tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24902319247613300482024-03-05T21:52:31.081-05:00Behind the Locked Ward - The Sue Clark StorySue Clark-Wittenberg writes about the 18 years she was on locked psychiatric wards in Ontario, CanadaSue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-62639240974351739952007-11-07T11:33:00.000-05:002007-12-18T22:14:38.851-05:00Forgiving my abusers - part of my healing<div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifoSo2mPPE0FE39j1k9KQD0Pruq85wwV9AxzFNw1orfZFWAuw0CG9vKx2rou7aJkqu_vxnUikZZtAPpvH436fGH89vs1O0-Gvrj8dYTpL4xK1m3rIGnFWcowIk6AAKCoDRdy-5hFENFN4/s1600-h/Forgive-Posters.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifoSo2mPPE0FE39j1k9KQD0Pruq85wwV9AxzFNw1orfZFWAuw0CG9vKx2rou7aJkqu_vxnUikZZtAPpvH436fGH89vs1O0-Gvrj8dYTpL4xK1m3rIGnFWcowIk6AAKCoDRdy-5hFENFN4/s200/Forgive-Posters.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130138894961789474" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">This poster says "<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you"</span></span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />November 7, 2007<br /><br />I had been contemplating for years if I should forgive my many abusers. I had been angry for years and would not give up that anger that was eating away at me. It was my baggage of despair, of<br />hopelessness, of shame.<br /><br />I decided within the last month to forgive all my abusers - my parents, my Uncle Lyman, my former husband Fred, and many others I shall not mention.<br /><br />I felt the anger and hate towards my abusers was eating at the very core of my soul. It affected my health greatly. I would overeat when I felt the feelings of anger and I ate to comfort myself<br />into being comfortably numb. I also used psychiatric drugs that were toxic to numb me.<br /><br />I realized last month, hating my abusers was futile. It was wasting my precious energy everyday that I could be doing something useful and more meaningful.<br /><br />I prayed in my heart to let the anger and hate leave me and I saw a phoenix in my mind flying from out of the ashes, the ashes of emotional pain I hung on for years. I don't want that emotional baggage weighing me down anymore. I want to live my live and be free of the anger. Anger is fear.<br /><br />I want to let know of the many <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">layers</span> of pain I have surrounding my body which is the layers of fat that insulated me from feeling any emotional pain. I don't need to overeat and stuff down my emotions<br />from the pain from the past. I have suffered enough.<br /><br />Today I got up and went on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">internet</span> and felt happier than I have been in my life. I felt lighter,<br />not holding on to past anymore.<br /><br />I want to feel all my feelings without having to use food to numb them.<br /><br />Just because I forgave my abusers does not mean I have to associate with those people. I have<br />cut them off years ago, but I had not forgiven them for many years.<br /><br />Anger is a waste of time for me especially when it was something that happened many years ago.<br />Some of the abuse damaged me badly, but it is up to my heal, that is my job. I have done lots<br />of healing in the past. I have had alternative therapists, feminist therapists, sexual abuse counsellors,<br />social workers, regression therapist, and the list goes on.<br /><br />I like to draw and am not very good at it but I try. I want to art today and have fun. I laugh more<br />and smile more than I ever have. When I laugh it is a deep belly laugh and I feel so much better.<br />Laughter is the best medicine and it costs nothing.<br /><br />Forgiveness is a journey, it takes time to be able to forgive people who hurt you. Those people need to forgive themselves also.<br /><br />You can't forget what happened to you. It stays with you all your life but you learn how to cope with all the trauma.<br /><br />I just wanted to share that with you all.<br /><br />Forgiving feels good, I feel free to be me and not have part of my soul imprisoned by anger and<br />rage and animosity towards my abusers.<br /><br />I know my truth and my abusers know who they are.<br /><br />I believe that victims and abusers both need healing. Abusers have often been hurt themselves and then they lash out at others. I am not saying what abusers do is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ok</span>, I am saying they were once<br />victims themselves. Abusers need to look at themselves and take stock of their lives and see<br />how they have hurt people and see how the long term effects of what they have done can have on their victims and their families and friends. I believe anyone can change if they want to and have the desire and realize what they have done is wrong.<br /><br />The criminal justice system needs to do more healing work with people inside our prison system.<br />The present system does not work. Putting someone in a cage is inhumane. There needs to be<br />preventive measures taken when problems arise in kids, not later on when they commit the crimes.<br />Violence is not <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">ok</span>. We need to work to making our communities safer and by making our<br />citizens feel secure. This can only be done if everyone in the communities work together for the greater good of all.<br /><br />Compassion for all goes a long way....I have come to this point in my life where I realize this.<br /><br />I know this to be true.<br /><br />Love is the answer.<br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-32874241415669117002007-11-05T11:57:00.005-05:002009-03-17T10:39:32.916-04:00Sue chains herself to Prime Minister's fence<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYx4IlT2JiepZmexOCJIgLxudnXZ9bcm1eKg8FOCpxqSpbWqC-PdrWxlsB0OCiWlkcqpNJ3gJoiFmICaP1ON_N5MSlYnItcAZluhOjPnyApJf8fmPs-TBRMDxLqcHoLJHWY1kfczuQnGg/s1600-h/Chret24SussexProtPic%2311.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYx4IlT2JiepZmexOCJIgLxudnXZ9bcm1eKg8FOCpxqSpbWqC-PdrWxlsB0OCiWlkcqpNJ3gJoiFmICaP1ON_N5MSlYnItcAZluhOjPnyApJf8fmPs-TBRMDxLqcHoLJHWY1kfczuQnGg/s400/Chret24SussexProtPic%2311.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233928539827057906" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijv8z9hNV_2JLZdoli639R1c-02dKS4rirufFfsBgmSmwyDOHYVtw2B3jb6JRzOwtpSYgCFSe3LbLILdQoIkby9jAC14M9pU3AAQngA3iB7R0cL01SopHA0ta8aO2Vg-5gJey_ss_4Bk4/s1600-h/jean+chretien.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijv8z9hNV_2JLZdoli639R1c-02dKS4rirufFfsBgmSmwyDOHYVtw2B3jb6JRzOwtpSYgCFSe3LbLILdQoIkby9jAC14M9pU3AAQngA3iB7R0cL01SopHA0ta8aO2Vg-5gJey_ss_4Bk4/s200/jean+chretien.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129427738571885042" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of the former Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien </span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB79JmrobPOPQxraqNDDpQkdbAvL6pTn1Wepf5QPEwHvVBj7QwV4fIYoKxgTQliAqbEHH0aSI2M1HDPgOGtUcQmEMz0vBUmLb0642JfeC9exR9W4cwrBpYSAB1Xe0JQiOs0fH89DExf08/s1600-h/rexmurphy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB79JmrobPOPQxraqNDDpQkdbAvL6pTn1Wepf5QPEwHvVBj7QwV4fIYoKxgTQliAqbEHH0aSI2M1HDPgOGtUcQmEMz0vBUmLb0642JfeC9exR9W4cwrBpYSAB1Xe0JQiOs0fH89DExf08/s200/rexmurphy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129427622607768034" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of Rex Murphy, television commentator</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvTUAxlwtWY5CM4JkAyWzFiWhAbcXUmIPrU-gViaFOuKNtgLOvvsie-jGS0-u3sdBr4I4fzadGyOIb2cg5aW1S2cvw3S8VSdDolHj1EJBp5nHgddmNt1KP-ymBfGC_yFOK-aCBaHC8QE/s1600-h/sussex24.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvTUAxlwtWY5CM4JkAyWzFiWhAbcXUmIPrU-gViaFOuKNtgLOvvsie-jGS0-u3sdBr4I4fzadGyOIb2cg5aW1S2cvw3S8VSdDolHj1EJBp5nHgddmNt1KP-ymBfGC_yFOK-aCBaHC8QE/s200/sussex24.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129426527391107522" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Prime Minister's residence at 24 Sussex Ave, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In front of the house<br />is an iron gate where Sue chained herself.<br /></span></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ViOqP_feg6LZLJF7_KYf9Cbre86Z5EJ_TXK13zEXFSJRwbR-CpcFiyY03l2L0_QqF-hKay7eThuwLGpurE2hMrABvfnNJnIeJ7TwpE-s2fwvAP7_O6gpJtbU9T9w6r5KhkoEZLpQtrQ/s1600-h/SussexGatesPrimeMinster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ViOqP_feg6LZLJF7_KYf9Cbre86Z5EJ_TXK13zEXFSJRwbR-CpcFiyY03l2L0_QqF-hKay7eThuwLGpurE2hMrABvfnNJnIeJ7TwpE-s2fwvAP7_O6gpJtbU9T9w6r5KhkoEZLpQtrQ/s200/SussexGatesPrimeMinster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129404760496851378" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sue chained herself to the iron fence shown in this picture at the Prime Minister's residence at 24 Sussex Ave in Ottawa on November 21, 2000 to protest the cuts to Vocational Rehabilitation for people with disabilities like Sue.<br /></span></span><br /><b>Jane Scharf</b> <a href="mailto:action-forum%40list.flora.org?Subject=Sue%20Clark%20Stands%20up%20to%20Chretien&In-Reply-To=" title="Sue Clark Stands up to Chretien">dn701 at freenet.carleton.ca </a><br /><i>Mon Nov 27 07:28:02 EST 2000</i> <ul><li>Previous message: <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/000777.html">Chretien Defence Against the Sue Clark Chaining </a></li><li>Next message: <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/000779.html">The Liberal Hidden Agenda. </a></li><li> <b>Messages sorted by:</b> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/date.html#778">[ date ]</a> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/thread.html#778">[ thread ]</a> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/subject.html#778">[ subject ]</a> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/author.html#778">[ author ]</a> </li></ul> <hr /> <!--beginarticle--> <pre>P R E S S R E L E A S E FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br /><br />Persons with Disabilities Shafted Again<br /><br />Contact: Sue Clark: between 10:30 and 3:00 at 231-6722 or 234-7492<br /><br />On Monday November 21, Sue Clark Chained herself to the gates of 24 Sussex<br />home of Prime Minister Chretien to protest the loss of all vocational<br />rehabilitation sevices for persons with disabilities. The loses are due to<br />withdrawal of the national standards and funding by the Liberals in 1996<br />when they brought in the Social Transfer Act.<br /><br />Chretien defended himself about Sue Clark's accusation of no vocational<br />rehabilitation help for the disabled left in Canada in an interview with<br />Rex Murphy on Friday November 24. In the interview Chretien said we are<br />doing a lot of good things for the disabled with HRDC money. (This is the<br />first time to our knowledge that a public statement about he disabled has<br />been made in this election.)<br /><br />Chretien said he visited a program the other day that was helping disabled<br />with training so they might be able to get a job someday. THEN HE SAID THEY<br />WERE BEING SHOWEN HOW TO MAKE SKIES AND SKI POLES. And that it warmed his<br />heart to see these people who are very disabled doing work. Fortunately<br />this will enrage the community of persons with disabilities because this is<br />not voc. rehab. this is WORKFARE the only so called help left. No basic or<br />post secondary and no real skills training. All low-end entry level work<br />with no remuneration. And it is very very doubtful they will ever be hired<br />because a) the government does not protect from discrimination any longer<br />and b) what call for hiring would there be in an industry that has access<br />to free staff doing the work on workfare.<br /><br />Sue Clark says, her peers are being forced into slavery because of their<br />disabilities. WORKFARE is not dignified and it entrenches our<br />helplessness and hopelessness. Workfare is against the United Nations Human<br />Rights Declaration under which Canada is a signatory and in gross violation<br />of section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is suppose to<br />protect us for discrimination. The only reason they are able to force into<br />workfare is because we have disabilities.<br /><br />Our disability pension levels already leave us in destitution and now we<br />are offered workfare as our only option to disability pension instead of<br />education or proper skills training.<br /><br />This is war against Canada's most vulnerable and I am prepared to fight if<br />the government is going to continue to treat us like second class citizens.<br />At least 10% of the population have to contend with disabilities, which is<br />enough of a burden without right wing bigots like Chretien, plotting our<br />demise in favour of big business interests.<br /><br />-30-<br /><br /></pre><h1>Chretien Defence Against the Sue Clark Chaining</h1> <b>Jane Scharf</b> <a href="mailto:action-forum%40list.flora.org?Subject=Chretien%20Defence%20Against%20the%20Sue%20Clark%20Chaining&In-Reply-To=" title="Chretien Defence Against the Sue Clark Chaining">dn701 at freenet.carleton.ca </a><br /><i>Sun Nov 26 07:39:32 EST 2000</i> <ul><li>Previous message: <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/000776.html">IMPORTANT: Boom, bust & closure forum </a></li><li>Next message: <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/000778.html">Sue Clark Stands up to Chretien </a></li><li> <b>Messages sorted by:</b> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/date.html#777">[ date ]</a> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/thread.html#777">[ thread ]</a> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/subject.html#777">[ subject ]</a> <a href="http://list.digital-copyright.ca/pipermail/action-forum/2000-November/author.html#777">[ author ]</a> </li></ul> <hr /> <!--beginarticle--> Dear Enlightened Electorate: Chretien defended himself about the Sue Clark's accusaton about no vocational rehabiliation help for the disabled left. Rex Murphy interviewed Chretien on Friday and Chretien said, we are doing a lot of good things for the disabled with HRDC money. (This is the first time to our knowledge that a public statement about he disabled has been made in this election.) Chretien said he visited a program the other day that was helping disabled with training so they might be able to get a job someday. THEN HE SAID THEY WERE BEING SHOWEN HOW TO MAKE SKIES AND SKI POLES. And that it warmed his heart to see these people who are very disabled doing work. Fortunately this will enrage the community of persons with disabilities because this is not voc. rehab. this is WORKFARE the only so called help left. No basic or post secondary and no real skills training. All low end entry level work with no renumeration. And it is very very doubtful they will ever be hired because a) the government does not protect from discrimination any longer and b) what call for hiring would there be in an industry that has access to free staff doing the work on workfare. Jane Scharf, Canada Action Party Candidate for Leeds and Grenville http:www.CanadianActionParty.ca <pre><br /></pre>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-76268577262427409342007-11-05T07:44:00.002-05:002007-11-05T07:52:57.209-05:00Sue's pics for videos<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_d9NTjZzr1QE/Ry8Qe_KcyWI/AAAAAAAABQY/dtqpyycMg3Y/s1600-h/PIC_06.PNG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_d9NTjZzr1QE/Ry8Qe_KcyWI/AAAAAAAABQY/dtqpyycMg3Y/s200/PIC_06.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129336625135667554" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_d9NTjZzr1QE/Ry8QVfKcyVI/AAAAAAAABQQ/2fJK0WzUkqM/s1600-h/PIC_03.PNG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_d9NTjZzr1QE/Ry8QVfKcyVI/AAAAAAAABQQ/2fJK0WzUkqM/s200/PIC_03.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129336461926910290" border="0" /></a>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-36180313551404000502007-10-27T18:42:00.001-04:002007-10-27T19:16:19.605-04:00Sue speeches<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwqDwTL7XmuC-n3jKEf15EdFCVfGvX7K5bnLXe0kXFeRDH8aJW_snbozdT2krhQO4j4iOtCv3oTbWW3REk5fPrTZBeUUFX6lVqoMo-fycjzmHiGdI_sEr5XVywhZTEAbEZKmfXRDz-rc/s1600-h/suespeaking.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwqDwTL7XmuC-n3jKEf15EdFCVfGvX7K5bnLXe0kXFeRDH8aJW_snbozdT2krhQO4j4iOtCv3oTbWW3REk5fPrTZBeUUFX6lVqoMo-fycjzmHiGdI_sEr5XVywhZTEAbEZKmfXRDz-rc/s200/suespeaking.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126150747244513538" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Carleton University, Senior Social Work Students, November 1987<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jim Albert, a professor asked me to speak at his class of social work students and I did. I was nervous but I did it anyway. I spoke about my experiences as a psychiatric patients and how psychiatry violated many of my human rights, the lack of affordable housing, and mental health in general. The class was small. I got a $35 honorarium for this from Carleton University.<br /><br />Jim sent me a letter thanking me which said:<br /><br />Carleton University Memorandum:<br /><br />written by hand<br /><br />Nov 13/87<br /><br />To: Sue Clark<br /><br />Dear Sue:<br /><br />Thanks very much for coming into my class and sharing your experiences and your thoughts on<br />improving services. The students really appreciated it and said it was a very good class. Let's keep in touch. Regards.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Signed</span>: Jim Albert<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="font-size:130%;">***************************************************************************</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Sue's speech to the Community Services Committee, Ottawa City Hall, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">RMOC</span> Headquarters<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">lll</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Lisgar</span> St, Ottawa - Thursday, August 3, 2000<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I am Sue Clark, I have been an antipoverty activist in Ottawa for the past l6 years. I am here to<br />speak about the homemaking services Anne <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Hubbert</span> requires and also to support her. I have<br />known Anne for about l5 years. She has required the use of homemaking services in our region<br />for several years as a result of ill health. Now Anne will not be getting the required hours of<br />homemaking she requires to remain in her home as an independent person but will have to move<br />to a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">seniors</span> residence at the age of 54 years old. This is an inappropriate solution for Anne.<br /><br />How many more Anne's are in our region? Many more I am sure. Anne's independence is right<br />whether she has <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">disabilities</span> or not! Do we take away Anne's freedom and privacy for sake of saving dollars and creating new regulations and policies that are only feasible on paper and not for the<br />people they are intended for. I call this a crime against humanity. My freedom and privacy are<br />the only things I have that I will fight tooth and nail for. I have several disabilities as well. I have<br />post trauma stress disorder, a short term memory disorder caused by electroshock treatments in<br />1973, and severe arthritis in all my joints. Isn't a person's health the vital key for life? Without<br />good health, a person's quality of life goes down hill and so does their income in most cases.