We can assume that the intentions of legislators and regulators have some socially redeeming intent. Our problems as citizens occur when laws and regulations are passed and the details of implementation are left to bureaucrats.
Those details usually leave almost total power in the hands of functionaries, with little or no restraint from any compassionate authority. The result is that there is little room for any humanitarian consideration in bureaucracy. A bureaucracy that in its rigor in enforcing the letter of the law, leaves no room for consideration of the spirit behind the law. And in so doing, puts the lie to basic assumptions of our society that we take for granted. We end up lying to the victims of the law, and to ourselves with regard to the quality of Quebec justice and mercy we believe exists in our programs and institutions.
Our governments in Quebec regardless of party have preached certain standards for years. We believe, they have told us, in a bilingual citizenry. We believe in the integration of immigrants. We believe that funding French-language training is a responsibility in order to achieve both integration and employment success.
We believe in encouraging homecare to seniors, not only to relieve the strain on the healthcare system but because it is better for the person. We believe in giving the benefit of the doubt to a citizen if they forget some minor piece of information when faced with the juggernaut of bureaucratic inquiries for almost any government help. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, we believe that a helping hand is not a handout.
That it is the right thing to do because we are a compassionate people and because in the end a person who gets back on their feet is not a burden on society. They become productive, tax-paying contributors to that society. They become builders of it.
These have been the promises of our patrimony. I believed these promises. But over the past years I have seen the dream held out by these promises become a nightmare.
Not only that I lost my husband and also my mother in 2001 from Lou Gehrig's disease, I am being persecuted for working in Quebec.
I was approved for French courses paid by the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity and began learning at Cegep St-Laurent in Montreal I did so well that the program's directors encouraged me to go to an advanced level at the Cgep de Vieux-Montral. From which I graduated with a certificate. I have been productive ever since and never asked for Social Assistance all these years which saved Quebec Government a lot of money and now The Ministry wants their money back and double.
The recovery center is asking for $8000.00 on US $2, 500.00.They already seized my bank account without any legal notice for $4253.00 and also without any scruples how I am going to live during which time I was unemployed and during recession where jobs are scares. They still are harassing me for $2, 994.46 which money I don't have. Shame on Quebec Government harassing me at 62 years old.
Ala
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
0 comments