart thinking sort of man; he’d gone to the
best school in the United States of America, Harvard University. He knew all about
36
solving problems like fat cats and skinny mice. His name was Professor Paul Weiler,
and he was a one man show. He didn’t have to ask anyone’s opinion or waste time
listening to the public, or holding hearings, like that old Judge Meredith did with his
Royal Commission. So the government asked him to fix up the compensation system so
it would be fairer to all the cats and mice. And not cost so much money to employers of
course.
Well, Professor Weiler thought and thought, and wrote and wrote, and came up with a
plan to change the shape of the entire compensation system.
1. Get rid of those pesky unfair lifetime pensions. They were based on something
called a “meat chart” that awarded benefits based on body parts.
2. TWO awards are better than one- dual award system replaces pensions for life
3. Award #1: NEL (non-economic loss). One-time-only lump sum. Since the fat
cats and the skinny mice had both lost an arm, it was only fair to give them the
same amount for their pain and suffering at not having an arm. They could pay
down their mortgage or buy a nice new car.
4. Award #2: FEL (future economic loss). Benefits based on actual wages lost. The
fat cat who still keeps working at his law practice doesn’t get anything. The
skinny mice get benefits of course, if they can’t find suitable and available work
to do with their one arm.
5. Vocational rehabiliation: Board will help skinny mice get better enough to work
at something – Board did this before, but will focus on it more now.
6. Deeming: when skinny mice don’t want to take jobs offered, Board should “deem”
the mice to be working, and pay benefits based on difference between previous
earnings and “deemed” wages.
Well, this was a great plan. It would save lots of money for employers. But would you
believe it, the ungrateful cats and mice got together and fought against it successfully
for Ten Years! Till Bill 162 passed in 1989, and finally took effect in 1990. And the
cats and mice did not live so happily ever after.
The End
37
D. Words & Concepts in Bill 162
1. Bill 162
3. dual award system: FEL & NEL,
5. “meat chart”
7. pension
9. “perpetual probation”
11. wage loss system
2. Deeming
4. LMR – labour market reentry
6. “paramilitary flavour”
8. permanent partial disability
10. vocational rehabilitation
1. Bill 162- Passed by Liberal Government in 1989, takes effect Jan 1, 1990
Eliminates pensions for life for workers injured after 1990.
Establishes a dual award system.
Includes “deeming” for workers who refused “suitable and available” jobs.
Entrenches vocational rehabilitation within the Board (helping workers prepare
for work)
Based on Professor Weiler’s Report: Reshaping Worker’s Compensation
2. Deeming – You have a Job “Because I Say So”
Word definition:
- comes from Old English “doom” – certainly feels like doom to injured workers
- means “to decide, consider, judge, sentence, condemn, determine, treat as if”
To deem is to consider something as having certain characteristics. If an act is
deemed a crime by law, then it is held to be a crime. (“Because I Say So”) If
someone is deemed liable for damages, then he or she will have to pay them.
(“Because I Say So”). If the Board deems that an injured worker is able to work,
then he or she is deemed to have a job. (“Because I Say So”). Even if they don’t.
And therefore they have “deemed” income, which will be deducted from benefits.
(Even if they’re not earning any real money because they don’t have a job).
Deeming – How did it Begin?
The concept of “deemed” income was first introduced to Ontario Workers
Compensation by Professor Paul Weiler, an academic who was asked to review
the system in 1980.
The notion of “deemed” income is both economically necessary and fair in principle.
Professor Weiler, 1980
The use of deemed earnings has been one of the greatest causes of anger and complaint
in the history of workers’ compensation.
Terence Ison, 1981
38
Deeming - When did it become Law?
In 1980, Professor Weiler wanted to change the system and eliminate pensions for life.
This violates the Meredith Principle of Compensation as long as the Disability Lasts.
Injured workers fought successfully against eliminating pensions for ten years until
Bill 162 was passed in 1989 and deeming was established - for those injured after 1990
when it took effect. Those injured before 1990 remained on the pension system for life.
Under Bill 162, if an injured worker is considered to have access to “suitable and
available” employment and refuses to take it, he or she is “deemed” to have the job.
They are then “treated as if” they are working at this job and “treated as if” they are
receiving wages for it. These “wages”, which do not exist, are then deducted from the
benefits that they are currently receiving (if any).
By Bill 99, the word “available” was taken out of the equation, and injured workers
were now deemed to have jobs even when no jobs are available and they cannot find
employment. That is, if they have been retrained through LM R – (labour market
reentry, see below). If they can’t do the training because of their injury, they are
deemed to have the job anyway. (“Because I Say So”). Sometimes they are not even
offered LMR because they are deemed to be able to find a minimum-wage job without
training (“Because I Say So”)
As time goes by, injured workers are deemed to have received a raise in wages from
their non-existent job, and their benefits are further reduced.
2007: Liberals promised to eliminate deeming with Bill 187. Deeming is still in
operation as of 2011.
3. Dual Award System: NEL & FEL – the Twins from Hell: Two is not Better than
One
When Bill 162 eliminated pensions for life, they were replaced by two awards—a dual
award system. Sounds as though injured workers were getting twice as much. Were
they?
1) NEL – Non-Economic Loss
– the lump sump one-time-only payment given to an injured worker for their pain,
suffering & loss of quality of life – compensation for disability itself.
2) FEL – Future Economic Loss
– benefits awarded to replace the wages the injured workers are projected to have lost compensation for loss of earnings caused by disability.
39
If they get a job they don’t get benefits. If the new job pays less than the one they were
doing when injured, they get partial benefits to make up the difference. To prevent
injured workers choosing to stay on benefits instead of working, they can be deemed to
have a job (see above)
4. LMR - Labour Market Reentry: “Because I Say So” – Opportunity or Nightmare?
Labour Market Reentry program – training required for injured workers to “reduce or
eliminate loss of earnings that may result from the injury”. Determined by Board.
Under Bill 99 LMR replaced Board vocational rehabilitation department, now
contracted out to private consultants. Board pays related tuition fees plus injured
worker’s benefits for the duration of training. If pre-injury wages were low, no need for
much training. Keep it short to save on benefits. No opportunity to improve earning
capacity.
Private schools charge high fees but deliver training in short timespans – Board pays
more to service provider upfront but saves money by not paying ongoing benefits to
injured worker. Injured workers are often not able to work at this intense pace – they
can be considered (deemed) uncooperative and their benefits are often cut off.
Nightmare.
5. “Meat Chart” - Benefits Calculated on the Comparative Impairment of Body
Parts
Also called “The Physical Impairment Method” (by Terence Ison), the “meat chart” was
a phrase coined by injured workers to describe the way benefits were calculated under
the pension system for permanent disability:
It is a rating schedule developed by WCB “that purports to tell you the impairment
of earning capacity experienced by the average unskilled labourer as a result of
any of the listed conditions. That percentage was multiplied by adjusted pre-injury
earnings to give a pension amount that was paid for the life of the injured worker,
regardless of the actual impact on the injured worker’ s earnings.” (Ed note: italics
mine)
John McKinnon, IWC
6. Paramilitary Flavour
Not a kind of ice cream, but a description of the way Board voc rehab employees would
become “benefit control officers” instead of helping with rehabilitation - according to
Terence Ison, who studied Professor Weiler’s plans to change the compensation system
in the early 1980’s:
“When a rehabilitation consultant at the Board is so heavily involved in the
reduction of claims costs, a disabled worker can have no confidence that the
consultant is objectively turning his mind to the question of what career pattern
40
would best suit the long-term interests of the worker, and hence no confidence
that his advice as to suitable employment is in the interests of the worker.”
“The rehabilitation division of the Board would take on a paramilitary flavour,
with the “we know what’s good for them” approach to rehabiliation becoming a
dominant theme.” (Because I Say So)
Terence Ison, Re: Workers’ Compensation in Ontario, A Commentary, 1981
(Ed note: emphasis mine)
7. Pensions For Life – Divide and Conquer
Pension
- a periodical payment made to person in consideration of past service or on other
grounds. (Oxford English Dictionary)
From 1915 – 1990, permanently disabled workers in Ontario were given a pension.
Although often quite small, a pension comes regularly for the rest of the worker’s life.
A pension upholds two of Meredith’s Principles:
Compensation as Long as the Disability Lasts: Disability for life = Pension for life
Security of Payment: the injured worker can count on it, no ups and downs or changes.
A fixed pension is an incentive to rehabilitation:
A worker is told that the pension is payable for life. He can do what he likes, go
where he likes, earn as much as he can, embark on any career that he can, adopt the
lifestyle of his choice, and nothing that he does will be called into question to impair
the continuity of the pension.
Terence Ison, Commentary on Workers Compensation
Groups of injured workers fought for ten years to keep the pension system in place.
When it was finally eliminated in Bill 162, the changes only applied to those injured
after 1990. This drastically reduced the numbers of those directly affected, although
many continued to fight.
8. Permanent Partial Disability – How Do You Spell Trouble? PPD!
Not completely disabled, but not expected to change in the future (i.e. won’t get better)
Permanent partial disability cases:
- generate the majority of conflicts and appeals. It is claimants in these cases who
form unions of injured workers and protest the injustices of the system. This is the
41
greatest challenge the Legislature must meet in renovating the structure of
workers compensation in this province.
- are numerous and comparatively costly. A good many involve back problems or
other kinds of soft tissue injuries whose identification and scope are largely
subjective.
Prof. Weiler, Reshaping Workers Compensation, 1980 (Ed note:emphasis
mine)
9. Perpetual Probation – Terence Ison Tells it Like It Is.
This is the lived experience of an injured worker under Weiler’s wage loss system
With a pension, the claim and benefit levels are only determined once.
Under a wage loss system, an injured worker is subjected to constant review:
…the position of a worker, including his medical condition, his work, and his work
opportunities would be the subject of continuing investigation by the Board. It would
almost be like a sentence of perpetual probation.
Terence Ison, Commentary on Workers’ Compensation (Ed note: emphasis
mine)
Perpetual means forever, always.
Probation is like being a prisoner - let out of jail but having to report to someone
Probation comes from the word “Prove”
Always having to prove yourself.
Orlando Buonastella, Injured Workers Speakers School 2009
10. Vocational Rehabilitation
Vocational = relating to job or career
Rehabilitation = restoration of someone to a useful place in society
Bill 162
- vocational rehabilitation services must be provided through the Board
Bill 99
- renamed Labour Market Reentry (LMR) and out-sourced to private consultants (see
LMR)
11. Wage Loss System – Proposed by Professor Weiler to Replace Pensions
Based on projected loss of earnings (not percentage of physical impairment)
- subject to constant review by adjudicators to determine benefit levels (if any)
- includes deeming as disincentive to “stay home and collect benefits”
- if benefits awarded, lasts only to age 65 (retirement)
42
E. Beware of simple villains: Weiler brought good news and bad news.
This class was a study of the Bad News – pensions out, deeming in: “perpetual
probation”
Good News Weiler:
- Supported cost of living adjustments (necessary for injured workers – adjustments
not increases - without them, employers will get the extra cash)
- Saw through fears of unfunded liability (not a problem, in fact benefits employers)
- Introduced the WCAT – Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal – an independent
tribunal for appealing WCB decisions (now WSIAT)
7:15-7:30
Optional Activity
Meredith’s Meditation
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Breathing through the Thoughts
Go through your own copy of Meredith’s Final Paragraph and make a / mark for each
thought. This is called a “beat”
Read it aloud in turn, pausing at each beat / to allow a new breath to drop in
7:30-7:45
BREAK
7:45-8:15
ACTIVITIES
ACTVITY: Breathing Practice #3
Resting after breathing out – letting breath replace
Five Minute Breathing Practice
The important thing is for people to practice every week – or every day!
Remember: You can wait for a little while after you breathe out, but never hold
breath after you breathe in.
Let’s try this: take a rest after you breathe out
43
ACTIVITY: Role Play Devil’s Advocate
Divide into groups of 3. Meredith has come back from the grave. An employer
tries to persuade him that the system is much better since we got rid of pensions;
an injured worker tries to tell him that deeming is far worse. Who is more
convincing? Remember, Meredith is a judge, so the two sides must respect the
courtroom
Presentation to whole group
8:15-8:30
Evaluation and Wrap Up
44
Lesson #4 Plan: Compensation to Insurance – Wyatt & Moral
Hazard
Guest Speaker: Jeff Plains, Baamsedaa project, Aamjiwnaang First Nations
-
6:00-6:30
Refreshments & Greetings 6:30-7:00
Guest Speaker
7:00-7:30
Activities
Systems: Compensation, Insurance, Welfare – Definitions &
Differences
There are basic conceptual differences in the systems that we will be talking
about.
The two most often compared are compensation and insurance since that is the
major change in government thinking since Meredith.
Bill 99 - In 1998 Mike Harris and the Conservative government passed the
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. Among other things, it changed the name
from Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) to Workplace Safety & Insurance
Board (WSIB). Bill 99 changes were based on recommendations from the
1978 Wyatt Report.
Most injured workers today are involved with the WSIB while older injured
workers and current advocates still call it the WCB to remind people that it was
intended to be about compensation not insurance.
Another system that is often confused with compensation is welfare/social
assistance
For injured workers this is a matter of dignity and history: in 1915 they gave up
the right to sue in exchange for compensation. Compensation is a legal
replacement for loss of earnings for which the employers are collectively liable. It
is not a charity. Nor is it a social program for those in need. In 1915 there was no
income tax, and no social safety net.
45
ACTIVITY: What does compensation mean?
1) What social systems are set up? (compensation, welfare, insurance) What are
the differences?
2) Ask class then look up compensation, welfare and insurance in dictionary.
Flip chart responses and definition.
3) What is the most important difference between compensation and welfare?
Why? Refer to Historic Compromise.
NB Make sure to check in with class first as participants may have
experience with both systems. Workers compensation is a right
based on responsibility of employers to keep workplace safe and
compensate for injuries. Welfare is a social program based on
demonstrated need of recipient.
DEFINITIONS:
Compensation
- something (such as money) given or received as payment or reparation (as
for a service or loss or injury)
- something given or received as an equivalent for services, debt, loss, injury,
suffering, lack, etc
- compensation has the definite connotation of an equal exchange
Welfare
- financial assistance - funded by tax dollars, given by the government to
people in need
- government programs of last resort that provide financial assistance on the
basis of a test that takes into account the applicant household's financial
resources and needs
Insurance
a. Coverage by a contract binding a party to indemnify another against specified
loss in return for premiums paid.
b. The sum or rate for which such a contract insures something.
c. The periodic premium paid for this coverage.
OR:
1. the act, system, or business of providing financial protection for property, life,
health, etc., against specified contingencies, such as death, loss, or damage, and
involving payment of regular premiums in return for a policy guaranteeing such
protection
2. a means of protecting or safeguarding against risk or injury
46
One way to understand the difference between the systems is to ask the
question
1. “What are the benefits based on?”
Compensation: is earnings-based
Welfare & social programs : are needs-based
Insurance: is based on coverage purchased by individual client
2. Another important question is “Who pays?”
Compensation:
The employer – money comes from assessments based on payroll at certain
group rates (according to safety record of group)
Welfare:
The community – money comes from all society principally through taxes based
on income
Insurance:
The person to be covered (protected against risk) – money comes from
premiums paid by the individual based on actuarial likelihood of risk.
NB. Meredith said that employers should pay because they can best afford it
(they can treat it as a cost of doing business and pass the cost on to the
customers and to the workers).
Here’s Bancroft on the subject: “We desire an act commencing with the basic
principle of State managed compensation fund…with no contribution from
workmen, except that which they lose in wages as a result of not being paid full
wages when incapacitated. Sir William Meredith agreed.
For instance: if compensation is 70% of wages then the workers contribute 30%
in loss of wages, as well as their pain and suffering.
47
ACTIVITY: Breathing Practice #4
How Breath Makes Sound
Reminders
Reminder: “It isn’t about relaxation, it’s about being ready.”
Reminder: “Breathing OUT is most important thing.”
Reminder: “Don’t Hold your Breath” but you can rest after out breath.
How does our voice work? How does breathing help us speak?
New Idea: More air = more vibrations = more sound power
Voice responds to stimulus from brain. If you see a fire, you yell “FIRE!”
without thinking about being loud enough or how much breath you need. Your
voice responds automatically to the need to communicate.
1) How does this work?
a) Brain has impulse to communicate (sees fire)
b) Breath drops in to lungs (where are lungs?)
c) Breathing muscles squeeze lungs to send column of air over vocal cords
(where are vocal cords?)
d) Vocal cords vibrate – sound comes out of mouth (FIRE!)
e) When you need it, breath is replaced through mouth
f) More air = more vibration = more sound
2) Breathing Practice.
7:30-745
Break
7:45-8:15
Activities
From Meredith to Wyatt – Compensation becomes Insurance
48
ACTIVITY: Wyatt vs. Meredith
Read the following three pages about the Wyatt Report:
1. Discuss Mr. Wenegast’s attitude… Is it still present?
2. What is the Wyatt attitude to injured workers?
3. Which of Meredith principles have changed or been
discarded?
4. Discuss the 1915 – 1980 changes in the compensation
system. What stands out?
5. Groups present their findings Flip chart the results.
William Grenville Davis, Ontario Premier 1971-1985
49
The Wyatt Report in 1978 paved the way for Bill 99 in 1998:
During the Royal Commission, employer representative Mr.Wegenast suggested injured
workers were drunk, lazy, careless, or at best distracted. It was not the employers’ fault
if they got injured. Wegenast tried to prove this by telling stories from his own
experience. Judge Meredith did not agree.
Judge Meredith: Have you any figures to show the number of accidents in a particular
class of manufacture or generally, that have been due to intoxication of the workmen?
Mr. Wegenast: I have no figures. I have a number of instances, but I have covered the
field sufficiently.
Wegenast argued strongly that injured workers should contribute to a compensation
scheme. If employers had to pay for it, he said, economic disaster would follow. It was
also unfair, as injured workers would get more for their injury than for their job.
Mr. Wegenast: Take a man who has been earning two dollars a day. You pay him if he is
incapacitated, we will say, one dollar a day. Now, he gets that till he is sixty-five,
Seventy-Five or Eighty years old.
In the natural course of things he would not have earned two dollars a day for all that
time. He might have been killed or otherwise injured. He might have been injured
outside of the employment altogether.
What the employer would be asked to do under a non-contributory scheme would be to
insure that man not only against the result of occupational injury but also against nonemployment for the rest of his days, against accident from any other reason, against old
age, and against invalidity.
Judge Meredith resisted these arguments and said that
1) injured workers were entitled to full compensation as long as their disability lasts
2) fears of economic disaster were groundless
Judge Meredith: You have injured the man; why should all these problematical things
enter into it, that he might possibly have been injured in some other way if he had not
been injured in that way? The man was all right until he got hurt in your
establishment.
Wegenast didn’t like this.
Mr. Wegenast: We are not only asked to give him what he has lost, but a good deal more.
Mr. Bancroft: The average life of the working classes in Europe is less than 50 years.
Judge Meredith: But a man who is a pensioner lives forever.
Meredith was joking of course. But Wegenast was not, and his arguments on behalf
of employers did not go away over the years. The spirit of “Wegenast” lives on - &
takes over.
50
Small Improvements 1915-78
While “full justice” was never implemented in practice, Meredith’s principles
remained in force, with small improvements to the Workers’ Compensation
system coming in over the years: higher percentage of wages, shorter waiting
time, more workers covered. For details see Compensation Changes 1915-1978
which follows.
Enter the Tax Payer
With income tax bringing money into the public purse, social programs began to
be established, paid for by tax payers: welfare, old age security, unemployment
insurance, health care.
New Ways to Get Hurt at Work
Meanwhile new technology at work meant many new injuries: disablement from
repetitive tasks, soft tissue injuries, muscular skeletal disorders, RSI. These
injuries were often invisible – they were hard to prove and often discounted by
WCB. At the same time injured workers were organizing and finding collective
strength – in 1974 they formed the Union of Injured Workers.
“Wegenast” (or his descendants) Finds the Facts & Figures
But employers were also finding collective strength. The employer arguments
made by Wegenast in 1913 were about to stage a massive comeback as employer
representatives at last found facts and figures to discredit injured workers and
save employers some money.
In 1978, the Davis government commissioned a report by the multinational USbased Wyatt Company of actuaries, financial experts with graphs and charts
and a sprinkling of pop psychology. They submitted a report, which “proved”
that the human condition (at least that of injured workers) is one of infinite
greed.
Meredith’s principles of justice and compensation for injured workers began to
be replaced with employer principles of private insurance and profitability. This
became clear in the Hon Cam Jackson’s report to the Harris Government: New
Directions in Workers’ Compensation Reform in 1996, with its emphasis on
reducing the unfunded liability while protecting assessment rates.
