There is no question but that we have a high regard for former Senator Hugh Segal. But for God’s sake Hugh, you have got to stop treating people as laboratory rats. They do not and we do not need another damn test of how little people can live on.
And why would you ever get involved in another test with that brain-dead bunch at the Ontario government. They do not need more excuses not to help people in a manner that they need to be helped. We know what people need. They need dignity. They need the same as others need to live. They need decent housing. They need a nourishing diet. They need something to do!
The last thing that these people need is to have some money thrown at them and be told to go away. Each of those people is a complex individual. They have different needs, different diets, different interests and they need different levels of support. And you want to test them on a fixed income? That would be as bad as the stupidity that is going on now!
It was very amusing Hugh to read of your experience as a child in Montreal when your family would debate which two creditors you would pay in a particular month. At least you could pay two! Along with a mother and five siblings trying to survive in Toronto in the late 1930s, we had little for anyone so we were frequently evicted. It made for a hectic and varied life.
But that hardly equips either of us as experts. If you really know what people need, then good on you. Our guess is that we need to ask each person and then see what can be done to help. It actually needs to be a negotiation because, a) most people really do not want something for nothing, and b) they also want to contribute something. Because sitting around with nothing more to do than watch television is demeaning and crushes self respect.
Back when serving as president of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, we would often be asked to visit nursing homes where there were numbers of MS patients. These nursing homes were often infuriating because they seemed to be nothing but warehousing for people nobody knew how to help. It is why we kept services to patients high on the society’s priorities.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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