<br />You can't work effectively if your health is dependent upon numerous pills, doctors, therapists,<br />and the little bit of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">homecare</span> there is available to an ill person.<br /><br />What is the answer? I would say there should be an assessment of the whole <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">homecare</span> services<br />in our region with a focus on evaluating how effective the hours of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">homecare</span> are to each client.<br />In other words, how did Anne lose so many <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">homecare</span> hours that now she is required to move into a<br />seniors residence as a result. The priority of the project should be maintaining a person's independence for a long as they are able to remain in their homes.<br /><br />Anne has lobbied on her behalf and others for more <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">homecare</span> services for many years. I commend<br />her for her effective efforts and results. She is articulate, intelligent and focused. She is an<br />excellent public speaker in health issues. Why has Anne not been hired for a consulting job<br />with the region? Perhaps her increased income would have alleviated some of the problems we<br />are hearing today. <br /><br />The real experts in this case are the ones who use the services not the ones who develop, plan,<br />and administer services. If the region hired a few people using the various services in the region,<br />perhaps there would be improvements made to all services. <br /><br />I hope I never have to use the homemaking services in Ottawa. I probably would get very little<br />hours. My health is not as bad as Anne's but is getting there. With the added stress in my life,<br />that being an activist, living in poverty, overeating to calm my self down, getting fatter by the year<br />has increased my blood pressure sky high and I have diabetes type II. I eat at soup kitchen<br />at St. Joe's Women Centre in Ottawa everyday.<br /><br />How many more health casualties will happen like Anne with all these cuts to vital services? Some of the homeless have died on our streets in front of us due to a lack of affordable housing, and how many<br />more have died or will die from all these health cuts? Can anyone from the committee answer this<br />question before it is too late? Thank you to the committee for allowing me to speak today.<br /><br />Sue Clark<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />**************************************************************************</span></span><br /><br /></span><br /><br /></span><br /><br /></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-56333074603747137382007-10-27T18:11:00.001-04:002007-11-07T06:54:35.718-05:00A family of war vetsSue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-28216310443481687872007-10-27T11:30:00.001-04:002007-10-27T11:46:16.789-04:00Jim Watson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiJL0mietGdptzxnLEvIZHsFt5uuulTSXdo7YVGGktxGo_E6BpzlHa3quQRTWst89zIUCIOASaDXaDbR3zZQN8ihU0UtmLAYLgGblG0YVfWQe9fTI17Wx_eXkoijSBTMag_KvNFDLgto/s1600-h/JimWatson.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiJL0mietGdptzxnLEvIZHsFt5uuulTSXdo7YVGGktxGo_E6BpzlHa3quQRTWst89zIUCIOASaDXaDbR3zZQN8ihU0UtmLAYLgGblG0YVfWQe9fTI17Wx_eXkoijSBTMag_KvNFDLgto/s200/JimWatson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126039499001612530" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of Jim Watson who now an MPP for the Ontario Liberal government just re-elected<br />for a second term in the Dalton McGuinty Ontario government. Jim Watson was also an Ottawa<br />City councillor and then was voted in as the Mayor of Ottawa. <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Sue tells off the Mayor of Ottawa - Jim Watson at Ottawa City Hall formerly on Sussex Ave<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I walking downtown alot in Ottawa. I would see poor people mostly homeless looking into the garbage cans on the sidewalks and pulling anything out of it like half eating sandwiches, a half fixed bottle of soda and then eating the contents and walking away. This made my heart sink and I felt physically ill<br />seeing such poverty on the streets of Canada's capital, Ottawa, a wealthy nation.<br /><br />One day I had the opportunity to speak out about homeless and poverty and I did. There was<br />Ottawa City Hall council meeting with the Mayor of Ottawa Jim Watson and his city councillors<br />at the former City Hall on Sussex Ave. The older city hall sat dormat there next to it. This<br />new facility was impressive. Perched next to the water it had high tech everything in it.<br />As you entered the main doors of this city hall at the end of the long hallway was the City Hall<br />Chambers were the Mayor and his councillors had meetings.<br /><br />The Chamber hall was very fancy indeed. It had high raised platform where the mayor and councillor sat. It was a dark oak and it was done by a carpenter by hand. The seats for the public sloped down in the front of the this impressive oak platform. In the middle of the seating area for the public<br />was an electronic device where wheelchairs could be lifted and which rarely well. Kevin Kinsella<br />a person with disabilities and an activist was in the automatic wheelchair high tech device that<br />got stuck when Kevin was high in mid air. It was all very embarassing to the mayor and city councillors who saw this. The people in the public gasped outloud when they saw this. It was<br />very humilitating for Kevin as well.<br /><br />Mayor Watson and his city councillors were having a meeting one day and I walked in and signed a sheet asking to speak on a poverty and I was granted to speak and I did.<br /><br />I had a tiny tin garbage can with me and garbage bag full of garbage I had collected.<br />I took out my garbage can and sat it on the ledge in front of me and I opened my garbage bag and the contents smelled pretty awful for sure of the rotting contents in it. Jim Watson looked perplexed but<br />let me continue. <br /></span></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-69191912038826299132007-10-27T11:07:00.002-04:002009-02-19T01:16:01.837-05:00Paul Martin<div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3JRlqk3_0iwjjFvgQoGIEtAI014PEL6aopZwdja-ScmcYFLssFBZTt_GiQrw20CIVj4LTkypTfItzaaOrPDsiks2sr2yGgplQNOQyYsWHcAOgC-yqoSfCQQFJI-Mimav4ejRUN91lXBk/s1600-h/paulmartin.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3JRlqk3_0iwjjFvgQoGIEtAI014PEL6aopZwdja-ScmcYFLssFBZTt_GiQrw20CIVj4LTkypTfItzaaOrPDsiks2sr2yGgplQNOQyYsWHcAOgC-yqoSfCQQFJI-Mimav4ejRUN91lXBk/s200/paulmartin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126033799580010722" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is picture of the former Prime Minister of Canada and he was the Finance Minister for the Federal Liberal Government for years.</span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Sue tells off Paul Martin<br /><br /></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I was at St. Joe's Center when one of the staff asked me to come into the office. Someone had called the drop in center from CBC and wanted to know if a person on social services would like to be on national tv to speak about poverty issues. Paul Martin the federal Finance Minister was holding his ? at the Museum of Civilization in Hull. I said I would attend. CBC paid for my taxi and I had to leave by 6:50 a.m. to get there and I did. I was up early and had on my best clothes. The taxi promptly picked me up and I was excited. Something like a prize fighter before a big match. Here was my opportunity to tell Paul Martin what I thought on national tv.<br /><br />There were people all over Canada picked to be on this national broadcast. People from financial backgrounds, health backgrounds, poverty activists like myself etc.<br /><br />I told one of the moderators I wanted to speak. I stood up and said my name. Paul Martin was about five feet away up on a higher level mock stage. I saw his cold blue eyes staring at me and sizing me up. Little did he know I could hold my own with the best of them and I did. I told Paul Martin<br />I was a person with diabilities and I was an antipoverty activist for years in Ottawa. I told him that<br />nothing very much was being done for persons with disabilities and there were lots of studies getting dusty in some office filing cabinet. I told him I called the Prime Minister's office for a job, then<br />Jean Chretien and I never got a call back. Mr. Martin acknowledged more had to be done for<br />persons with disabilities and was surprised the Prime Minister's office did not call me. I also told him that homelessness was a national disgrace and he agreed that it was.<br /><br />A reporter from a Toronto newspaper asked me for an interview after the event and I did.<br /><br />Here is the article<br /></span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"></span></span></span></div>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-39405405777647069162007-10-27T10:04:00.000-04:002007-10-27T10:58:42.561-04:00Ralph Klein's government<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeXIoZZ7_osKq6Lyutgddn-b9UIl4hyphenhyphenUR5mJqsiuO8jL28FOH1yqW8NIPqL4K3C3bU5YqJh5XYjvHlC6BYi8WjoKDUjf_azIt7TfNSKbcEWJw-GKxcqYYjvhUN-Ml3aVTvIRKfD3cc2k/s1600-h/ralphkleinpic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeXIoZZ7_osKq6Lyutgddn-b9UIl4hyphenhyphenUR5mJqsiuO8jL28FOH1yqW8NIPqL4K3C3bU5YqJh5XYjvHlC6BYi8WjoKDUjf_azIt7TfNSKbcEWJw-GKxcqYYjvhUN-Ml3aVTvIRKfD3cc2k/s200/ralphkleinpic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126022370672036034" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of Ralph Klein, the former Alberta Premier. He was notorious for his behaviour.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Sue tells off Ralph Klein at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Westin</span> Hotel in Ottawa<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I got a ticket to see Ralph Klein speak at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa and it was 40 dollars and paid for by some friends. I really appreciated that as Ihad wanted to tell of Ralph Klein off for years and I had my opportunity and I did and it was covered in the Ottawa Sun the next day.<br /><br />I sat at a nice big table with a white tablecloth with people that I did not know. I wore my best clothes. that day. I looked presentable and did up my hair and put on my makeup. <br /><br />Believe it or not, Ralph Klein came into the big meeting room and passed right in front of me, about a foot away. He had on a suit and wore this big cowboy hat on his head. Ralph Klein, the Premier of Alberta was walking right in front of me in living color. That sure was an experience I can tell you.<br /><br />Ralph got up and introduced himself. Everyone in the room knew this man, who wouldn't?<br />He got up and babbled away about how his government cut costs in Alberta and how his government had a big surplus of money much he liked his job and that he was good at it. His speech went on for about half an hour non stop. This man is verbose to say the least. He laughed during his speech and made some political jokes too. He did not take himself too seriously up on stage. He was used to making lots of speeches and this was just another one.<br /><br />There were about 500 of us listening to Ralph Klein.<br /><br />He asked if anyone had any questions, I sure did. Boy, it felt good at last to tell Ralph what I thought and I did. <br /><br />I asked him about his government buying bus tickets for people on welfare to move to British Columbia and move away from his province Alberta. He admitted his government did buy those bus tickets and he laughed.<br /><br />I told him I thought that was unfair of him and he should have treated people on social services better and not cutting their welfare rates by 20 percent.<br /><br />I told him I was glad I was a disability pension in Ontario and not in Alberta.<br /><br />Everyone clapped after he spoke. I felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing this man<br />did not care how the most <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">vulnerable</span> in our society were treated. I found him to be obnoxious<br />and insensitive. He was full of himself that day at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Westin</span>. People nicknamed him Ralph the Knife, little wonder why!<br /><br />I had a good meal, spoke to some people at my table and was happy to leave that meeting room.<br />When Ralph Klein walked out of the room, I knew I had done my job well that day speaking up<br />for people on social services. I was glad to see Ralph go.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;">**************************************************************************<br /></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Here are some stories that were in the news about notorious Premier of Alberta</span><br /><br /></span></span></span></span><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Welfare decline misleading<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""> </span>By SUE BAILEY / <em>The Canadian Press<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em> <o:p></o:p></em></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OTTAWA - The number of welfare cases plunged to two million from 3.1 million between 1994 and 2000 as provinces cracked down and job markets picked up, Statistics Canada said Thursday. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span>Politicians often hail such numbers but social activists say they illustrate heartless attacks on the poor. Tighter welfare restrictions have swelled the </span></span></span><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">homeless ranks and caused suffering, they say. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""> </span>"The study shows that the provinces in Canada are involved in a race to the bottom," says Robert Arnold, president of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">NAPO</span>. "Each one is getting stingier with welfare payments and eligibility in an<o:p></o:p> attempt to get poor people to move away." Alberta Premier Ralph Klein went so far as to buy bus tickets to British Columbia to help cut his welfare rolls. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""> </span><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Across Canada, social assistance use fell most dramatically for single moms, says the first report to track national rates by family type. About one-third of single mothers were on welfare in 2000, down from one-half in 1995. "Eligibility rules were tightened, especially for new entrants, benefit levels were cut, snitch lines were introduced and other rules were adopted," says the study. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""> </span>It examined four family groups - singles, couples with children, couples with no children and single moms - in all provinces. Welfare recipients were defined as anyone aged 18 to 64 who declared more than $101 a year in social assistance or had a spouse who did. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span>Alberta consistently issued the fewest cheques to singles, with a user rate of 9.2 per cent in 2000, followed by P.E.I. at 12 per cent.<span style=""> </span>At the other end of the scale, Newfoundland had the highest rate of single people on welfare, 21.4 per cent, followed by Quebec at 21 per cent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span>The nasty '90s were a bad time to be poor and it's no better today, said Sue Cox, executive director of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank.<span style=""> </span>Support was slashed across the country after 1994, she said. Cox witnessed an "extraordinary rise" in food bank use after the Ontario Conservatives under Mike Harris cut welfare benefits.<span style=""> </span>Single moms were hit especially hard.<span style=""> </span>"It drove them into fairly dangerous situations . . . where they and their families were at real risk as they tried to reduce the cost of housing by moving into crowded and very poor conditions." <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span>A strong economy hasn't helped shut down services like hers, Cox said. Food banks in the greater Toronto area now serve about 175,000 people a month. "The strain on the charitable sector has been enormous, and not one that they've been able to meet for the most part." <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span>Governments could humanely help people off welfare by not cutting them off drug benefits and other supports when they land jobs, Cox said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""></span>John Murphy, chairman of the National Council of Welfare, says government policy has too often amounted to punishing people for being poor. His group advises Social Development Minister Ken Dryden. Better child-care and retraining services are badly needed, Murphy said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style=""><br /></span>"Provincial and territorial governments keep the rates so low with the [corporate] misconception that by squeezing people they'll get them back to work."<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />**************************************************************</span></span><br /></span></span> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Loose Tongue of Ralph Klein</span></span> </p><p class="timeStamp">Updated Thu. Nov. 9 2006 7:42 PM ET</p> <p class="storyAttributes">Bill <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Doskoch</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">CTV</span>.ca News</p> <p>Ralph Klein will probably go down as one of the more quotable politicians Canada has ever produced.</p> <p>His predecessors as premier of Alberta and leaders of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party were the buttoned-down, MBA-educated Peter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Lougheed</span> and the amiable former quarterback and oil executive Don Getty.</p> <p>Neither one ever gave a protester the finger. Ralph did it as environment minister during a 1990 meeting about a contentious pulp mill project.</p> <p>One agitated protester advanced in front of Klein and flipped him the middle digit. Klein didn't miss a beat, glaring and flipping it right back at him.</p> <p>"He doesn't take any guff from anybody," Don Martin, political columnist and author of the biography <em>King Ralph</em>, told <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">CTV</span>.ca about Klein. "And what was the result? His popularity went up five per cent."</p> <p>The son of a professional wrestler, Klein first worked in public relations and then began an 11-year run as a popular reporter with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">CFCN</span> TV in Calgary, a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">CTV</span> affiliate. He shocked his friends by announcing in 1980 he would run for mayor and then shocked everyone by winning.</p> <p>He then got his chance to shock the country by complaining in January 1982 about "eastern creeps and bums" driving up the crime rate in Calgary.</p> <p>"That put him on the national scene, but he handled it so beautifully in terms of damage control. He went right down to eastern Canada and dealt with it," Martin said.</p> <p>"So off he went, and before you know it, he's the toast of Toronto," he said. "He learned something from that, that you can talk your way out of trouble, and he did."</p> <p><span>Here are some of Klein's choicer remarks over the years:<br /></span><br /></p> <h2> "I wasn't <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">surprised</span> that she crossed over to the Liberals. I don't think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body. Well, maybe one.