In 1998, the Harris government entrenched these principles in Bill 99
The name Worker’s Compensation Board was changed to Workplace Safety and
Insurance Board, in one stroke eliminating the concept of “workers” and
“compensation”. Currently the spirit of old “Wegenast” is in charge, putting
“groundless fears of economic disaster” ahead of justice to injured workers.
51
Compensation Changes: 1915- 1980
The following is a partial list of improvements in the system in this time frame:
1915 - full compensation based on 55% of gross wages, waiting period 7 calendar days
Historical note:
1915, World War I begins
1920 - full compensation based on 66 2/3 of gross benefits, clerical workers covered
Historical Note:
1918 -women have the right to vote in Canada
1925 – the value of rehabilitation is first recognized with an annual budget
Historical note:
1929 – the great depression begins;
1940 – first Unemployment Insurance Act;
1945 – World War 2 ends. After WWII, there is a major advance of
industry and technology producing new physical and occupational
conditions and diseases.
1950 - full compensation based on 75% of gross wages
1952 - waiting period 5 calendar days
1953 – exclusion of coverage for firms with limited number of employees eliminated
1957 – retail store employees covered
1958 – WCB opens its own hospital in Downsview, Ontario
1963 - waiting period 3 calendar days; physical disablement arising slowly over time is covered
(“disablement”), i.e. repetitive motion on the production line
Historical note:
1965 - The Canada Pension Plan is established for retirement and
disability
1966 – farm employees covered, coverage available for independent operators on a voluntary
basis
1968 - waiting period remainder of day of injury, forest firefighters covered, budget limit for
rehabilitation is removed
1974 – pension supplements are introduced. Partial ad hoc cost of living increases begin
1975 – auxiliary police and search and rescue missions covered
Historical note: The Union of Injured Workers is formed in 1974. Injured workers
begin to protest and get community support to get “job security of full compensation”
1978 – the Davis Government asks the Wyatt Company to review the benefits for injured
workers. For the first time a private business is in charge of recommending changes for
injured workers
1980 – Professor Paul Weiler fails to have public hearings and produces a number of
recommendations. Some very negative, like the elimination of WC pensions for life an
“deeming”, as well as “experience rating”, the system of rewarding or penalizing employers for
reported injuries and compensation costs. Other changes are positive: full cost of living, an
independent appeal tribunal, an independent Occupational Disease Standard Panel, the OWA,
etc.
1980-85 – The injured workers’ movement is up in arms, especially in Toronto. Thousands of
injured workers protest the loss of pensions and the new “deeming system”. The Government
decides to postpone deeming and implements the positive parts of Weiler
Question: Was the Meredith Principle of Full Justice, Not Half Measures ever realised in
practice? Why not? Are the Principles less valid, or still to be realised?
52
Definition of Actuary (Wyatt and Company are actuaries)
Meredith put in place a compensation system run by the Workers’ Compensation Board
(WCB). Now it is called the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). What
happened? What changed?
What is an actuary? As the joke goes, someone who makes an accountant look
exciting. Steeped with a great knowledge of math, statistics, probabilities and
the like, an actuary calculates the probability of accidents, such as fire, flood or
loss of property, and informs insurance companies how much they should
charge their customers
Punk Actuaries…
8:15-8:30
Homework
53
Preparation for Next Class:
1. A Picture is worth a Thousand Words
2. Prepare to give a 2 minute speech for next time (see homework sheet)
HOMEWORK ACTIVITY- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Here are some examples of using words that paint pictures, so your audience can see,
hear, smell and taste what you are showing them.
Give us bread but give us roses
Women textile workers, Lawrence Textile Strike 1912
The feeling of empathy is never on the menu, neither is compassion, but you can get
bowls of injustice, assumptions, regulations and policies with a dash of inhumanity
treatment
Barbara Stewart Fischer, Injured Worker, November 2007
Here’s what the Wyatt Report says: “If they make the pie too good, there will be too
many bites” – and now we’re getting crumbs
Frances Nicholson, Injured Worker, November 2008
At the beginning I want to tell you nice story about an animal called Groundhog. The
Groundhog is emerging from its burrow on the second of February every year. If The
Groundhog doesn’t see its shadow, it means that winter will finish soon, but if it sees its
shadow, it will retreat into its burrow, which means that winter will continue for six
more weeks. We as injured workers show up every day from our homes but every day
we see our shadows which means that winter will continue for the rest of our lives.
Abdulkarim Muslem, Injured Worker, May 2009
PREPARATION ASSIGNMENT:
For next week, prepare a 2 minute speech using an image or words that paint a picture.
You can choose one of the following ideas:
Either: Choose a topic related to your experience as an injured worker–
For example: What did you most enjoy in your life before your injury?
Or: Use an image to talk about “moral hazard”. Do you agree with The Wyatt Company
that injured workers are likely to cheat if they get good benefits? If not, why not?
Please refer to your own story and experiences as an injured worker.
NB remember to practice speaking aloud at home, and time yourself!
54
IMAGE HOMEWORK ACTIVITY ALTERNATIVE
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: USING IMAGES II
If you prefer, use one of the following images to work with instead.
Choose the image you are most drawn to and prepare a 2-3 minute speech
inspired by the image.
8:30
Evaluation
55
Lesson #5 Plan: Myth of Unfunded Liability
Date: November 7, 2011
Guest Speaker: TBA
6:00-6:30
6:30-7:00
Guest Speaker- TBA
7:00-7:30
ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY: Go Around: Show Don’t Tell – A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
2 minute speeches using images and pictures
Either: a story of your choice - your own experience as an injured worker
Or: a speech on moral hazard and how it fits with your experience
Or a speech based on images that you were drawn to.
Instructions:
1. Each person has 2 minutes
2. Brainstorm “what struck us” – image words and phrases from listening to
speeches. Flip chart responses.
3. Discussion (if time) – how do images help tell our stories?
4. NB: When we understand someone, we often say “I get the picture”
56
ACTIVITY: Breathing Practice #5
Practice Practice Practice
Reminder: We are training our speaking voices.
Like playing an instrument or a sport, it takes practice.
Ten minutes Breathing and Humming
Ask yourself if you notice anything different this time.
Reminders
“It isn’t about relaxation, it’s about being ready.”
“Breathing OUT is most important thing.”
“Don’t hold your breath” but you can rest after out breath.
“More air = more vibrations = more sound power”
“ Your voice responds to the need to communicate.
“If you need to call out “Fire”, your voice will be there for you!
When we are nervous or unsure of how we will be received, our need to communicate
can be uncertain, so our speaking voice is likely to be less clear and strong. The
breathing and humming practice can help us let our sound out so we can be ready to
speak with confidence in public.
Humming – you can feel vibrations on your lips when you hum.
Breathing & Voice Practice. Let’s experiment again with making sound.
7:30-7:45
BREAK
57
7:45-8:15
Go over Unfunded Liability hand out
DISCUSSION: What is Unfunded Liability?
1. Has anyone heard of unfunded liability?
2. Definitions of unfunded and liability
3. Is unfunded liability a debt?
58
Unfunded Liability Handout
Definitions of Unfunded and Liability
Unfunded: adj.
Not funded, as a floating debt.
Not furnished with funds: an unfunded project.
Liability: n., pl.
1. The state of being liable.
2. An obligation, responsibility, or debt.
3. Something that holds one back; a handicap.
Despite the word “debt” in the definition, the word is a private insurance term, and it
doesn’t mean that the money is actually owed to anyone.
An “unfunded liability” is the difference between the money you have in the bank
today, and the projected costs of your commitments for the future.
A private insurance company is legally bound to keep enough money in the bank to
cover all the current claims they will have to pay out in the future, because they might
go bankrupt. A public compensation system like WSIB has never gone bankrupt.
Employer assessments are enough to cover costs each year and they are obliged to
keep paying.
How the Unfunded Liability Lead to Bill 99:
Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, News Release Headline, December 2009:
“WSIB’s UNFUNDED LIABILITY COULD THREATEN FUTURE BENEFITS”
The WSIB Unfunded Liability is currently $11.4 billion.
What does this mean and why is it so scary? Is it a debt? No! It’s not a debt.
An “unfunded liability” is an insurance term. It refers to the difference between the
money you have in the bank today, and the projected costs of your commitments for
the future.
A private insurance company is legally bound to keep enough money in the bank to
cover all the current claims they will have to pay out in the future, because they might
go bankrupt.
A public compensation system like WSIB has never gone bankrupt. Employer
assessments are enough to cover costs each year and employers are obliged to keep
paying.
ASK: EMPLOYERS DIDN’T WANT FULL FUNDING IN 1910 – WHY DO
THEY IN 2010?
…To find answer, look at History of Unfunded Liability
59
A Brief HISTORY of the Unfunded Liability in Ontario
Workers Compensation was a Public Compensation System not a Private Insurance
System
Back in 1913, when Meredith’s Royal Commission was hearing from all interested
parties, the compensation system finally agreed upon was one where employers put
their money together – collective liability was one of Meredith’s principles –paying a set
amount to an independent agency, which administers the money as an accident fund to
pay benefits to injured workers.
Meredith was clear that this was not a private insurance model:
“I do not like the term premium, I prefer the terminology which I have used. What is
levied by the Board is not a premium but an assessment,” he wrote in his final
report.
“Pay As You Go” (No UFL) – Cheaper for Employers – Actuaries Show
In 1913 employers did not want to pay for a fully funded system. They understood that
it wasn’t a private insurance model and wanted to keep their assessment rates low - a
current cost system.
Wegenast of the Canadian Manufacturers Association (employers) told Judge Meredith
they wanted a current cost system (pay as you go) – collect what you need to meet
costs each year:
-
Actuarial evidence showed that in a pay as you go system, employer assessments
will
always be less than, or equal to assessments in a fully funded plan.
-
Given the choice between paying the entire cost of an item up front or over time, a
business will always choose time to pay.
-
Money will be available for business to use instead of being locked away in a
separate fund.
-
They felt there was no risk, so no need for a reserve fund of any kind.
“We Need a Cushion for a Rainy Day” – Meredith Recommends Reserve Fund
Meredith rejected the employers’ “pay as you go” current cost model:
- he wanted some reserve funds in case of unexpected future costs
- the exact amount was to be left to the discretion of the Board:
60
"I have, therefore, concluded that the Act should not lay down any hard and fast rule
as to the amount that shall be raised to provide a reserve fund and that it is better to
leave that to be determined by the Board which is to have the collection and
administration of the accident fund as experience and further investigations may
dictate," he wrote in 1913.
To this day there is no legislative requirement for full funding or nest egg.
The Board must take in enough to meet its costs on a “pay as you go” basis plus a
reserve fund.
1980-90: Sweeping Reforms to Workers’ Compensation- Unfunded Liability No Problem
Professor Paul Weiler (see Class 7) – conducted a review and proposed reforms for the
Ontario system - he had no problem at all with funding – at that time it was at 50% that does not mean that the system is “fiscally unsound”
...the system is now only about half funded, given realistic assumptions about
inflation, interest rates, and future adjustments to pension benefits to keep them
abreast of rising prices. This does not pose a threat to the fiscal soundness of the
program. It simply means that the Board must use its power to levy assessments in
later years to meet future liabilities on a “pay as you go” basis.
(Paul C. Weiler, Reshaping Workers Compensation in Ontario, 1980)
Weiler was concerned about impact of full funding on business: capital is better kept in
circulation than locked away in a separate fund, better for employers and whole
province:
The main virtue of this policy is that the Workers Compensation Board does not
drain out of the private sector massive amounts of capital (amounting at this time to
another two billion dollars which would be needed for full funding of current
liabilities) (Weiler, Reshaping)
-
He realized that money put away in investments could be affected by economic
changes:
We cannot assume the investment portfolio of a fully funded system would escape
economic disaster unscathed (Weiler, Reshaping)
-
which is exactly what happened in 2008 –WSIB assets plummeted in the
financial downturn just like everyone else’s.
Unfunded Liability became a Bogeyman, it seems, in 1990s
1995
- Bill 165 – NDP Government Takes Away Cost of Living Indexing
(Friedland Formula)
61
- Mike Harris Conservatives elected in midst of last recession – Common Sense
Revolution
1996 - The Jackson Report – New Directions in Workers Compensation
Unfunded liability misrepresented as a ballooning “debt”, caused by
“generous” and “enriched” benefits to injured workers:
1998
Bill 99 – Name Changed to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
Benefits cut; but savings did NOT go to retiring UFL; instead passed on to employers rates cut.
NB: UFL would have been gone by 2006 if assessment rates had remained at 1995
levels!
RE-ASK: EMPLOYERS DIDN’T WANT FULL FUNDING IN 1910 – WHY DO THEY
IN 2010?
UFL is being used as a reason to possibly cut benefits to injured workers. If we know our
history, it was used before, in the 1990’s, by the Honourable Cam Jackson, and benefits
were slashed right after that, with Bill 99. It was then also $11.4 billion
More on the Jackson Report:
“THE FUTURE OF THE ENTIRE SYSTEM IS AT STAKE, MINISTER CAUTIONS!”
A high unfunded liability and correspondingly high assessment rates affect
the province’s ability to retain and attract investment. They also affect the
province’s capacity to grow and create jobs, and the ability of employers to
continue to fund a workers’ compensation system into the future.
The Hon. Cam Jackson, Minister Responsible for Workers'
Compensation Reform- New Directions in Workers Compensation 1996
(The Jackson Report)
DISCUSSION:
- Who is the Honourable Cam Jackson? What is his report called? How does
he use the image of a “ballooning” UFL to cut “enriched” benefits to
injured workers and take the “pressure” off assessment rates?
-
Bill 99 changed the name of the compensation system to Workplace
Safety and Insurance System. This is the system we have today, with the
UFL becoming the financial reason for cutting benefits to injured workers.
How does Jackson say it grew so big? How can we argue against it? What
did Meredith say about the need to have money in reserve?
62
ACTIVITY: Personal Unfunded Liabilities?
Fill out personal unfunded liability sheet
1. How big are your unfunded liabilities?
2. Will you have to pay them out all at once?
Here’s a good way to look at the unfunded liability:
It’s a bit like having a house with a mortgage. You have a healthy income
with no possibility of a layoff, you have a lot of equity in your house, and you
are required to make mortgage payments in the future. You wouldn’t say
you were in crisis; you would say you were fairly well off financially and that
you had a nice house
CAW Workers Compensation History, The Unfunded Liability
It’s like Alberto’s Story:
Alberto is 35 and has a good job. He pays all his expenses and still puts a
little bit away each year. If he lives another 40 years and his costs stay the
same, he will need one million dollars. He has money in the bank, but his
unfunded liability – the difference between his future costs and what he has
now, is still close to a million dollars! Is he in financial crisis? No. We all
have an unfunded liability.
Critical Times, Issue #3, Summer 1996
63
Personal Unfunded Liability Sheet
A. Assuming you’ll live until you are 75 years old, calculate how many years
you have left to live:
______________________________________________________________________
B. Calculate how much money you need to live on (all costs) in one year:
______________________________________________________________________
C. Multiply A x B
______________________________________________________________________
D. From C, subtract the money you have in the bank
_______________________________________________________________________
“D” is your personal “unfunded liability”
64
8:15-8:30
Homework Handout: Prepare for a debate
DEBATE HOMEWORK ACTIVITY
Prepare to debate the proposition:
The Workers Compensation Board should change its name to The Workplace
Safety and Insurance Board.
Or: The Workplace Health & Safety Board should change its name back to The
Worker’s Compensation Board
For or against…use your knowledge of history, Meredith’s principles, and ideas from
The Wyatt Company and Jackson’s New Directions…
Take on a role: Cam Jackson, Mike Harris, union leader, current Minister of Labour,
injured worker, family member of injured worker, Meredith or anyone of our cast of
characters
65
Lesson #6 Plan: Essential Presentation Skills
Guest Speaker: Mike Moore- professional public speaker
6:00 – 6:30
Greetings and Refreshments
6:30- 7:00
Guest Speaker: Public Speaking
7:00-7:15
Go over homework: debate
7:15-7:30
Activity
ACTIVITY: Breathing Practice #6 - Snakes & Bees
SSsssss is for Support – Support gives us the power to be heard
Reminder: We are breathing and making sounds to train our
speaking voices. Like playing an instrument or a sport, it takes
practice.
This week we will explore the change from breath to sound.
Breathing & Voice Practice. Let’s experiment with making sounds and finding
support.
7:30-7:45
Break
7:45-8:30
Public Speaking and Speech Creation
66
Public Speaking Tips- Handout
Basics:
1.
Know your audience, match content to their needs
a. Don’t use same speech for every different audience. Speaking to media will
be different from speaking to peers to speaking to industry reps.
b. Remember, your audience WANTS you to succeed!
2.
Begin with something to get the attention of the audience.
a. This might be a startling statement, statistic, or your own story. Listeners
pay close attention when a person begins with, "Two weeks ago as I was
driving to work a car pulled out in front of me...." You could begin with a
current event: "You might have read in the paper this morning about the
flood that...."
b. A question is another way to make people listen. "How many of you feel our
society spends too much on medical care?" might be a way to begin a
presentation about curbing costs. Whatever technique you use, when you
grab the attention of the audience you are on your way to a successful
speech.
3.
Know your material: practice practice practice
a. Try videotaping your speech
b. Practice in front of a mirror
4.
Think of public speaking as a form of acting.
a. Perception is important: dress appropriately
b. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud (but not arrogant) and calm.
c. SPEAK SLOWLY and ENUNCIATE.
d. Be energetic, vary your voice and tone
5.
Use a conversational speaking style
6.
EYE CONTACT
a. 3 second method: look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for
3 seconds at a time.
b. Eye contact with a number of people in the audience.
c. This helps the audience feel involved.
7.
Body language is important:
a. Don’t be afraid to walk or move around.
b. Use audio visual tools to enhance, but avoid simply reading out hand outs
or power point
8.
Speak with conviction
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9.
Do not read from notes, but you can use note cards as prompts
10.
Speeches should have a logical progression from Introduction, Body and
Conclusion.
a. Introduction: thesis statement
b. Body: strong supporting arguments, accurate and up to date information
c. Conclusion: restate thesis, summary and logical conclusion.
11.
Pause
a. Allow yourself and the audience a little time to reflect and think.
b. Don’t race through the presentation
12.
Humour
a. When appropriate and possible.
13.
Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions
a. Adjust and adapt.
b. Be prepared to improvise, take out what is not working, add more to what
is working.
c. Know when to stop talking.
d. Less is more.
e. Audience will provide live, real-time feedback.
14.
Prototype
a. A 10-minute talk is 1600-1800 words. Tape yourself. See what you haven't
said. See what can be trimmed. Edit your written text. Recast your outline.
Tape again. This is to clarify and focus your thinking.
15.
Give of yourself
a. Don’t be afraid to get personal
b. Use examples from your personal and professional life
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Quote unusual sources, create suspense, and do yourself a big favor—don't
ignore the squirrel.
Article by Rob Cottingham | Posted: August 15, 2011
Speechwriting is a highly specialized craft with a unique set of demands and quirks.
Fortunately, it's also tremendously rewarding—monetarily, sure, but also through the potential
to change people's minds and move them to action.
Here are eight tips that every speechwriter must know:
1. Tell a story
If you want to upgrade your speechwriting skills, the best and simplest tip I have is this: Tell a
story.
So many speeches are like grocery lists of the points you need to make, the facts you need to
convey, and the ideas your client wants to advance. But there's a reason you have to write
down grocery lists. If you didn't, they would be impossible to remember. If all you're doing is
firing off data in your speech, your audience won't have a lot of luck remembering what you
say, either.
Although we aren't all that great at remembering streams of data, we are superb at
remembering structure—particularly the structure of a story.
There are a number of ways to describe that structure: beginning, middle, end; problem,
complication, resolution; inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement, etc.
Go with whatever feels the most comfortable for you. Your audience members will respond to
the structure, because they have been responding to stories since they were babies.
Once you've found a natural story structure for your speech, start using the same techniques
other storytellers use to engage their audiences—suspense, for example.
Be sure to keep the structure simple. Identify the central conflict in your story, let the
development of that conflict be the spine of your speech, and bring it to a satisfying resolution.
2. Ask your client what they want to accomplish
Your client is hot to trot with a new speech assignment. Great! But when you asked what the
speech was about, all you got was a meandering series of barely related ideas, factoids,
anecdotes and arguments. What are you going to do?
To focus your client's attention, ask what he wants the audience to do after the speech. Writing
down this information and giving it to the speechwriter accomplishes two things:
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•
•
It gives the writer the specific direction she or he needs to do the job right the first time.
It forces the client to confront just how pointless his speech may be, and can jolt him into
embracing something a lot more powerful.
3. Use repetition
You've just made a telling point, and you really want it to sink in. How do you do it?
You repeat the phrase. You repeat the phrase. Word for word.
