There was a bad story in Canada about welfare fraud which shocked me. You probably know it - the pregnant 41-year-old woman, convicted of welfare fraud because she was receiving welfare payments and then applied for a student loan so she could go to university. Sentenced to have the overpayment deducted from her already very meagre monthly payments AND house arrest, allowed to leave her home (from memory) only 3 times a week for an hour each time, or thereabouts. She was allowed to go out more often if she needed to, but only with advance written permission. This woman had suffered from depression in the past and this was known. Nonethless, she was left unable to leave her home, with virtually no money, 8 months pregnant with her first child, no partner, in a small, shabby appartment in Toronto, I believe, last August, which was sweltering. And she killed herself.
I was surprised at the response of Canada's two national newspapers. I expected there to be an uproar during or after her inquest, but there was virtually nothing. Canada's two biggest women columnists, at least in the nationals, Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail said it was basically the woman's own fault, and Chrissie Blatchford in the National Post said well, she killed herself, what does that have to do with the welfare system? And that was that or, if there was more, I didn't see it. I found it shocking, and particularly so because she was "cheating" in order to go to university to do a degree in social work, so she was trying to "better" herself and get a job. It wasn't as if she was spending the extra money on heroin or lipsticks, though even if she had been, she didn't deserve a death sentence.
Sarah
At 7:26 AM -0500 02/05/2003, Catherine McKay wrote:
While I agree that there are definitely a lot of welfare cheaters, I also feel that there are certain people who are just helpless and who may simply be incapable of finding and keeping work; and a great
many more who have fallen on hard times.
