IT’S 2012 AND I’M STILL HERE
Free teen skate success The City of Cornwall’s Youth Advi- sory Committee, spearheaded by Councillor Maurice Dupelle, hosted a “Free Teen Skate” recently at the new Benson Centre. More than 200 teens from the area attended the skate and related activities. The crowd rocked to the band Admin- istrator’s live tunes, including its origi- nal song “Bitter” and danced to the tunes of DJs Joshie Josh, Axel Al and DaVince, thanks to an anonymous donor. The teens warmed up with hot chocolate donated by the Trinity Angli- can Church. Councillors Dupelle and Bernadette Clément were among those in attendance. “CYAC members identified the need for additional cultural activities as the number one priority and I’m absolutely thrilled that we can provide this type of event for them,” said Councillor Dupelle. Visitor centre open Ontario Power Generation’s St. Lawrence Power Development Visitor Centre is open during March Break, from from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Bring your family out for some March Break fun at the visitor centre. Take a tour, learn the history of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project, and check out cool, interactive displays for all ages. On Wednesday, the St. Lawrence River Institute presents an environmental workshop on inverte- brates, with workshops at 12 noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Participants will learn about the various groups of inver- tebrates, their importance in the food web, and how they are used to help de- termine water quality. Coping with mental illness Families struggling with the chal- lenges of mental illness in their midst can get help through a free, 11-week training session offered by volun- teers trained by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, starting Thursday, March 29 in Cornwall from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The course is specifically aimed at helping relatives and/or friends cope with a loved one suffering from a men- tal illness such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. While the 11-week series of sessions is free, par- ticipants must register ahead of time by contacting the Cornwall Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association at 613-933-5845 or 1-800-493-8271. Maxville school recognized Staff members at Maxville Public School were honoured last Wednes- day with a prestigious High Perform- ance School Award from the Upper Canada District School Board. Staff members earned the board award for demonstrating high performance in their innovative teaching practices, for creating a caring learning environment, and for maintaining positive adult rela- tionships that are student-focused. The school was also cited for having a princi- pal who serves as an instructional leader. TO THE POINT News in brief from Cornwall and the surrounding area
Former Cornwall SD&G EMS paramedic loses everything after becoming injured on the job Photo by Greg Kielec Tears well up in the eyes of Erica Stacey as she describes her life’sdownward sprial after she was injured while working as a para- medic with Cornwall SD&G EMS in 2007.
ance Board and make its way through five different union representatives. , As she sits at The Journal office, a two-inch thick binder of documentation in front of her, she doesn’t even know whether she has been fired or if she is still an employee of the city. “Yes, I felt I was bullied,” Stacey said, a refrain that has become all too familiar on the news pages in Cornwall lately. “I was harassed constantly.” Tears flowed as she described what tor- ment she endured --the harassment, intim- idation and lack of empathy as she was forced to complete mundane and at times meaningless tasks -- to satisfy the city’s re- turn to work program. ‘IT WAS AGONY’ “My pain wasn’t validated. Violation is kind of similar,” she said, struggling to find words to describe her sense of betrayal. “It was agony.” Stacey returned to Cornwall last week for the first time in years to describe her ordeal in a joint interview with The Journal and The Cornwall Free News. The painful mem- ories were almost overwhelming as she ap- proached the city limits en route to an interview with The Journal and The Corn- wall Free News. “Once I was hitting Headline (Road) my heart was beating out of my chest. It was a very difficult drive to come here today,” said Stacey, who had developed anxiety so badly because of the treatment she received after he injury that she would stop and vomit on the way to work. She contacted The Cornwall Free News after reading about an eerily similar case – former city employee Marie Ann Pilon who won a human rights case against the city late last year after management failed to ac- commodate a health condition she had which required her to take frequent bath- room breaks. ‘I HAD LOST HOPE’: Page 6
By Greg Kielec
‘we’re working on it’,” Stacey said. In the subsequent four years she lost al- most everything in her life that she cher- ished -- her job as a paramedic, her spouse, and suffered a nervous breakdown -- all the while fighting to get her treatment for her injury and retraining for a new career. She lives her life in limbo, struggling to move forward but unable to put the past behind her. Stacey has spent five years watching her case be tossed back and forth between the city and the Workplace Safety and Insur- I know in retrospect I should have con- tacted the Human Rights Tribunal in 2008 myself. I realize now I shouldn’t have put all my trust in my union, I naively thought my union would handle the situation. To this day I do not know why they didn’t fight harder for such a blatant case. I am still un- able to get help because they exist. As all the important timelines of possible human rights reporting have disappeared, I am try- ing to find a way to get my life/ a life back. I was fighting for my human rights in 2008 and I became hospitalized. Everything stopped. Its 2012 and I’m still here. The following is an excerpt of an email sent to The Journal by Erica Stacey summarizing her misgivings about her disability case. After sending this email I heard back from CUPE National and Met with a CUPE rep from Toronto as well as the regional rep. After a couple of meetings it was decided they could not help me without affecting my benefits, and as a result are dropping both my grievances. Stated I can look for a lawyer for help, and wished me luck. ‘I shouldn’t have put all my trust in my union’
When paramedic Erica Stacey was called to a possible drug overdose on Feb. 23, 2007, little did she know how much her life would change in the coming months and years. She and her partner arrived to a lengthy country lane in Dundas County covered with about six inches of snow. “We were able to drive up the driveway but only so far -- approximately 10 feet from front steps,” which “is not unusual,” said Stacey. But as the two lifted the stretcher to clear the wheels from the snow-covered lane, something happened, Stacey said. “I felt like I was suddenly giving birth thru the scapula. The muscle spasms were so se- vere.” What the 37-year-old Ottawa-area resident thought at the time was just a minor muscle pull turned out to be a serious neck injury which propelled her into an uncontrolled descent which became her own personal hell. ‘PUSHED BEYOND MY LIMITS’ She lost the use of her right arm and was in constant pain from nerve pressure from her neck injury. She was relegated to desk job at a substantially lower wage sorting through paperwork, “and I was often pushed beyond my limits,” she said. Even worse, she could not take her pain medication before her hour-long drive to work from Ottawa and she was forbidden by city management from taking the pain medication while at work. So she suffered through her work day, often in tears from the excruciating pain. “I felt that right there was a human rights violation,” she said. “I was told that pain doesn’t matter.” She would complain to her union about working in constant agony and that the new logistics job was too demanding for someone who had largely lost the use of one arm. The response: “’Just comply’, and
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