Repetition works best with short, simple sentences:
"Failure is a better teacher than success. (pause) Failure is a better teacher than success."
It's best to use this technique sparingly and judiciously, but it can be very powerful.
Advertisers and PR professionals know that repetition is one of the keys to any message's
success. For you, it's a signal to your audience that this phrase is worth remembering, as well
as a tool to help them do just that.
4. Excerpt the unexpected
When we think of sources for quotations, we usually think of political leaders and great works
of literature, but not much else.
The members of your audience are constantly bombarded with messages, and there are sources
that may resonate with them more strongly than some long-dead statesman. Look to books,
films, pop songs, TV shows and even commercials. One high point of a speech I wrote a few
years ago was a quotation from the movie "Mars Attacks!" Also, try sources from cultures other
than your own or your audience's.
This is a way to knock your listeners off balance just enough to open their minds to your
message.
5. Want to break in? Give a little bit.
Want to become a professional speechwriter? There are many ways to break into the business,
but one of the best ways to start writing for money is to start writing for free.
Find a cause, candidate or organization you support personally, and offer to write a speech
either for free or at a steep discount. Why do I suggest working for someone you support
personally? Because your passion is going to shine through. And, if you won't be paid in money,
you at least deserve to be compensated with the knowledge that you're making a difference.
Make it the best speech you possibly can. Treat your speaker like a client—work with him to
tailor the language to his personal idiom, and turn your draft into a pitch he can knock out of
the ballpark.
What could you get out of it? Three invaluable things:
•
A superb piece for your portfolio
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•
•
A new, grateful addition to your professional network
A speaker who mentions your name when people ask, "Who wrote that terrific speech?"
6. Not every gig is the right gig
There are speeches for which the audience goes wild with enthusiasm, your speaker knocks 'em
dead and the media eats it up. Everyone comes out ahead.
Then there are those other speeches—the speaking invitations you regret accepting for years
afterward, and the events your speaker shouldn't have touched with a nine-foot boom mike.
How do you tell the difference?
There's no cut-and-dried answer, but there are two ways you can give your next invitation a
cold, hard look.
The first is to weigh your costs versus your benefits. Consider the cost of accepting the
invitation—the time you and your speaker will spend preparing, research time, travel costs,
and attention distracted from other things. Balance those costs against the benefits—prestige,
good will, the ability to convey a message you need to deliver—and measure it all against the
organization's strategic communication goals.
The second way is to evaluate risk and opportunity. Imagine everything that could go wrong,
from embarrassment to hostility. Then imagine that everything that could go right, from great
media coverage to a new sale.
Compare these two pictures. If it comes up as a net win, go for it.
If you're sending your speaker a long distance to deliver a speech that will take weeks to write
on a topic your client barely cares about to a crowd of thirty belligerent cranks at an event that
the media won't cover, this might not be the event for you.
7. Talk about the squirrel
I used to work as a tour guide in Ottawa. Busloads of seniors came in from south of the border,
and I showed them the sights, including Rideau Hall and the residence of Canada's Governor
General.
The first few times I did it, I waxed rhapsodic at the front of the bus about the Governor
General's role in Canadian politics, and how the stone fence surrounding Rideau Hall was a
public works project during the Great Depression, but not a person was listening.
Instead, the tourists' noses and cameras were pressed against the windows on the opposite side
of the bus. They oohed and aahed over something completely different—black squirrels.
Apparently, the squirrels where my tourists came from were all gray. A black squirrel? That
was something to write home about, and a lot more interesting than my disquisition on the
1930s-era employment policy.
The first few times this happened, I tried to chivvy my audience back to the other side of the
bus. A few folks were kind enough to tear themselves away so as not to hurt the feelings of the
nice young man with the microphone, but even they kept sneaking looks at the rodents.
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Eventually it occurred to me that I should talk about the darn squirrels. At first I just joked
about them, trying to redirect my audience's attention, but ultimately I had to address the
squirrel itself. I told them that this was a particular strain of the eastern gray squirrel they
were used to, and how they tend to live in cities, where there are fewer predators.
Chances are your audience has a squirrel on its mind, too. You need to address it if you want to
keep everyone's attention, even if it's just a passing reference. That way they won't keep
wondering if you'll ever talk about it.
8. Build a mystery
Storytellers have known for centuries that one of the keys to holding an audience's attention is
to dangle an unanswered question in front of it: "How will this story turn out?" Will Beowulf
defeat the monster? Will Hamlet avenge his father?
Your speech may not have the same life-and-death stakes as those stories, but your audience
can still feel the same suspense. All you have to do is start your speech with an intriguing
question and delay giving the answer.
If it's a less important question, you probably want to wait only a minute or two before
answering it. But if the question is central to your speech, you could lead with it and wait until
your conclusion to give the answer.
Rob Cottingham is the principal of Social Signal. He blogs at RobCottingham.ca, and draws the
Noise to Signal Web comic. A version of this article originally ran on Squidoo.com.
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The Art of Choosing Words:
One of the most famous lines in U. S. history was delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in his
Declaration of War speech the day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941. He began the speech with, "This is a date that will live in infamy." The line
originally read, "a day which will live in world history." Roosevelt crossed out "world
history" and replaced it with "infamy." The changed word made all the difference in
making it memorable.
Rita Rudner, tongue in cheek, said, "The word aerobics came about when the gym
teachers got together and said, ‘If we're going to charge $10 [probably $35 today] an
hour, we can't call it "jumping up and down.'"
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Fear of Public Speaking
Tips to Manage Your Fear:
Identify the fear. What are you afraid of? What specifically do you fear? Are you afraid
of what the other people will think of you? Are you afraid of losing your train of
thought? Are you afraid you'll fall off the stage? Write down everything you fear. Make
the list as long as you need to.
Isolate Each Fear. Once you've identified your fears, list the things you can do to
prevent that dreaded event from happening. For example, if you are afraid you will lose
your train of thought, prepare clear, precise notes. If you fear what others will think of
you, imagine what they are thinking. How can you turn their thoughts from negative
energy to positive energy?
Take Baby Steps. Instead of making your first speech to the local Rotary Club, ask a
question in a Sunday School class. When you feel comfortable asking questions in
public, then teach a Sunday School class or volunteer to give a little talk in your public
schools. You might consider joining Toastmasters International. This organization
offers many opportunities for practice and feedback.
Practice, practice, practice. I wrote another paper on How to Write a Speech without
Notes. In that paper I outlined a practice model. Take a look at that model. If you
practice your speech to the point that you are absolutely sick of hearing it, you will be
prepared for your speech.
Make the Unknown Known. One of our biggest fears of speaking is the unknown. We
do not know the audience. We do not know the location. We do not know what will
happen when we open our mouths. This list is endless. Of course you cannot make all
the unknowns known, but the more you make known the more control you will get on
this fear. For example, how can you make the audience known? Here are some tips:
•
•
Research your audience. Find out the kinds of people who usually attend this
session. What are their ages, sex, socio-economic background and likely
interests?
Greet people as they walk in. Shake hands and make eye contact. If possible,
ask people their names. With a large audience you cannot meet everyone, but
each person you greet becomes your new friend.
Engage Your Audience. Look out into the audience no matter how large and get them
involved in your talk. Bring them along with you. Don't just talk to them and please, do
not read your notes or your PowerPoint presentation. When your eyes point down to
read, you do not engage! Ask open questions that make the audience think. Challenge
them to become part of your presentation. In another article, How to Engage Your
Audience I shared some tips. Take a look at those tips and apply what you can.
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Remember, fear is not something to fear. It is something to embrace. No matter how
cool a speaker appears, he/she is shaking in his/her boots. We all have that little edge of
nervousness when we walk onto the stage. We're all in this together. You are not alone
in your fear. What seasoned speakers have done is to learn how to make fear their
friend. You can, too!
Don't think of your speech as a PERFORMANCE -- Instead, treat it like it was a
CONVERSATION, but with YOU doing most of the talking (for some people, this isn't
that much of a stretch!). For example, in a conversation, if you make a mistake or lose
your train of thought, you don't get upset; you simply fix the mistake and move on. Do
the same thing in your presentations -- the communication of your information is the
key.
Once, when I was about to perform in a college speech competition, a friend noticed that
I was really, really nervous. He said to me, "Hey, You're just a nice guy with some good
information." I have always kept that statement in mind whenever I speak in public -the image it creates in my mind always manages to relax me and remind me about
what my TRUE attitude should be.
Just remember -- stage fright can be a major problem for us all, but a simple change in
attitude can reduce it tremendously -- and that can make the difference between a
relaxed, motivated presentation and a complete disaster.
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Being prepared: Guidelines for Thinking Ahead:
Ask yourself: Who? What? How? When? Where? Why?
Who are you speaking to? What are their interests, presuppositions and values? What
do they share in common with others; how are they unique?
What do you wish to communicate? One way of answering this question is to ask
yourself about the 'success criteria'. How do you know if and when you have
successfully communicated what you have in mind?
How can you best convey your message? Language is important here, as are the
nonverbal cues discussed earlier. Choose your words and your nonverbal cues with
your audience in mind. Plan a beginning, middle and end. If time and place allow,
consider and prepare audio-visual aids.
When? Timing is important here. Develop a sense of timing, so that your contributions
are seen and heard as relevant to the issue or matter at hand. There is a time to speak
and a time to be silent. 'It's better to be silent than sing a bad tune.'
Where? What is the physical context of the communication in mind? You may have
time to visit the room, for example, and rearrange the furniture. Check for availability
and visibility if you are using audio or visual aids.
Why? In order to convert hearers into listeners, you need to know why they should
listen to you – and tell them if necessary. What disposes them to listen? That implies
that you know yourself why you are seeking to communicate – the value or worth or
interest of what you are going to say.
Be concise. Be brief. Use short words and sentences. Where appropriate, support these
with short, easy-to-understand examples, which help demonstrate your message.
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Speech Writing
Speech Writing: Be Brief!
Centuries ago great speakers often spoke two hours and more. But today when sound
bytes on television news are the norm and serious problems are solved in an hour on a
television drama, audiences are most interested in speakers that get their points across
in a short period of time. In a speech delivered to a Women in Communication audience,
Patricia Ward Brash said, "Television has helped create an impatient society, where
audiences expect us to make our point simply and quickly."
Today great speakers are noted for their brevity. Billy Graham, in a recent city-wide
campaign in Cincinnati, spoke about 20 minutes each night. Theodore Sorensen in his
book, Kennedy, gave guidelines by which President Kennedy prepared speeches. No
speech was more than 20-30 minutes. He wasted no words and his delivery wasted no
time. He rarely used words he considered hackneyed or word fillers. As Purdue
communications professor and researcher Josh Boyd wrote, "In physics, power is
defined as work divided by time. In other words, more work done in less time produces
more power. In the same way, a speaker's message is most powerful when he [or she]
can deliver a lot of good material in a short amount of time."
Here are guidelines to make brevity a key foundation in your next speech.
First, keep your stories under two minutes in length.
In preparing a story, continue to ask the question, "How can I say this in less time and
in fewer words?" Script out your story and then seek to condense it. There is an adage
in using humor: "The longer the story the funnier it had better be." Connecting this
principle to stories in general, we might say, "The longer the story, the more impact it
had better have." To make sure your stories stay under two minutes, include only
information that answers the questions, "Who?" "What?" "When?" "Where?" and "Why?"
If it doesn't answer one of these questions, leave it out. Make sure also that you have a
sense of direction in the story. Each part of the story should move toward the
conclusion in the mind of the listener. The listener should always feel you are going
somewhere in developing your story.
Second, when possible, follow the proverb, "Less is better than more."
Never use three words when you can say it in two. Leave out clichés, filler words, and
hackneyed words, such as "You know," "OK," and "All right." Leave out phrases such as
"Let me be honest," or blunt, or frank. Avoid "In other words - " or "To say it another way
- " Speak in short sentences, short phrases, and short words. Word choice should be
instantly clear to an audience. Make it a goal to make every word have impact in your
speech.
Third, know the length of your speech by practicing it.
Never be surprised by the length of your speech. Never say to an audience, "I'm running
out of time, so I must hurry along." You should know because of your preparation and
practice of the speech. To go one step further, if you know the time limit on your speech
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is 20 minutes, stop a minute short; don't go overtime. Audiences will appreciate your
respect of their time and will think more highly of you as a speaker because of that. You
should never be surprised by how long it takes you to deliver a speech
Fourth, learn to divide parts of your speech into time segments.
Let's use a 20-minute speech as an example. The introduction should be no longer than
2½ minutes. You can get the attention and preview your message easily in that length
of time. Avoid opening with generalizations about the weather or the audience. Let the
audience know up front that every word you speak counts. Spend the bulk of your time
in the body of the speech. This is where you make your points and give support or
evidence for each point. The final two minutes should be your summary and move to
action statement. Some speakers have a hard time concluding. When you say you are
going to conclude, do so. As one wise person stated, "Don't dawdle at the finish line of
the speech."
One way to keep your speech brief is to have few points in the body of your speech-no
more than three. With a maximum of three points, you will have the self-discipline to
condense rather than amplify. In organizing your material, accept the fact you will
always have more material than you can cover and that you will only include material
that relates to one of the two or three points you plan to make. Trying to cover four to
six points will almost invariably make you go overtime in your speech.
A key to success in speaking is not just having something worthwhile to say, but also
saying it briefly. We need to follow the speaking axiom, "Have a powerful, captivating
opening and a strong, memorable close, and put the two of them as close together as
possible."
Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is a professor of speech communication at Northern Kentucky University in
Highland Heights, Kentucky. He is also a trainer in communication who presents more than 60 seminars
and workshops a year to corporations and associations. Stephen is the author of three books on public
speaking; his current book, From Dull to Dynamic: Transforming Your Presentations, gives you practical
advice on your next speech, whether you are a beginning or experienced presenter. He can be reached at
800-727-6520 or through his website at
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Ten Strategies For Crafting Excellent Speeches
1. Prepare Early. Begin gathering material for your speech right away. As you learn
more about your topic, new ideas for writing and organizing it will automatically come
to you.
2. Be Audience-Centered. Everything you write should be with the needs of the
audience in mind. Aim all your efforts at helping the audience understand what you are
saying.
3. Start At The End First. Write the conclusion of your talk right away. Decide what
you want the audience to do or to think as a result of your speech. Then write the talk
using that as a guide.
4. Write For The Ear, Not The Eye. Experienced writers know that every medium and
project has its own language, cadence, style and structure. Don't write the speech to be
read. You need to write your speech so when your audience hears it, they get it.
5. Make Rough Drafts First And Polish Later. Don't needlessly pressure yourself by
trying to write the perfect speech at the outset. The best speeches come only after
many, many re-writes.
6. Put Your Own Spin On The Material. You may block your creative juices if you
think everything you say has to be original. Don't worry about being unique, just put
your personal spin on it. The audience wants to hear your personal point of view.
7. Make Only Three Main Points. It is always tempting to tell as much as you can
about a subject, but this will confuse and overwhelm your audience. Keep your major
points to three and your audience will find it easier to follow your speech organization.
8. Craft A Take-away Line. When people can't make a speaker's session, they ask
others who were there, "What did the speaker talk about?" What they say you said is
your take-away line. You'd like people to walk out with that nugget. It's like creating
street buzz for yourself.
9. Decide The Minimum Your Audience Needs To Know. What is the very least the
audience needs to know about your topic? What is the most critical? Leave out material
that would be "nice to know". You probably won't have time for it anyhow.
10. Write Using The WIIFM principle. WIIFM is when your audience responds to
your material by asking themselves "What's In It For Me?" People are really only
interested in material that affects them. After writing any piece of material, no matter
how brilliant, apply the WIIFM principle and judge if your audience will care about it
and use it.
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Three Bonus Tips For Writing A Great Speech
1. Write As If You Are Conversing With One Person. How many times have you felt
the speaker was talking directly only to you? This phenomenon is in part an acting and
speaking technique, but it also stems from how the speech is written. As you write,
picture one person and what you want to say to them. Then write the speech.
2. Decide What You Want Your Audience To Do Or Think Differently As A Result Of
Your Speech. There is really only one reason to give a speech. That's to have your
audience either make a change in their thinking or their behavior. Otherwise, what's
the point? Decide what you want for them and then write your speech around that.
3. Use "Audience-Involvement" Devices. To bring the audience into your talk and to
make sure they are engaged, craft numerous interactive techniques. These can be
questions, exercises, role plays, verbal quizzes and other ways that get them actively
involved with your material.
So there you have it, ten quick tips (and three bonuses!) for writing better and more
memorable speeches. When you write your speeches, remember these and your
audience will thank you by giving you their rapt attention.
To learn more about how presentation coaching can help you become a better, more confident
speaker, visit Bill Cole, MS, MA, the Mental Game Coach™ at
www.mentalgamecoach.com/Services/PresentationCoaching.html.
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Interview with Al Gore’s Chief Speechwriter, Daniel Pink:
Written by Tim Ferriss
What are the necessary ingredients in a good speech?
I’ve said many times that the three essential ingredients in any good speech are
brevity, levity, and repetition. (That bears repeating: brevity, levity, and repetition.)
But at a broader level, the most important aspect of any speech, as Garr Reynolds
reminds us in Presentation Zen, is being able to answer two questions:
A. What’s your point?
B. Why does it matter?
That’s the whole enchilada. If you have a single point and can explain to a particular
audience why it matters to them, you’re ahead of 90 percent of the business and
political speechgivers out there today.
How do you plan and structure presentations?
There’s no single formula for making a point and showing why it matters, but you
typically won’t go wrong if you abide by four principles:
1. Give the speech a beginning, a middle, and an end. You don’t have to take the
audience by the hand and walk them through each step. And you don’t have to proceed
chronologically. But having that structure in your head will give your speech a shape.
And it will provide your audience some guideposts about where you’ve been and where
you’re going.
2. Mix up the elements. Variety can keep your audience engaged. For instance, funny
stories are great. But a half-hour of nothing but zany tales can actually undermine your
point. Pelting people with factoids for 40 minutes is usually a mistake. But removing
them altogether is also an error. Mix it up. Audiences are so accustomed to predictable
speeches that surprise can be your ally. Indeed, one of my favorite speech models
doesn’t even have words. It’s Haydn’s Surprise Symphony (No. 94 in G Major). It
engages the listener by offering variety and surprise within an established structure.
3. Once you’ve mapped out your speech, remove 20 percent. In all my years of
preparing and watching political and business speeches, I’ve yet to hear anyone say,
“Gee, I wish that speech were longer.”
4. Don’t forget Bunko’s third lesson. Here’s the key lesson: It’s not about you. That’s
doubly true for speeches. It’s not about you. It’s about the audience. Think of it from
their perspective. Again, at the risk of being too critical of all those who stride the stage
or command the podium, too many speechmakers – either through nervousness or ego
– seem to forget that what really matters is the audience’s experience, not their own.
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What are the keys to world-class delivery?
Authenticity. Don’t ape someone else’s style. don’t try to be Barack Obama or Tom
Peters or Margaret Thatcher. It’ll only underscore how far you are from being one of
these outstanding speechifiers. As trite as it may sound, just try to be you. If “you” is
someone who’s slightly uneasy, who says “uh” a few times on stage, no problem. As long
as you’re authentic — and as long as you have something interesting and relevant to
say –- you’ll be fine. I’ve found audiences are extremely tolerant of people who are less
polished but who have something valuable to convey. But their b.s. detectors go off big
time when they see a super-polished presenter spewing vaporous nothings. Again,
assuming you have a point and can explain why it matters, just work on being the best
version of you can be.
What are the most common mistakes that presenters make and how do you fix
them?
There are three that I see all the time:
1. Thinking a speech is a right rather than a privilege. When you deliver a speech,
you’ve got 10 or 100 or 10,000 people who have decided that the most important thing
they can be doing at that moment isn’t taking care of something at the office or being
with their families – but sitting there listening to you. That’s an extraordinary — and
humbling — gift. Alas, not enough speakers think of it this way. They believe that their
own exalted position somehow confers the right to keep people captive for an hour.
Nonsense. A speech is a privilege, not a right. The goal is to for the audience to leave
saying, “I’m sure glad I listened to that guy for an hour rather than returned those
phone calls or answered those emails.”
2. Forgetting the Lamott rule. Anne Lamott wrote Bird by Bird, one of my favorite
writing guides. [Note from Tim: I used this book when writing 4HWW and second the
recommendation] In the book, she describes how an editor of hers cut out a sizable
portion of some chapter she had written. Outraged, she asked him why. He said: “Just
because it happened to you doesn’t mean it’s interesting.” Great advice for speakers.
