Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 13, 1994, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press local Section Brian Cole 6977292 b1 january flood victims patience tested being one of the thousands of victims of last years disastrous flooding in Winnipeg and Rural Manitoba i had a lesson in patience my Strong but i did make a new years of what helped keep my patience in Check was that i knew the insurance Industry and the Manitoba governments disaster assistance Board were doing their Best to Jean Malcolm of Teulon also knew shed have to be patient after floodwater lifted her House trailer off its Cemen Block causing the plumbing and Oil pipes to a widow who has taken in two Foster kids every want too shed paid premiums to Wawanesa insurance for 17 years and thought she was it want until september that she discovered she her policy excluded surface flooding and blame was placed on energetic beavers damming a nearby so while other flood victims were reaching the stage of having their Homes Malcolm had to Start All Over and apply to the disaster assistance that when her runaround with bureaucracy an official from the Board visited her Home and insisted coverage should be picked up by the insurance Agency stuck to its guns and rejected a Board offer to share the some maintaining that while her insurance policy did cover leaking water and Oil pipe it didst on this who works at a Teulon cafe As a Cook for an enlisted the help of Gimli tory la de but the matter still stayed on the Back of didst have and As Winter approached she became the flooding had ruined her trailers by her patience had worn More than a Leslie dropped me a i called Syd head of the disaster assistance that same Day and within 48 hours a letter telling Malcolm the Board will pay the costs was on its too bad the Board had to wait for my top bad for the two child and family services kids who could have spent the holidays with q q q just As id finished writing the i got a Call from Isabelle a senior who lives in the promenade apartments just behind Portage she wanted to know if i could do anything about her tenants personal property insurance deductible being raised to from Why should apartment dwellers have to pick up the Tab for the flood victims she Good which shed put to her insurance agent Ada Hart of the firm of old Kirby and Esau i spoke to Hart later and she confirmed three insurance general Accident and raised All property deductibles to and that a Canadian had indicated it would follow Ken Wawanesa Winnipeg conceded policy holders would assume the deductibles had been raised because of the flooding almost and that while it was taken into his company and he assumed others were concerned More about huge annual losses caused by escalating crimes against victim of an injustice that bureaucracy wont remedy write or fax r hell look into were at breaking Hsc doctor warns by Brad Oswald staff reporter an emergency room Doc Tor at the health sciences Centre says a Lack of Avail Able space at the cites biggest hos Pital is endangering the lives of patients who arrive Tony Herd said bed closures and increased demand for service Are compromising the Quality and dignity of medical were at the breaking Point to he said were at the Point where we wont be Able to accommodate the next sick and i dont think with something As important As health it should have to wait until somebody after hearing of the Hsc situation last health minister Jim Mccrae contacted Hsc president Rod Thorfinnson and was Given an Assur Ance that Beds in a previously closed Ward will be made available for emergency room with what Herd has theres enough there for me to want to get to the Bottom of Mccrae weve got to provide service when people come for Herd said All but one of the hocs 20 emergency room Beds were full yesterday and the remaining bed was not equipped to Deal with critical health five of the emergency Beds were occupied by patients who had been admitted for Hospital care and were in stable condition but could not be moved out of emergency because no other Beds were he said some patients whose less serious conditions would normally justify admission Are being sent Home and told to return if their health continues to if someone with a respiratory problem is sent Home because there is physically no place for him to stay Hes treated with medication at he in he May be better in a Day or but at Home theres a 5050 Chance that he May get better or we Tell him what we Tell every body if things get come Why should he have to get worse As a Doest he have the right to optimal rather than make do care Hsc spokesman Jim Rodger said the hospitals emergency director is dealing with the situation As effectively As but there Are few options available Given the hocs limited in some i cant disagree with Herd in that things Are not As they ought to they said but i have to take is sue with the suggestion that lives Are at Boniface general Hospital spokesman Ross Brown said emergency room congestion continues to be an everyday fact of life at the cites other teaching Gold heart Kickoff Dave free press sky to personality Sylvia Kuzyk and Blue bombers quarterback Matt Dunigan help variety club poster child Jonathan Felbel kick off this years Gold heart Day Campaign yesterday at the Centre court in Polo improved financial picture achieved As injured workers critics say web draws applause by Bill Redekop staff reporter a Toronto based research group has lauded Manitoba workers compensation Board for putting its financial House in but critics scoffed at the plaudits saying injured workers Are paying a hefty Price for the Manitoba boards tightened fiscal the financial executives Institute of Canada applauded