</h2> <p>Klein at a charity roast, talking about Tory turncoat Belinda <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Stronach</span> -- who used to date Foreign Affairs Minister Peter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">MacKay</span> -- on Nov. 7, 2006.<br /><br /></p> <h2>"You get a lot of free dinners but after that you get sort of tired, especially when you quit drinking, and then it's no fun at all, so I don't know why they would want to do it."</h2> <p>Klein talking to reporters at the Calgary Stampede on July 10, 2006 about his potential successors.</p> <p>In the same scrum, he said: "I wake up in the morning and I say, 'Why am I here?' And it's because I'm not all there!"<br /><br /></p> <h2>"I'm no doctor, but I think that Mr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">McGuinty's</span> got a case of premature speculation.</h2> <p>Klein in March 2006, commenting on Ontario Premier Dalton <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">McGuinty's</span> declaration that Ontario would oppose any Alberta-style health reforms that might lead to two-tiered care.<br /><br /></p> <h2> "I ought not to have thrown the Liberal health policy at our page Jennifer, and to Jennifer, I apologize most sincerely. ... And I also apologize for referring to the document as crap, Mr. Speaker."</h2> <p>Klein apologizing in the Alberta legislature on March 1, 2006 after throwing a Liberal Party health policy booklet and narrowly missing a legislature page.<br /><br /></p> <h2>"They didn't look severely handicapped to me, I tell you that for sure. They both had cigarettes dangling from their mouth and cowboy hats."</h2> <p>Klein speaking to a Tory provincial election campaign rally in Calgary on Oct. 27, 2004. He was talking about two women who were "yipping about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">AISH</span> payments," which go to Albertans who are severely handicapped.</p> <p>He later followed up on that in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Grande</span> Prairie by saying: "I'm sure none of you want to talk to me about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">AISH</span>. No, because you're normal -- severely normal people."<br /><br /></p> <h2>"You would have to eat 10 billion meals of brains, spinal cords, ganglia, eyeballs and tonsils."</h2> <p>Klein in 2005 on the risk being infected with bovine <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">spongiform</span> encephalitis, or mad cow disease.<br /><br /></p> <h2>"We're basically the same party, you know. Conservatives and Republicans are quite the same."</h2> <p>Klein speaking to reporters in Washington after a 2003 meeting with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.<br /><br /></p> <h2>"I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shovelled and shut up, but he didn't do that."</h2> <p>Klein's 2003 advice to an Alberta farmer on what he should have done after finding a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">BSE</span>-infected cow in his heard.<br /><br /></p> <h2> "Dinosaur farts."</h2> <p>Klein's 2002 offering on what might have brought on the Ice Age that killed off dinosaurs.<br /><br /></p> <h2>"I'm going to try and stay clean as long as I can, but if from time to time I have a glass of wine, don't make a mountain out of a mole hill."</h2> <p>Ralph Klein after an infamous December 2001 incident in which he showed up inebriated at a homeless shelter in Edmonton, berated some of the residents for not having jobs, then throwing money on the floor and leaving.</p> <p>At the same <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">newser</span>, he said, "I'm telling you, it feels good to get up without a hangover."<br /><br /></p> <h2>"Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ralph's World."<span><br /></span></h2> <p>Klein addressing his supporters on March 12, 2001 after winning a landslide victory in the 2001 provincial election.<br /><br /></p> <h2>"A fine city with too many socialists and mosquitoes. At least you can spray the mosquitoes."</h2> <p>Klein speaking in 1990 as a Progressive Conservative <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">MLA</span> from Calgary.<br /></p> <p><br /><strong><span>Great instincts</span><br /></strong></p> <p>While Klein frequently shot from the lip, he had great instincts about when it was time to turn on a dime and apologize, Martin said.</p> <p>"I was talking to him about Peter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">MacKay</span> today," Martin said on Oct. 30, referring to the federal Conservative minister accused of implying Tory-turned-Liberal MP and former girlfriend Belinda <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Stronach</span> was a dog. "He said, 'Did he say it?' And I said, 'I think he said it.' And Klein said, 'Well, if he said it and didn't apologize for it, then he's not a very smart politician'."</p> <p>Klein was so famous for his <em><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">mea</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">culpas</span></em> that when he left Calgary's city hall to enter provincial politics in 1989, his staff gave him sweatshirt that had "I'm only human" printed on it.</p> <p>"And he is. That's the interesting thing about Klein. He's not a robot like so many of the politicians today."</p> <p>While those outside the province might raise their eyebrows at Klein's pronouncements, one had to understand that Albertans had a long-term relationship with Klein and realized he wasn't being malicious, Martin said.<br /></p> <p><span><strong>A few too many drinks</strong></span></p> <p>However, even Klein can't wave off some things. His appearance at the Edmonton homeless shelter was a bottom.</p> <p>Although right-wing radio talk show callers supported Klein, that incident embarrassed most other Albertans, Martin said.</p> <p>"He understood that and said he couldn't just shrug his shoulders and say, 'I'm only human, I had a couple drinks.' He had to go one step further and take a public vow of abstinence."</p> <p>Martin met with Klein on Monday in Calgary's St. Louis tavern, where Klein as mayor used to hold court, and was amazed to see Klein drinking coffee out of a beer glass.</p> <p>"I'm going, 'that's a first for me; I've seen everything now'," he said.</p> <p>Actually, Martin speculated that Klein's quitting drinking may have been partly responsible for what some saw as a decline in the premier's political acuity.</p> <p>"I've always argued that Klein's social connections, his political antennae were fine-tuned by the fact that he'd go to these receptions. He'd drink with people and people liked to drink with him.</p> <p>"When he started to go home at 9 p.m. to watch his favourite show on the Discovery channel, he started to lose his connection with the average person."</p> <p>In the 2004 provincial election, Klein -- who's never lost an election -- saw an erosion in popular support for the first time since he entered politics, Martin said.</p> <p>This spring, his party voiced its displeasure, and Klein had to vacate his 14-year hold on the party's leadership about a year before he wanted to.</p> <p>However, during the interview, some guys came up and asked Klein for autographs, so that's some evidence he's still popular amongst average Albertans, Martin said.</p> <p>Ultimately, however, it is time for Klein to move on. "He knows it, we know it, and we're never going to see the likes of him again," Martin said.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;">****************************************************************************</span></span></span><br /></p>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-43387779689268012902007-10-26T17:52:00.001-04:002007-10-27T10:04:18.131-04:00Mike the Knife's government<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2rdyeC7puCKeGRqSdgMwMW66UicaO1CDnJCSokH2YUTSSJUOrHvH6gMszd3_7MgKec_z9UWJ7uLaN21B0Gbo1RnGTEfO4xz004oSMpb8_k-n4JfFt2nYlCN2XxYbiyfRiEgjrINAo08/s1600-h/mikeharris.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2rdyeC7puCKeGRqSdgMwMW66UicaO1CDnJCSokH2YUTSSJUOrHvH6gMszd3_7MgKec_z9UWJ7uLaN21B0Gbo1RnGTEfO4xz004oSMpb8_k-n4JfFt2nYlCN2XxYbiyfRiEgjrINAo08/s200/mikeharris.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126016989078014114" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigoaKBoDJrxD28vLfBpk7mx2lxZnGFhbwsetpRvV5tLmzwoTJ5_10SZAvBtSVsK1Qwp4_qapUYmO6MdWzMID2eT0fHy1g5OeDkwN2QoMSwPUshdvLZz_nUyjad_MC0pSIpiXsSh1bZIKs/s1600-h/Tsubouchi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigoaKBoDJrxD28vLfBpk7mx2lxZnGFhbwsetpRvV5tLmzwoTJ5_10SZAvBtSVsK1Qwp4_qapUYmO6MdWzMID2eT0fHy1g5OeDkwN2QoMSwPUshdvLZz_nUyjad_MC0pSIpiXsSh1bZIKs/s200/Tsubouchi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126016838754158738" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>David H. Tsubouchi (Minister of Community and Social Services</strong><br /><br /><br />SOCIAL ASSISTANCE <p><em><a name="PARA207" id="PARA207"></a></em><strong>Mr Bob Rae (York South):</strong> I'd like to ask a question of the Minister of Community and Social Services. I'd like to ask the Minister of Community and Social Services, when was the last time he bought tuna at 69 cents a tin?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA208" id="PARA208"></a></em><strong>Hon David H. Tsubouchi (Minister of Community and Social Services):</strong> I guess this is a lesson on economics.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA209" id="PARA209"></a></em>I also apologize again. I still have a touch of laryngitis.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA210" id="PARA210"></a>Interjections.</em></p> <p><em><a name="PARA211" id="PARA211"></a></em><strong>Hon Mr Tsubouchi:</strong> Thank you for the sympathy.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA212" id="PARA212"></a></em>To the leader of the third party, there are many places where you can buy tuna for 69 cents. In fact, even if it's not priced at 69 cents, quite often you can make a deal to get it for 69 cents.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA213" id="PARA213"></a></em><strong>Mr Rae:</strong> Since the minister is now on record as saying that he himself has gone and bought tuna for 69 cents a tin, I'm sure he'd like to tell everybody where that is.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA214" id="PARA214"></a></em>I'd like to ask him by way of supplementary, in response to his answer, which I can honestly say I was not anticipating so I do not have a text for this, but I'd like to ask him, when was the last time he bartered for food?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA215" id="PARA215"></a></em><strong>Hon Mr Tsubouchi:</strong> These are very interesting questions today and I thank the leader of the third party for them.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA216" id="PARA216"></a></em>I think the whole object here is to look and see whether or not we're looking at the rate cuts. Obviously this is what the leader of the third party is getting at. We strongly believe that we have reduced the rates to 10% above the average in the other provinces. With all due respect, I think the leader of the third party is really asking whether or not it's possible to buy food on this type of a budget.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA217" id="PARA217"></a></em>I would be happy to share with the leader of the third party perhaps not the entire text of this but certainly afterwards I can share this with you. I had some research done to indicate how and whether or not someone who is a sole single on benefits or a single parent with a child -- we've actually provided a budget here. Someone had asked me that before, whether or not someone can budget for this. I have it here in this binder. I'd be willing to share this with the leader of the third party.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA218" id="PARA218"></a></em><strong>Mr Rae:</strong> I'd love to have it. I'd love to have a copy and I'd like to share it with all the working parents of this province. I'd like to share it with the women and children who are out there now. I'd like to know what you and your ministry and the cabinet think is enough to live on. I think the people of this province would like to know what that is, and I'd like to hear from them, because I trust their judgement a whole lot more than I trust yours or the cabinet's on the basis of what it takes to live in this province. Their experience is much more eloquent than your data.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA219" id="PARA219"></a></em>By way of final supplementary, the minister's aware that under the existing way of life for people on social assistance there are 100,000 people on social assistance who are now working in the STEP program. I wonder if the minister can explain why those people who are now working -- not the ones that you've ordered to go out and get a job, not the ones that you've told should go out and get a job, the people who are now working -- why, for example, for a single person who's working, their rate has gone from $842.85 to $769.85 and why a single parent with one child who's working under the STEP program is going from $1,721.95 to $1,393.69. Why, even in the world of your own tellings, of your own truths, of your own pieties, would you be punishing who have already taken your advice and have gone out and gotten a job? Why are you punishing those people as well? You're punishing everybody in the province.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA220" id="PARA220"></a></em><strong>Hon Mr Tsubouchi:</strong> First of all, our government is committed to breaking the cycle of dependency and giving people the incentive to get back to work. With all due respect once again, our commitment was to make sure that people have the opportunity to earn back the difference between the old base rate and the new base rate. We're not taking about programs to enhance income, which obviously the leader of the third party is right now. So I don't have to explain this, because once again we strongly believe that by reducing the rates 10% above the average of the other provinces, not at the average of the other provinces but 10% above, certainly this is going to be sufficient.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA221" id="PARA221"></a></em><strong>The Speaker (Hon Allan K. McLean):</strong> Official opposition, new question.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA222" id="PARA222"></a></em><strong>Mr Dominic Agostino (Hamilton East):</strong> My question is for the Minister of Community and Social Services. Minister, this is a can of tuna -- it is dented -- for $1.09. If you can tell me where you can get a dented can for 69 cents, please let me know because we'll buy it. Take a close look at it -- not 69 cents, $1.09 at every store where you can get it.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA223" id="PARA223"></a></em><strong>The Speaker:</strong> Was that your question?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA224" id="PARA224"></a></em><strong>Mr Agostino:</strong> No, it's not. Minister, in the throne speech, in the House yesterday, yourself, the Premier, stated that welfare recipients could earn back the amount of money you reduced without a penalty, a clawback or a reduction. Minister, this information is inaccurate; it is dead wrong; it is a myth.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA225" id="PARA225"></a></em>In fact, this government by its policies is punishing people on welfare who want to work. You're penalizing people who you encourage to go out and get a job and then the clawback does not allow them to earn the amount of money that you've cut from them.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA226" id="PARA226"></a></em>Minister, you know your statements are wrong. You do not understand the system. You do not understand your own ministry regulations. How can you make changes to the act without a common understanding of what you're doing? How can such punishing changes take place when the minister does not understand the social assistance system in Ontario?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA227" id="PARA227"></a></em><strong>The Speaker:</strong> The question's been asked.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA228" id="PARA228"></a></em><strong>Mr Agostino:</strong> I ask you to admit to the House today that the information in the throne speech that you gave, that the Premier gave, was wrong. Will you commit to changing the regulations for people with jobs to earn it back?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA229" id="PARA229"></a></em><strong>Hon Mr Tsubouchi:</strong> It's difficult to pick a question out of all that rhetoric. But, once again, with a little bit of work the people in this province have the opportunity to earn back the difference between the old rate and the new rate. Once again, I have to say that what we have done is remove disincentives for people to get back to work. It's very important for people to get off this cycle of dependency, and this is what this is intended to do.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA230" id="PARA230"></a></em><strong>Mr Agostino:</strong> Again, the minister by that answer has shown us once again that he does not understand his own regulations, does not understand the comments he made yesterday. Minister, yesterday you said people can earn back the amount you cut without a penalty or a clawback clause.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA231" id="PARA231"></a></em>The reality is, with a single person, a single parent with one child or a couple with two children, in every single case the clawback clause kicks in before the reduction so therefore they will be reduced the amount of money that they can earn before you take away from them. You allow people after the clawback to keep 25% of what they earn. Before that happens, the reduction is already greater than you have anticipated.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA232" id="PARA232"></a></em>Minister, the information you gave is wrong. You're not addressing the question again. These misguided and uninformed decisions are causing the hardship, the pain and the chaos in Ontario today. What province do we live in? What irrational decisions is the government going to make today?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA233" id="PARA233"></a></em>Again I ask you, Minister, can you clarify your statements of yesterday, where you stated that the clawback clause you have in your regulations to allow people to earn back what you have deducted from them -- because the facts do not bear that out. Change your regulations and make consistent what you and the Premier have said in the House.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA234" id="PARA234"></a></em><strong>1440</strong></p> <p><em><a name="PARA235" id="PARA235"></a></em><strong>Mrs Elinor Caplan (Oriole):</strong> Just say yes.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA236" id="PARA236"></a></em><strong>Interjection:</strong> Who's asking you the question?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA237" id="PARA237"></a></em><strong>Hon Mr Tsubouchi:</strong> Yes, is this the second question?</p> <p><em><a name="PARA238" id="PARA238"></a></em>I will say this to the honourable member for Hamilton East: We are prepared to ensure that there is the flexibility in the system to make sure that everybody can earn back the difference without clawback. This is an assurance I will give to the member.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA239" id="PARA239"></a></em>Secondly, I just want to repeat the message one more --</p> <p><em><a name="PARA240" id="PARA240"></a></em><strong>Mrs Caplan:</strong> Repeat that.