3. Not doing their homework. This may seem self-evident, but it’s important to know
whom you’re talking to. Yet too many speakers ignore this simple truth. They deliver
the same speech to a group of nuns that they delivered three days ago at a punk rock
convention. You don’t necessarily have to craft an entirely new speech from top to
bottom every time you open your mouth. But there are all kinds of ways to tailor and
customize the message to the people at hand. For example, when I was working for
Gore, we used to love to include in his speeches what we called “How the hells?” For
instance, say he was speaking in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. We’d find out the most popular
coffee shop in Sheboygan and its most popular pastry. Then somewhere in the speech,
we’d include a place for him to say matter-of-factly, “If you’re talking about health care
down at Charley Café’s – and maybe eating one of those cherry-walnut scones – you
might wonder whether our Medicare plan covers . . . “ People love that sort of touch.
Homework pays.
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What are the 3 most memorable speeches you worked on with Gore?
1. His 1996 Democratic Convention acceptance speech. The reason: We were
scrambling and I got to the Teleprompter only about ten minutes before the speech.
When the technician loaded the disk into the machine, the machine couldn’t read it.
And we couldn’t figure out how to fix it. The problem continued even as the VP was
being announced onto stage — in front a 10,000 people and a live national television
audience. Then, through some kind of divine intervention, about one minute into the
speech, we got it to work. I must have lost 35 pounds of sweat.
2. His 1999 eulogy for this father. I was no longer working for him then, but he asked
me to lend a hand on this one. He wrote the entire speech himself – and it was
immensely personal and deeply moving. What’s more, it was a good reminder that
politicians – whom we swat around like badminton birdies – are human beings.
3. His 1995 commencement speech at MIT. We prepared for this one for months. The
VP got memos from dozens of remarkable people, including several Nobel Prize
winners. He, a couple of policy people, and I would have these long meetings that were
like graduate seminars. The day before the speech we had a decent draft. Then that
night around 6, he essentially threw out the whole thing and we ended up doing an allnighter. Believe me: Being in the ceremonial office of the Vice President of the United
States at 2am having a conversation about Ilya Prigogine is not an experience I’m going
to have (or want to have) again.
Any last advice?
I’m a word guy through and through. I believe in the power of words. But ultimately
speeches are about actions. The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.
That’s a high bar. But that’s what we should aspire to when audiences give us this
privilege.
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Top ten speeches:
Socrates
The Greek philosopher Plato, author of the Socratic dialogues.
Apology, 4th century B.C.
Facing charges of "corrupting youth," Socrates delivered this speech — as rendered by
Plato — to an Athens jury. It proved unsuccessful; he was convicted by his peers, and
subsequently killed himself by swallowing hemlock. But this skillful piece of rhetoric
underlines the realization that has propelled philosophy ever since: that human
knowledge is woefully limited.
Best Line: "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die, and you to
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841228_1841749_184
1736,00.html #ixzz1Yc06Pxwr
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Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, 1775
In 1775, as the colonists assembled at the Virginia Convention debated whether to
mobilize forces against the British, Henry gave an impassioned speech in support of the
resolution from his pew in a Richmond church.
Best Line: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains
and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! — I know not what course others may take; but
as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Read more:
1737,00.html #ixzz1Yc0I3ReS
85
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
National Archives / Time Life Pictures / Getty
The Hypocrisy of American Slavery, 1852
Born a slave in Maryland, Douglas escaped in 1838 and earned widespread acclaim for
his 1845 autobiography. Invited to speak as part of July 4 festivities in his adopted
hometown of Rochester, N.Y., the abolitionist took the opportunity to rage at the
injustice of slavery.
Full Text
Best Line: "Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the
present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false
to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future."
Read more:
1739,00.html #ixzz1Yc0ODSL2
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Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
US Army Signal Corps / Time Life Pictures / Getty
Gettysburg Address, 1863
At the site of one of the Civil War's pivotal battles, Lincoln delivered an address that
was as succinct — just about three minutes and 265 words long —as it was memorable.
As he helped dedicate a cemetery to Gettysburg's fallen soldiers, he issued a stirring
plea for the country to pay them tribute by honoring principles — liberty, equality —
worth dying for.
Full Text
Best Line: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal."
Read more:
1732,00.html #ixzz1Yc0REK1y
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Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony
Time & Life Pictures / Getty
Women's Rights to the Suffrage, 1873
Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for casting an illegal ballot in the 1872 presidential
election. Seething at the injustice, she embarked on a speaking tour in support of
female voting rights, during which she gave this speech. The 19th Amendment
enfranchised women in 1920. Anthony never paid the fine.
Full Text
Best Line: "It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male
citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give
the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of
our posterity, but to the whole people — women as well as men."
Read more:
1738,00.html #ixzz1Yc0UkpIa
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Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Alfred Eisenstaedt / Time Life Pictures / Getty
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat, 1940
In his first speech as Britain's Prime Minister, Churchill tied the outcome of the fight
against the Nazis to the survival of Britain itself. One of history's best battle cries.
Full Text
Best Line: "You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and
air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war
against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of
human crime. That is our policy."
Read more:
1735,00.html #ixzz1Yc0XdIiX
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William Wilberforce, “Abolition Speech”
May 12, 1789; House of Commons, London
When William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament, converted to
Christianity, he began to earnestly seek to reform the evils he found within himself and
the world around him. One of the glaring moral issues of the day was slavery…
Wilberforce decided to concentrate on ending the slave trade rather than slavery itself,
reasoning that the abolition of one would logically lead to the demise of the other. On
May 12, 1789, Wilberforce made his first speech on the abolition of the slave trade
before the House of Commons. He passionately made his case for why the trade was
reprehensible and needed to cease.
Worthy Excerpt:
When I consider the magnitude of the subject which I am to bring before the House-a
subject, in which the interests, not of this country, nor of Europe alone, but of the whole
world, and of posterity, are involved: and when I think, at the same time, on the
weakness of the advocate who has undertaken this great cause-when these reflections
press upon my mind, it is impossible for me not to feel both terrified and concerned at
my own inadequacy to such a task. But when I reflect, however, on the encouragement
which I have had, through the whole course of a long and laborious examination of this
question, and how much candour I have experienced, and how conviction has increased
within my own mind, in proportion as I have advanced in my labours;-when I reflect,
especially, that however averse any gentleman may now be, yet we shall all be of one
opinion in the end;-when I turn myself to these thoughts, I take courage-I determine to
forget all my other fears, and I march forward with a firmer step in the full assurance
that my cause will bear me out, and that I shall be able to justify upon the clearest
principles, every resolution in my hand, the avowed end of which is, the total abolition
of the slave trade.
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Socrates, “Apology”
399 B.C.; Athens
Socrates is perhaps the greatest teacher in the history of the Western world. He
wandered around Athens engaging in dialogues with his fellow citizens that focused on
discovering the truth of all things. He taught his pupils that the “unexamined life is not
worth living.”
The Athenians saw Socrates as a threat, especially to the Athenian youth. Socrates
acquired quite a following among the young men of Athens. He taught these
impressionable minds to question everything, even Athenian authority. Eventually,
Socrates was arrested and put on trial for corrupting the youth, not believing the gods,
and creating new deities.
The “Apology” is Socrates’ defense to these charges. Instead of crying and pleading for
mercy, Socrates accepts his charges and attempts to persuade the jury with reason. He
argued that it was his calling from the gods to seek knowledge and that it was through
his questions he uncovered truth. To not fulfill his calling would be blasphemy. In the
end, Socrates lost and was sentenced to death by hemlock. Socrates accepted this fate
willingly and without grudge against his condemners, thus dying as a martyr for free
thinking.
Worthy Excerpt:
Some one will say: Yes, Socrates, but cannot you hold your tongue, and then you may go
into a foreign city, and no one will interfere with you? Now I have great difficulty in
making you understand my answer to this. For if I tell you that to do as you say would
be a disobedience to the God, and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue, you will not
believe that I am serious; and if I say again that daily to discourse about virtue, and of
those other things about which you hear me examining myself and others, is the
greatest good of man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, you are still less
likely to believe me.
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How to Create a Speech
Begin Speech Development with Idea of Intention- Notes
INTENTION
WHY speak? WHAT is the purpose?
WHAT do we want?
WHO to? – audience
WHEN? – now, timeline
Intention:
= What effect do you want to have on people = verb
This leads to The Main Idea – sticking to the point is essential to good communication
You (speaker) --------message---- Audience/Listener
Message = One Important Thing - Main Idea
Find Key Words
Develop a strategy to get The Main Idea across
- to whom? (audience)
- for what? (call to action – what do you want them to do about it? )
- why? (the “so what?” test – why should we care?)
The rest is all about “how”
INTENTION IS A VERB – “I intend…”
To motivate
To send a message
To inform
To fix
To get answers
To enlighten
To change, share, educate
To release, vent
To convince, persuade
To propose a solution, to recognize
To commemorate
To complain
To refresh memories
To be heard
To announce
To toast
To open door
To get attention
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Introduction: Intention
The first question for any speaker should be, “Why am I speaking?”
“What is my goal or my purpose for speaking?” “What is my intention?”
The long-range purpose of speaking is to communicate to a particular
audience.
Types of Intention
When we communicate with other people, we are usually guided by some
purpose, goal, or aim. We may want to express our feelings. We may
want simply to explore an idea or perhaps entertain or amuse our
listeners or readers. We may wish to inform people or explain an idea.
We may wish to argue for or against an idea in order to persuade others
to believe or act in a certain way. We make special kinds of arguments
when we are evaluating or problem solving. Finally, we may wish to
mediate or negotiate a solution in a tense or difficult situation.
Remember, however, that often speakers combine intentions in a single
speech. In a speech to an MPP for example, we may begin by informing
the listener of the facts before we try to persuade him or her to take a
certain course of action.
Intentions and Strategies
A purpose is the aim or goal of the speaker or the speech; a strategy is
a means of achieving that purpose.
Intention and Focus
Your focus (otherwise known as the Main Idea) is a reflection of your
intention. If these two do not agree, you will not accomplish what you set
out to do.
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A List of Elements of a Speech to use for Giving Feedback
Intention – is it clear? Was it achieved?
Choose “One Important Thing” to say
Structure – Beginning – a hook – one important thing – intention
-
Middle – develop idea
-
Ending – full circle – one important thing – know when to stop
Time – length
Pacing – pauses, breathing room, empty space
Listening – to audience, to self
Presence – grounded, 360 degrees, taking space
Eye contact – the whole room
Voice – breathing, loud and clear, slow, diction
Gesture – physical action
Props
Reference (to History, Principles)
Questions to listeners
Contrast
Imagery – word pictures, metaphors
Repetition and Rhythm
Humour
Call to Action
8:30 – Wrap up and Evaluation
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Lesson #7 Plan: Review: Injured Worker History DVD
Guest Speaker: Mary Ann Colihan, CBC Journalist, “Talking to the Media”
6:00-6:30pm
Guest Speaker
6:30-7:15pm
DVD Part I & Activity
•
•
Injured Worker History DVD: “Their Only Power was Moral” Part I
watch without taking notes if possible, since afterwards we will ask ‘What Struck
you’.
We are training up our ears and our ability to pay attention and to take in
information & impressions.
ACTIVITY: Go Around 1 minute each – “What struck you” about history so far ?
(15 mins)
What struck you about the history presentation? Be specific.
7:15-7:30
BREAK
7:30-8:15pm
DVD Part II & Activities
Injured Worker History DVD Part II
(30 mins)
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Injured Worker History Line Up
(15 mins)
– where do you fit in?
ACTIVITY: Whole Group Discussion framed around these questions:
(15 + 15)
Go Around then Free For All
1) What struck you?
2) What is one thing you learned that you didn’t know before?
3) What is one thing you’d like to know more about?
8:15pm-8:30pm - Evaluation and wrap up
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Lesson #8 Plan: Sarnia’s Environment
Guest Speakers: Jim and Marg Brophy: Environmental Exposure
6:00-6:30
Greetings and Refreshments
6:30-7:00
Guest Speaker
7:00-7:30pm
Environmental Exposure Part I
7:30-7:45pm
BREAK
7:45-8:15pm
Environmental Exposure Part II
ACTVITIES
ACTIVITY: Discuss hand-outs
ACTIVITY: What do we know about environmental exposure? How do we reconcile
economic needs with health needs?
ACTIVITY: Discuss the following idea:
Human Rights and Pollution: disproportionate pollution burden faced by low-income and
non-white communities
96
Environmental Exposure in Sarnia
1.
2.
3.
4.
Background
Asbestos Exposure
Respiratory illnesses
Aamjiwnaang
a. Charter challenge
b. Birth sex ratio
1. Background: CANADA'S CHEMICAL VALLEY – Eco Justice Report
•
The report describes air pollution from industrial faculties
facilities within 25 kilometres of
the Aamjiwnaang First Nation and city of Sarnia
•
It uses data from Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), the US
Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) and Canada's federal greenhouse gas-reporting
program for the period of 2002-2005
The report discusses three different types of air pollution:
o Criteria air contaminants associated with acid rain, smog, respiratory and
cardiovascular diseases and premature death;
o Toxic pollutants associated with environmental contamination, cancer and
reproductive and developmental disorders among humans; and
o Greenhouse gases associated with climate change.
•
CANADA'S CHEMICAL VALLEY
•
•
•
•
The Sarnia area is one of the most heavily industrialized in Canada, accounting for
more than 40% of Canada's total chemical industry
There are 62 industrial facilities within 25 kilometres of the Aamjiwnaang reserve
and city of Sarnia, including 46 NPRI facilities
Sarnia is home to three of the top ten air polluters in Ontario from 2005: Ontario
Power Generation’s Lambton Generating Station, ranked #3, Imperial Oil’s Sarnia
Refinery ranked #6 and Shell Canada’s Sarnia Manufacturing Centre, ranked #10
The area also has 8 additional facilities that released over 1 million kilograms of
combined air releases: Suncor Energy Products Sarnia Refinery, Cabot Canada plant,
NOVA Chemicals Corunna Site, Fibrex Installations Sarnia Plant, Transalta Energy
Sarnia Regional Cogeneration Plant, Terra International Canada Terra Nitrogen
Plant, and Lanxess East Plant
AIR EMISSIONS
•
•
The total amount of air pollution released from NPRI industrial sources within 25 km
metric tonnes
of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in 2005 was 131,992,100 kg. This includes criteria
air contaminants (without volatile organic compounds) associated with smog and
toxic contaminants, but does not include greenhouse gases.
The total amount of greenhouse gases emitted from Sarnia NPRI facilities in 2005
was 16.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents -- more than one fifth of
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•
•
Ontario’s total industrial greenhouse gas emissions and more than the Province of
British Columbia
The 16 U.S. facilities listed under the TRI released 1.9 million kilograms of air
pollutants in 2005, including huge amounts of toluene, a known reproductive and
developmental toxicant, and mercury
Other air pollutants released include sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen
oxides, total particulate matter, particulate matter and toxic chemicals such as
dioxins and furans, mercury, toluene
SARNIA AND AAMJIWNAANG FIRST NATION
•
•
The City of Sarnia, Ontario is situated at the south end of Lake Huron on the east side
of the St. Clair River in Lambton County and has a population of approximately
71,000
The Aamjiwnaang First Nation reserve is at the south end of Sarnia and is home to
about 850 people. Another 1,100 reserve members live off the reserve. About one
quarter of the band members are children
The above information was taken directly from "Exposing Canada's Chemical Valley: An Investigation
of Cumulative Air Pollution Emissions in the Sarnia, Ontario Area" (Ecojustice, 2010) available
online: http://www.ecojustice.ca/publications/reports/report-exposing-canadas-chemicalvalley/attachment.
For current emissions information please refer to the National Pollutant Release Inventory
(NPRI) website at: http://www.ec.gc.ca/inrp-npri/
98
2. Asbestos Exposure:
Dying For A Living – Globe and Mail, March 13, 2004
In Sarnia, Ont., former workers with chemicals and asbestos are enduring a slowmotion Bhopal. People are afflicted with rare cancers at a rate nearly 35 per cent
higher than the provincial average. It may be the worst outbreak of industrial disease
in recent Canadian history
By MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
SARNIA, ONT. -- Blayne Kinart is a man who used to take pride in the look of his body.
When he was 50, he says, there wasn't an ounce of fat on it. He was all muscle, a tribute to
the physical rigours of being a millwright in Canada's chemical valley, the maze of
petrochemical plants located on the southern outskirts of this Ontario city.
His wife Sandy likes to joke that her husband, a childhood sweetheart who caught her eye
in grade school, had always been as "healthy as a horse. If you got a cold in 300 years, it
was something."
But today, at 57, Mr. Kinart looks like he wandered into Sarnia directly from a Nazi death
camp. Eighteen months ago, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer in the lining of
the chest wall. It's an exceedingly rare cancer -- but one that is exceedingly common
around Sarnia.
If you are unfortunate enough to get mesothelioma, it basically means only two things. The
most immediate is that you've just been handed a death sentence, and an excruciatingly
painful one. The other is that at some point in your life, you've breathed asbestos fibres.
There is an epidemic of mesothelioma in Sarnia, the epicentre of what, by some
assessments, is the worst outbreak of industrial disease in recent Canadian history.
The local occupational-disease clinic has in the past six years been contacted by 2,944
workers complaining of a bewildering and horrifying array of illnesses. Besides
mesotheliomas, there are leukemias, lung cancers, brain cancers, breast cancers and
gasotrointestinal cancers, among other afflictions.
Jim Brophy runs the clinic, whose caseload is equivalent to a quarter of the area's
industrial and construction work force. "The whole city is full of these folks," Mr. Brophy
says. "The disease pattern is mind-boggling."
Among the patterns are women who have had their lung cavities scarred because they've
done something married women did without thinking in the 1960s and 1970s -- they
washed their husband's work clothes. This isn't normally life-threatening, but it is if your
husband's coveralls are dusted with asbestos. In other cases, industrial cancers are family
affairs, afflicting multiple generations.
99
Mr. Brophy believes that what is now occurring in Sarnia is the country's biggest
occupational-disease disaster. If current information is correct, "Sarnia would have to be
pretty close to the top, if not the top."
The assessment that the city is experiencing a kind of slow-motion Bhopal is hard to make
conclusively, because no one is bothering to study in any detail the health of workers in the
country's blue-collar communities. There is no national registry that tracks cancer cases by
occupation, the rudimentary database that would allow a better judgment on whether
Sarnia is the outlier that it appears to be.
But then again, the Sarnia area has 20 per cent of the country's refineries, hosts Canada's
largest hazardous-waste dump, produces about 40 per cent of the country's petrochemicals
and, according to federal toxic-release statistics, has some of the country's highest
discharges into the environment of dangerous chemicals.
Its industries have also been huge users and producers of asbestos. Although asbestos has
been tightly controlled since the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the material was once used
indiscriminately as an insulating wrap for pipes and reactor vessels in petrochemical
plants.
Hospital case data for Sarnia during the 1990s do provide some clues. For men living in the
community, the overall cancer rate was about 34 per cent higher than the provincial
average, the lung-cancer rate 50 per cent higher, the mesothelioma rate five times higher
and the asbestosis rate nine times higher. But the figures dramatically underestimate the
risks individual workers face because the majority of the people in Sarnia haven't had
industrial exposures, according to Mr. Brophy.
He thinks much of the suffering here could have been prevented, at least when it comes to
asbestos. The dangers of it were becoming known in the 1930s and 1940s, but little was
done to control exposures until the 1970s. "The regulatory system and the government just
totally failed to protect these workers," Mr. Brophy says.
Mr. Kinart doesn't dwell on this big-picture stuff. For him, the effects of his disease are
more immediate, scary and personal. For five months after his diagnosis, he couldn't bring
himself to look in the mirror. He knew that his body was under attack by the cancer and he
was afraid of what he would see.
"Then one day, I decided, 'Well, it's about time I looked in the mirror,' and I sat down and
broke down and cried. I just couldn't believe what was left."
Mesothelioma feels like being suffocated; there is severe weight loss, and chest pain so
intense that narcotics are prescribed; death comes one to four years after diagnosis.
Likewise, with asbestosis victims, there is shortness of breath and the prospect of death
through lung failure.
Mr. Kinart doesn't want his life to end in silence. He wants to talk about what happened to
him, to show his cancer-racked body. He wants people to know that what he has had to
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endure is an injustice that shouldn't be tolerated, as is the paltry compensation offered to
industrial-disease victims in Ontario.
Mr. Kinart says the workplace-compensation system offered a financial choice for his pain
and suffering that was little better than a lottery, belittling the loss of a decade of his life
and likely more: He could collect either $298 a month until he died, or a $38,000 lump
sum.
He's a mesothelioma case. He asked the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to cut him a
cheque.
The WSIB does make additional payments for income lost by not being able to work. But
contrary to rumours of million-dollar worker's-comp payouts, Ontario doesn't offer much
for pain and suffering -- and it deducts about $1,000 from its award for each year a person
is over 45.
