The following is a letter written in response to the Times Colonist article. ----------------- Your Jan 15th report, "Ministry worker stabbed," by Bill Cleverley is riddled with unexamined irony. Cleverley reports that "the victim, a pass holder at the rec centre, was well known to staff. The assailant was not." Of course the assailant was unknown to staff! Welfare recipients cannot afford recreation perks. Then, "Saanich police ... confirmed that the attack was not random, was unprovoked and that the victim and the assailant knew each other." Unprovoked? The system is the provocation. Ministry employment and assistance workers determine whether or not someone will get a crisis grant for food, medicine or heating; whether or not their assistance will be reduced or cut off; whether or not their disability application is accepted or denied; whether or not they will get a rent subsidy; whether or not... It goes on and on. It boils down to whether or not someone will have a home to live in, whether or not they will live or die. Susan Brice's comments point to further questions: "The most important thing now is that our employee is receiving the care needed for a complete and successful recovery. His family knows our thoughts are with them." Where are her thoughts for the man on Welfare who was driven to take such an act, or for his family? And think about what is suggested by the Ministry having "a plan in place to help employees deal with incidents such as this.'' How many incidents have there been and what steps, if any, have been taken to address their cause? To be on the system means to suffer abuse. It's as simple as that. Until the system is purged of its dehumanizing, demeaning and incredibly controlling policies and practices, the number of violent incidents is likely to escalate. We do not condone such acts. We make a mere statement of fact. Finally, the legitimate concern to provide counselling for the staff and patrons of the recreation centre and for employees of the Ministry raises another question. Did the assailant and his family receive any counselling, particularly before the incident? We suspect not. How about "flowers and chocolates"? Does no one see the desperation and hopelessness that can drive a man to do what Pharand did? Chrystal Ocean, Angela Scotton, Daphne Moldowin Wellbeing through Inclusion Socially & Economically http://www.wise-bc.org/ 250-748-8093 ORDER NOW! Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories from the Front http://www.wise-bc.org/CVProject/book.html ------------------- Problems/Questions? Send it to Listserv owner: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe, send the following message in the text section -- NOT the subject header -- to [log in to unmask] SIGNOFF SDOH DO NOT SEND IT BY HITTING THE REPLY BUTTON. THIS SENDS THE MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE LISTSERV AND STILL DOES NOT REMOVE YOU. To subscribe to the SDOH list, send the following message to [log in to unmask] in the text section, NOT in the subject header. SUBSCRIBE SDOH yourfirstname yourlastname To post a message to all 1000+ subscribers, send it to [log in to unmask] Include in the Subject, its content, and location and date, if relevant. For a list of SDOH members, send a request to [log in to unmask] To receive messages only once a day, send the following message to [log in to unmask] SET SDOH DIGEST To view the SDOH archives, go to: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html