</p> <p><em><a name="PARA241" id="PARA241"></a></em><strong>Hon Mr Tsubouchi:</strong> Would you like me to repeat that? Is that what you said? I will ensure that there is the flexibility there. We've had individual circumstances brought up prior to this date in the House. I've also asked that if these circumstances are brought to my attention, we will deal with them. I will give this House the assurance that everybody will be able to earn back, without clawback, the difference between the old rate and the new rate.</p> <p class="td"><a name="P247_61861" id="P247_61861"></a><em><a name="PARA242" id="PARA242"></a></em></p>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-76317234035270294482007-10-24T22:06:00.001-04:002007-10-27T13:10:54.026-04:00ODSP<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ODSP has called me many names and put me down but I say "<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Who says I want to fit in?"</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) as it is officially called but I call it<br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">"The Ontario Deprivation Starvation Pension"<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I have been on the ODSP since 1984 making this my 23 year living on a meagre pension from my<br />Ontario government. We had to wait 11 years for an increase. Last year in 2006 we got 2%, wow what a raise eh, give me a break! and then next month in November 2007 we are going to be<br />getting another 2% increase monthly on our cheques, roughly $20. more a month. With the hydro rates having gone up, food costs rising, rents going up and the list goes on. We need to have<br />an income to be at the cost of living every year and it is not. I am living 50 below the poverty line.<br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"></span> <br /> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">*************************************</span><br /><br />ODSP has called me many things on my huge file. Here is what they have called me:<br /><br />Jeanne Roemdeau, a VRS Intake Counsellor called me the following in her report about me<br />dated April 6, 1988 - File No. 101010<br /><br />very loquacious woman<br /><br />extremely assertive and be very demanding of her rights<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"> ************************************</span><br /><br />Wendy Riley, my VRS worker called me in one report dated July 12, 1995, a report to her<br />supervisor Anne Amys, Memo #3 File No. 307-101010<br /><br />flamboyant person<br /><br />colorful dresser<br /><br />a non-conformist<br /><br />quite unique<br /><br />strong willed<br /><br />radical,<br /><br />strong in her viewpoint<br /><br />Her approach is one of anti-psychiatry.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"> **************************************</span><br /><br />Wendy Riley wrote another report about me on June 22, 1988 Intake Memo #1, file no. 101010<br /><br />She presents as a verbose and somewhat of an eccentric individual in that she wears a number of<br />anti-psychiatry buttons on her clothing and relates in a hyperactive way (rapid speech, extraneous<br />information and wondering off topic). However, she has obvious intellectual ability, seems<br />motivated to engage in the rehabilitatin process and has has a variety of past work experience.<br /><br /> <span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">**************************************</span><br /><br />I called my friend Jane Scharf and told her I was called "eccentric" by Wendy Riley and Jane told me that is a compliment, it means I am one of a kind, there is no one quite like me and she sure is right.<br /><br />It is ironic that the Ontario government doles out pennies to us each month and they got a 25% fat<br />increase on their cheques. The Ottawa City Hall councillors got a big increase go on their cheques<br />as well as the federal member of parliament, it makes me sick. The most vulnerable people in our<br />society who are disabled get a raise of mere peanuts in relation to their big pay hikes. Shame on<br />these governments for being hogs when it comes to their paycheques.<br /><br />The ODSP office in Ottawa has been nasty and cruel to me at times. I like to shake the tree so to speak and I got a good licking in them in some respects. If you bite the hand that feeds you sometimes they will bite you back and they have.<br /><br />Here are some of the nasty things they have done to me. I applied for ODSP in the fall of 1984 after<br />my former husband John Clark and I have been on Welfare for about 6 months. I had asked my<br />welfare worker if there was pension for people like me who had a psychiatric background and I had bad nerves and found it hard to go back to work. My welfare worker who worked at the Welfare<br />office at 495 Richmond Road in Ottawa, told me there was no such pension. I believed her and did not investigate for myself and I should have. Don't believe what the worker says, check it out for yourself with someone higher if you gut feeling tells you differently. I learned a good lesson from that is all I can tell you.<br /><br />A friend of mine Lise had a cousin who was visiting her at her apartment in the South end of Ottawa.<br />It was the summer of 1984 and John Clark and I had gone to visit Lise and her boyfriend.<br />Her cousin and I were talking about social services. I told Lise's cousin that my welfare worker<br />told me there was no disability pension and her cousin told me that was a lie. The cousin was<br />on ODSP and the office was at 10 Rideau Street in Ottawa located next to the Rideau Center.<br />I got the phone number from the cousin.<br /><br />Boy was I angry at hearing that news. John had lost his job at the Ottawa Civic Hospital for no good reason a long story that I will tell in his bio in this book. See the section called "John Larry Clark".<br />We had to pay the rent and the phone and we ate well but had no extras at all. We could not<br />buy a coffee outside at all. We counted and pinched every penny. We did it.<br /><br />I called Ms. Quinn of ODSP and told her the story. I told her that if John Clark and I were not<br />on ODSP in one month, we would call a lawyer. She believed me. She asked me for the welfare<br />worker's name and in a about a week we got our first ODSP and it was susbtantially higher than<br />a welfare cheque, not much more, but enough to buy a coffee and maybe see one movie if we<br />were lucky.<br /><br />We lived at 57 Bayswater Ave in a one bedroom apartment. The apartment was too small for us.<br /><br />About a year later, Sarah Burell an ODSP worker, other known as an Income Maintenance Officer came to see me and John Clark. She filled out an ODSP form. It was "Special Report to Medical Advisory Board" dated October 18, 1985. The form had my name on it: Sue Clark, 103-57 Bayswater Ave, Ottawa. Reference file no. 371312. Local office no. 211. Caseload no. 138<br /><br />Here is some of what was on the form filled out by Sarah Burell.<br /><br />Question 2 asked: "Present activity or daily manner of living - Note particularly what activities<br />of work the applicant/recipient is able or accustomed to do at home or elsewhere each day"<br /><br />Answer: Sarah Burell wrote the following "Day hospital, 3 days a week, housework, read, does<br />some writing, member of Star Trek Club<br /><br />Question 4 asekd: Income Maintenance Officer's observations on applicant/recipient:<br /><br />Answser: a. appearance: Obese<br /><br /> b. obvious disabilities: Nerves<br /><br /> c. Mental alertness: "scatter-brained", repetitive<br /><br /> d. Posture: Normal e. Gait: Slow<br /><br /> f. Behaviour: friendly, highly repetitive g. Distress: anxious, nervous<br /> rocks in chair while talking<br /><br />Physician Address Treatment/Medication<br /><br />Dr. Pecher Monfort psychiatrist<br />Dr. Bajwa 356 Woodroffe, Suite 106 psychiatrist<br />Dr. Vlahoivch St. Anne Clinic general practice<br />Dr. Rabie - has replaced Dr. Vlahovich<br /><br />Record of applicant's/recipient's hospitalizations/attendance at clinics for the past five years:<br /><br />Hospital/Clinic DATE<br /> From To<br /><br />Monfort - for nerves Aug 26/85 Sept 26/85<br />Ottawa General - overdose Sept 29/84 Oct 15/84<br />Queenseay Carleton 1981 for one month<br /><br />Section III - Applicant's Education, Training and Employment:<br /><br />Education: College, Algonquin, secretarial<br /><br />Occupational History<br /><br />Secretary May 75 to Oct 78<br /><br />Clerical June 79 to Aug 80<br /><br />REMARKS:<br /><br />Cecile Cyr is a nurse at the Montfort Hospital (Day Hospital) adminsters most of her medication/.<br /><br />LI Carbonate (Carbolith) 300 mg - 6 caps a day<br />Thioridanize 25 mg 4 a day<br />Thioridanzine 10 mg<br /><br />Sarah Burell signed her name and dated the form which was October 18/85<br /><br />Calling me "scattered brained" crossed the line I think.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"> **********************************</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">VRS - Vocational Rehabilitation Services:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ODSP has a section called VRS which stands for Vocational Rehabilitation Services. At one time, the Ontario government would send a person with disabilities to University or College to get their degree and pay for all of the education costs, books, transportation etc. The Mike Harris government took that all way with Bill - Social Assistance Reform.</span><br /><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi94Cu7IaIWwK4Pc7khvMx9M8PDVj5jLR929_90WiqK678LwNvEoy4kIa99txqcbZDmnRSDmz67ag2NUOXdAMEAicEmkPgC4ekevtchiHF9rxR4m_LOYVVf6o-A0WAW6z_4FdFd92HDOHI/s1600-h/oopsididthat.gif"><br /></a>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-24223512493532645412007-09-29T10:24:00.000-04:002007-09-29T10:38:20.588-04:00VRS - Vocational Rehabilitation ServicesSue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-71935363433148884622007-09-12T18:45:00.000-04:002007-09-12T18:46:32.247-04:00Leave your comments here<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">You can post your comments here. A moderator will look at your comments and post them to this blog<br />is they are appropriate. Scroll down to <span style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);">Post a comment</span><br /></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-37499536042730095082007-09-12T14:52:00.000-04:002007-09-12T15:48:50.226-04:00Sue healing survivial and healing techniques<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXs3vvrs0g90rujw72oLNBqEM0RNdhR05SnFTcwPykbXtWfB7CipB8pBaZvSI8lXKtPHrp-Jk8JeZ58NwB4_l_bt4JC4F-uOrfY8fbgosH3ueSQx-Qd5bgRriOnIrQjGdx3xs3JWP23C4/s1600-h/HPIM3888.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXs3vvrs0g90rujw72oLNBqEM0RNdhR05SnFTcwPykbXtWfB7CipB8pBaZvSI8lXKtPHrp-Jk8JeZ58NwB4_l_bt4JC4F-uOrfY8fbgosH3ueSQx-Qd5bgRriOnIrQjGdx3xs3JWP23C4/s320/HPIM3888.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109393709672862866" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture taken by Sue's husband Steven Wittenberg in Ottawa in September 2007<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Sue has many techniques and tools she used in order to heal from her past.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">RELAXATION:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">When Sue is either feeling hungry, angry, lonely or tired like in the 12 step program HALT, Sue<br />will take a day to relax. Sue does the following:<br /><br />- takes a long hot shower or bath<br />- shut the land line phone off and cell phone off for the day<br />- stays indoors that day if you need to<br />- makes a nice breakfast with all the trimmings, make a healthy lunch and supper and order out<br />or go out for your meals<br />- plays nice soft music that you like<br />- don' t read the newspaper or listen to the news - most of the news can be negative<br />- call a friend who will listen to her and not judge her<br />- write in a journal all of her feelings whether good or bad<br />- write a letter to someone she is angry with an not send it and then tear it up<br />- draw some pictures, do a pastel or oil painting, or use crayons and color in a regualr coloring book<br />- do a puzzle<br />- play solitaire<br />- wash her body and hair with some nice smelling body lotion<br />- don't put make up on that day<br />- wear pj's all day<br />- read some magazines<br />- read a good book<br />- make some tea<br />- cut out pictures from a magazine and make a collage<br />- write a poem<br />- go onto the computer and play some fun games<br />- know that today will pass and tomorrow will be better<br />- lay down on the couch and do nothing but watch tv - put on some game shows or put on a funny movie<br />- call the distress centers if you have to and pour out all your troubles to them<br />- make supper for a friend and keep it low key, something easy to make or order out<br />- go for a long walk and take a camera and take pictures of the flowers, the birds and the scenery<br />- make a scrapbook of anything<br />- make a list of all the good things you have done<br />- make a list of all the good qualities about yourself<br />- make a list of gratitude for the things you are thankful for<br />- cry if you want to and tears are a healing tool in themselves, left it all hang out<br />- cry with a friend and they will have a shoulder for you to cry on, a safe place to fall<br />- go on a picnic by yourself and bring your favourite foods<br />- go shopping and buy yourself something nice - special for you<br />- mark down the 5 funniest things that ever happened to you<br />- calling someone and telling them you love them<br />- hugging someone you love and telling them how much they mean to you and why<br />- putting on some music and singing along, you don't have to be a great singer, but sing for fun<br />- looking outside the window and watching the cars and people go by<br />- write down a dream you have, something you want to have or do in life, write a story about it<br />- start a "forgiveness" journal of those you want to forgive. Write what the person did you to you, how it made you feel and why you want to forgive them - releasing the anger will be a weight off your shoulders and make you feel better<br />- don't like your job, write down jobs you would like to do, what makes you happiest when you are doing it or around it.<br />- take a ride in a hot air balloon<br />- go the local fair and have fun<br />- go to an art museum and stuy the pictures and read up on the picture's history, take a tour of a museum in town<br />- get your hair fixed up at the hair salon - its feels good to have someone take care of your hair<br />- go to your favourite restaurant and bring a friend<br />- put on some music and start dancing - dancing will make your feel great and energized<br />- take your pet out for a long walk<br /><br />Know you are unique and one of a kind in this world. There is no one like you. You are special.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">************************************************************************************</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">When someone dies...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sue has lost friends in the past. Here are Sue's suggestions on what worked for her:<br /><br />- crying is ok and let out all your feelings. If you are in public sometimes the tears will flow and you can't help it, if someone asks what is wrong, just say someone passed away. Don't be embarrassed.<br />People will understand.<br /><br />- call your friends and family for support. <br /><br />- don't isolate yourself. If you are feeling down and depressed for a long period of time tell people.<br /><br />- visit your friends and family and invite them over too<br /><br />- go to a bereavement group in your area. There are one to one sessions and also group sessions.<br />Sharing with others who have gone through the same thing will not make you feel like you are the only going through this<br /><br />- take time to relax, easier said than done<br /><br />- it will take time but the healing can begin from all the sadness when someone dies. We will never forget them but the pain of losing them does lessen as time goes by and it is bearable afterwards<br />Emotional pain is hard to put in words sometimes, if someone asks how you are doing, just say you are having a rough time. If someone wants to talk about the person who passed away and it is too<br />painful for you just tell them that you don't want to talk about it that day maybe another day.<br /><br />- get a counsellor at the local community center to talk things over if you want to - a social worker<br /><br />- surround yourself with people who are safe and good to you<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkIoEoe2BeoPd1fGy36cuEBOutB80y2ApzLeGigVPyvAeZ7xUvK1JRrCRUs99n2AeTfJ0cSv2iGvy9nHu9SQ10lCq9ubuipvf1NBywJVUUhNDQPPmLYR1qlhQG9yj5uV6fQG8AZbYmkeA/s1600-h/July2007+134.jpg"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><br /></a>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-38923754161981301312007-09-12T14:06:00.000-04:002007-09-13T12:29:23.882-04:00Algonquin Heron Park Campus 74-75<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpVizzdf14PyYpfBNH7dklWTRFsr45f6Tciq_dbkfGc4SZFGCRAkN_jumKkvZfGJXcEG47qdk-n3wYqNAt6K1jYkTMd_jaqO8GnRdwtOH3k-__KISwOsJY_X2YiOXqXwdo3w8Wn-A5Fg/s1600-h/2007_08_27_10_12_54.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpVizzdf14PyYpfBNH7dklWTRFsr45f6Tciq_dbkfGc4SZFGCRAkN_jumKkvZfGJXcEG47qdk-n3wYqNAt6K1jYkTMd_jaqO8GnRdwtOH3k-__KISwOsJY_X2YiOXqXwdo3w8Wn-A5Fg/s320/2007_08_27_10_12_54.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109383075333837938" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of right to left: Sue and her friend from College, Cathy Lewis from Chipman,<br />New Brunswick.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Sue attends Algonqiun Heron Park Campus in Ottawa from 1974-75.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I got my secretarial degree from Heron Park Campus which was part of Algonquin College in 1975.<br />I had 10 months of fun at this campus.<br /><br />I was living with Fred Wegner my future first huband to be. I lived at 370 Forest Street with Fred and his two teenage boys Manfred and Walter. I went to the Unemployment Department on Slater Ave at the time and asked to see a counsellor. I wanted to go to school and get a bursuary. I asked the woman counsellor who sat in front of me what type of courses were available. I told her I was let<br />out of the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital the year before and I needed to continue my education.<br />I had a grade 12 diploma from Champlain High School in 1972.<br /><br />The counsellor quirmed when I told her I was a former psychiatric patient. She rolled her eyes a few times. She told me about the Heron Park Campus Secretarial course. She told me I had been out of school for two years. I told her so what. I was 19 years old and I needed to get a degree of some kind to get a job. I fought to get into my secretarial course. I only was given 16 weeks for a secretarial<br />refresher course. I said ok and took the course and took my chances at furthering my education.<br />I had nothing to lose.<br /><br />I took the bus from my apartment building next door to Carling Ave and went to Heron and Bank and got off. The campus was behind the Canadian Tire on Heron Rd. I was taking psychiatric medication<br />at the time and I felt sleepy. I sometimes would miss my stop and the bus driver would have to yell<br />"Sue, you missed your bus stop, don't forget your lunch and briefcase". I had forgotten my briefcase a few times before and my lunch. I had the same nice bus driver most of the time on the route to school.