If Mr. Kinart were an isolated case, he probably could chalk up his misfortune to individual
bad luck. But misery has lots of company here.
The WSIB has even opened up a liaison office in the local hospital to handle the heavy
caseload, part of its concern, it says, over the large number of occupational disease claims.
The unofficial record keeper of what is happening in Sarnia is Mr. Brophy, one of Canada's
leading industrial-health specialists.
He sees so many medical problems, suggestive of exposures to carcinogens and other toxic
compounds, that he views Sarnia as the unlucky place directly under an exploding bomb.
"It's not just asbestos diseases we see. We see leukemias, and multiple myelomas and
lymphomas and neurological disease. We're like a ground zero."
Mr. Brophy's first inkling that something might be terribly wrong came when two people
knocked on his door, on separate dates in 1994 and 1995, clutching lists. One list was of
recently diagnosed mesothelioma cases in the city. The other was of people who had been
employed at a local fibreglass plant who had had cancer, a list that was of particular
interest to Mr. Brophy because another worker from the company had come in earlier that
year wondering if his benign brain tumour was work-related.
Typical ailments at occupational-disease clinics are back problems and the like, the muscle
aches and pains normally expected after a lifetime of physically demanding or repetitive
work. But the lists were different. They showed that people had been exposed to asbestos,
and were dying of it, or had other dangerous chemical exposures.
Mr. Brophy remembers the reaction of clinic doctor Abe Reinhartz. "He told me there is
going to be trouble here. . . . 'Oh my God, this is bad news.' "
The first list bearer was George "Bud" Simpson, who had been employed at Fibreglass
Canada Inc. as a production worker and millwright until the plant closed in 1991.
101
He got to 34 names by 1997, when he joined his dead colleagues after suffering disfiguring
cancers around his throat, mouth and nose. "He was 35th on his own list," says his widow
Jean Simpson.
Ms. Simpson doesn't know what exactly prompted her husband, who died at 64, to start the
macabre task of cataloging the cancers of his workplace friends. But the plant, where he
worked for 37 years, almost his entire adult life, had a strong emotional hold on him.
"He loved that place. . . . Bud would go down and watch them tear it down. He would be so
upset when he came home. I'd say: 'It's gone. It's not there any more. You don't have a job
there. Forget about it.' It was like his home away from home."
Ms. Simpson says that "it's kind of gruesome," but many of the people on her husband's lists
were close friends and they worked together, went to parties together, and now are all
buried together in the local cemetery.
By the time he died, after a 5½-year fight with cancer, Mr. Simpson had 120 radiation
treatments, the roof of his mouth had been removed and he was considering the removal of
his nose, where a tumour had grown to the size of a tennis ball. When he died, most of the
money in a U.S.-dollar bank account he had opened for a Hawaii dream vacation with his
wife was used to bury him.
In Sarnia, Ms. Simpson helps to run a support group for those affected by the valley's
illness outbreak, and she says she has observed an unusual financial hierarchy among all
the widows, depending on the stature of the companies for whom their husband worked.
Her husband's pension was cut off when he died, and she says she has personally been
snubbed by some of the better-off women whose men worked for bigger companies.
"Imperial Oil widows are sitting there, with all their jewellery on and their gold chains," she
says.
Fibreglass widows are struggling, according to Ms. Simpson. One of her friends, in her early
70s, is working reluctantly as a bingo runner for $10 a game.
Ms. Simpson has urged former plant workers who are sick to file compensation claims so
their wives won't have to live like this when they die. "I said to those men: 'You want your
wife prepared if anything happens. You want everything there for her. You don't want her
to be out there fighting.' "
Workers at the fibreglass plant were exposed to a variety of chemicals, including glass
fibres, formaldehyde and solvents. A study last year prepared for the WSIB by occupational
health specialists at McMaster University found deaths from lung cancer among the plant's
workers to be 40 per cent higher than expected, while kidney cancers, for unknown
reasons, were double the expected rate.
Former workers at the plant have filed 204 claims with the government for compensation,
including 36 lung-cancer victims who believe their illnesses were caused at the plant.
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The second list bearer was Harry Buist, who worked as a carpenter for about 16 years at
Imperial Oil, and had, ironically, been an instructor at the site who taught co-workers how
to handle asbestos safely.
In 1994, at the age of 56, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Over the next six months,
he and his wife Margaret were able to compile a list of 26 others around town who also had
the rare disease. Within two years of his diagnosis, he died.
Ms. Buist says her husband was livid that his job cost him his life. "He felt that what the
companies are doing is murder. You can't get away with it in private life, if you expose
somebody or give them poison. You're going to be charged with murder. This is just
legalized murder," she said. "He felt they killed him."
When she compiled the list, Ms. Buist was surprised how easily she could find a cancer so
infrequently diagnosed that Canadian health statistics seldom bother to list it.
"There is not a company in town that I haven't got a name from," she says, adding that
strangers would often overhear her talking about the illness and volunteer examples from
their own families.
In a typical case, at her dentist's office, a woman said: " 'Oh, excuse me, are you talking
about mesothelioma?' And I say 'Yes,' and she said: 'My mom died of it last year.' " The
mother had been a janitor in the valley cleaning lunch rooms where the men worked.
Imperial Oil spokesman Richard O'Farrell says the company did use a lot of asbestos, as did
others in the valley. He doesn't mince words. "This is, again, not particular to us. It's tragic.
There is no question. If we all knew what we know now, obviously these things wouldn't
have happened."
He says today's diseases are a legacy from decades ago, and now the company's workers
practise safe handling of asbestos. Imperial is also helping to fund research into medical
treatment for those afflicted by it. A total of 31 of Imperial's Sarnia employees have been
compensated for mesothelioma, out of a company total of 42 across the country. It has also
had 10 workers here compensated for asbestosis and nine for lung cancer, based on figures
to March, 2004.
One of the company's doctors, Mark Brewer, has personally known many of the workers
affected, and he hopes the caseload has peaked. "My sympathies, certainly, to anybody
[with mesothelioma]. It's a very, very miserable disease."
Under prodding from Mr. Brophy, Health Canada last year issued a review of the
mesothelioma cluster in the valley. Although it is dated, it found that from 1986 to 1993,
there were 21 cases. By the end of 1995, the number tripled to 63.
The federal analysis of provincial WSIB claims read like a who's who of the valley's
corporate world: "The petrochemical industry (Imperial Oil, Dow Chemical, Novacor
Chemical, Nova Chemicals) and Holmes Insulations Ltd. and Holmes Foundry Chrysler
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Canada accounted for 74 per cent of accepted claims," it said. More than half of the afflicted
were construction workers.
This occupational finding also shows up at Mr. Brophy's clinic, where those who built and
maintain the valley's chemical plants are the biggest group complaining of problems.
That description fits Bob Hart, a 63-year-old former insulator recently diagnosed with
asbestosis and, quite understandably, fearful. On the day of his interview with The Globe,
his best friend died of mesothelioma.
He is also in the middle of two generations struggling with industrial diseases. His father, a
pipe fitter at Imperial Oil, died of asbestosis two years ago. His stepdaughter, who worked
for a few years as a bookkeeper at an insulation company and believes she had exposures
there, had a lung removed after a mesothelioma diagnosis.
Mr. Hart knows the drill with asbestosis, because he cared for his father as he died,
including emergency night-time visits to comfort him as "he'd be passing just incredible
amounts of blood. He was very scared." (Coughing blood from the lungs is a common
symptom when dying from asbestosis.)
Mr. Hart says he figures that when he was working in the 1960s, somebody must have
known the dangers, but no one bothered to enlighten him or his work crews. Those were
days when overtime was to be had in the valley, and he was unknowingly robbing himself of
part of his future.
"Back in those days, I could take my tool box from one job to the other. There was lots of
overtime. The benefits were good and everything. The only thing is now it costs you the
most valuable asset any man has, his time. And this is what I'm losing, part of my life."
He hopes a positive attitude will enhance his longevity. "It makes you think how precious
life is. You get up in the morning and you say: 'Thank you new day.' "
Chemical plants are really just a big collection of pipes, and insulators are one of the most
vulnerable groups because they used to wrap pipes with asbestos.
"We put up tonnes of that stuff," Mr. Hart says. When he cut insulation, he remembers, he
would be enveloped in what he now knows were carcinogenic dust clouds. "You'd cut your
stuff with a saw, asbestos flying all over the place."
As Mr. Hart is being photographed and out of earshot, his pensive wife, Sheila, says she is
scared. Her husband can barely do anything more strenuous than climb a flight of stairs
without feeling winded. "I don't want to be a widow," she says.
Flaviano Fracalanza worked at Holmes Insulations, a now-defunct plant where provincial
government labour inspectors once found what they believed were the highest airborne
asbestos fibre concentrations ever recorded, according to documents released under
freedom of information law.
104
He remembers the plant was "unbelievable, the dust and the noise."
That may be one of the reasons Mr. Fracalanza's wife Martha has the scarring on the lining
of her lungs known as plural plaques. Plaques are thick, partly calcified spots that develop
on the inner lining of the ribcage and the diaphragm.
They are part of the body's natural immune response to asbestos fibres, and those with
them have a higher risk of developing mesothelioma.
Because Ms. Fracalanza never worked in the valley, her ailment has only one likely cause:
She is what occupational disease specialists call a secondary victim.
She washed her husband's work clothes from when they were married in 1960 to the early
1970s, when the company stopped making products, such as pipes, containing asbestos.
She recalls a "very fine dust" in the folds of her husband's clothes and pockets, but she
didn't know she was exposing herself to one of the world's worst carcinogens.
"At that time we had no idea, so I'd say we were fools really. I think people at that time were
afraid. There weren't too many jobs and if you had a job, you were happy to have it," she
relates.
Mr. Fracalanza has been diagnosed with asbestosis. His brother, Armando, who worked at a
sister plant to Holmes, has died of lung cancer.
Mr. Fracalanza says workers did worry about asbestos, but managers told them that the
reports that it was a killer were exaggerations. "They said, 'Oh, it might be dangerous, but
not for sure,' not like we know now."
At the clinic, Mr. Brophy is willing to stick his neck out a little, and make projections.
Based on the incubation periods for cancers, he thinks the community is still on the upward
part of the curve for work-induced illnesses. Asbestos-related diseases typically have a 30to-40-year lag, and there was plenty of exposure right up until the 1980s.
And although the asbestos era is winding down, Sarnia industries have had a long history
of major toxic spills. The number of spills recently led the provincial environmental
ministry to send its SWAT team to investigate, and Mr. Brophy fears the releases will leave
a legacy of health problems.
"We have tolerated here toxic exposures, both occupationally and environmentally, for
decades. That's one of the real tragedies of this," he says.
Mr. Kinart worked at Welland Chemical, a company that has since shut down, where he
used a lot of asbestos. One of Mr. Kinart's foremen recently came by his house -- a case of
the boss asking the worker to vouch that he had worked in the plant to help speed his own
asbestosis compensation claim.
105
The abandoned plant, on the outskirts of town, didn't have a skull and crossbones on the
outside to warn workers of the dangers they would face inside.
Instead, it had a now-faded sign, common at industrial plants, that subtly blames workers'
inattention for accidents: "Safety awareness. Mistakes cost money," the sign reads.
Mr. Kinart knew he had problems when doctors draining fluid out of his lungs hit a gusher
of liquids.
Doctors, he noticed, have a way of telepathing terminal cases. "You could tell as soon as you
walked in the room, you were done. The doctor shook my hand and said: 'I'm sorry, buddy,
because I've done all I can do for you. Now you're going to have to leave it to the man
upstairs and yourself.' "
Mr. Kinart wants to believe that there will be punishment for those who knew about the
dangers he faced, and didn't speak out.
"There will be a day of reckoning for them. I don't know when it is but I hope it's as hard and
hurts as much as it does for me to walk away. . . .
"Like, I got a wife, I got my first grandchild now and . . . I can't even pick him up, my
grandchild. He's too heavy for me."
Martin Mittelstaedt is The Globe and Mail's environment reporter.
*** POSTED MARCH 15, 2004 ***
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3. Respiratory Illnesses
Impact of Air Pollution – Environmental Health Journal
Impact of air pollution on hospital admissions in Southwestern Ontario, Canada:
Generating hypotheses in sentinel high-exposure places
Karen Y Fung1*, Isaac N Luginaah2 and Kevin M Gorey3
•
* Corresponding author: Karen Y Fung [email protected]
Environmental Health 2007, 6:18 doi:10.1186/1476-069X-6-18
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:
http://www.ehjournal.net/content/6/1/18
Abstract
Background
Southwestern Ontario (SWO) in Canada has been known as a 'hot spot' in terms of
environmental exposure and potential effects. We chose to study 3 major cities in SWO in
this paper. We compared age-standardized hospital admission ratios of Sarnia and Windsor
to London, and to generate hypotheses about potential pollutant-induced health effects in
the 'Chemical Valley', Sarnia.
Methods
The number of daily hospital admissions was obtained from all hospitals in London,
Windsor and Sarnia from January 1, 1996 to December 31, 2000. We used indirect age
adjustment method to obtain standardized admissions ratios for males and females and we
chose London as the reference population. This process of adjustment was to apply the agespecific admission rates of London to the population of Sarnia and Windsor in order to yield
expected admissions. The observed number of admissions was then compared to the
expected admissions in terms of a ratio. These standardized admissions ratios and their
corresponding confidence intervals were calculated for Sarnia and Windsor.
Results
Our findings showed that Sarnia and Windsor had significantly higher age-adjusted
hospital admissions rates compared to London. This finding was true for all admissions,
and especially pronounced for cardiovascular and respiratory admissions. For example, in
1996, the observed number of admissions in Sarnia was 3.11 (CI: 2.80, 3.44) times for
females and 2.83 (CI: 2.54, 3.14) times for males as would be expected by using London's
admission rates.
107
Conclusion
Since hospital admissions rates were significantly higher in 'Chemical Valley' as compared
to both London and Windsor, we hypothesize that these higher rates are pollution related.
A critical look at the way ambient air quality and other pollutants are monitored in this
area is warranted. Further epidemiological research is needed to verify our preliminary
indications of harmful effects in people living in 'Chemical Valley'.
Background
In Canada, several reports have been published linking environmental pollution to adverse
population health in various cities [1-9]. These reports have consistently shown that
Southwestern Ontario (SWO) is second to none as a 'hot spot' in terms of environmental
exposure and potential effects [8-11]. This is because the region is very industrialized and
communities in this region are exposed to repeated episodes of short-term and long-range
transport of air pollutants [5,8,12]. In this area, transported air pollution is characterized
by low levels of primary gaseous pollutants (SO2 and NO2) and moderately elevated
concentrations of particles and ozone [5]. According to these authors, episodes of elevated
sulfate and ozone concentrations occur frequently throughout the region, especially during
the summer and early fall. Many environmental pollutants such as particulate pollutants
resulting from the heavy traffic on highways in the region are generated both locally and
regionally, and can be carried a long way by winds, affecting areas far removed from the
source of the pollution. Also, data analyses strongly indicate that neighboring US states
(Ohio, Illinois and Michigan) are significant contributors to elevated levels of ozones and
inhaled particles in the region (Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) [13].
There are three major cities in SWO: London, Windsor and Sarnia (Figure 1). The city of
London (42° 59' 00" N – 81° 14' 00" W) is located along Highway 401. The city is noted for
its economic diversity and is the home of many branches of industry, corporate offices,
medical and educational facilities. It is also a manufacturing, distribution and financial
center. Using 1981–1991 data, Burnett et al. [8], found that London has the third highest
(10%) increased risk of death attributable to change in mean air pollution in 11 Canadian
cities. Nevertheless, as compared to Windsor and Sarnia, London is usually referred to as a
clean city.
The city of Windsor is located 42° 18'N, 83° 01'W. The city has major industries that
include three automobile assembly plants, an engine plant and a foundry, and a scrapmetal
recycling plant. In addition to the outstanding problem of transboundary air and water
pollution from Ohio, Illinois and, Michigan, the city is immediately downwind of major steel
mills with associated coking operations in Detroit; the wastewater treatment plant of the
city of Detroit and associated sludge incineration facilities, and a major power plant which
until recently was coal fired. Consequently, Windsor and the surrounding communities
have been identified as an "Area of Concern" (AOC), and is in need of further health
investigation [9]. A community-health profile of Windsor by Gilbertson and Brophy,
suggested 'alarming trends' of mortality and morbidity higher than the rest of the province
of Ontario [10]. This work aroused a lot of public sentiments and several calls were made
for further investigation in what may be happening in the entire region.
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Sarnia is located (42° 18'N, 83° 01'W). The city is often referred to as 'Chemical Valley',
named because it is a centre for more than 40% of Canada's chemical industry, with major
companies like Bayer, Dow Canada, Nova Chemicals and Suncor all having plants located
there. These industries are all clustered along the St. Clair River. This area is also the home
of Safety-Kleen, one of the largest landfill sites in Canada. With the large number of
chemical industry, residents are exposed to a variety of pollutants at work and home.
Sarnia is located within the St. Clair River AOC. Three of the major industrial facilities
located in Sarnia together contribute more than 16 % of the over 605 million kilograms of
suspected respiratory toxicants released by the Top 10 Ontario facilities. In addition to air
pollution linked to smog and asthma, other pollutants are released into the air that may
affect the health of children and adults and the environment, including lead, mercury,
benzene and nickel. Some, like lead and mercury, can be harmful to children's
development. Others, like nickel and benzene, are associated with cancer [14].
Gilbertson reported higher rates of hospitalization for cerebral palsy in males in the Great
Lakes communities and suggested this as a useful and reliable indicator of community
exposures to methylmercury [15]. Mercury is one of the prototypical persistent toxic
substances, along with the organochlorine compounds, that have been the central concern
of environmental scientists working on the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement for more
than 30 years [16]. Further concerns about health problems in the 'Chemical Valley' were
raised when a recent study in a first Nations Reserve indicated a declining sex ratio (2:1)
in favour of girls [17]. This drew a lot of media attention and public worry not only in the
reserve, but in Sarnia at large.
Both Windsor and Sarnia are located at major Canada-US border crossing points. The
terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 (9/11) also brought additional concerns about the
effects of air pollution in the region, especially along Highways 401 and 402 transportation
corridors. With more vigorous security policies across the US/Canada border-crossing
points, there have been increasing delays resulting in long lines of trucks on the streets and
highways [18]. The idling trucks are spewing toxic pollutants from their archaic exhaust
systems into the air, and prevailing wind carries these pollutants to many areas in the
region, further subjecting the entire region to more ambient pollution.
As part of a larger study to investigate environmental health effects and their potential
determinants in the region, the aim of this paper is to compare the age-standardized
hospital admission ratios of Sarnia, Windsor and London, to generate hypotheses about the
adverse health effects of pollution in such highly exposed places as 'Chemical Valley'.
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4a. Aamjiwnaang- Charter Challenge
Chemical Valley charter challenge – Ecojustice Media Release
Sep 13, 2011 10:30 AM
Ada Lockridge testing local air quality in Sarnia.
Ecojustice is working to ensure that the human rights of people living in one of
Canada’s most polluted communities — Sarnia’s Chemical Valley – are recognized and
protected.
We’re representing Ada Lockridge and Ron Plain, two members of Aamjiwnaang First
Nation, as they take on Ontario’s Ministry of Environment (MOE) over the cumulative
impacts of pollution from local refinery and chemical facilities.
Our Application for Judicial Review alleges that the MOE’s ongoing approval of pollution in
Sarnia violates Ada and Ron’s basic human rights under sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms – their rights to life, liberty and security of the person, and
the right to equality.
Ron Plain has already moved his family off of the reserve out of concern for their health
while Ada Lockridge, and 700 other Aamjiwnaang community members, continue to be
exposed to a range of harmful pollutants, including cancer-causing benzene, as well as
sulphur dioxide, particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen — chemicals known to cause
respiratory and cardiovascular health effects.
Ecojustice previously detailed Sarnia’s pollution problem in our 2007 report Exposing
Canada’s Chemical Valley. That publication revealed that 40 per cent of Canada’s petro
chemical industry operates within a few kilometres of Aamjiwnaang and detailed the
cumulative pollution these facilities release into the local environment.
The level of pollution faced by residents of Aamjiwnaang is like few other places in the
country. But a win in our case would be a first step towards dealing with the pollution
problem and defending the human rights of Aamjiwnaang citizens, and hopefully, all
110
Canadians.
UPDATE (MAY 3, 2011):
Ecojustice filed 2,124 pages of evidence with the Ontario Divisional Court on Friday, April
29, 2011.
The evidence included a total of affidavits from 13 witnesses. Three of those affidavits were
from community members, including our clients Ada Lockridge and Ron Plain, members of
Aamjiwnaang First Nation and elder, Wilson Plain Sr. Members from the Aamjiwnaang
community also contributed letters supporting the lawsuit, which were filed with the Court.
