The UCP government's treatment of AISH recipients is contemptible. Maybe even fatal.
A Voice for the Vulnerable
The famous Arlene Dickinson launched a powerful post about Bruce Johnson, a 57-year-old AISH recipient who evidently killed himself over the latest bureaucratic nightmare inflicted on these people. “The Alberta government kicked me in the teeth with the introduction of ADAP,” Johnson had written.
ADAP is where many recipients of Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped will end up if government deems them able to work. ADAP comes with a nest of rules so complex even the bureaucrats must have trouble understanding them.
Johnson wrote, “ADAP was just something that has finally pushed me to end everything.”
Dickinson, best known for her time on Dragon’s Den, came down hard on the UCP government. “I’m writing this because Bruce Johnson had a voice and he used it, and no one in power listened. The people who will be hurt by this transition on July 1 are people who are already exhausted from fighting to be seen. They shouldn’t have to fight alone.” She has got that exactly right.
Another Voice Raised
My friend Cam Tait, himself disabled, once again raised his powerful voice in an Edmonton Sun column. Tait wrote: “He was 57. Depression. Anxiety. Diabetes. Glaucoma. Neuropathy. Chronic pain. For years, illness made steady work impossible. Smaller cheques, harder job-seeking demands — pushed him to the breaking point.”
Most people can’t comprehend a world where you pray not to die before your children, because they’d be lost in a world where they cannot cope. This primal dread is almost universal in the AISH community.
The System's Decline
“It’s always the main topic of discussion — what is going to happen afterwards to our sons, our daughters, our loved ones,” says a longtime friend who has cared for his son for decades. He is now 72. His son is 49. I won’t name them for fear of inviting retribution.
Their lives are an endless series of battles with AISH over benefits. He has seen AISH decline from a helpful service to a heartless opponent. “The system is bad at the top,” he said. “It’s the government that is bad. The AISH workers at the beginning, years ago, were very helpful. They were there to help people on AISH, that was their mandate, that is their job. They weren’t there to protect the interests of the government, they were there to advance the interests of people who are receiving the benefits. But then the government started cutting back and changing the rules, and having them investigate recipients, and quickly these people turned into persona non grata, because they were no longer helping the people on AISH.”