<br /><br />The school was large. As you came into the entrance, the office was to the right and the cafeteria was<br />in the middle of the school. I has a locker at the back of the school. There were new students entering the secretarial program every week. I met my friend Cathie Lewis at college. She was l8 years old and tall and thin and pretty. Cathie was from Chipman, New Brunswick. I told Cathie I was living with an older man 23 years my senior. She thought that was odd.<br /><br />Cathie and I got along famously. We would sit and talk at lunch time and laugh about everything under the sun. Cathie had a carefree relaxed attitude about everything. We would chum around after school. I took my brother Chris to visit Cathie who was living at the Ottawa YMCA in a room.<br />Chris liked Cathie as a person and thought she was nice.<br /><br />Cathie told me one day about the rock group Steppenwolf was coming to Ottawa. I bought tickets for my brother and I. Cathie came along to the landsdowne civic center in Ottawa to see the group.<br />I was naive about street drugs for sure. Never took them before. On the floor in front of the stage<br />were lots of people. A young man came by and he opened up his jacket and had lots of pills attached to the inside of his jacket. I yelled over to Cathie 'Hey Cathie, this man is showing me lots of pills" I waved my hands to where the man was. Someone said to me "are you for real?"<br />Cathie yelled for me to shut up. She came over to me and pulled me aside and said never do that.<br />I asked her why. She told me that man was a drug dealer and it was illegal for him to sell those drugs and that there were Narks around. I asked what was a nark. She said a nark was an undercover<br />officer who looks for drug dealers. I turned ten shades of red from embarrassment. I led a sheltered life so to speak in some ways.<br /><br />We all sat in front on the stage close to the amplifiers which is not a good thing to do. My ears were bussing for a few days, I almost went deaf I would say. Steppenwolf played lots of good music.<br />We got up and danced and so lots of the crowd. Cathie took drugs sometimes as most young people did. She gave me a capsule of mescaline, some type of street drug. Never took street drugs before and that would be the last experience for me. I sure could hear the music real well and everything<br />was real nice and peaceful to me. The drug was beginning to work. It affected my co-ordination somewhat too. It was one hell of a concert, one to never forget. Those rock'n'rollers had their act down to the wire, they knew how to put on a spectacular show and they did. They pleased the crowd for sure. There was a thunder of applause after the concert was done for Steppenwolf. The song "born to be wild" was played by the band that night, my favorite song.<br /><br />We all left and it was took a long time to leave the landsdowne civic center there were so many people<br />We got on the buses and went down to Carling Ave. I almost got hit by a city bus when I thought<br />the bus farther away than it was. My perception of distance was hindered by the drug. <br /><br />The next day at Algonquin, I had to sign into my class on a piece of paper. I signed my name 15 times and the teacher asked me if there was anything wrong with me and I told him I was tired and didn't sleep that well and he looked at me as though he didn't believe my excuse. I did not elaborate with him. I never took any street drug until much later on. I tired Marijuana once when I was married to Fred. I choked on the joint and that was enough of that drug for me.<br /><br />Fred and I had a fight in our apartment on Forest Street. He threw me onto our bed roughly. I told Cathie this and she told me to leave Fred but I did not listen to Cathie, something I would regret later on. Fred would apologize and make up it up to me and it was like a honeymoon period for a while<br />and he would get violent towards me again.<br /><br />Fred was drinking heavily. His sons were attending high school. I told Fred I thought I may be pregnant and he said not to worry, one more kid would be no problem. I was not pregnant, my period was just late.<br /><br />I was only given a 16 week course. I had forgotten the shorthand I had taken earlier in high school<br />as a result of the electroshocks I had. I had to fight with Mr. Younghusband about getting more<br />weeks added to my course and I got it. I had to do a song and dance practically. I was in college for 10 months rather than 16 weeks. It was a year in my life I shall never forget<br /><br />I had to take Business Math. It was a 4 week course and after 4 weeks I was still in class and I<br />could not learn very quickly. I was frustrated. I was put in another Math class with a teacher who<br />taught alternative teaching in the USA. He told me I learnt by someone showing me the data on the board not by the book. I was a visual learner. I took the math course and got a B average. The teacher told me I could do anything if I put my mind to it and I have.<br /><br />One day I was at my locker between classes. A guy who a locker beside me had a plastic bag over his mouth and he was breathing into it. I ran away and I was confused and not sure what he was doing.<br />My friend Cathie told me "he is sniffing glue, stupid". I did feel stupid. <br /><br />The comedy group of McLean and McLean showed up at our campus and their off color jokes had us all in stitches with laughter. They wowed the crowd for sure. We had so much fun. <br /><br />One day my typing teacher an older woman was in a snarly mood and liked to pick on me. This one morning she looked down at my hands on the keyboard as asked why I looked down at the keyboard when I was typing and this was my answer "That is my style, that is me". Some of my peers in the class laughed. <br /><br />I saw some painters painting the hallways and I felt very ill and nauseous. I realized I am very allergic to fresh paint and so I left the school that day. I had a headache and vomited. I stay away now from<br />places that have been freshly painted.<br /><br />After class one day, my professor who was a black man and very handsome asked me out for a drink.<br />I declined. I told him I was living with my boyfriend. He was ok with it. He used to dress really<br />nice and wore flashy clothes and had a sports car.<br /><br />I went to the doctor in the Spring of 75. I had a nasty cough you could hear half a block away. My<br />family doctor told me I had whooping cough and it was contagious. I went to the office at the campus<br />and told them I had to take a week or two off sick leave. They told me to get going quickly after I told them what I had was contagious - the cough. I was off for two weeks and I would have to catch up in my homework. I did. <br /><br />I would play jokes on the teachers. One of them was this - new students would enter a class and it would end at 10 to the hour. 40 minutes after the hour, 10 minutes before class was finished, I would<br />yell, class is over for the day, thank you students. The teachers did not find this funny but some of<br />my classmates did.<br /><br />The students at Heron Park Campus were all different ages. It was interesting to talk to many of my peers. I learned alot about different cultures and heritages.<br /><br />The head of Algonquin College came to see us. He was a nice man who had encouraging words for us.<br /><br />I had to go one week work experience and I chose the Secretarial Program Section at the Woodroffe<br />Campus. I was the head of the department's secretary for one week. She was a nice lady and the staff treated me well. I used a selectric typewriter, one that had a key to erase a mistake. It had<br />a white ribbon with the black ribbon. <br /><br />The head of the department told me her husband had some type of shell fish and had a terrible reaction and almost died in hospital. I had never heard of allergies like this before. <br /><br />My stepson Manfred gave me a nice wallet for my birthday in April. I put my purse under my desk.<br />for a few minutes as I went to another office at the opposite side of the campus. In my purse I had<br />lots of bus tickets, 20 dollars and all my I.D. My wallet was stolen and I had to ask a secretary for some bus tickets to get home. It was the last day of my work experience. <br /><br />I graduated in May 1975 from the college and I had had good marks. My brother Chris attended the small ceremony and I was so proud of myself. I got a nice certificate "Secretarial Sciene" Each graduate was given a flower along with their certificate.<br /><br />I called the federal government and got a typing test to do. I passed the test with flying colors.<br />I was asked to go into the Surgeon General's Branch part of National Defence (DND). I was two weeks after I graduated and I had my first real job. I had to sign some papers for the RCMP to check my background and they did, I got a secret clearance.<br /><br />My boss was Major J.P.D. Robinson or "Robbie" as some people called him.<br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-48834917605835467382007-09-09T09:55:00.000-04:002007-11-07T15:07:39.457-05:00Valerie G.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PyXKOYjLy3n28_CWHYjTv1a3Cw2Su1EK68uZ05X11A9FIm0PvBfMNIKvoS9QMTqOf6jogp6d-C5TCombBl4yTCJdsPy30sc5OgEQBtROSFSrRUA6yygsKQA-AQqB9G9DbVV5s9qaK3I/s1600-h/Take-Me-to-Paris-Posters.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PyXKOYjLy3n28_CWHYjTv1a3Cw2Su1EK68uZ05X11A9FIm0PvBfMNIKvoS9QMTqOf6jogp6d-C5TCombBl4yTCJdsPy30sc5OgEQBtROSFSrRUA6yygsKQA-AQqB9G9DbVV5s9qaK3I/s200/Take-Me-to-Paris-Posters.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130135252829522450" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I met Valerie when she called my group "The Ottawa Advocates for Psychiatric Patients" (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">OAPP</span>)<br />Valerie and I became fast friends. Her father was a doctor in Montreal. Valerie was a nice woman.<br />Valerie was Jewish. I told her my first boyfriend was Jewish and that his name was Marvin H. and he was from Toronto.<br /><br />I told her I was engaged to him but when he told me he had had one sexual encounter with a man in his past I dropped him like a ton of bricks. Marvin got suicidal because I broke off our engagement. I wanted to marry a man who was straight and not bisexual. I still loved Marvin but thought if I married him that he might turn to other men for pleasure and I did not want that. Marvin wanted me to move to Toronto and I said no. Marvin wanted the engagement ring back. It was an engagement ring he gave that was his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ex's</span>. I said no and sold it to a jeweller many years later for 20 dollars, I needed the money. The ring was beautiful. It had a diamond in the middle surrounded by many small diamonds. I think Marvin should have bought me a new rings and not his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ex's</span>.<br /><br />Marvin was a good person and nice. I wished I could have married Marvin but I did not want that.<br />Marvin is a private math teacher in Toronto.<br /><br />Valerie was a nice person. She liked men and had lots of boyfriend on the go. She was in her 30s, she was beautiful and men liked her too. She loved men. She had a pretty face and a nice body. She had a nice personality too. She was a bubbly type of person. We had fun when we got together. We laughed <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">a lot</span>. A man from Sweden was using her and I told her. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Igmar</span> kept her hanging on.<br /><br />Dustin met Valerie in Ottawa on a nature walk. They clicked as friends right away. Dustin invited<br />Valerie over to his apartment. Valerie sat down on the couch and took out a condom and said to<br />Dustin "you're so cute and handsome, let's do it" and handed the condom to Dustin. Dustin took the condom and blew it up into a balloon. Valerie looked devastated but got Dustin's point. Dustin<br />wanted no part in having sex with Valerie. Dustin was too much of a gentleman to take advantage of Valerie. Dustin has class. Valerie and Dustin remained friends. Dustin took no offence to<br />Valerie advances towards him. Valerie told Dustin "Sue is pretty, why don't you go out with her"<br />He did.<br /><br />One day I went to visit Valerie at her apartment on Somerset Street near Bank Street. She had a small bachelor apartment. On her kitchen table she had a box opened that had condoms. I asked her if she made all her men put on the condoms and she said sometimes she asked them to, others times she did not ask them to. I told her she <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">knew</span> AIDS and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">STDs</span> were around and she should practice safe sex. I told her to tell her men "No glove, no love". I didn't want anything to happen to Valerie. I was like a big sister to her. She was not offended and she said I gave her good advice. I never judged Valerie about all her men. It was her life style, not mine.<br /><br />I remember having a Chinese meal with her at a restaurant. It was a real experience. Valerie was very knowledgeable about everything. She was smart. She used to work as secretary at a Montreal University. We talked for hours. With Valerie you got lost in her conversation and you never released how much time had passed by. Valerie was very entertaining. Her sweet qualities and<br />her awareness about everything around her wanted you to stay longer with her and listen to her more.<br />She was <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">capturing</span> to say the least. I liked spending time with Valerie. You never forgot the time you spent with Valerie. Valerie was unique and one of a kind.<br /><br />Valerie respected me. Valerie had a child like quality about her. She was very refreshing and bright. She was a joy to be around. She was kind and sweet. She had this <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">tremendous</span> laughter that was contagious. When Valerie laughed, everyone around her started to laugh. She looked at the world as if everything was new to her and she was seeing everything around her for the first time. Valerie loved life and she lived to the fullest extent of it. I admired Valerie at her zest for life. Valerie was always on the go, out and about you could say.<br /><br />Valerie told her father that she wanted to go to Paris to find a man to fall in love with. Her father thought Valerie was losing it so to speak so he went to the court house in Ottawa and had his daughter committed into the local <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">loony</span> bin for 72 hours. Nothing was wrong with Valerie the doctors told her dad and they let her go after her 72 hours were up. Her father must have been a very controlling man.<br />If Valerie had gone to Paris she probably would have met a man and fell in love and then left him shortly after to return to Canada, all she probably wanted was a fling...<br /><br />Valerie just wanted to travel and be romanced by the beautiful city of lights, Paris. I have had the same dream from time to time. I am sitting at a small cafe late at night and a handsome French man comes over to me and speaks to me in a Parisian accent and asks if he can sit down and I say yes. He buys me a glass of wine and that is the start of a very romantic evening. Valerie's idea about a trip to Paris was harmless and so were her dreams of getting a man in Paris.... who wouldn't want to visit this great city and fall in love....everyone has dreams and I believe this keeps up our spirit and passion alive...<br /><br />Valerie left Ottawa and then moved back to Montreal. I miss Valerie. I miss her laughter, her honesty, and her carefree spirit.... Valerie was one of a kind...a special person....<br /><br />Valerie was a woman who did what she wanted and didn't care what people thought about her...<br />I liked that quality about her...she was her own person and the world was her <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">pallet</span> to paint on...<br /><br />Where ever you are Valerie, I wish you much joy and happiness...<br /></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-39579843371446723422007-09-07T11:37:00.001-04:002007-09-07T11:53:57.675-04:00When Sue had ECT in 1973 at BPH<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span id="st" name="st" class="st">ECT</span> Hurt Me<br /><br />by <span id="st" name="st" class="st">Sue</span> Clark-Wittenberg, 2007<br />(copyright)<br /><br /></span>The day I got my first <span id="st" name="st" class="st">ECT</span><br />I recall the room was white<br />the nurses wore white<br />the doctor wore white<br />and I was white as a sheet with fright<br /><br />I lay on my back on the bed<br />with wires put on both sides of my head<br />a rubber band put on my forehead<br />and a rubber mallet stuck in between my teeth<br /><br />I was scared to death, terrified<br />I wanted to jump up and run<br />but I could not<br />I saw the <span id="st" name="st" class="st">ECT</span> machine<br />right to my left<br />and knew that horrible machine<br />was going to be turned on<br />any minute<br />and it would hurt my brain<br />and it did<br /><br />I woke up after the <span id="st" name="st" class="st">ECT</span><br />dizzy, confused and did<br />not know who I was<br />where I was<br /><br />I was put in a wheelchair<br />I missed my breakfast<br />and had to to wait for lunch<br /><br />a peer on my ward<br />told me many years later<br />that when the staff grabbed me<br />to take me to the <span id="st" name="st" class="st">ECT</span> room<br />I screamed, kicked and bit the<br />staff and hollered<br />"Somebody, anybody, please<br />help me"<br />But nobody did<br /><br />ECT hurt my brain<br />No one told me<br />truth about what ECT<br />would do to me<br />because nobody cared<br /><br />So that is why I want ECT<br />the atrocity that it is<br />to be banned, to end<br />to stop now<br />so no one else has to<br />go through the torture<br />like I did which is called ECT<br />------------------------------<div style="text-align: left;"><wbr></div>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-70165546601576037972007-09-07T11:36:00.001-04:002007-09-07T12:36:48.167-04:00Sue's health problems<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I have numerous health problems. Since 1984 I have had Diabetes Type II and I started to take pills for my diabetes about 6 years ago.<br /><br />I presently have the last stages of Bell's Palsy which means the left part of face is paralyzed to some degree. I had an inflamation in a nerve in my face. I had this in 1980 the first time on the same sight of my face. It last for three months. Last September in 2006 I got Bell's Palsy again. It has been a year now and I still have it. It affects my speech to some degree and my vision in my left eye and affects my hearing in my left ear. One eye brow is higher than the other and my left eye looks smaller as a result.<br /><br />I am obese and have been since 1973 when I first entered the psychiatric wards. I became a compulsive overeater to cope with the stress on being on locked wards. I have lost 50 pounds since<br />the late 80s.<br /><br />I have high blood pressure and I take two types of medications for this daily.<br /><br />I had a mini stroke last September around the same type I got Bell's Palsy. My memory is even more impaired than it was and I sometimes use different words for what I want to say. For instance I have called a bus a boat etc and the list goes on. I laugh when this happens and just try to use the<br />right word. My cognitive abilities are slower. It takes me longer to figure things out now.