Other evidence included reports from seven expert witnesses detailing the risks to people
living on the Aamjiwnaang reserve resulting from pollution, the psychological effects of
living in a place like Chemical Valley, what pollution will result from the government's
approval of pollution and the nature of the substances emitted from Suncor.
The next steps:
•
•
•
•
•
Ecojustice is planning to file a motion before the end of May 2011, with the Ontario
Divisional Court, in order to set the remaining deadlines in the case, including a
hearing date. A hearing is expected to occur in mid-2012.
Filing of evidence by the Ontario government and Suncor by Oct. 31, 2011.
Filing of reply evidence by Ecojustice by Nov. 30, 2011.
Cross-examination on all affidavits between Dec. 1, 2011, and Feb. 28, 2012.
The filing of a statement of the facts by April 30 and May 31, 2012, by all parties.
111
4b. Aaamjiwnaang- Birth sex ratio
In this Oct. 2005 file photo, a sign warns
of toxic substances in Talfourd Creek on
the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reserve
near Sarnia, Ont. (Carlos Osorio/AP)
Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Sarnia sounds alarm over toxins - CBC
By Mary Ann Colihan, CBC News
Members of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Sarnia, Ont., think their reserve, which
recorded the lowest rate of live male births in the world (two girls born for every boy) and
high rates of death, miscarriage and disease, is beyond the saturation point for exposure to
pollutants, and the community is making a public plea for action.
The First Nation held a symposium on the issue, funded in part by Health Canada, from
March 25 to 27 in Sarnia. Leading scientists and environmental groups from across North
America made presentations at the event, which highlighted the First Nation's concerns
about the health of the Aamjiwnaang and their neighbours in an area known as "Chemical
Valley."
A sign for the Aamjiwnaang First Nation
Resource Centre is located across the road
from a chemical plant near Sarnia, Ont.
(Craig Glover/CP)
Data from Environment Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) — the
inventory of pollutants released, disposed of and sent for recycling by facilities across the
112
country — show the reserve is ground zero for Ontario's heaviest load of air pollution. In
2005, 131 million kilograms of pollutants were released from 46 plants in Sarnia's
Chemical Valley, the inventory says.
Chemical Valley plants also collectively emitted 16.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in
2005, according to NPRI figures. This represents 21 per cent of the total for Ontario, and
more than the entire greenhouse gas emissions of British Columbia.
More worrisome for the Aamjiwnaang, exposure to toxic pollutants for people in the region
is the highest in the province. The report says that 60 per cent of the 5.7 million kilograms
of toxic air releases recorded in 2005 were within a five kilometre radius of the reserve.
These pollutants are known to cause cancer or are associated with reproductive and
developmental disorders among humans.
According to a 2007 report by Ecojustice (formerly the Sierra Legal Defence Fund),
Exposing Canada's Chemical Valley: An Investigation of Cumulative Air Pollution
Emissions in the Sarnia, Ontario Area, some of the area's chemical, petrochemical and
power plants pollute more than others.
"We see the same names over and over on the list of Top Five," says Elaine MacDonald, the
senior scientist at Ecojustice, which is Canada's largest non-profit environmental law
organization. The companies that lead in emissions of carbon dioxide, volatile organic
chemicals, hormone disruptors and heavy metals include Imperial Oil, Nova, Shell, Suncor
and Cabot, MacDonald says.
Dean Edwardson, general manager of the Sarnia-Lambton Environmental Association, an
industry group that represents 22 of the largest chemical and petrochemical companies in
Chemical Valley, says the NPRI data has limitations.
"Some of the information that gets reported is estimated and may not be based in reality,"
says Edwardson. "It is industry's best attempt at getting data and I'm not sure there is a
better way, but NPRI is a snapshot."
Nevertheless, when research about the skewed birth ratio was published in peer-reviewed
journals in 2005, scientists from around the world started to call. The Aamjiwnaang
pushed Health Canada to help fund the symposium on the issue that was held at the end of
March.
Symposium
The Aamjiwnaangs' objective was to address the evidence of injury to health from
exposures to chemical pollutants. They invited scientists from Canada and the U.S. and
environmental activists from contaminated communities across the globe to the
symposium to examine the data.
Ron Plain, the aboriginal program co-ordinator for Environmental Defence Canada and a
founding member of the Aamjiwnaang environment group, says a mix of racism and poor
113
municipal land use contributed to the reserve shrinking to live in industry's backyard.
Another health survey pegged the band's miscarriage and stillborn rate at 39 per cent, he
says.
The Aamjiwnaang also want to prove that the negative health effects are not just being felt
on the 850-member reserve. Isaac Luginaah, an associate professor of geography at the
University of Western Ontario whose studies focus on the environment and health,
compared London and Sarnia hospital admissions data from 1996 to 2000. General
hospital admissions were 47 per cent to 90 per cent higher for Sarnia residents. The
difference in admission rates for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in Sarnia were
even more extreme — up to 300 per cent greater than in London.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley is among those calling for action on the health problems,
saying they are urgent and regional in nature. He has criticized Health Canada for trying to
exclude the Aamjiwnaang and the local occupational health clinic from ongoing talks about
developing a comprehensive health survey for Chemical Valley.
"There is a price to pay and we have to be realistic," Bradley says. "But when we talk about
alliance, there should be no one missing in action."
Jim Brophy is the medical director of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers
in Sarnia, a Workplace Safety and Insurance Board-funded clinic that provides
occupational health services and information. Brophy documented the high instance of
asbestos-worker mortality in Sarnia — the highest in Canada — and sees a parallel between
the old denials that asbestos made people sick and the reluctance to face the mounting
evidence of disease from pollution.
The industry Sarnia-Lambton Environmental Association also supports conducting a
proper, comprehensive survey of the impact of industrial pollution on the health of
residents. It recognizes the area was a hotbed of mesothelioma (cancer from exposure to
asbestos), and says the concerns of workers and the public are of great importance.
"We want to see a health study that supports or refutes the link between chemical exposure
and health," says Edwardson.
Looking for clues
Dr. Warren Foster, an expert in reproductive health at the Hamilton Health Sciences
Centre, says Canadian researchers are not sure why the sex ratio of 106 boys to 100 girls
in Canada is fairly consistent except in areas such as the Aamjiwnaang community. His
research points to what he calls endocrine toxicants. These are endocrine disruptors —
chemicals that mimic hormones like estrogen, and that are found in pesticides, organochlorides, heavy metals and plastics.
114
Children from the Aamjiwnaang First
Nation near Sarnia, Ont., play basketball
behind the Band Office, which is located
across the road from a chemical plant.
The people of the Aamjiwnaang First
Nation have a birth ratio of girls to boys
that is two-to-one, a scientific anomaly.
(Craig Glover/CP)
Dr. Foster says in-vitro fertilization research at Hamilton's Centre for Reproductive
Care at McMaster University raises another possibility.
"Maybe the male embryo develops at a faster rate than does the female embryo and, as
a result, may be more sensitive to environmental insult," he says. "Thus we may be
losing males before we move into a clinical pregnancy."
Dr. Ted Schettler, a physician with the Science and Environmental Health Network, a
U.S. network of environmental groups, notes that children, from fetus onward, are
disproportionately susceptible to contaminants. Early exposure for children, even in
the womb, can be linked to diseases that show up later in life, and failure to conceive is
part of this continuum, he says.
The birth ratio is a clear signal that something is very wrong in Sarnia, he says.
"I think there is an enormous problem with not considering the cumulative nature of
the emissions," says Schettler. "Some contaminants released are known carcinogens.
When you mix them together in this complex soup that people regularly breathe here,
the toxicology of that mixture is far more complicated than if we think about these
single chemicals by themselves."
Calls for action
Michael Gilbertson recently completed his PhD thesis, a forensic audit of the Great
Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a 1972 agreement that commits Canada and the U.S.
to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the lakes. The
thesis is based on his 34 years with the Canadian federal government, including 16
years with the International Joint Commission, which resolves disputes relating to the
115
use and quality of Canada-U.S. boundary waters. He says we know enough about risk
factors and now political activism is more important.
"We have to form a new social movement," Gilbertson says. "We heard the stories from
other communities that have been highly exposed. Now we have to organize to bring
about political change."
Getting polluters to cut emissions is a challenge. Ecojustice says only 11 per cent of
Chemical Valley plants reported to the federal government that they planned to reduce
emissions in the 2006 to 2008 period, and 30 per cent of plants that are listed in the
NPRI said they would increase emissions.
But SLEA thinks these statistics may not tell the full story. Edwardson says
improvements require capital, and companies can be leery of making promises to the
government that might not be kept.
"The problem with those numbers is that they are projections," he says. "There may be a
reluctance to make improvements if you don't have the money in-house. Companies are
always looking to make process improvements here."
Dr. Devra Davis, author of The Secret History of the War on Cancer, spoke at the
symposium of communities like Reveilletown and Mossport, La., that were
contaminated by chemical industry and where people chose to move away en masse.
"We lost the ability to document the nature of the problem," Davis said.
Ron Plain wants the Aamjiwnaang reserve to stay where it is.
"Aamjiwnaang could be a model for the world, where a community and industry can
work and live together prosperously," says Plain. "But industry has to take that
initiative to begin to implement the best available technologies and lose their excuse
that it is not economically viable."
8:15-8:30pm
Wrap up and Evaluation
116
Lesson #9 Plan: Experience Rating
Date: December 5, 2011
Guest Speaker: Paul LaPorte, Injured Worker Advisor, “WSIB”
6:00-6:30
6:30-7:00
Guest Speaker
7:00-7:15
BREAK
7:15-8:15
Go Over Experience Rating Handout and Role Play
8:15 – 8:30
Preparation for Graduation
First step: develop your speech.
Prepare the middle – develop your story. In 1 minute.
Next week we will all speak for 2 minutes.
8:30
117
Role Play: Poverty is No Accident
Workplace Safety – a Place without Accidents?
The Road to Zero
Ultimately, Zero is the goal: there is no other choice. We believe this plan will
revitalize Ontario’s efforts to emerge as a global leader in prevention, regardless of
economic conditions – a leader with a champion for prevention in every workplace,
every school and every household; a leader where workers and employers are
engaged with the Prevention System; and all are inspired and enabled to eliminate
the burden of injuries, fatalities and disease .
From: Ontario’s Prevention System – a New Direction, WSIB Road to Zero 2008
The Road to Poverty
How Workers’ Compensation
is SUPPOSED to Work
How Workers’ Compensation
ACTUALLY Works
1. Employers pay into fund
1. Employers pay into fund
2. Employers are protected from
lawsuit when worker gets injured
2. Employers are protected from lawsuit
when worker gets injured
3. Workers get prompt, fair
compensation for any workplace injuries
as long as their disability lasts
3. Workers get forced into an abusive
adversarial system that does anything it
can to avoid paying compensation,
especially for long term claims. Many face
poverty, bankruptcy, loss of homes,
divorces, and even suicide.
From Canadian Injured Workers Society Website: http://www.ciws.ca
118
Role Play Instructions: Poverty is No Accident
Divide into groups of 4 (can be done with 3 – group decides which role to drop)
A WSIB executive on the Road to Zero meets 2 injured workers on the Road to Poverty.
One injured worker is venting, the other one is convincing.
The topic is “ Experience Rating is a good method to encourage Workplace Safety.”
Agree or disagree?
An employer comes along and joins in. He (or she) is trying to control claims by hiding,
pressuring, threatening, offering meaningless work or appealing the claim. Or all of
above. Check section on Moral Hazard. Take ten minutes to prepare, and 5 minutes to
present.
119
Experience Rating: From Security of Benefits to Million Dollar Rebates
(The Golden Goose Keeps Laying the Golden Eggs)
Workers Safety and Insurance Act 1997
(Bill 99)
s.83(1)"The Board may establish experience and merit rating programs to
encourage employers to reduce injuries and occupational diseases and to encourage
workers’ return to work. "
s.83(2)"The Board may establish the method for determining the frequency of
work injuries and accident costs of an employer.""
s.83(3)"The Board shall increase or decrease the amount of an employer's
premiums based upon the frequency of work injuries or the accident costs or both.
120
What is Experience Rating? Why should injured workers know about it?
Experience Rating in Ontario workers’ compensation was supposed to be an incentive
for employers to improve Health and Safety in the workplace. Experience Rating was
initiated as a way to reward employers for good safety records with a cash rebate and
penalize them for having poor ones with a surcharge. Assessment rates remain
unaffected; they are the cost of doing business. But rebates are pure profit – they have
become an incentive for employers to challenge claims, not to improve safety.
Background
Meredith’s principle of collective liability meant that when the compensation system
was set up, all employers in a particular industry rate group (say, forestry – logging
operations) were assessed at the same rate, based on the expected number of accidents
in their group.
Employers began to complain that this was unfair – Company ABC has way more
accidents than Company XYZ, at more cost to the compensation system, but both
companies pay the same rate for their industry rate group.
Experience Rating is a term borrowed from private insurance companies in the US,
where it is a measure “to determine how much a given policy should cost, using
historical data to determine the risk of future claims.” (Insurance Dictionary)
So Experience Rating in the context of Ontario compensation means a company is rated
on their “historical data” - on their “experience” of accidents. Not only does this seem
fairer to employers, but it was believed this would make workplaces safer for workers.
A Carrot and Stick System
So, under an Experience Rating system for employers:
Logging Company ABC and Logging Company XYZ each pay money to WCB/WSIB
- Company ABC has more accidents than average, it gets FINED (it has to pay a
surcharge)
- Company XYZ has fewer accidents than average, it gets a REBATE (money back,
lots of it!)
It seemed logical – give a donkey a juicy carrot to persuade it to be good, or beat it with
a hard thick stick to stop it being bad. Financial incentives will surely make employers
take special care to avoid accidents. Or will they?
Professor Weiler’s Hunch
Our old friend Professor Weiler had a hunch that experience rating ought to work,
although, he said, there wasn’t any evidence that it did:
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I have not seen any systematic studies which demonstrate that merit rating (Ed.
Note: ie experience rating), where it has been tried, has produced markedly safer
workplaces.
However, absent any evidence, he followed his hunch:
While we do not have the benefit of scientific proof, proponents of experience rating
can appeal to the intuitive, common-sense view that business executives will pay
attention to the promise of a refund or the threat of a surcharge in Board
Assessments.
He cautioned that before such a system was implemented, an evaluation study should
be made (although this has yet to be done):
...to monitor its impact on employer behaviour in order to provide the Ontario
public and policy makers a more informed basis upon which to appraise and use
experience rating in the future.
All quotes from Reshaping Workers Compensation, Paul C. Weiler, 1980
“Moral Hazard” for Employers?
While it is supposed to be an incentive to make workplaces safer by encouraging
“investment in accident prevention” for injured workers (Weiler again), experience
rating has instead had an alarming effect on employer behaviour. Business executives
do indeed “pay attention to the promise of a refund and threat of a surcharge” – but not
to make workplaces safer. It has instead become an incentive for employers to control
claims. They frequently:
• hide claims (push worker onto EI or private insurance, threaten co-workers)
• pressure workers to return to work immediately to avoid lost time claims,
• offer meaningless work until worker quits or can be fired (hurricane watch)
• relentlessly pursue appeals: video surveillance & other “paramilitary” tools
Experience Rating has clearly become a “Moral Hazard” for employers, and a
nightmare of an adversarial system for injured workers. Not only that, Experience
Rating is draining the Accident Fund.
Back in the early 90’s, we started to notice that huge amounts of money were
coming out of the accident fund and going – not to injured workers, but to
employers. This was at a time when the Board was crying the blues about the
crunch on its funds. We discovered “experience rating.”
Marion Endicott, Injured Worker Representative and IWSS teacher, 2008
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At the same time, in those same early 90’s, benefits to injured workers were slashed
under Bill 99. Benefit levels were reduced and cost of living adjustments virtually
eliminated. It has been estimated that it would take $2 billion to bring injured workers
back to 1995 levels through retroactive cost of living adjustments.
Offbalance?
Before Experience Rating, cash collected from employers each year provided enough
money to cover the benefits that came out of the accident fund, with a bit left over to go
to the Reserve. If not, rates could be raised. In an ideal Experience Rating world,
surcharges collected from employers would balance out the rebates they receive.
However, when they don’t, it is called an “offbalance”, and if rebates exceed surcharges,
the money to pay those rebates has to come from somewhere.
(From 1995) employer rebates under the Experience Rating program were
increased. In fact, employer rebates were consistently paid out above and beyond
the amount of the employer penalties collected so that the WSIB had to take
money out of the accident fund, the money collected for injured workers, to pay
for excessive rebates to employers. According to the WSIB Annual Reports, more
than $2 Billion was paid out in excessive rebates to employers over this same
time period. (Ed. Note: emphasis mine)
John McKinnon, RAACWI Forum on WSIB Financial Crisis, May 2009
From 1995-2009 employers have raked in the $2 billion dollars that injured
workers have lost. How can this be? Are workplaces getting safer? Is that why the
system is rewarding employers? But that doesn’t seem to fit the experience of injured
workers or their advocates...
Dead Workers Lose No Time
The problem is that Experience Rating uses the wrong measure. The only thing that
counts in the current system is the cost of what are called “Lost-Time Claims”.
Experience Rating measures the cost of the time a worker loses. It doesn’t measure
health and safety. And what gets measured is what gets managed. That is why
employers chase ambulances to try to bring injured workers back to work. That is why
they offer injured workers meaningless jobs such as “sitting on the roof watching for
hurricanes”, or waiting in the parking lot to count hubcaps. No. Lost. Time.
The stakes are high – the no lost-time claims rebate is worth more than the cost of any
surcharge, and so much more than paying wages to a hurricane watcher or hubcap
counter. The carrot is very juicy and the stick is very soft.
In 2008 the Toronto Star exposed a Kafkaesque scandal: companies with fatal
accidents were getting a small fine from the Ministry of Labour, yet still receiving
million dollar rebates from WSIB, because a dead person doesn’t file a lost-time claim.
(See “Hiding Injuries Rewards Companies”, Toronto Star, May 29, 2008)
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“Employers’ involvement in claims is creating an adversarial system which was to be
specifically avoided when the compensation system was founded.”
Platform for Change Conference, 2004
Claims Control
Experience Rating, intended as a carrot and a stick to encourage workplace safety, has
become a Golden Goose for employers, which they are clutching on to as hard as they
can, putting a lot of time and resources into adversarial “Claims Control” activities
instead of workplace safety. Million dollar rebates are Golden Eggs that keep dropping
from this goose, and even after the Toronto Star exposé, it doesn’t seem as though it
will be flying away any time soon.
Because of the way the system works, honest employers can be penalized severely, as
just one extra accident can put them over edge into surcharge, with potentially
disastrous results for their business. The incentive to hide claims is very strong.
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Impact of Experience Rating on Injured Workers
Questions for Participants:
1. Has anything happened in your own experience as an injured worker that you
believe may be a result of an employer’s pressure to control his or her
compensation costs?
2. One of Meredith’s key principles was that the compensation system was
supposed to be non-adversarial. Why do you think the system is so adversarial
today, and how could this be changed?
Examples of Injured Worker Stories Affected by Employers Practicing Claims
Control from the Injured Worker History Project Bulletin #6, Experience Rating:
A young man from Iraq, only recently arrived in Canada, injured his shoulder lifting
heavy plates on an assembly line. In an interview with the IWHP, he talked of how his
pain was immediately downplayed by the company doctor. After being on
compensation for a year, he was shocked to learn that his benefits were being
terminated because he had been secretly videotaped gardening, as suggested by his
doctor but which the company claimed indicated that he had recovered.
A woman suffers from repetitive strain injury that according to her doctor was caused
by her job as a drill press operator. Her employer’s response was to suggest that she
apply for the company’s private insurance. She put in her claim to the workers’
compensation board but her employer refused to fill in the claim form. To add insult to
injury, she was fired from her job. Seven years after her injury, she had not yet
received any form of compensation. She has not been able to return to work. By
challenging the worker’s claim, the money is taken away from the worker and the
company may receive a hefty cheque from the Board.
A woman worked as a cashier in a department store and broke her leg in a fall at work.
The company called the worker every day to say that it had a job for her. The
compensation board refused to pay any benefits to her because the company informed
the Board it had “suitable work.” Despite the pain and the fact that she was supposed to
rest with her leg raised, she finally returned to work where she finds herself alone in a
room with a shredding machine. She has a chair but no place to put her leg up. As a
result, her leg is taking much longer to heal than it should and her doctor says she
needs physiotherapy. Her employer’s insistence that she be on the worksite may be
aggravating her condition. However, the company’s chances of receiving a substantial
rebate from the workers’ compensation board are heightened.
1. Question: Can you imagine a better way to encourage health and safety in the
workplace?
