$1 Million for Cricket, $0 for Christine Lee
The news today has been dominated by the scandal in the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. Minister Mike Colle doled out $32 million in grants to cultural groups including $1 million to the Ontario Cricket Association (what cricket has to do with citizenship or immigration is the next question*). The thing is, the Ontario Cricket Association had requested a grant of only $150,000. An auditor's report revealed that the Cricket people spent $360,000 of their grant and parked $500,000 in a term deposit. That's how we get our taxpayer dollars working for us.In the meantime, my sister, Christine, had to find $50,000 in private funding in order to visit the Cleveland Clinic to have a gastrointestinal pacemaker implanted to try to restore her health to the level it was when she had her first (government funded) pacemaker. Christine's story was the subject of a Toronto Star article in October, 2006. Click here to read about her plight. The Ontario government refused to fund or reimburse Christine's surgery and would not allow her to have the surgery here since the GI pacemaker is considered an experimental device -- even though they had previously funded the exact same surgery, the exact same device.
A million dollars for cricket and nothing for Christine. It's hardly a laughing matter, but Chris is a landed immigrant in Canada. Too bad we didn't know the ministry was handing out funds.
*The connection between cricket, citizenship and immigration? According to the now former minister, "Cricket is a sport that brings together a number of, basically, ethnic peoples..." I guess all ethnic peoples, particularly those who play cricket, MUST be either immigrants or citizens, right?
For more information about Christine's fight with the Ontario government, please click here to visit her blog. When Michael Moore was researching stories for his movie Sicko, I sent him a snapshot of Chris's fight. But Canada was the hero in his movie so, unfortunately, her story didn't fit his agenda.
If you're outraged by this story, please share this post with your family and friends by clicking the envelope icon at the bottom of this post. Or leave your comments. Thank you.
Labels: Christine Lee, Gastrointestinal, Gastroparesis, Michael Moore, Mike Colle, Ontario Cricket Association, Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, Ontario Ministry of Health, Sicko
posted by Michelle @ 9:39 PM
2 Comments:
Michelle, this is a scandal that cuts deeply into the integrity of government because it displays the explicit attempt by a political party, usually Liberal, to 'buy' the votes of 'grateful' immigrants; a policy that began with Pierre Trudeau's revamped immigration programme in the 70s and that has shown it's ugly self in a variety of ways these past three decades,e.g., from the Tamil Tigers to the Pizza business. The Grits expect that 'ethnics' will vote for them by default and that has largely been the case.
Because Cricket is very popular with people from India, Pakistan and the West Indies, and because those particular ethnic groups have grown substantially in numbers, i.e., votes, the message was sent: vote McGuinty.
It's sort of an AdScam plus.
Christine is a landed immigrant but does not satisfy the political requirement of belonging to a visible minority. Although being a woman with a disability ought to have attracted some attention from the Premier's office for potential promo value to appeal to the average voter's sense of decency, I think that the issue, delicately might also have brought wider attention to the woeful inadquecies of socialised medicine in Canada; something that is definitely 'sicko' contrary to Michael 'Trans-Fat' Moore's propaganda.
The glaring immorality of all of this will have the spin doctors, instead of the real doctors, earning a lot of cash. By the time we go into the voting booth, McGuinty's gang are betting that not many will remember or care about this except, perhaps, the families of those who play cricket.
This should outrage the citizenry as should the fraudulent treatment of Christine but 'medical care is like, free, eh?'
Like, it's not perfect, eh?, but it's 'free'.
It isn't until the inadquecies and incompetence and cynical indifference that runs through the cold veins of government, somehow or in some way affect citizens personally and substantially, that they scream blue murder.
In the meantime, it's all 'I'll have a double-double and a cruller, eh?'.
Hi Michelle,
You are so on the money and I'm with you. There doesn't seem to be any day that goes by without some stupid outrageous handout being aporoved by some asswipe minister, provincial or federal.
Any and all of them should be put in jail for the criminal act of
misappropriation of government monies, yours and mine.
Cricket, such BS, who cares!
I will admit that I was shocked to see how much the UJA received. I'm not sure why or how these funds are used but the dollars are very large in relation to any other funding on the list. The ratio seems way out of line.
How the government handled your sister's requests and needs is absolutely disgusting and she deserved the help without the fight. It seems the cost of
life to government is last on the list. Well, without all of our lives there would be no money to toss around. They want our money but don't give a shit about what happens to us.
In the end no matter which party we vote for to represent our best interests they are going to screw us over in the end. I hate saying that but history speaks for itself.
Ray
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