<br />The fingers on my left hand do not bend properly when I make a fist. They bend only slightly now.<br /><br />I have severe arthritis in all my joints and spinal stenosis and that is why I use an electric wheelchair<br />since 2003 because it afffects my mobility. I can walk about 50 feet and then I have to sit down<br />as my legs won't hold me up any longer than that.<br /><br />I have had two kidney stones and two operations. My last operation for my left kidney was in 2005.<br />Dr. Watterson at the Ottawa General did an excellent operation. Dr. Kitt the head of the Ottawa<br />Hospital sent me a get well card in the mail.<br /><br />I have bad asthma and have been hospitalized many times. I take puffers for my asthma.<br /><br />I have chronic bronchitis and respiratory disease.<br /><br />I have a severe case of Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) as result of the abuse I suffered as a child and the abuse I suffered in two marriages.<br /><br />I have poor circulation in my feet because of diabetes. I wear glasses.<br /><br />My father paid tons of money for my teeth as a kid. I had lots of dental work done by an oral dental<br />surgeon, Dr. Morin who had an office on Gloucester Street in Ottawa in the 60s and 70s. I bit him once when I was a kid and he was angry and told me not to do that again and I didn't. I saw him until I was l7 years old, for about 10 years I would say. My brother Chris had lots of dental work done by the same dentist. I have good teeth and I see a dentist at Carlingwood Dental Center in Ottawa.<br />I don't wear false teeth, I still have all of my teeth for now, thank goodness.<br /><br />Two specialists in Ottawa two years ago asked me why I am still alive. I told them I born of good Irish stock and I am a tough cookie. They laughed. I am a tough cookie only when I have to be.<br /><br />I would like to lose more weight and take up exercise. I have been saying that for many years now.<br />I need to take better care of myself. <br /><br />I am in chronic pain but I don't take any pain killers. My family doctor told me my blood pressure is too high to be able to take pain killers. He doesn't want me on them. I rest alot and lay down when<br />my pain is unbearable and that seems to help my back pain. I have arthritis in my back and spinal stenosis which is a very painful condition.<br /><br />I eat well. I sleep well. I do not smoke. I used to smoke cigarettes when I was 19 year old to 21. I quit in 1976. I do not use alchohol. I did have a drinking problem at one time in my first marriage to Fred Wegner. I do not use street drugs and never did. I was not into the hippie life style. I dressed up the part but I was a square and still am. I don't allow people to smoke in my home as I have<br />severe asthma.<br /><br />I used to have a home maker now and I do my own housework with the help of my husband Steven.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-75357043042652841852007-09-07T11:35:00.002-04:002007-09-20T06:54:48.420-04:00Sue's suicide attempt, Sept 29/84<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiA18j9v0kdntZ-7U6uiD-xWmgItSIeNaxEUey3sBjCRZXWv-bfjxIbQYLVHtqkNpeUUGGvykJJktLhKWvkdBJdAGSCMaPyZyTivSaa9X3E4mBi2FgsuZOJdZ0vDAy12xi_uTstL26ZqI/s1600-h/ottawageneralhosp.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiA18j9v0kdntZ-7U6uiD-xWmgItSIeNaxEUey3sBjCRZXWv-bfjxIbQYLVHtqkNpeUUGGvykJJktLhKWvkdBJdAGSCMaPyZyTivSaa9X3E4mBi2FgsuZOJdZ0vDAy12xi_uTstL26ZqI/s320/ottawageneralhosp.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107487702937751426" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of the Ottawa General Hosptial on Smyth Road in Ottawa.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Sue suicide attempt on September 29, 1984<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">John and I were having problems in their marriage. John had lost his job at the Ottawa Civic Hospital in March of 1984. I confronted my uncle Layman Sage about his molesting me when I was 4 years old. John and I began to argue all the time. John and I were on welfare, social assistance and did not have much money to live on at all, just enough money to pay for our rent and buy food - no extras.<br /><br />John and his father John Sr. were in a battle together over something financial between the both of them. John went bankrupt that year and he and his sister Jackie from Montreal were not getting along. Jackie sent John a nasty letter. It was if our world was crashing all around us and it was.<br /><br />I sent John out one afternoon on a few errands. It was September 29, 1984, a day after my<br />parent's wedding anniversary. I was feeling very depressed and suicidal and did not tell John.<br />When John left the apartment I went to the kitchen cupboard that had bottles of all different sorts<br />of psychiatric medication in all shapes and colors. I had hundreds of them stocked away. I did want to die and that day I meant to die. Life was too hard for me and my nerves were bad and I saw no<br />way out at all....it was as if this big black cloud was overhead...a cloud of blackness and of sadness and pain and I wanted it to just end, to end the pain I was feeling...I was overwhelmed...I needed to die<br />I said to myself...<br /><br />I took out a pitcher of milk and looked at all the bottles of medications before me. I took so many<br />pills I lost track after a while. I took the pills with milk. I realized after about a half hour I wanted to live and I needed to get some help ....I didn't have a phone at the time so I went to the Italian restaurant was on the corner of Bayswater and Wellington St. I talked to the head<br />waiter and told him I need a taxi. He said he was too busy to help me. I then walked across to the hotel across the street. I was the only standing there in front on the front desk. I told the man<br />at the counter to call an ambulance because I had taken many pills and I needed to get to a hospital.<br /><br />The hotel receptionist called the ambulance service who demanded to talk to me in person. The man<br />handed me over the phone and I spoke to the ambulance service. Someone asked me when I took the pills and I had said "about half an hour ago". The person told me I sounded coherent and told me to get to the hospital on my own. I heard two people speaking behind me. I looked around and a middle aged black couple that overheard my conversation. They came over and told me I could take their<br />taxi that was coming for them. I thanked them and a few minutes later I got the taxi ride.<br /><br />The taxi driver asked my why I was going to the hospital. It is very unusual for a taxi driver to ask this from a stranger. I nonchantily told him I had taken over 140 pills. He sounded very hyper<br />and told me he would get to the Ottawa General quickly. I asked him why and he did not answer me.<br />The pills were taking effect and I did not realize this...everything looked blurry to me and I was<br />very confused all of a sudden...the taxi driver sped down the queensway....he dropped me off at the Emergency ward and walked me in....I went up to the counter and it was busy....I stood there waiting and looking over at the tv that had on some cartoons, I was very interested in the cartoon show.<br />The nurse asked why I was at the Emergency Department and I told her I had taken 140 pills,<br />she asked "14 pills", I said 'no, 140 pills" and told the nurse I wanted to sit down and watch the tv<br />show so I did. A few minutes later I only remember someone with a white coat on and only saw their bottom of their pants.....and then I passed out....<br /><br />I was sent to Intensive care and did not know because I was out cold. The pills had taken full<br />effect and I was in a coma. I had a private room. The nurse called my brother who lived over the hill<br />from the hospital. He was told I was in critical condition. My brother never came to see me.<br />John Clark visited me while I was in Intensive care for 3 days. I was out for most of those 3 days in and out of consciousness. I remember once waking up and someone handed me a cup of black juice<br />and I said to them "is that ashes from cigarette butts you are trying to give me?" I was told it was drink to help clean up my system....I lost consciousness once again. I was on a respirator to breath<br />apparently and remember the nurse telling me..."don't pull that off your nose, Suzanne, you have<br />to keep it on to breath..."roll over, Suzanne, we have to change your sheet" I could hear the nurses say...I could not see anything at all.<br /><br />John Clark came to see me and held my hand he told me. He was worried about me. The staff told him I was critical but in stable condition, my condition was upgraded.<br /><br />I remember waking up in an elevator and my bed was moving. I asked the porter what was going on.<br />He said "don't you remember coming into the hospital. We put you in Intensive care and now<br />you are being transferred to the Psychiatric Ward of the hospital". I looked around me as he wheeled me onto the 4th floor of the Ottawa General Hospital. He took me up to the nurses's desk and left me laying on the stretcher. The nurses asked me tons of questions. I was put in a private room<br />right next to the other side of the ward next to a nurses station. The rooms next to me were also<br />people who tried to commit suicide. I was not allowed to put on my street clothes and had to wear<br />a blue jimmy shirt and some blue paper slippers. I had my own washroom and shower.<br /><br />A doctor came into my room one morning shortly after I arrived at the Psych ward. He asked me if I remembered him and I said no. He said he was the doctor in Intensive Care. He asked me when I came into ICU why I had tried to commit suicide. He said I mumbled under my breath "death wish".<br />I told the doctor who I did not recognize I am glad ICU saved my life and I thanked him and his staff.<br />I told him I was depressed and he said he guessed that I was because I would not have done something so desperate if I was not depressed. I shook him hand and he went on his way.<br /><br />John Clark, my husband came to see me as well as my brother Chris and his friend Larry. The ward<br />had to long wings to it. You got off at the elevator on the fourth floor and hung a left and then you were on the ward as you walked down the corridor. The outpatient psychiatry office is there and some offices to see social workers and psychiatrists and psychologists. Then you would see a big nurses'<br />desk and then the first wing of the ward was to the right and left and in the middle of the wing was the recreation room with a big tv and lots of books and magazines to read. This was the social gathering place of the ward to meet and chat and get to know everybody if they let you get to know them.<br /><br />I was next to the other wing past the recreation room overlooking Smyth Road. It was the beginning of fall and the leaves on the trees were turning colors and trees were beautiful to look at. Fall is my favorite time of year because of the pretty leaves and the weather is cooler. I don't like the summer<br />as the summers in Ottawa are very humid and hot.<br /><br />A young woman came into my room one morning and introduced herself to me. She said she was the psychologist on the ward assigned to me. She told me she wanted me to do this long psychological test with hundreds questions and not to worry, she would pick it up in a few days. I agreed to do the test without looking at it first. The test was called </span></span></span></span><b>Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MPPI) and is one of the most frequently used personality tests used in the mental health field. This assessment or test was designed to help identify personal, social, and behavioral problems in psychiatric patients. I looked at the test and was shocked to see some of the questions.<br />One questions was "Do you think you are the anti-Christ". I looked at some more of the questions<br />and then decided I did not want to do this stupid test. So I tore it up in two and threw into the garbage can. <br /><br />A few days later as she had stated earlier in the week, my young female psychologist came to ask for the test I was supposed to have done. I told her I did not like some of the questions and she told me some psychiatric may think they are the anti-Christ. I told her I tore up the questionnaire. Well the psychologist was not impressed and told me so by saying "what do you think this place is a spa and<br />you are wasting my time here". I told her I did not want to come to the Pysch ward but that I was shipped up to the Psych ward from ICU because I had taken 140 pills and went into a coma for 3 days and that ICU saved my life. I took offence to what she said and reported her to her boss. The next day she came to see me and she was nice and sweet as pie. Her comments were out of line and she knew it. I learned to stand up for myself on the ward.<br /><br />The hospital food was shitty - very bland and had no taste - tasted like rubber to me. I was put on a diabetic diet as I am diabetic and I had to lose weight as I was obese and still am. I lost about 6 pounds in one month and I was happy about that.<br /><br />Every morning there is a routine on the ward. Around 7 a.m. the lights are turned on bright in the hallways and in your room. A nurse comes in and says "good morning" I don't do mornings very well as I have chronic insomina and I have since I was a kid. Living in a chaotic home that was unsafe you learn to sleep with one eye open at most times. I am moody first thing in the morning and late at night, I am like a bear. As I turned around after about half an hour later in my bed to face the door in my room, about 6 people in white would rush in and say "good morning, Suzanne, how are you this morning?" I still had a hard time to open my eyes as I had sleepy dust in them and was not fully awake. It sure is shock in the morning to see 6 faces staring over you while you are still in bed still in your pjs. My breath stunk and my hair was a total mess. <br /><br />"my team" as they would call themselves would consist of my psychiatrist (shrink), primary nurse,<br />occupational therapist, psychologist, social worker, student shrink (maybe 1 or 2 learning the ropes of psychiatry with the senior shirnk teaching them). <br /><br />I would tell them how I felt and if I was improving from my depression, getting better whatever that meant. I was depressed most of my life, how do you get 'cured" in one month is beyond me.<br />They would question me and ask if I felt the pills were working and I would say I didn't want to be<br />on mind altering drugs and they would tell me I was "sick" and "mentally ill" and it was best to stay on the pills for the time being. Then the head shrink would tell me when I would be released from the hospital. I asked to wear my street clothes and not the 'Jimmy" blue night gown where your<br />derriere hangs out and in my case it was too small so I had to wear one the front and one on the back of me and I had to wear those silly looking blue paper slippers. I would take a shower and wash my<br />hair every morning and then get dressed and brush my hair and put on a bit of make up if I felt like doing so. <br /><br />I eventually got transferred to a four bed room with 3 other women roommates. One day I walked in and saw this teenager who was one of my rommates and she was being bullied by one of the nurses<br />that if she did not take her meds, she would be tied up with restraints. I saw the whole thing. My roommate got more hyper as the nurse threatened her with the restraints. The nurses put the four point restraints on my roommate. One of each wrist and one on each ankle, and that is when all hell broke out in that room. My roommate lost it completely and was yelling out of control and was freaking out as the nurse walked out of the room. My roommate was red in her face from yelling so much and you could see the veins in her neck bulging out of her neck and she tried to get free from the restraints and tried to kick her legs and wave her arms around. <br /><br />I told my roommate that I was a patient and also a mental health advocate and I did not think the<br />restraints were ok and so I told her I would untie here and I did. She was very relieved to have the<br />restraints taken off her. The nurse came in later and asked her who untied her and she pointe to me.<br />I told the nurses that the restraints were barbaric as far as I was concerned and no one not even a dog should be tied up that. I told her I was mental health advocate and she looked puzzled. The nurse<br />did not retie the woman to my relief and to hers. <br /><br />Restraints are still being used on psychiatric wards to tie patients to their beds. Psychiatric oppression happens on the wards in many forms and this is one of them.<br /><br /><br /></b><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-68591126943887415572007-09-07T11:28:00.002-04:002008-01-18T18:45:59.038-05:00Sue and Steven's videosSue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-38463517923511647642007-09-07T11:27:00.003-04:002009-03-07T05:43:56.236-05:00Sue's photography<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVVPWU8m8A1OblHmRzVSSibOYETQk_ZYG2BwEf5f7-NGJUrmSy2U7Lld9C1G2zpGpzioyoFATCcNBxRFbcziCXOvUt_soR0GqsGOxagO67y5kaLEtWVsN28rCrttW4mmMH8IjxnJpRkw/s1600-h/HPIM1352.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVVPWU8m8A1OblHmRzVSSibOYETQk_ZYG2BwEf5f7-NGJUrmSy2U7Lld9C1G2zpGpzioyoFATCcNBxRFbcziCXOvUt_soR0GqsGOxagO67y5kaLEtWVsN28rCrttW4mmMH8IjxnJpRkw/s320/HPIM1352.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107489408039767954" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"></span><br /></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-14211617368741672332007-09-07T11:21:00.000-04:002007-09-07T11:27:40.957-04:00Sue's friends who passed awayJan Chatre - diabetic coma, Pierre, Richard, Brenda, Eleanora Melodoro, Rita ???, christie bodkin, steve thomas,<br />glen, anne hubbert, darlene charlebois, katherine kay villeneuve, june lawson,Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-29028194676167143132007-09-06T18:51:00.000-04:002008-01-31T12:58:03.202-05:00Dennis Hunt - a friendlllllllllll<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiD-lEggp4FmPpEpHlv6fuicZY3_Kmb28EOIZDS3fGrTH4PbbvOMkf1pE5coWRgv4801lygeFiNBLaRi0v4iLl-rBQDZ0uRGZJFCvEiOXuNc6oXSY-XrQQ8VPh2kxF3NbLGsaFC-QVdek/s1600-h/2007_08_27_10_27_35.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiD-lEggp4FmPpEpHlv6fuicZY3_Kmb28EOIZDS3fGrTH4PbbvOMkf1pE5coWRgv4801lygeFiNBLaRi0v4iLl-rBQDZ0uRGZJFCvEiOXuNc6oXSY-XrQQ8VPh2kxF3NbLGsaFC-QVdek/s320/2007_08_27_10_27_35.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107238796698046322" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of Dennis Hunt on the right of this picture. Dennis is wearing glasses.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /><br />Dennis Hunt was a good friend of mine. He used to live with another friend of mine, Dustin Munro.<br />They were room mates. Dennis and Dustin used to live on Kirkwood Ave in Ottawa in a two bedroom<br />apartment.<br /><br />Dennis spent most of his adolescent years at the Ottawa Regional Center in Smith Falls, Ontario. The center had residents with people with severe handicaps. He left the Ottawa Regional Center and then moved to Cornwall and had a room mate Renee. Then he became a client of the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OCAPDD). Dennis was a quiet person. He had a soft voice and he was a gentle person.