2. Question: Do you think it is possible to have a perfectly safe, accident-free
workplace?
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Lesson #10 Plan: Injured Workers Victories
Date: December 12, 2011
Guest Speaker: Justin Duncan, EcoJustice
6:00-6:30
6:30-7:00pm
Guest Speaker-Justin Duncan
7:00-7:30
Activity/Game:
ACTIVITY: Highlights of Injured Worker History:
Unfortunately/Fortunately
(Hand out materials: Highlights of Injured Worker History)
(5 minutes)
1. Instructions:
• Divide participants into groups of 3 or 4
• Hand out - two sheets of history highlights 1910- 2010
- two highlighters in contrasting colours
• Ask each group to go through the sheets
using two different colours, highlight for each decade
(a) what was good for injured workers – true highlights
(b) what was bad for injured workers – low moments
(10 minutes)
2. Groups work through history, find highlights and low moments
together.
(5 minutes)
3. Groups plan a presentation of “what struck them” about history – they
can choose to do a skit, a speech, take an overview or a favourite moment.
All must be involved in some way.
(15 minutes)
4. Presentations to whole group
(10 minutes)
5. Wrap up – depending on size of group, do this as a go around or a
brainstorm
- flip chart- “what strikes us about history”
Divide into groups to go through the history highlights.
Return to the group and give short presentation to whole group
- one setback for injured workers and two victories!
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Highlights of Injured Worker History: Handout
An exercise based on Robert Storey’s Power Point
• Social historical background to 1910 Meredith Commission – horrific working
conditions, rise of industrial accidents (300% 1900-1904), workers winning in court
despite employer-biased common law defences (had to prove it was employer’s fault)
• 1915 Workman’s Compensation Act
Meredith Principles:
- security of benefits
- compensation as long as disability lasts
- no fault
- non-adversarial
- collective liability
- employer pays
- independent agency
• 1960’s
saw birth of present day injured worker movement:
- Hogg’s Hollow 1960 – 5 men die
- Rise of industrial accidents similar to 1900’s.
- WCB puts out ads suggesting injured workers to blame
- Lower back injuries, invisible injuries = 1/4 of claims.
- 1963 redefinition of “accident” to include “disablement”
- WCB Chairman is Colonel Legge - “Generalissimo” - attitude “ go back to work
or I’ll shoot you!” (Ross McClelland) – horrible treatment by Board
• 1970’s
- Dr Hector at U of T – Italians have weak backs, “spaghetti back”
- 1974 Union of Injured Workers formed, demanding
 Full Compensation or Job Security
 Cost of Living
 Independent Examiners (no Board doctors)
 Tougher Safety Measures
- 1978 injured workers clash with police at office of Min. of Labour Bette
Stephenson
- 1978 Wyatt Report – big change: Compensation Rights to Insurance Principles
 “moral hazard” if benefits too good, workers won’t return to work
- 1979 Grey Paper – “society” is worried about 3 things
 adequate compensation
 competitiveness (Wegenasts’ bugaboo debunked by Meredith)
 taxpayers costs will rise!
•1980’s
- rise of neoliberalism: privatization, deregulation, withdrawal of government,
free trade. Margaret Thatcher in UK smashes unions. In US, Ronald Reagan “Reaganomics”
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-
-
-
1980 The Weiler Report proposed
 end meat chart
 increase earnings ceiling
 independent appeals tribunal
 increase use of experience rating
 replace pensions with “dual award” system
1981 Association of Injured Workers Group - fight elimination of pensions
1983 June 1 - notice of meeting sent out with WCB benefit cheques, 3000 iw
came to protest, adjourned to Queen’s Park – “for that one day, the ‘people’s
servants’ were actually directed by the people.” Birth of Injured Worker Day
Victories for Injured Workers!
 no dual award system,
 creation of appeals tribunal
 creation of industrial disease standards panel
 1985 annual Cost of Living Adjustment: No More Cap in Hand
Downsview Hospital – some of our students were there - (closed in 90’s)
An Injury to One is an Injury to All
• 1990’s
- Bill 162, passed 1989, effective 1990, on first day of new decade:
- NEL and FEL the Twins from Hell –Eliminates new Pensions, institutes
Deeming – dual award wage loss system
- 1990 NDP Government elected – Bob Rae promises to end Deeming
- Unfunded Liability scare – “Board virtually bankrupt” - pressure on NDP from
Wall St, threat to destroy Ontario credit rating. Compensation struggles - part
of larger picture worldwide: capital wants government monies to go to private
systems not public ones. Injured worker movement weakened by divide and
conquer tactics - eliminating pensions only for post-1990 injuries.
- 1994/5 Bill 165 ends indexing of current Pensions ($200/month to older iw)
- 1995 Mike Harris elected: “Common Sense Revolution”.
- 1996 Hon. Cam Jackson report: New Directions in Workers Compensation
Reform: “serious financial difficulty”
o unfunded liability 11.4 billion
o entitlement to benefits expanded too far, unequal, not related to work
o Ontario assessment rates 32% higher than national average
o Too much reliance on WCB control, employers and injured workers
must work together - “self-reliance’
- 1997/8 Bill 99 changes name: Workplace Safety and Insurance Board WSIB
 Early and (Un)Safe Return to Work
 Labour Market Reentry (Revolving Door, privatized training)
 Deeming (phantom jobs)
 Experience Rating (Incentive Rating – Employers Rebates)
• 2000 – a New Century – Injured Workers Fight Back! (again)
- 2001 Megatribunal defeated
- 2003 Supreme Court Victory – Chronic Pain recognized – some of our
students were there!
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•
2004 Platform for Change: how a compensation system would work well
2005 Maintenance Therapy
2006 Clothing Allowance reinstated (after 10 years)
2006 WSIB reconsiders ESRTW
2007 Bill 187: Deeming amended, COLA reintroduced over 3 years
2008 Experience Rating Horrors Exposed in Toronto Star, WSIB investigates
2009 Labour Market Reentry Horrors Exposed in Toronto Star
2010 Auditor General’s Report threatens new cuts to Injured Worker Benefits
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7:30-7:45pm
BREAK
7:45-8:15
Practice Graduation Speech
Optional Activity: Impromptu speeches
Invite impromptu speeches for 2 minutes each: Who/What inspires me?
Connecting Speech & Breath
Review Presentation Skills
Discuss how important it is to pause and breathe BEFORE you begin. To look at your
audience – not eye contact but letting the whole room be in your range of vision
(demonstrate). If you have a written speech, see how much you can pause, breathe and
look up away from the paper and let the audience in. Relate this idea to our work on
Meredith’s Meditation, when we let breath drop in after each thought.
A speech is a conversation in a way - as well as allowing the speaker to breathe, and
slow down, a pause also allows the audience/listener time to take things in. They have
breathing room too.
8:15-8:30
Preparation for Next Class:
Find an ending for your speech
Remember, Less is More – Know how and when to stop.
Leave people wanting…
Don’t forget – stick to the main idea/one important thing – you can always repeat it –
repetition works.
Remember - no new information at the end of a speech
Discuss details and plans for grad night – Invite friends and family and media! Order of
speeches?
-
8:30
Evaluation & Wrap up
130
Lesson #11 Plan: GRADUATION
NB:
Graduation Class begins later than class and ends later with a party
Graduates may want to arrive early to practice their speech in the
room (especially if different from the class room) Try to ensure
access to the room ahead of time for this purpose.
Facilitator Challenge: Invite everyone you know, Celebrate!
You will need: a podium
Water for panelists and speakers
Cameras and tripod for video recording and stills
Person to operate cameras
Running order – preferably decided at practice the week before
- tip: think of a good beginner and good end, put everyone else
where they want to go. Be prepared to let this go; things change
but the show must go on..
Certificates for graduates with their names spelled correctly
Food and drink for party – see if you can get donations
5:00
Room open to injured worker speaker school graduates to practice
and breathe the space (exercise)
6:30
Panel arrives.
6:30-7:00
Meet and Greet – snacks and juice – audience assembles
7:00
MC welcomes everybody, introduces the evening and the panel.
Facilitator(s) introduce(s) the course and the participants.
7:15
Graduating Speeches
Each participant has 3 minutes to speak to the panel and audience.
Facilitator has the bell – in case of going over time, sound it very
gently
Explain to everyone that this will happen. It is a gently reminder
that the Speaker must take note and at least begin to wrap it up
After each speech, taking turns, one member of the Panel gives
feedback to the Speaker and audience on “What Struck Him/Her”.
They then ask 1 question based on the speech.
Speaker has 2 minutes to respond
8:15
Panel remarks on speakers/speeches as a whole – 2 minutes each
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8:25
Graduation Ceremony: certificates presented by MC and facilitators.
A round of applause and thanks for all the hard work and success.
8:30
Party with food and drink
Congratulations!
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APPENDIX
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Worker’s Compensation in Ontario: One Page History Overview
Breathing
Speaking Skill Essentials
Speech Creation
Sample Speeches from Different Sources
Links to Speeches Online
Graduation Speech
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Workers’ Compensation in Ontario: One Page History Overview
Mid-late 1800’s – early 1900’s – Industrial Injuries and “Social Unrest”
No formal system available to compensate workers for injuries
If hurt on the job, workers must sue employer to get compensation
Existing laws “unjust to working man” - had to prove it was employer’s fault
1915 Workmen’s Compensation Act (Meredith’s Principles) – Historic Compromise
Workers give up right to sue employer in return for guaranteed compensation
Employers receive protection from lawsuits in exchange for financing the program through assessments.
Employers pay into pot – collective liability
No fault system – non-adversarial
Administered by the state – through independent agency (Workers Compensation Board)
Compensation as long as disability lasts
“Full justice, no half measures”
1974 Union of Injured Workers formed
1978 Wyatt and Company Report – describes “moral hazard” of “overinsurance”
– using insurance model, suggests worker “fraud” is “human condition” and “self-evident”
1980 Professor Paul Weiler’s Report Reshaping Workers Compensation
1983 3000 injured workers protest Weiler’s proposal to eliminate pensions: First June 1st Rally
1984 Bill 101 – Progressive Conservatives: Appeals tribunal established (WCAT)
Office of the worker and employer advisor established (OWA, OEA)
1985 Bill 81- Liberals: Benefits indexed to inflation (COLA) (“no more cap in hand”)
1990 Bill 162 - Liberals
Eliminates lifetime pensions for workers injured after 1990
In its place, a dual award system based on supposed wage loss (deeming):
NEL – non-economic loss, and FEL – future economic loss
1991 Ontario Network of Injured Worker Groups formed (ONIWG)
1993 introduction of the New Experimental Experience Rating program
NEER becomes mandatory in 1995 – (experience rating first promoted & used in 1980’s)
1995 Bill 165 – NDP - ends full indexing of benefits (Friedland Formula)
1996 Jackson Report: New Directions in Workers Compensation uses fear of Unfunded Liability to cut benefits
1998 Bill 99 – Progressive Conservatives: Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
Name changed to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)
New focus on prevention & return to work (“self reliance” model)
Benefits reduced// employer assessments lowered (“stable predictable rates”)
Vocational rehabilitation by Board replaced by private Labour Market Reentry (LMR)
Attempt to eliminate compensation for permanent chronic pain disabilities
2003 Supreme Court of Canada recognizes chronic pain
2007 Bill 187 – Liberals: Cost of Living Adjustments: 2.5% each year for 3 years
Elimination of Deeming promised - but never delivered
2009 Auditor General’s Report threatens to cut benefits due to Unfunded Liability
2010/11 WSIB Funding Review - Injured Workers Speak Out!
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Breathing Practices
Breathing Practice 1
We practice breathing every week to get ready to speak.
Although it can be relaxing, the purpose is to help us be more effective speakers.
Instructors: The effect of this practice is cumulative, like any training practice
(piano, running)
People dealing with pain may find it hard to sit still
- they can choose to stand or lean or move a little bit
- whatever they choose, ask them to simply feel support & observe breath
Resting breath 3 to 5 minute Breathing Practice
Intro:
Breath drops into our body when we need air.
It is an involuntary movement.
Let’s try to watch it move without doing anything to make it happen.
We’re going to observe our resting breath so first we need to rest.
We rest by letting the chair and or the ground be our support.
Instructors: This will help us be grounded later on when we need to speak
Instructions:
Turn lights down low, close eyes if you like
Spend a few minutes letting chair and the ground support you
Notice the weight of your body in the chair, the contact with the chair back,
your arms supported on the chair, table or your own lap, your feet supported
by the floor.
Be aware of the structure of the building, the floors below supporting this
floor, the chair and you, all the way down into the earth.
Be aware of the space above your head, all the way up through the roof to the
sky.
Be aware of the space behind you, behind your back.
Observe your breath flowing gently in and out.
Observe your belly rising and falling as breath flows in and out.
Notice that breath flows in and out like a wave, there’s a brief rest after the
breath flows out. Then it flows in and out again right away. Rest. In and out
again.
Now, stop focusing on your breath and just let it flow in and out naturally.
You can open your eyes and pay attention to something else, something
outside yourself but inside the room (ie not worries or plans)– notice the
colour of the walls, the presence of other people, the sound of a clock
135
Instructors: Warn people that the lights are going to come back up, and ask
them to stay resting and keep breathing. Turn lights up and we are ready to go.
136
Breathing Out is more Important than Breathing In
If you get nervous when speaking or about to speak, always focus on breathing
OUT. Breathing in will take care of itself if you let it.
Never hold your breath after breathing IN.
You will be retaining carbon monoxide. It may make you dizzy.
This is called hyperventilating.
Notice that whenever we prepare to speak, we tend to “take a breath” and hold
it.
This will make us more nervous and not give us enough air.
If you notice yourself “take a breath”, let it go, just let it out right away in a little
sigh: “haaaaa”
Ten minute Breathing Practice
1. Turn lights down low, close eyes if you like
2. Spend a few minutes letting chair and the ground support you
3. Notice the weight of your body in the chair, the contact with the
chair back, your arms supported on the chair, table or your own
lap, your feet supported by the floor.
4. Be aware of the structure of the building, the floors below
supporting this floor, the chair and you, all the way down into
the earth.
5. Be aware of the space above your head, all the way up through
the roof to the sky.
6. Be aware of the space behind you, behind your back.
7. Observe your breath flowing gently in and out.
8. Observe your belly rising and falling as breath flows in and out.
9. Notice that breath flows in and out like a wave, there’s a brief
pause after the breath flows out. Then it flows in and out again.
Pause. In and out again.
10. Now, focus on the out breath.
11. Blow gently through your lips as though there were a feather
on them you were trying to blow away. “Ff – Fff”
12. Try doing this fast and then slow. Is there a difference? What
do you notice about your breath AFTER you blow the imaginary
feather away?
13. The breath coming in simply replaces the breath that has
gone out. Short breath out, small breath in. Long breath out,
deeper breath in.
14. Now, stop experimenting with your breath and just let it flow
in and out naturally. Focus on something outside yourself –
notice the colour of the walls, the presence of other people.
137
Instructors: When people are breathing naturally again, warn them that the
lights are going to come back up, and ask them to stay resting and keep
breathing. Turn lights back on and we are ready to go.
138
Resting after breathing out – letting breath replace
Five Minute Breathing Practice
The important thing is for people to practice every week – or every day!
Remember: You can wait for a little while after you breathe out, but never hold
breath after you breathe in.
Let’s try this: take a rest after you breathe out
3. Turn lights down low, close eyes if you like
4. Let the chair and the ground support you
5. Be aware of the support below your chair, all the way down to the
earth
6. Be aware of the space above your head, all the way through the roof
to the sky
7. Be aware of the room behind your back
8. Observe your breath flow gently in and out.
9. Next time, when you breathe out, take a little pause. Wait a
moment.
10.
When you feel the need for air, allow your breath to drop back
in and immediately out again.
11.
The breath coming in simply replaces the breath that has
gone out. Long breath out, deeper breath in.
12.
Breathe out, take a little pause, just wait
13.
When you feel the need for air, allow your breath to drop
back in and out again. It can come in through your nose or mouth.
14.
Do this at your own rhythm: breathe out, pause, let breath
replace. Breathe out, pause, let breath replace. And so on…
15.
Now, stop experimenting with your breath and just let it flow
in and out as it wants to.
16.
Pay attention to the room, to the sounds you can hear, to the
people – forget about your breath!
Instructors: When people are breathing naturally again, warn them that the
lights are going to come back up, and ask them just to keep on breathing easily –
we’re ready to move on.
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Breathing & Voice Practice 4
How Breath Makes Sound
New Idea & Breathing Practice: Introduce Humming 15 mins
Reminders
Reminder: “It isn’t about relaxation, it’s about being ready.”
Reminder: “Breathing OUT is most important thing.”
Reminder: “Don’t Hold your Breath” but you can rest after out
breath.
How does our voice work? How does breathing help us speak?
New Idea: More air = more vibrations = more sound power
Voice responds to stimulus from brain. If you see a fire, you yell
“FIRE!” without thinking about being loud enough or how much
breath you need. Your voice responds automatically to the need to
communicate.
1. How does this work?
a. Brain has impulse to communicate (sees fire)
b. Breath drops in to lungs (where are lungs?)
c. Breathing muscles squeeze lungs to send column of air
over vocal cords (where are vocal cords?)
d. Vocal cords vibrate – sound comes out of mouth (FIRE!)
e. When you need it, breath is replaced through mouth
f. More air = more vibration = more sound
2. Breathing Practice. Let’s experiment with making sound.
a. Turn lights down low, close eyes if you wish
b. Let the chair and the ground support you
c. Observe your breath flow gently in and out.
d. Focus on sighing your breath out slowly like this:
hhaaaaahh
e. Let breath drop back in quickly
f. Sigh out breath, change to sound on a hum: haa HMMM
haaah
g. Feel vibrations on your lips – mmmm – mmmm- mmmm
h. Let your breath drop back in whenever you feel the need
i. Play with this hum, longer, shorter, different notes.
j. Stop the humming and let your breath flow in and out
freely
k. Do you notice any difference?
Instructors: When people are breathing naturally, warn them that the lights are
going to come back up, and to keep breathing easily and resting. Now we are
ready to move on.
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Breathing & Voice Practice 5
Practice Practice Practice
Reminder: We are training our speaking voices.
Like playing an instrument or a sport, it takes practice.
This week we will repeat the practice in Class 4:
Ten minutes Breathing and Humming
Ask yourself if you notice anything different this time.
Reminders
“It isn’t about relaxation, it’s about being ready.”
“Breathing OUT is most important thing.”
“Don’t hold your breath” but you can rest after out breath.
“More air = more vibrations = more sound power”
Reminder: Your voice responds to the need to communicate.
If you need to call out “Fire”, your voice will be there for you!
When we are nervous or unsure of how we will be received, our
need to communicate can be uncertain, so our speaking voice is
likely to be less clear and strong. The breathing and humming
practice can help us let our sound out so we can be ready to speak
with confidence in public.
Humming – you can feel vibrations on your lips when you hum.
Breathing & Voice Practice. Let’s experiment again with making sound.
l. Turn lights down low, close eyes if you wish
m. Let the chair and the ground support you
n. Observe your breath flow gently in and out.
o. Focus on sighing your breath out slowly like this:
hhaaaaahh
p. Let breath drop back in quickly then out again: hhaaaaahh
q. Let breath drop back in
r. Sigh out breath, change to sound on a hum: haHMMM
s. Feel vibrations on your lips – hummmm – hummmhummmm
t. Let your breath drop back in whenever you feel the need
u. Play with this hum, longer, shorter, different notes.
141
v. Stop the humming and let your breath flow in and out
freely
w. Do you notice any difference?
going to come back up.
142
Breathing and Voice Practice 6 - Snakes & Bees
SSsssss is for Support – Support gives us the power to be heard
Reminder: We are breathing and making sounds to train our
speaking voices. Like playing an instrument or a sport, it takes
practice.
This week we will explore the change from breath to sound.
Question: Why do bees hum?
Answer: Because they don’t know the words (joke!)
This exercise is called Snakes and Bees
Breathing & Voice Practice. Let’s experiment with making sounds
and finding support.
x. Turn lights down low, close eyes if you wish
y. Let the chair and the ground support you
z. Observe your breath flow gently in and out.
aa. Focus on sighing your breath out slowly on an sssssss
bb. Let breath drop back in and out again
cc. Hiss on the out breath– make sure to keep your face & jaw
loose – ssssssssssss
dd.Let breath drop back in
ee. Next out breath change ssss to zzzzz half way through,
from hissing to a buzzing sound, from snakes to bees
ff. Let your breath drop back in whenever you feel the need
and continue to play with snakes hissing ssssssss
changing to bees buzzing zzzzzzzzzzzz
gg. See if you observe any difference in your belly when you
make the change. Put your hand on your belly to help with
this.
hh. Which needs more energy – ssssss snakes - or
zzzzzzzzz bees?
ii. Where does the energy come from?
jj. If people notice they are increasing the energy in their
bellies, explain that they are feeling their support muscles
for voice
kk. If not, never mind, we’ll try again next week
ll. Now switch to humming for fun – play with different notes
mm. Stop the humming, sit quietly and let your breath flow
in and out freely
nn. Do you notice any difference in your breathing now?
going to come back up.
