- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,187
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
There have been hundreds of stories told in this column that I’ve had the privilege of writing over the last seven and a half years, but there were hundreds more that didn’t see the light of day.
As I wade into retirement — Easter Monday is officially Day One — it is amazing how much interest the column consistently drew from Citizen readers or people who didn’t even buy the paper but needed a hand.
For those I disappointed because they did not get the results they were counting on, I apologize. I’m also sorry I could not respond to everyone’s queries. There were literally thousands.
There were stories that smelled fishy, and there were others that some editors were queasy about, usually because they were possibly litigious and therefore too risky for what they were worth. Then there were readers who wanted help, but after their problems were solved didn’t want their stories made public. Luckily, I can internalize my f-bomb habit very well.
Some callers and emailers suggested stories that sounded too good to be true, and often enough, after the photos were taken and half the story written, a salient fact would suddenly surface and the piece died. Like this one: An Ottawa physiotherapist could not understand how the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario could remove her licence based on an “anonymous” complaint that she was never told about. It was unfair even though she was winding down her career, she said. She had a clean record. Even the clinic where she worked was miffed with the college. It sounded like a great Public Citizen “Gets Action” story.
Turned out the college had received a tip that the physiotherapist had memory issues. When I spoke to her again, she disclosed that she had recently been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She had volunteered her resignation after she was approached by the college.
There were countless offerings from readers trying to navigate through problems that were unbelievable, yet true. Whether the result of an innocent mistake or insensitive government bureaucracies, user-unfriendly utilities such as Hydro One, or fly-by-night energy companies preying on homeowners, those stories often sparked outrage against the villain and sympathy for the victim. More often than not, the bad guys backed off or someone with common sense came through. With that, here are some of my favourite Public Citizen stories:
March 2012, Dan, 78 at the time, was told that he was being reassigned because someone had complained about his inability to speak French.
I’ll start with the tale of Dan Brown. His story sparked so much fury that the commissionaire got his job back manning the ground-floor reception desk at the National Research Council Building on Montreal Road a few days after his story appeared. In March 2012, Dan, 78 at the time, was told that he was being reassigned because someone had complained about his inability to speak French. They gave the gentle, friendly senior five minutes to gather his belongings and he was escorted out of the building in tears.
The former Congolese man became a single parent of four small children after his wife, Furaha, died of liver cancer in April 2010
Emmanuel Nono’s story was a real heartbreaker. The former Congolese man became a single parent of four small children after his wife, Furaha, died of liver cancer in April 2010. His immense grief led him and friends to plan a $16,500 funeral he could not afford. Nono thought his wife’s insurance policy would cover the costs but it had been cancelled after she failed to disclosed she had surgery for gallstones in 2007. Donations from friends and his church raised enough money to cover the $9,000 funeral home bill, but the $6,000 cemetery bill remained. Though Citizen readers reacted with several donations, Beechwood Cemetery forgave the debt as soon as the CEO read Nono’s story.
Baby Jackson Gard was the centre of quite the controversy in August 2010 after a trendy food and wine bar in Old Ottawa South informed his aunt that her reservation for five adults and the infant to celebrate her birthday was being cancelled because children were not welcome. The issue polarized readers. Many agreed that Taylor’s Genuine Wine and Food Bar was right turning away kids, while others felt the establishment was being a party-pooper. Jackson’s mother, Ruth, filed a discrimination complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The complaint was settled through mediation in 2012. Owner John Taylor said afterward that children were OK if parents wanted to bring them.
Brandon McCarthy succumbed to the ravages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 2014.
Brandon McCarthy succumbed to the ravages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 2014, two and half years after he was the centre of a public uproar that forced the former McGuinty government to partly rescind a 2011 decision to cut monthly allowances for recipients on special diets. The Ministry of Community and Social Services targeted people with diseases it felt did not need the allowance even though government medical experts argued people with weight-loss illnesses such as MD should continue receiving the money.
Gordon Summers unfortunately never received the home-care assistance for toiletry problems he so desperately needed. “Gordie” had various illnesses and ailments, was extremely overweight, and tended to be cranky and cantankerous. He contacted this newspaper after he lost the limited help he was getting from the Champlain Community Care Access Centre. The CCAC stopped sending him a personal support worker over a remark that it perceived as a threat. A series of stories about Summers’ plight did not move the CCAC. Last May, Summers, 63, dropped dead of a massive heart attack at a gas station an hour after driving his mother home.
Defrauded of $8,000, Jonathan Davies got even.
Jonathan Davies did not get mad at a couple who took advantage of his trusting ways and defrauded him of several thousand dollars. He got even. Davies, who has Asperger’s syndrome, met Robert Faulkner and Nancy Bigras as he was walking downtown on Dec. 10, 2008, the first day of the OC Transpo strike. They were in a van and after getting his attention, Faulkner told him they were helping people during the transit strike. He eventually asked Davies for gas money — the start of a ruse that enabled the couple to defraud him of $8,000 over the next few weeks. Davies took them to small claims court and won. It was at least a moral victory for Davies because he never expected to be reimbursed.