<br /><br />In January of 1991 a friend of mine named Valerie Gold called Dustin and asked him if I could come over to visit him. Dustin lived on Kirkwood and it was a very cold night and I had on these thin leather boots not made for the winter weather. I took two buses and finally reached Carling and Kirkwood Ave near the Westgate shopping center. I had to go in and out of the building lobbies in order to warm up. My feet were almost frozen solid. I couldn't afford a good pair of winter boots at that time.<br /><br />I met Valerie when she called my group "The Ottawa Advocates for Psychiatric Patients" (OAPP)<br />Valerie and I became fast friends. Her father was a doctor in Montreal. Valerie was a nice woman.<br />She was Jewish. I told her my first boyfriend was Jewish and that his name was Marvin Hersh and he was from Toronto. Valerie was a nice person. She liked men and had lots of boyfriend on the go.<br />She was in her 30s, she was beautiful and men liked her too. She had a pretty face and a nice body.<br />She had a nice personality too. She was a bubbly type of person. We had fun when we got together.<br />We laughed alot. A man from Sweden was using her and I told her. Igmar kept her hanging on.<br /><br />One day I went to visit Valerie at her apartment on Somerset Street near Bank Street. She had a small bachelor apartment. On her kitchen table she had a box opened that had condoms. I asked her if she made all her men put on the condoms and she said sometimes she asked them to, others times she did not ask them to. I told her she knews AIDS and STDs were around and she should practice safe sex. I told her to tell her men "No glove, no love". I didn't want anything to happen to Valerie. I was like a big sister to her. She was not offended and she said I gave her good advice. I never judged Valerie about all her men. It was her life style, not mine.<br /><br />Valerie respected me. Valerie had a child like quality about her. She was very refreshing and bright. She could converse about any subject. She was a joy to be around. She was kind and sweet. She had this tremedous laughter that was contagious. When Valerie laughed, everyone around her started to laugh. She looked at the world as if everything was new to her and she was seeing everything around her for the first time. Valerie loved life and she lived to the fullest extent of it. I admired<br />Valerie at her zest for life. Valerie was always on the go, out and about you could say.<br /><br />Valerie told her father that she wanted to go to Paris and get a man. Her father went to the court house in Ottawa and had his daughter incarcerated in the local looney bin for 72 hours. Nothing was wrong with Valerie and they let her go after her 72 hours were up. Her father must have been very controlling.<br /><br />Valerie just wanted to travel and be romanced by the beautiful city of love, Paris. I have had the same dream from time to time. I am sitting at a small cafe late at night and a handsome man comes over to me and speaks in a Parisian accent and ask if he can sit down and I say yes. He buys me a glass of wine and that is the start of a very romantic evening. Valerie's idea about a trip to Paris was harmless and so were her dreams of getting a man in Paris.... who wouldn't want to visit this great city and fall in love....everyone has dreams and I believe this keeps up their spirit...<br /><br />Valerie left Ottawa and then moved back to Montreal. I miss Valerie. I miss her laughter, her honesty, and her carefree spirit.... Valerie was one of a kind...a special person....<br /><br />I finally came to an apartment building with three floors. I buzzed Dustin and he saw me from the third floor and thought I was an old lady because the lights made my blond hair look white. He came down<br />the stairs and said hello. Dustin was a tall handsome young man with dark brown eyes and a nice smile. He invited me up to his apartment. Dustin sat on the big chair and I sat on the sofa.<br />Dustin and I started to talk right away as if we knew each other for years. Dustin told me he had<br />a room mate named Dennis. Dennis came into the apartment and I introduced myself to him.<br />Dennis was in his early forties and he was also tall and wore glasses. Dennis was shy. He did not<br />speak to me much at first, he was sizing me up you could say. Dennis was no one's fool. He listened to everything I said to Dustin. We talked for hours and then I told the men I had to go home.<br /><br />Dustin offered to walk me home to my apartment building at 1485 Caldwell Ave, an Ottawa Housing<br />complex housing the poor. Dennis came along. It was a 10 minute walk and it was real cold.<br />I lived on the 14th floor and I invited the men in. We sat down and then talked for a long time.<br />It must have been about midnight when I said goodbye to Dustin and Dennis. They were so nice to me. Dustin gave me his phone number.<br /><br />I called Dustin the next night as asked to come over to watch TV. Dennis answered the phone and I got mixed up and used to call Dennis "Dustin" and I used to call Dustin "Dennis". It took me a while to get their names straight. You could say I had an crush on Dustin. Dennis would often answer the phone and say Dustin was not home from work yet. I would go over and wait for Dustin.<br /><br />Dennis finally opened up to me. He trusted me. Dennis was a good man and very smart. He worked as dishwasher. He had his own Visa Card and did most things on his own. Both Dustin and Dennis had a counsellor come in monthly to help them from the OCAPDD. Her name Marlena program. Dusiin and Dennis were part of the SIL program which stands for Semi Independent Living. Dustin is not<br />developmentally delayed. He was just part of this program to help him integrate into society after living so long in group homes since he was 9 years old. Dennis and Dustin got along well.<br /><br />Dustin worked at the Saxe building at 75 Sparks Street on the manual elevator. He worked there for<br />7 years from 1990 to 1997. He now works for Loblaws in Ottawa.<br /><br />Dustin started to rent cars. Dennis and I would tag along. I had a driver's licence and would pay<br />1/3 of the car rental and we would drive all around Ottawa and the surrounding towns and villages.<br />Once we went to Consecon, Ontario to see a group home called "Bayfield" run by ?????<br /><br />We used to like to go into old abandoned houses. One evening on a Sunday, it was August 4, 1991<br />Dustin was driving me and Dennis and we were on highway 44 near Almonte, Ontario. Dustin and Dennis had gone into this abandoned house and I had stayed in the passenger seat of the car while the men saw the old house. Dennis came back and sat in the back seat behind my seat. Dustin came back and got into the driver's seat.<br /><br />In front of us a black sports car pulled up in front of us a few meters away and a red pick up truck was<br />across the highway from us and another car pulled up in front of the black sports car. A tall thin<br />man got out of the passenger side of the sports car with long thin hair and walked towards our car.<br />I opened my door for a minute and said hello to the man and he said nothing. He had a hard cold stare<br />as I looked at him, not a good sign at all I thought to myself and I was right. I turned around<br />to the back seats and told Dennis to lock his door and roll us his window. I did not notice the tall<br />man with his hand on the handle of my car door as I was talking to Dennis and my back was towards my car door.<br /><br />I turned around and looked at Dustin and told to take off quickly and he did. Our car's tires squealed as we left the side of the highway. The man in the black sports car and the other two cars that we near him followed us closely behind. Dustin was going about 120 km and he sped up the highway for<br />5 minutes. We came into Almonte and sped and then we saw a pizza parlour and then I yelled, "go into there" and Dustin did. He thought it was a driveway but it actually was a lawn and a sidewalk he went over, but he did manage to drive into the laneway of the pizza parlour. We saw a young man coming out of the place with a pizza box in his arms. Dustin told him some cars had been chasing us and asked where the OPP was. The young man gave Dustin the instructions to the OPP office.<br /><br />The three cars had sped off into the highway nowhere to be seen. I was relieved. It was an awful<br />experience to say the least. We went to the OPP office and pushed a buzzer on the front entrance<br />of the building. Someone answered. We told them the story and they said they could not do much if we did not have a licence number.<br /><br />I believe the men wanted our car as it was a brand new car rental. This type of thing has happened before on our highways. I can only speculate what they would have done to us if they had done this.<br />I believe my angels were watching over us that day for sure.<br /><br />We would got to Swiss Chalet and have dinner somtimes. Sometimes we would go to other placees like the Stittsville Flea Market past Bells Corners near Ottawa. I would drive sometimes. I prefer driving on the highway rather than city driving. I get too impatient sitting in city traffic.<br /><br />Dennis and I would talk when Dustin was out of the house. Dennis told me he wanted to visit his sister Betty in San Francisco and he did in April 1992. He hadn't seen her in many years. Betty and her<br />husband were very nice to Dennis. Dennis took some pictures of his visit and he showed them to<br />Dustin and I. San Francisco is a beautiful city with a great big beautiful bridge called "The Golden<br />Gate" bridge.<br /><br />Dennis would never quit a job right away. He would get a new job and tell the boss he would work one week free and if they liked him they could hire him and then he would quit his old job. Dennis was smart. I had never thought of doing anything like that.<br /><br />Dennis and I would laugh our heads off sometimes. He had a wonderful sense of humour. He was<br />like a brother to me.<br /><br />In 1992, Dennis went to see Dr. Birnbaum in Ottawa. He had a sore side and his family doctor sent him for a scan. It came back negative and Dennis's side still hurt so his doctor sent him again to the doctor. Dennis had cancer in his liver. It took awhile for the doctors to find out. Dennis was in the hospital from September 7 to Octobert 9th at the Ottawa Civic Hospital.<br /><br />One night I was a Dustin's apartment and Marlena, Dennis's counsellor called and told us the bad news about Dennis. Dennis had about 3 days to live. Dennis knew as he was told he had to make a will .....I asked to speak to Dennis. He had to take off his respirator in order to speak. I told him I loved him. I hope he heard me. Dustin also spoke to Dennis.<br /><br />Dustin and I were devastated about the news about Dennis. I cried and cried and Dustin tried to console me. We read from Dennis's bible he had at home. On Friday, on October 9th, Dustin and I went to the Ottawa Civic Hospial and wanted to visit Dennis for one last time.<br /><br />A nurse on Dennis's ward told us to sit down on the bench nearby. We told the nurse we would not be long and wanted just to say hello to him. The nurse told us the family needed to be called. I got confused. The nurse had compassionate eyes and she was telling us with her body language something that I could not figure out yet.<br /><br />She asked Dustin to go into an office with her behind the nurses' front desk. Dustin went in with the nurse into a room and then the nurse came out quickly. She sat down near me and told me to follow her into the same room that Dustin was in. I followed the nurse.<br /><br />I walked into the small room and Dustin had his head in his hands and he was bawling his eyes out. I figured out quickly that Dennis had died. I wailed loudly. We stayed for about 10 minutes and we both could not stop crying I took Dustin into my arms and we both cried together. I am sure the staff at the nurses' desk heard us. Dennis was 43 years old when he did.<br /><br />Dennis died in a private room. His mother and two of his sisters Lois from Russell, Ontario,<br />and Pat from Dunrobin were there when he died. Dennis had a respirator on his mouth. Dennis was pain free as he was given medication.<br /><br />Dustin and I left the room and we were still in shock. Someone came off the elevator and they knew<br />Dustin and started to ask general questions about the hospital. I was in shock and everything<br />seemed amplied. People voices seemed louder and the lights seemed brighter. I said we had to go as a friend of ours just died.<br /><br />On the bus on the way home, I don't remember much of that day at all. It was one of the saddest<br />days of my life. Dennis was close friend of mine, he was like a brother to me. It was as if I lost a family member. To this day it is still difficult to speak about Dennis without choking up and tears swelling up in my eyes.<br /><br />I went to the Dennis's funeral in downtown Ottawa on October l4th at Hulse, Playfair and McGarry funeral home on Mcleod Stret in downtown Ottawa. It was a a beautiful sunny day. I had left the The Well a drop in for Women on Somerset Street. One of the staff hugged me before I went to Dennis's funeral. I put on a nice skirt and top and wore black patent leather shoes and a nice pearl necklace. I looked very sad and I was. Dustin was there and he sat with me. Dustin's parents sat across from us. I bent my head down and could not contain myself and I cried out loud.<br />I did not stay to greet the family afterwards as I was in no mental condition to do that. I had to get away and be on my own for awhile. I felt as if I was being suffocated, I needed some air. I was having a panic attack and it lasted for a long time that day.<br /><br />Dennis was cremated and his ashes were buried at the Beechwood Cemetery on October l7th. Dustin and I and Joanne Harvey and her boyfriend showed up for the ceremony. Joanne Harvey was Dennis's former counsellor and a good friend. Joanne married her boyfriend later on. Joanne and her boyfriend lived in a nice older home near Bank Street in the Glebe area of Ottawa near the<br />Rideau Canal. Joanne had to be St. Bernard dogs. She had Dennis come over and walk her dogs when she and her boyfriend were away. Joanne fixed her home so nicely. She had an old fashioned bath tub with a shower curtain all around it. Joanne is a friendly, nice and a good person. Joanne has long<br />blond hair. Her and her boyfriend got married in the big Roman Catholic called "Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica, the oldest church in Ottawa. She split up with her husband later on. She still works for the OCAPDD and she helps to organize the wonderful Christmas dinner every year which I go to with Dustin. Joanne is an excellent organizer. </span></span></span><span style=""></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /><br />A man rode up in a small car and got out with an a small box in his hands, Dennis's ashes. The man was from the funeral home. They lived together in a nice house near<br />Bank Street. It was a sunny day and the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. Some birds were flying overhead and some birds were chirping in the trees.<br /><br />It was a horrible thing to witness. After the ceremony I went into flashbacks of memories of riutal abuse I had experienced as a child and which I had suppressed for over 30 years. A can of worms had just been opened for me by Dennis's death. I will discuss the ritual abuse later in my book.<br /><br /><br /></span></span></span><span style=""><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><b></b></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"></span></span></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-48633404128578621762007-09-01T00:57:00.001-04:002008-01-18T06:02:30.855-05:00John Larry Clarklllllllllllllllllll<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkunh0io6SBxGVreF6D5Tgc272L_LOrGe7jKiW6uD1G0KT2A27BG4rC9SB4hXtxg0Cnj3HA8dWQ1PkhNiyDQJcg_3wuDc0ie7LvjF03GFoJSNf-GbLZmTWMhmr9g8iQ7HaLGQ2Mb1wc8/s1600-h/2007_08_27_11_11_47.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkunh0io6SBxGVreF6D5Tgc272L_LOrGe7jKiW6uD1G0KT2A27BG4rC9SB4hXtxg0Cnj3HA8dWQ1PkhNiyDQJcg_3wuDc0ie7LvjF03GFoJSNf-GbLZmTWMhmr9g8iQ7HaLGQ2Mb1wc8/s320/2007_08_27_11_11_47.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105099593746992658" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of left to right: Larry Lawson, Chris, my brother and John Clark. John was protesting on Parliament Hill in April 1984 his unfair job dismissal from the Ottawa Civic Hospital<br />on March 30/84.<br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1eStzgwsKkoZVoG5sbwJnJ5nDcQX_4LnRbTHoBTTpHmYH0EBKiJ5ekgol_VrnVa1Cy9LTYYZYKJR50PLogy6ebNR3jgfaFs1ByD7FcGM1a3Lhtk92EG4lrMKzTaqXfg5G7y-iyyYg_dY/s1600-h/2007_08_27_10_47_48.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1eStzgwsKkoZVoG5sbwJnJ5nDcQX_4LnRbTHoBTTpHmYH0EBKiJ5ekgol_VrnVa1Cy9LTYYZYKJR50PLogy6ebNR3jgfaFs1ByD7FcGM1a3Lhtk92EG4lrMKzTaqXfg5G7y-iyyYg_dY/s320/2007_08_27_10_47_48.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105099001041505794" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of left to right: Joan Stinson, one of my friends and John Clark</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj2cV_qDYyvKalwWwEj_o27irGg6MVl7HacGK45YallRSte3Ja1hyphenhyphenwp1xuItlG4wBoqNu4cwH6H3f8-8oPWGIU1bHLeBq6HqQvbhAolm879oeQQXHhyphenhyphen1U7YEMCw47g2ZU6ena9Kz6eRQM/s1600-h/2007_08_27_10_43_48.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj2cV_qDYyvKalwWwEj_o27irGg6MVl7HacGK45YallRSte3Ja1hyphenhyphenwp1xuItlG4wBoqNu4cwH6H3f8-8oPWGIU1bHLeBq6HqQvbhAolm879oeQQXHhyphenhyphen1U7YEMCw47g2ZU6ena9Kz6eRQM/s320/2007_08_27_10_43_48.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105098459875626482" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of John Clark in Verdun, Montreal where he used to live.</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSUSgT4Xy3G5FGILc7joyXKx5EB_K7sGW9FcdzerGqw1Oi5TQEhmGiKZPmj5KRQ4FEXQEN2D3mbATqlrEHgO8co39M3fJTxz7VQgg3KcixwCp8G8CqTC8y77WzZ7hqXglXQm6uUvXXAo/s1600-h/2007_08_27_10_29_41.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSUSgT4Xy3G5FGILc7joyXKx5EB_K7sGW9FcdzerGqw1Oi5TQEhmGiKZPmj5KRQ4FEXQEN2D3mbATqlrEHgO8co39M3fJTxz7VQgg3KcixwCp8G8CqTC8y77WzZ7hqXglXQm6uUvXXAo/s320/2007_08_27_10_29_41.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105098013199027682" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is picture of John sister, Jackie holding her firstborn baby Adrienne at her christening.<br />Her husband Bill Gandhey is standing next to her.<br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSr_C8Jhe1lcxLCfGSEeCcezMO2FwXxXqPEJAtBPriGYRfvwdQ4WEZQpZ2cInTqHiRY0JehMNXk3rcYx5BzpqGO0hvrL0wd8xL6EuDnjjMyB8XxvjuvU31QX25fVN3S2qQSQdabwdBBq8/s1600-h/2007_08_27_10_23_56.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSr_C8Jhe1lcxLCfGSEeCcezMO2FwXxXqPEJAtBPriGYRfvwdQ4WEZQpZ2cInTqHiRY0JehMNXk3rcYx5BzpqGO0hvrL0wd8xL6EuDnjjMyB8XxvjuvU31QX25fVN3S2qQSQdabwdBBq8/s320/2007_08_27_10_23_56.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105097643831840210" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of front to back: John's mother Liz in dressed in white, his father John sitting next to her, Bill sitting next to Jackie. This picture was taken at Christmas 1982.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mPGeOsIsxcQmROFz-jHCPexKZ5vZVT8YUHiBdaEe6UZZeY25yzcm2X621wRIZ4PkgDSUyF-q9UfXpVg2Ww3NvaXVOka8R3aOfztvPTJx6Gm2fOOUtlPyIx7EMwD7-HPgJbQaRu0uQUo/s1600-h/HPIM2936.JPG"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);"></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"></span><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mPGeOsIsxcQmROFz-jHCPexKZ5vZVT8YUHiBdaEe6UZZeY25yzcm2X621wRIZ4PkgDSUyF-q9UfXpVg2Ww3NvaXVOka8R3aOfztvPTJx6Gm2fOOUtlPyIx7EMwD7-HPgJbQaRu0uQUo/s320/HPIM2936.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105096986701843906" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Above is a picture of John Clark as a young boy taken in Wales. John was born in Wales. His mother Liz<br />was Welsh and his father was Polish.