143
One Effective Way to Develop Listening Skills and Feedback Accuracy over
Time
What Struck You? What more would you like to know? Do you have a
question?
From the beginning, we ask everyone to practice listening by paying attention to
what they actually hear. We point out that they will never hear everything.
Maybe about 30% of what is being said! We ask them what “struck them” about
what they heard.
In our class we developed a routine for practicing listening during speeches and
stories:
5. While someone is speaking, we listen without writing notes* - watching
for body language as well as specific words and phrases that jump out.
What do you notice? What strikes you?
6. Take a moment of quiet after the person finishes to jot down what we
heard, observed or saw. Just one thing is enough – more if you wish.
7. Be as specific as possible. We found it helps to tell people one or two
actual words you heard, or a gesture you saw.
8. After everyone has taken their turn speaking, we brainstorm: throwing
out words or gestures that struck us, in no particular order, and not
focusing on any one speaker.
* 1: This is just the way we practiced in our group. We were a mixed bag of
levels of education and English proficiency, and we wanted to keep the
emphasis on the oral and aural nature of speaking and communicating.
* 2: The facilitator may choose to take notes during the speeches as that can
be part of the job.
Over time this little routine trained our observational skills: listening, watching,
and being specific about what we saw and heard. And it helped people from the
very beginning to hear their own words back, so they could know they were
being heard.
Giving Feedback
Feedback is sometimes thought of as criticism, whether positive, negative, or
constructive. In our class, we begin with establishing the routine above, learning
144
to simply “feed back” or reflect what someone has said that made an impact;
that struck us.
It really helps a person making a speech to know what people actually heard,
what came through.
To do this effectively, we try to reflect words and phrases as accurately as
possible.
145
For example:
vice grip. My pain is like that.” (She clenches her fists and turns them round
and round)
Listeners: “vice grip” “pain” “pain like a vice grip”
As well as words and phrases or images, ie “what” people said, you can mention
gestures or pauses, or body language, ie “how” someone said it.
For example:
round)
Listener: “the way she moved her hands”
Once you have said what struck you, you can add how it made you feel.
For example:
round)
Listener: “when she moved her hands it made my stomach clench” “when she
talked about her husband’s workshop I felt sad”
To sum up:
- the group practices from the beginning giving accurate specific
feedback – useful information that speakers can learn from
-
together we will discover what works - and what doesn’t so much
-
the speaker will find out what is effective in communicating by
hearing back what they have communicated
-
in this approach, we try avoid correcting (“it would be better if you
said…”) and being positive but vague (you were really good…)
146
Speaking Skills Essentials
Speakers School– What you can expect to study, practice & learn in class
2. Speakers School Summary of Essentials:
Tools for Making a Speech through Listening and Group Feedback
a. Breathing and Voice [Practice]
i)
Breathing practice – every class
ii)
How your voice works – nerves and butterflies
iii)
Connecting to an audience - listening
b. Speech Creation/Composition [Content]
i)
Know your intention – to inform, to move, to inspire etc
ii)
Know your audience – WSIB, MPP’s, researchers, media
iii)
Decide what you want them to hear – one important thing
iv)
Decide what you want them to do – a call to action
v)
Choose words that make people see – images and pictures
vi)
Anatomy of a Speech – beginning, middle and end
vii)
Focus again – less is more – one important thing
c. Speech Presentation Skills [Form]
d.
i)
Breathing – being heard (“projection”), pausing
ii)
Presence & grounding – 360 degrees
iii)
Making contact – where to look
iv)
Gestures and body language
v)
Using props & visual aids
vi)
Listening – to yourself and audience
Graduation Speech [Final Production
147
Speech Creation
Begin Speech Development with Idea of Intention- Notes
INTENTION
WHY speak? WHAT is the purpose?
WHAT do we want?
WHO to? – audience
WHEN? – now, timeline
Intention:
= What effect do you want to have on people = verb
This leads to The Main Idea – sticking to the point is essential to good communication
You (speaker) --------message------> Audience/Listener
Message = One Important Thing
Main Idea
Find Key Words
Develop a strategy to get The Main Idea across
- to whom? (audience)
- for what? (call to action - what do you want them to do about it? )
- why? (the “so what?” test – why should we care?)
The rest is all about “how”
INTENTION IS A VERB – “I intend…”
To motivate
To send a message
To inform
To fix
To get answers
To enlighten
To change, share, educate
To release, vent
To convince, persuade
To propose a solution, to recognize
To commemorate
To complain
To refresh memories
To be heard
To announce
To toast
To open door
To get attention
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Intention
The first question for any speaker should be, "Why am I speaking?"
"What is my goal or my purpose for speaking?" “What is my
intention?”
The long-range purpose of speaking is to communicate to a particular
audience.
Types of Intention
When we communicate with other people, we are usually guided by
some purpose, goal, or aim. We may want to express our feelings. We
may want simply to explore an idea or perhaps entertain or amuse
our listeners or readers. We may wish to inform people or explain an
idea. We may wish to argue for or against an idea in order to persuade
others to believe or act in a certain way. We make special kinds of
arguments when we are evaluating or problem solving. Finally, we
may wish to mediate or negotiate a solution in a tense or difficult
situation.
Remember, however, that often speakers combine intentions in a
single speech. In a speech to an MPP for example, we may begin by
informing the listener of the facts before we try to persuade him or
her to take a certain course of action.
Intentions and Strategies
A purpose is the aim or goal of the speaker or the speech; a
strategy is a means of achieving that purpose.
Intention and Focus
Your focus (otherwise known as the Main Idea) is a reflection of your
intention. If these two do not agree, you will not accomplish what you
set out to do.
149
A List of Elements of a Speech to use for Giving Feedback
Intention – is it clear? Was it achieved?
Choose “One Important Thing” to say
Structure - Beginning – a hook – one important thing - intention
- Middle – develop idea
-
Ending – full circle – one important thing – know when to stop
Time - length
Pacing – pauses, breathing room, empty space
Listening - to audience, to self
Presence – grounded, 360 degrees, taking space
Eye contact – the whole room
Voice – breathing, loud and clear, slow, diction
Gesture – physical action
Props
Reference (to History, Principles)
Questions to listeners
Contrast
Imagery – word pictures, metaphors
Repetition and Rhythm
Humour
Call to Action
150
Sample Speeches from Different Sources
Anatomy of a Speech – a Beginning, a Middle, and an End
Although this is a letter written to a newspaper, it takes about 2 minutes to read
out loud, and is a good illustration of imagery, one important thing, and a good
conclusion coming full circle. The only thing that doesn’t work so well is the last
paragraph, where he introduces a new idea (the graphic ad campaign) at the last
minute.
You can have someone read this as a speech and see if people can notice the
elements that work well and the one that doesn’t.
LETTER TO WINDSOR STAR
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
`WSIB not doing what it was established to do
I have a disability. In my case, an unsafe workplace is the cause. Many years ago,
I suffered an injury and as a result, I know first-hand what Humpty Dumpty must
have felt like. I've been trying to put my life back together ever since.
In 1910, the Ontario government appointed former Conservative party leader
and Ontario Supreme Court justice Sir William Meredith to study workers'
compensation. The 1914 Workers Compensation Act was based on what was to
be known as the "Meredith principles."
Workers were to be guaranteed compensation for as long as earnings were
impaired. It shouldn't mean poverty. It was meant to be no-fault. Employers
would have to contribute to a fund from which benefits would be paid. The
establishment of an independent agency administered it at arm's length. In
exchange for benefits, workers gave up the right to sue their employers. This
came to be known as the historic compromise.
Over the years it's been transformed to a private insurance model. Why? Well,
one reason could be that private insurance has more to do with limiting liability.
The bottom line becomes the objective. Compensation, as Sir William intended,
meant a right to fair treatment for injured workers and their families; a goal
which is a far cry from what the WSIB seems to be aspiring to today.
Workers, advocates and even doctors say the system is designed to frustrate and,
without dispute, needs reform. The recent graphic ads in the media do little to
help workers who are already injured, except to suggest that they are at fault for
their injuries. Maybe it's time the WSIB took a page out of the history books.
THOMAS NOBLE
151
Windsor
Speech as story: setting the scene
Marion Endicott’s Speech to Injured Worker Speaker School, November 26 2008
A Moment in Compensation History, which I Witnessed
I’m going to tell you about a significant moment in Injured Worker History, which
I witnessed. It is not a moment that resulted in change.
As you know, in the Harris years, the employers’ dreams were able to come true.
Elizabeth Witmer was made Minister of Labour with a key task of bringing in new
legislation on compensation. Legislation which would shift the burden of injury
even more, much more, onto the backs of injured workers.
1996
Submissions were to be directed to the Legislature in Committee Room 2 at
Queen’s Park.. It was the day to hear about Bill 99. TIWAG (Toronto Injured
Workers Group) and ONIWG were scheduled to speak for 20 minutes each. We
combined our time to 40 minutes. Injured workers knew about the date and
were keenly interested. The room which holds chairs for about 40 people was
quickly filled up with injured workers and 2 rooms were set up upstairs with
closed circuit TV and filled with injured workers.
I was downstairs – part of the team to make the submission. We were about
fourth on the list. First was the Minister herself at about 9:30 am. She spoke of
how her Bill would restore balance to the system which had been overgenerous
to injured workers.
The crowd in the room drew a collective breath – generous? We could even sense
it upstairs. She spoke of restoring the system to its original insurance principles.
The crowd grew restless. There was some noise above us. She spoke about the
reductions which would be put in place to protect the financial viability of the
system. Reductions to benefits.
The crowd became startled and then filled with an incredible sense of power and
expectation. There was a rumble and a thunder of noise above us, and then a
steady pounding. Many feet coming down the marble stairs. Pounding, pounding
down.
The Minister moved to the end of the room. Her speech finished – whether or not
it really was. She was supposed to leave at the end of her speech, but she
couldn’t. The hall and doorway were jammed with injured workers. She was
trapped, and there she stayed until noon and until she had heard well from
injured workers.
152
It didn’t change her mind on the Bill. This government was determined. But I like
to think that it has stuck in her mind. At the very least she could not fool anyone,
not even herself, about who supported this Bill and who did not.
153
Link to speeches online:
http://www.pinper.com/speeches
Steve Jobs
In this 2001 presentation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs launches a brand new product called
the iPod. Notice his use of clean and simple visual aids as well as the varied gestures he
uses to support his words. Everything supports his message and focuses our attention
on the product itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0SVBCJqLs
Steve Jobs
In this 2008 address to a MacWorld audience, Jobs again uses strong visuals and
gestures to support his overall message as well as effective signposting at the start of
the speech. We know exactly what he is there to talk about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOKGKsdY-VI&feature=related
Alec Baldwin
In this classic scene from the 1992 movie “Glengarry Glen Ross,” actor Alec Baldwin
uses eye contact, spatiality and vocal dynamics to command a room of salesmen. This is
portraying a confident presence at its finest. Notice the deft use of the chalkboard as a
visual aid too.
Warning: This video contains profanity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI
Barack Obama
In this 2008 Victory speech during the Iowa primary, Obama overcomes a noticeably
strained voice to deliver a rousing address to supporters. Notice his deliberate and
effective use of pace and vocal variety and the repetition of his key points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZaq-YKCnE
Barack Obama
First impressions last! In this 2004 address to the Democratic National Committee in
Boston, a little-known state senator from Illinois explodes onto the national scene with
18 minutes of soaring rhetoric.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWynt87PaJ0
Robert F. Kennedy
Shortly after taking to the stage at an event in Indianapolis in 1968, Robert Kennedy
learns that Martin Luther King, Jr. has been shot and killed. Displaying amazing poise
154
and eloquence, Kennedy informs and calms the live audience in this stunning example
of impromptu speaking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g379nEkAspE&feature=player_embedded#at=14
Christiane Amanpour
Journalist Christiane Amanpour delivers a stirring and address to the 2010 graduating
class at Harvard University, relating her personal journey and career transition to the
journeys that each of them will now be embarking upon as they leave school and pursue
their careers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qrA1vHVgII&feature=fvw
George Carlin
In this classic routine from Comic Relief (1986), Carlin utilizes gestures and vocal
variety to effectively communicate the importance of “stuff” in our lives.
Warning: This video contains profanity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
Lou Gehrig
After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Gehrig shows extraordinary grace as he
summons the courage to step to the microphone and deliver a short, stirring speech to
a stadium of fans in 1939, declaring himself the “luckiest man alive.”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lougehrigfarewelltobaseball.htm
Michelle Obama
Speaking to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Obama uses personal
anecdotes and effective storytelling to engage her audience and make the case for her
husband’s presidential bid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=790hG6qBPx03
Will Ferrell
Using humor and a unique and unexpected entrance, Ferrrell captures his audience’s
attention and delivers a humorous yet inspiring commencement address to the
graduating students at Harvard in 2003.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPl3X6whm3A
Muhammad Ali
One of the most charismatic athletes in history, Ali displays his trademark humor and
personality in his recitation of a poem called “I Am the Greatest.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxczlps5_bg
155
Muhammad Ali
Projecting a confident presence at a 1974 press conference, Ali uses humor and vocal
variety to engage and entertain the crowd. Even his opponent couldn’t help but smile as
Ali bragged about how he “handcuffed lightning” in preparation for the upcoming bout.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-5_8af3TiY&feature=related
Charlie Chaplin
Known primarily for his extraordinary gifts as a silent film star, Chaplin proves he is
equally adept as an actor without the physical, using only his voice to communicate in
this powerful scene from “The Great Dictator” (1940).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqnk4qNlAZk
John F. Kennedy
With a confident, deliberate speaking pattern, Kennedy uses this 1961 presidential
address to convince a nation to put aside selfish ways and devote themselves to the
betterment of all. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for
your country.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB6hLg3PRbY&feature=related
John F. Kennedy
Falling behind the Soviets in the race to space, Kennedy used this 1962 address as an
opportunity to challenge Americans to dream bigger and aspire to greatness by
supporting his plan to put a man on the moon within a decade’s time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRbkBAOGEw
Kenneth Branagh
In this rousing speech from the 1989 film version of Shakespeare’s “Henry V”, Branagh
shows how a strong intention to motivate and inspire can move a group of men to take
action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptqev-KEmhU
Ronald Reagan
In this 1980 speech to the Republican National Committee in Detroit, Ronald Reagan
shows how his conversational style and personal passion earned him the nickname,
“The Great Communicator”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmmgVFByeaI&feature=related
Ronald Reagan
Less sunny and optimistic than most speeches we remember from Reagan, this address
shows Reagan’s somber and serious side as he stumps for Barry Goldwater in 1964.
156
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvg7lRsCVJ8
Hillary Clinton
After a long and difficult political campaign in 2008, Clinton delivers a gracious and
eloquent concession speech in her home state of New York. Notice the subtle and
effective use of humor with her opening line. That opening set the tone for the entire
speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgi_kIYx_bY&feature=channel
Winston Churchill
Speaking to the House of Common in 1940, Churchill found himself in the difficult
position of having to describe a great military disaster while warning of the numerous
hardships to come. He also had to rally a nation at war and gain their support in this
speech that is sometimes titled “We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6llT2ZYg-4E
Nelson Mandela
In 1994, after being imprisoned for 27 year in South Africa, Mandela uses his release to
deliver a deliberate and inspiring speech to a nation divided, challenging them to move
forward together. Short but compelling, lacking any trace of anger, which is
remarkable in and of itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-_r6B_Z188
Lyndon Johnson
In this landmark 1965 speech, Johnson speaks eloquently about justice and equality as
it relates to voting rights. Notice the effective use of a biblical quote toward the end of
the address.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEauRq1WxQ
Randy Pausch
Delivering an emotional 2008 commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University,
Pausch utilizes powerful illustrations from his own experiences to inspire graduates to
discover their true passions in life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATiyfX1I45I&feature=related
Barbara Jordan
In this groundbreaking 1976 address, Jordan seizes the moment, projecting a
confident presence while challenging her audience to confront the myriad of problems
facing the country and fulfill their national purpose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKfFJc37jjQ&feature=related
157
Jesse Jackson
Bringing the trademark fire and passion, Jackson uses vocal variety, pace and gestures
to effectively communicate the urgency of his message during his 1984 presidential
run in a speech often titled “David and Goliath.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6vazOz018&feature=PlayList&p=2DDB613AFB2
17DF1&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=8
Jesse Jackson
Known for his passion and intensity, Jackson has some fun with his image, reading
from the book “Green Eggs and Ham” in 1991. Notice how he keeps a straight face the
entire time, never so much as cracking a smile. That, along with his impeccable pace
and timing, are what make this so effective and funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPy2alWEZ-U&feature=related
Ted Kennedy
In this 1980 address (often titled “The Dream Endures”), Kennedy uses powerful
personal examples and anecdotes to rally the crowd to take action to secure the
American Dream for future generations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jDcPbSCluA&feature=related
Mario Cuomo
In this 1984 address (often titled “A Tale of Two Cities”), Cuomo delivers a passionate
speech about the inequalities between various groups in America. Notice how Cuomo
takes Reagan’s signature phrase “A shining city on a hill” and attempts to turn it
against him. Words have power and both men knew that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOdIqKsv624&feature=related
Shirley Chisholm
In this 1972 speech (often titled “Courage of our Convictions”), Chisholm displays the
passion and confidence as an orator that helped her become the first African-American
woman ever elected to Congress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzM8fgRDI24&feature=related
George W. Bush
Speaking amidst the rubble at Ground Zero shortly after 9/11, Bush uses an
impromptu moment to show empathy toward a battered and heartbroken nation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7OCgMPX2mE&feature=player_embedded#at=58
Gregory Peck
In this audio recording from the classic 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Peck uses
158
pace and vocal variety to drive home his final argument in this famous courtroom
scene. The speech helped Peck win an Academy Award for Best Actor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TgqenWW0I
Martin Luther King
In one of the most famous speeches of all time, King delivers his 1963 “I Have a Dream”
address in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Listen to his voice, how it rises and falls,
soaring like music. Not only are the words themselves powerful, but the delivery if
astonishing. Notice how he repeats certain phrases over and over, driving his points
home so we remember them long after the speech has finished.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMXaTktUfA&feature=fvw
Martin Luther King
In this prophetic 1968 speech (often titled “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”) King
delivers a defiant yet compassionate message of hope and perseverance. Sadly, he was
assassinated only one day later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&feature=related
Gene Hackman
In this classic scene from the 1986 movie “Hoosiers”, Hackman uses his voice and
gestures effectively to inspire his team to work together to win the big game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDJS9rFGCHE
Ellen Degeneres
In her 2006 stand-up routine, Degeneres uses effective gestures, vocal variety and
expressive body language to entertain the crowd with hilarious stories about seemingly
mundane experiences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICjyzxfBhvw
Al Pacino
In this scene from the 1999 film “Any Given Sunday”, Pacino delivers a speech to his
team designed to motivate them to win. Using real-life examples to underscore his
points, he utilizes vocal variety and pace to build to a rousing finish. Warning: This
video contains profanity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mqWbRoSe5U
Bill Clinton
Addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2008, Clinton displays his natural
talent and abilities as a speaker. Using pace and vocal variety, as well as personal
anecdotes, he engages the crowd and calls them to action.
159
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl7Jc8tNxck
Jack Nicholson
Spitting venom, Nicholson delivers this iconic speech in the 1992 film “A Few Good
Men.” Notice his use of stillness. He barely moves, never gesturing once. He doesn’t
need to. His facial expressions and voice communicate everything. Warning: This
video contains profanity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo
Ann Richards
In this 1988 address to the Democratic National Convention, Richards puts her
personal stamp on the speech utilizing her biting humor, unwavering confidence and
Texas twang—even including the use of Spanish words and phrases. It is clear she is
relishing the moment and her audience responds in kind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pvrvRT23is&feature=related
Henry Fonda
In this famous closing speech from the 1940 film “The Grapes of Wrath,” Fonda shows
how simply saying words honestly and clearly can communicate everything that you
need to communicate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yer4L1Uhayc
Graduation Speech
Each participant will prepare a 3 minute speech, created and practiced during
the course and delivered to a panel on the Graduation night. The speaker will
also be prepared to answer an impromptu question asked by the panel arising
from the content of their speech.
The grad speeches, responses, questions and answers will be videotaped. If
possible, we suggest scheduling a reunion session dedicated to watching the
video and responding to it, following a checklist of the skills shown.
160
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