compensation boards in new Brunswick and Newfoundland for their Cost while criticizing other provincial boards for rack ing up huge its really quite positive said web chairman Wally Foxe he said the Board had an operating surplus of million in and has reduced its unfunded liability to from million in unfunded liability is the differ ence Between what the Board collects in employer premiums and the amount it needs to pay benefits to injured workers Over the lifetime of their As the web has Frozen its Premium to employers for the third straight the per of payroll Levy is second lowest in can Fox decent but critics charge that those financial figures have exacted a hefty Price on injured blaming the provinces Bill passed what were seeing is Manitoba reducing its unfunded liability by altering compensation to people with permanent said Bob Sam compensation committee chair Man with the Manitoba federation of Sample said workers who suffered a permanent injury on the Job used to receive Lon term pension the Board affixes a Lump sum for a worker suffering a minimum five per cent loss of physical motion in an Arm used to receive a payment of per or about Over his working that worker would receive a Lump sum Sample Bill 59 also did away with compensation for stress re lated unless caused by a traumatic he he said the legislation has also made companies More aggressive in challenging workers injury the Bill reduced payments to injured workers from 75 per cent of Gross pay Down to 90 per cent of net it also reduced benefits by 10 per cent after 24 months off the Fox decent said the boards improved finances were largely due to a 10 per cent drop in claims last to he said the drop in claims was probably due to the re cession and fewer people coverup conversation taped by Bill Redekop staff reporter a lawyer who was caught on a tape recorder asking an other lawyer to falsify a Docu ment was suspended for five months by the Law society of Mani Toba Manly asked a col league in Early 1992 to backdate a document to make it appear a client who loaned Israel Money in 1990 received third party counsel after As is required by Law society Law society officials expect that if i didst do they can put me on lawyer suspended for stupidity9 the Israel told the other the transcript of the taped conversation but Law society counsel Dan Dutchin said the attempted coverup was far More serious than israels initial failure to obtain a certificate of Independent Legal advice for his the situation was clearly exacerbated by Israel trying to fix things Dutchin who pleaded guilty before a five person panel of his is also required to pay in Legal fees to the the panel granted Israel a period of six months before payments must since he is in the midst of his second Dutchin said outside the hearing that third party counsel is required when borrowing from a client to clearly separate the practice of Law from personal or business we dont want the client to think they have to loan More Money in or Der to obtain Protection from the Dutchin Robert israels said Israel panicked when the Law society asked for the it was a moment of Tapper these matters Are not matters of horrendous this was not israels first Runin with the Law in 1990 he received a reprimand for a skirmish he had with a courtroom in criminal fraud charges levied against Israel by a Minnesota grand jury were dismissed due to Lack of the charge was in connection with an alleged lion scam against the City of involving a failed bus Bills mount As woman fights to stay by Doug Nairne staff reporter a pregnant woman facing deportation before she can testify against her allegedly abusive husband could be stuck with thousands of dollars in medical her lawyer Saul Simmonds said his client Judy who is six months lost her eligibility for medicare when her husband withdrew his sponsorship of her immigration to since then she has incurred at least in medical Bills and could be forced to pay even if she is deported Back to her native every time she walks in to the Hospital she gets another he Shes had trouble with the pregnancy and no w she has to be worried about going to the immigration department spokeswoman Mary Scott confirmed people in the country on visitors visas do not qualify for medical but Simmonds said provincial health officials have yet to decide whether Henderson will be forced to pay for her medical Henderson faced deportation at the end of december when her visitors visa her husband withdrew his sponsorship of her after she complained to police that she was being her husband appeared in court on 5 and his trial will begin on but Simmonds says she May not be around to we expect to get an answer this week but based on the position being taken by immigration officials Here were not very he Simmonds said he has appealed to Federal immigration minister Sergio Marchi to intervene in the Marchi has requested a copy of hendersons he accidental death ruled out the provinces chief medical examiner has ruled out natural or accidental causes As the reason for the death of Sureta Peter Markesteyn said yesterday he has determined a probable medical cause for the death of the 21yearold who was pronounced dead at the health sciences Centre on 4 after her Hus Mohamed called 911 to report he had found her dead in the Bathtub of their Al Fred Avenue i have a reasonable medi Cal cause of death but i want to confirm it by doing further police continue to investigate the death As suspicious and have reopened their investigation of the death of Hibi whose body was found in the basement Freezer of the residence in Markesteyn said an investigation can turn up five Possi ble manners of death Natu Sui cide or 1 dont think its so that leaves three ;