In March 2012, Ahmed-Seghir Guettaoui’s permanent residency was finally approved.
Ahmed-Seghir Guettaoui’s application for permanent residency was ignored for seven years before his humiliating arrest in May 201o over an expired work permit that he blamed on a bungling bureaucracy. It still took almost another two years after the Aylmer barber told his story to this newspaper, but in March 2012, permanent residency was finally approved.
Daksh Sood was finally reunited with his parents, Bhavna Bajaj and Aman Sood, after almost three years of separation.
There is also the recent story of little Daksh Sood, who was finally reunited with his parents, Bhavna Bajaj and Aman Sood, after almost three years of separation. The parents ran into problems with Canada Border Services agents when they landed in Canada in January 2013. They had failed to disclose they had a son, then about 18 months old, before arriving in Montreal. He was born after their initial application for permanent residency and their plan was to apply to bring the child to Canada once they were settled in new jobs and a home. Though the couple had no luck convincing the former Conservative government to show mercy, it took new Immigration Minister John McCallum less than a day to decide Daksh could be reunited with his parents after Bajaj and a group of supporters spoke to him just before Christmas.
Karen Belaire contacted the Citizen looking for assistance in finally getting permanent accommodation through Ottawa social services.
George Belaire, a severely-disabled 17-year-old boy, and his mother, Karen, were living in a Kanata motel room for more than 18 months when she contacted the Citizen in January looking for assistance in finally getting permanent accommodation through Ottawa social services. In less than a week, a two-bedroom townhouse was found in an Ottawa Community Housing neighbourhood on Draper Avenue, near Greenbank Road. They moved in last month.
Dan Smith, 65, is searched against a police cruiser by an officer at the Gatineau Police Station after refusing to pay a fine and court costs after being found guilty last summer for not having a license for a cat.
Senior Dan Smith, http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/co...-refusal-to-pay-fine-for-unlicensed-stray-catthat he says his wife adopted as her own, ended up serving one day of a three-day jail sentence in January for the dubious offence. After Smith surrendered at the Hull jail rather than paying the City of Gatineau $276 to cover the fine and court costs, the Citizen story went viral. Smith was treated like a rock star by other inmates during his short stay. A cellmate even gave him his bunk so he wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor atop a piece of foam.
“Winnie” the feral cat, who was taken in by Dan Smith’s “estranged” wife, Elizabeth, at the Gatineau house he still shares with her.
So there you have it. Some of my favourite Public Citizen stories. Thank you for your ideas and feedback over almost four decades of working at this wonderful newspaper. And please keep reading the Citizen. Good bye for now, and if I don’t like retirement, I’ll see if I can come back.
查看原文...
As I wade into retirement — Easter Monday is officially Day One — it is amazing how much interest the column consistently drew from Citizen readers or people who didn’t even buy the paper but needed a hand.
For those I disappointed because they did not get the results they were counting on, I apologize. I’m also sorry I could not respond to everyone’s queries. There were literally thousands.
There were stories that smelled fishy, and there were others that some editors were queasy about, usually because they were possibly litigious and therefore too risky for what they were worth. Then there were readers who wanted help, but after their problems were solved didn’t want their stories made public. Luckily, I can internalize my f-bomb habit very well.
Some callers and emailers suggested stories that sounded too good to be true, and often enough, after the photos were taken and half the story written, a salient fact would suddenly surface and the piece died. Like this one: An Ottawa physiotherapist could not understand how the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario could remove her licence based on an “anonymous” complaint that she was never told about. It was unfair even though she was winding down her career, she said. She had a clean record. Even the clinic where she worked was miffed with the college. It sounded like a great Public Citizen “Gets Action” story.
Turned out the college had received a tip that the physiotherapist had memory issues. When I spoke to her again, she disclosed that she had recently been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She had volunteered her resignation after she was approached by the college.
There were countless offerings from readers trying to navigate through problems that were unbelievable, yet true. Whether the result of an innocent mistake or insensitive government bureaucracies, user-unfriendly utilities such as Hydro One, or fly-by-night energy companies preying on homeowners, those stories often sparked outrage against the villain and sympathy for the victim. More often than not, the bad guys backed off or someone with common sense came through. With that, here are some of my favourite Public Citizen stories:
March 2012, Dan, 78 at the time, was told that he was being reassigned because someone had complained about his inability to speak French.
I’ll start with the tale of Dan Brown. His story sparked so much fury that the commissionaire got his job back manning the ground-floor reception desk at the National Research Council Building on Montreal Road a few days after his story appeared. In March 2012, Dan, 78 at the time, was told that he was being reassigned because someone had complained about his inability to speak French. They gave the gentle, friendly senior five minutes to gather his belongings and he was escorted out of the building in tears.
The former Congolese man became a single parent of four small children after his wife, Furaha, died of liver cancer in April 2010
Emmanuel Nono’s story was a real heartbreaker. The former Congolese man became a single parent of four small children after his wife, Furaha, died of liver cancer in April 2010. His immense grief led him and friends to plan a $16,500 funeral he could not afford. Nono thought his wife’s insurance policy would cover the costs but it had been cancelled after she failed to disclosed she had surgery for gallstones in 2007. Donations from friends and his church raised enough money to cover the $9,000 funeral home bill, but the $6,000 cemetery bill remained. Though Citizen readers reacted with several donations, Beechwood Cemetery forgave the debt as soon as the CEO read Nono’s story.
Baby Jackson Gard was the centre of quite the controversy in August 2010 after a trendy food and wine bar in Old Ottawa South informed his aunt that her reservation for five adults and the infant to celebrate her birthday was being cancelled because children were not welcome. The issue polarized readers. Many agreed that Taylor’s Genuine Wine and Food Bar was right turning away kids, while others felt the establishment was being a party-pooper. Jackson’s mother, Ruth, filed a discrimination complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The complaint was settled through mediation in 2012. Owner John Taylor said afterward that children were OK if parents wanted to bring them.
Brandon McCarthy succumbed to the ravages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 2014.
Brandon McCarthy succumbed to the ravages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 2014, two and half years after he was the centre of a public uproar that forced the former McGuinty government to partly rescind a 2011 decision to cut monthly allowances for recipients on special diets. The Ministry of Community and Social Services targeted people with diseases it felt did not need the allowance even though government medical experts argued people with weight-loss illnesses such as MD should continue receiving the money.
Gordon Summers unfortunately never received the home-care assistance for toiletry problems he so desperately needed. “Gordie” had various illnesses and ailments, was extremely overweight, and tended to be cranky and cantankerous. He contacted this newspaper after he lost the limited help he was getting from the Champlain Community Care Access Centre. The CCAC stopped sending him a personal support worker over a remark that it perceived as a threat. A series of stories about Summers’ plight did not move the CCAC. Last May, Summers, 63, dropped dead of a massive heart attack at a gas station an hour after driving his mother home.
Defrauded of $8,000, Jonathan Davies got even.
Jonathan Davies did not get mad at a couple who took advantage of his trusting ways and defrauded him of several thousand dollars. He got even. Davies, who has Asperger’s syndrome, met Robert Faulkner and Nancy Bigras as he was walking downtown on Dec. 10, 2008, the first day of the OC Transpo strike. They were in a van and after getting his attention, Faulkner told him they were helping people during the transit strike. He eventually asked Davies for gas money — the start of a ruse that enabled the couple to defraud him of $8,000 over the next few weeks. Davies took them to small claims court and won. It was at least a moral victory for Davies because he never expected to be reimbursed.
In March 2012, Ahmed-Seghir Guettaoui’s permanent residency was finally approved.
Ahmed-Seghir Guettaoui’s application for permanent residency was ignored for seven years before his humiliating arrest in May 201o over an expired work permit that he blamed on a bungling bureaucracy. It still took almost another two years after the Aylmer barber told his story to this newspaper, but in March 2012, permanent residency was finally approved.
Daksh Sood was finally reunited with his parents, Bhavna Bajaj and Aman Sood, after almost three years of separation.
There is also the recent story of little Daksh Sood, who was finally reunited with his parents, Bhavna Bajaj and Aman Sood, after almost three years of separation. The parents ran into problems with Canada Border Services agents when they landed in Canada in January 2013. They had failed to disclose they had a son, then about 18 months old, before arriving in Montreal. He was born after their initial application for permanent residency and their plan was to apply to bring the child to Canada once they were settled in new jobs and a home. Though the couple had no luck convincing the former Conservative government to show mercy, it took new Immigration Minister John McCallum less than a day to decide Daksh could be reunited with his parents after Bajaj and a group of supporters spoke to him just before Christmas.
Karen Belaire contacted the Citizen looking for assistance in finally getting permanent accommodation through Ottawa social services.
George Belaire, a severely-disabled 17-year-old boy, and his mother, Karen, were living in a Kanata motel room for more than 18 months when she contacted the Citizen in January looking for assistance in finally getting permanent accommodation through Ottawa social services. In less than a week, a two-bedroom townhouse was found in an Ottawa Community Housing neighbourhood on Draper Avenue, near Greenbank Road. They moved in last month.
Dan Smith, 65, is searched against a police cruiser by an officer at the Gatineau Police Station after refusing to pay a fine and court costs after being found guilty last summer for not having a license for a cat.
Senior Dan Smith, http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/co...-refusal-to-pay-fine-for-unlicensed-stray-catthat he says his wife adopted as her own, ended up serving one day of a three-day jail sentence in January for the dubious offence. After Smith surrendered at the Hull jail rather than paying the City of Gatineau $276 to cover the fine and court costs, the Citizen story went viral. Smith was treated like a rock star by other inmates during his short stay. A cellmate even gave him his bunk so he wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor atop a piece of foam.
“Winnie” the feral cat, who was taken in by Dan Smith’s “estranged” wife, Elizabeth, at the Gatineau house he still shares with her.
So there you have it. Some of my favourite Public Citizen stories. Thank you for your ideas and feedback over almost four decades of working at this wonderful newspaper. And please keep reading the Citizen. Good bye for now, and if I don’t like retirement, I’ll see if I can come back.
查看原文...