<br /></span></span></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-65902548313954920612007-08-28T14:00:00.001-04:002007-10-27T00:42:23.122-04:00Jane Scharf, Activist<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6LJeb8ImEvOcWSDDs-FO1xjEproS7xcI8zmNYS-I4IAmA8ej_Bv-jDcjwvhUNcnWjb02jrKfEtJMFx-ZgcNrfe37sURsqb3HsZ_axl7BOvhqUpjmgSwr5nhP89erqVgHXfDg_LxM6LFA/s1600-h/HPIM3109.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6LJeb8ImEvOcWSDDs-FO1xjEproS7xcI8zmNYS-I4IAmA8ej_Bv-jDcjwvhUNcnWjb02jrKfEtJMFx-ZgcNrfe37sURsqb3HsZ_axl7BOvhqUpjmgSwr5nhP89erqVgHXfDg_LxM6LFA/s320/HPIM3109.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5103813465790205026" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is Jane <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Scharf</span> who is holding a protest outside the Ottawa Mayor Larry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">O'Brien's</span> office this summer 2007 on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Elgin</span> Street, Ottawa Jane is holding her dog Angel. This picture was taken in August 2007. Jane Scharf and I have been friends for almost 20 years.<br /><br />Jane has two daughters, Tracey Schaf and Kayla Welch. Tracey has a girl named Amanda.<br />Kayla is in high school. Kayla is deaf and she has top marks in a regular school. Jane went to jail for over a month in the mid 90s fighting for Kayla's accommodations in school. Jane won everything for Kayla. I helped her too along with many friends of hers. I remember sleeping overnight at a sit-in<br />at the Education Ministry on Merviale Road in Ottawa. I slept in a hallway. I woke up in the morning and staff member almost walked on top of me as I lay sleeping. I recall banging on the front door<br />of the offices with my heavy flashlight. Jane and I and some others sat in an office with some of the<br />education top executives. Someone played a guitar and some of us spoke out to support Jane.<br />The Ministry had a conference call going on. I remember sadly seeing Jane being whisked away<br />into a police cruiser to go to jail. She had handcuffs put on her. I had to look away it was just to<br />painful. Kayla needed the best accommodations as she was deaf. Kayla was a preschooler then.<br />Jane fought to get Kayla the best hearing aid that cost $1,000 dollars each. Jane fought to<br />get Kayla some speech therapy. Jane fought to get her a teaching assistant to help her in school<br />and to get her a carpet for her classroom and tennis balls put on the chairs as the regular chairs<br />made lots of noise for Kayla when pushed on a regular floor. Kayla has an 82% average in school.<br />Very impressive I say. I am very proud of Kayla.<br /><br />When Kayla was born in January of 1991, I was anxious to see her. Jane and her boyfriend Tom<br />Welch brought Kayla to my Caldwell Ave apartment in Ottawa. She was only a few weeks old.<br />She had on a white bunting coat. She had a kiss curl in the middle of her forehead and straight<br />hair standing up. She had these big eye and looked up at me. I held her and said to her "Welcome to the world, Kayla, your aunt Sue just thinks you are perfect, the best and I gave Kayla a big kiss.<br />Kayla is a wonderful young woman who is vibrant, vivacious, kind, caring, smart, and nice and beautiful. Kayla has it all in one package. Watch out world, Kayla is here. After Jane and Tom left I cried out with job. I was so happy that I saw Kayla. She was a beautiful baby. Jane and Tom<br />looked so happy and they were proud parents for sure.<br />Tracey is Jane's oldest daughter. She is nice and intelligent. Her daughter Amanda was born at the old Grace Hospital in Ottawa. I saw Amanda when she was a day old in the hospital. Amanda<br />has this peachy fuss of hair and had long fingers. I took into my arms and tears started to flow down my face. I said to Amanda. "Welcome to the world, you beautiful baby. You have long fingers,<br />you should play the piano when you are older".<br /><br />Tracey has a good head on her shoulders. She is smart, calm, and reliable. The type of person<br />any mother would be proud of. She is a good mother. Jane did a good job with Tracey and Kayla.<br />Amanda is a wonderful girl. She is animated and a happy child and likes to go to protests. Tracey is more reserved and doesn't like protests. She stays in the background. Kayla likes to go to protests<br />and she has done some speeches before City of Ottawa committees and some Ontario Legislative Committees. What comes out of the words of babes is amazing and truthful. Kids say it the way it is.<br />I like Jane's dog Angel which a Russell Terrier. She is so calm and cute and playful.<br /><br />Jane is a human rights activist. She will support any cause she feels there is injustice whether it be welfare rights, disabled, poverty, homelessness. She puts all her heart and soul into what she does.<br />She is a kick ass, no nonsene type of person. She has won all of her cases. She had an advocacy firm and fought for her clients tooth and nail. She looks you straight in the eye and you better not give her any bull, she can see right through you. Jane is intelligent, tenacious, ethical and has a heart of gold.<br />I consider her a "sister"<br /><br />When Jane and I got together to fight our causes, Jane said that the strategy between us for fighting our causes was similar to John Lennon and Paul McCartney uniting to create music, it was magical.<br />Jane knows how to read legislation and policy and legal papers which I do not comprehend and have no interest in. Jane was the agitator and I was one yelling out the slogans and watching everything going on. I came up with protest strategies and help make up the press releases and do research on the subject. When we went to a meeting Jane would be on one side of the room and I would be on the other side of the room, it was like a boxing match but I would call it a verbal boxing match. We knew<br />how to knock out opponents with our words. Jane had the info and the facts at hand, and Jane and I would get into the room and our verbal karate knocked them out. We knew our facts and people knew that. We had integrity and we had a reputation of saying it the way it is. We kicked ass really good at meetings. People saw us coming a mile away and they knew our style and knew what they<br />were up against. It was something to see for sure. I love protests so much, it gives me a natural<br />high for weeks.<br /><br />I went to hundreds of meetings with Jane in Ottawa over a course of about 15 years. We got to know<br />all service providers, all the antipoverty groups, the political parties and what they were made of,<br />and who was honest and who was not, who played the game fairly and who did not, and who our<br />allies were. We had some and they are still tight with us. <br /><br />We found out people want their funding and they can't speak out or they will lose their funding,<br />but I think they choose not to shake the tree and cause trouble because of their funding.<br />Some groups had instigators that closed them down.<br /><br />Jane and I never had an office. I don't have a good computer, no fax machine and no printer.<br />I managed to do lots of work without any pay, hardly any equipment and no office. For almost<br />20 years I have worked with Jane. We worked our asses off to expose people and groups<br />that were full of shit, either misuing the money or exploiting people, or doing nothing at all, or pretending to help people when they weren't. We know all the groups in Ottawa re poverty.<br />Some were good, some were not. We publicly exposed them and that felt good. There is so<br />much corruption out there. A shovel won't do it to clean all of the crap that there is out there.<br />Some groups just cared about their funding and nothing else. Some groups worked hard and<br />fought hard and had integrity. One of those groups was OCLISS run by Maxine Stata. It closed<br />down after several years and was disbanded after people got onto the board and ruined the group<br />for no good reason. OCLISS did lots of good things in Ottawa for poor people. OCLISS was<br />becoming well known and strong in the community and some people feared their success and that<br />is what happened. When you get too powerful, people want to knock you down and get rid of you.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I met Jane <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Scharf</span> 1988 at a protest at the Welfare office on Richmond Road on April 1988. Lynn Horne came with me to the protest. Lynn Horne was my room mate. It was pouring rain and I told Lynn I didn't want to go to the protest. She told me, "get out of bed lazy bones, you aren't gonna<br />melt, you aren't made of sugar". I took a shower and got dressed and we headed over to the<br />big Welfare office near Byron Ave.<br /><br />It was raining for sure. We both had our umbrellas. A lady named Maxine <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Stata</span> wore a black cape with a hat like the pope's and with a sign that dead 'Poop on the Pope". There were 15 protesters there and we circled this statue made out of iron. Arthur Pope was the Welfare Commissioner at the time. So the sign was a pun about Mr. Pope.<br /><br />The protest was organized by Jane <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Scharf</span>. The protest was about the new welfare policies.<br /><br />There was an article in the Ottawa Citizen on April 28<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">th</span> which read:<br /><br />By David <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Scanian</span>, Citizen Staff Writer<br /><br />About 15 people marched in the teeming rain outside regional government's social regional government's social services building Thursday to protest new welfare policies they call coercive<br />and unnecessary.<br /><br />Jane <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Scharf</span>, organizer of the protest and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">coordinator</span> of the food bank at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">the McLeod</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Stewarton</span> United Church on Bank St in Ottawa (<-----<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">correction was made)</span> fears many people will be cut off welfare, forcing them to rely on food banks.<br /><br />"We have reports of people whose benefits have been discontinued and they have no means<br />of support.<br /><br />The <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">protesters</span> carrying placards and shouting "not well, not fair" circled for two hours outside the<br />social services office at 495 Richmond Rd, east of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Woodroffe</span> Avenue.<br /><br />The new policy introduced in January, allows welfare workers to cut off recipients who refuse or leave<br />a job. To get back on welfare, these recipients have to make seven telephone or two personal<br />contacts with potential employers each day for five days. Even then, a recipient loses five days<br />of eligibility which for a single male means about $80.<br /><br />Workers can also place recipients on supervised job searches allowing the worker to verify job<br />applications with employers. In extreme cases, a worker can cut off a welfare recipient not carrying<br />out a "reasonable" job search.<br /><br />Art Pope, the region's social services commissioner, said this week that "no more than a few<br />dozen" recipients have been cut off since the new policies were introduced. But he said the department has not compiled precise figures.<br /><br />Pope has said the job search requirements are aimed at young single males who often need a push<br />to look for work.<br /><br />But Joan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Gullen</span> of the Citizens Advisory Committee, a social policy watchdog that has sharply<br />criticized the changes, said these people represent a tiny proportion of all welfare recipients.<br /><br />"They didn't need to initiate these kinds of policies for a very small problem" said <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Gullen</span> who<br />joined the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">protesters</span> Thursday.<br /><br />Nancy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Beauchamp</span> of the Ottawa Council for Low Income Support Services said the rigid scrutiny<br />of welfare recipients is based on the assumption there are lots of jobs open for them. This isn't the<br />case for many unskilled welfare recipients, she said.<br /><br />Pope said in the past when the economy was weak, welfare workers were more lenient. But with an<br />unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent in Ottawa-Carleton, he said the number of employable people on<br />welfare should be lower. Employable recipients currently make up 68 per cent of the nearly<br />13,000 general welfare recipients.<br /><br />Tuesday, welfare rights groups in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Outaouais</span> said the Quebec government is proposing inhuman<br />changes to the welfare system. A document leaked to a Montreal welfare rights group shows the<br />province intends to slash welfare spending by $140 million over the next three years.<br /><br />If the government goes ahead with the proposal, payments would be reduced to all of Quebec's<br />649,000 welfare recipients unless they're willing to take part in job training or other educational<br />program<br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></span></span></span></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2490231924761330048.post-68254551853240523052007-08-26T11:12:00.001-04:002008-01-18T05:20:19.782-05:00Marian Crow introduces Sue - revised okllllllllll<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2ULEu15hYlU2kkXc2XQnN7aI2QsP4BG6ikWyExKRapjl1jUPgND1G7FkAK1-UUezmjYLIfzHlf2lBU51mzGlx2y0QUvsww9svdZAiYrCyGebukw8ryvD_SMF_q-M-QPGLkzsAurmo08/s1600-h/2007_08_27_11_44_09.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2ULEu15hYlU2kkXc2XQnN7aI2QsP4BG6ikWyExKRapjl1jUPgND1G7FkAK1-UUezmjYLIfzHlf2lBU51mzGlx2y0QUvsww9svdZAiYrCyGebukw8ryvD_SMF_q-M-QPGLkzsAurmo08/s320/2007_08_27_11_44_09.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107018151343148610" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A picture of Marian and her husband John Crow (now deceased) This picture was taken at their apartment in Ottawa on Somerset Street in the early 1990s. Marian and John gave Sue one of the kittens.</span></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm4-d9GrB4V6VaczWpNlCNmlj447ospLcl_Ob3JbmokJ1DiTHCy2Bt7Xb05Z7tBbE1RU8gtW8laakwEWBgoIKAsLS8Cyw19hsZNQbe-fI0nzrTJbrQYiUodOKtwu7dLgEYV8eFVHAPJdc/s1600-h/HPIM3746.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm4-d9GrB4V6VaczWpNlCNmlj447ospLcl_Ob3JbmokJ1DiTHCy2Bt7Xb05Z7tBbE1RU8gtW8laakwEWBgoIKAsLS8Cyw19hsZNQbe-fI0nzrTJbrQYiUodOKtwu7dLgEYV8eFVHAPJdc/s320/HPIM3746.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5103811537349889090" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Above is a picture of Marian Crow's family: Left to Right: Clowie (Marian's grand daughter), Marian, April and Reme, Marion's son (April is Remee's girlfriend) Clowie is one of their children. They also have a son. This picture was taken in August at the Ottawa International Airport.<br /><br /></span></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBCl4DWspbVbkjngrF5P8Wb8Ifk5RABL-4fNocdNAoCmAC_RVIBJ5AXcI2nLpB5aro6eDPlxih_HmbP7YbH_EDzHaJLN5HO7-iJBj_yVfTff3xnajL9yD-QzTuCp-0WZf0ezgIdlp0uI/s1600-h/SueWedding1+072.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBCl4DWspbVbkjngrF5P8Wb8Ifk5RABL-4fNocdNAoCmAC_RVIBJ5AXcI2nLpB5aro6eDPlxih_HmbP7YbH_EDzHaJLN5HO7-iJBj_yVfTff3xnajL9yD-QzTuCp-0WZf0ezgIdlp0uI/s320/SueWedding1+072.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5103027662868696114" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Above is a picture of Marian Crow taken in 2005 near Sue's house in Ottawa West near Deschenes Rapids Lookout.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Marian is a good friend of mine. I can always count on her to listen to me when I call her. She has a heart of gold. Marian is a very intelligent woman. She went to school and got her M.A.<br /><br />Marian will tell it to me straight. She is honet, forthright and says what is on her mind. She one of my mentors.<br /><br />I met Marian when she applied for a job at the Psychiatric Survivors of Ottawa (PSO) I am the founder of the group which now employs 3 staff members full time and it has been going since 1991.<br />It is run by psychiatric survivors. Marian got a job at Psychiatric Survivors of Ottawa. We became friends and have remained so over many years.<br /><br />I count Marian as one of my friends and I am glad she is. I have learned alot about life from Marian.<br />Marian is a kind and caring person. This world needs more Marians.<br /><br />Sue Clark-Wittenberg<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">MARIAN CROW INTRODUCES SUE:<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="q" id="q_1147b11bf1211618_1"> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Sue has asked me to write a letter to her site to talk about how I know her. First of all, I am a mental health counsellor working at an agency in Northern Ontario.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />I met Sue when I was a student at the University of Ottawa, on a student placement as outreach coordinator for the Ontario Psychiatric Survivor Alliance. Sue was a frequent visitor at the office, and we often spoke about her work in advocacy and peer support.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />From 1992 until 2002, I coordinated the "customer-as-expert" program in Education Services at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. Sue became one of my frequent, and most valued, speakers.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />In this program, current and former psychiatric patients were provided the opportunity to learn presentation skills, help to build presentations, and support to make presentations to Royal Ottawa staff and student groups. There is a video of one of these presentations in which Sue appears at the hospital's library.<script><!-- D(["mb","\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>\u003c/font\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>Sue is a powerful speaker. Her sincerity \nand honesty shine through, as well as her anger at how both she and her peers \nhad been treated by psychiatric service providers. Her experience is a \ncommon one, but her ability to articulate and communicate her experience is \nunique.\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>\u003c/font\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>I have continued to be friends with Sue over the \nyears. Without exception, I have found her to be a tireless advocate for \nall and any persons who come to her for help. At this time, she has \nfocused most of her energy toward the abolition of electroconvulsive therapy, \nand her website is built around this purpose. She continues in her own \nway, however, to help others by providing information, support, and help with \nnavigating the systems on which persons with psychiatric problems become \ndependent.\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>\u003c/font\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>I have grown to love, respect and admire Sue. \nI wish her all the best with her website and book.\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>\u003c/font\> \u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>Marian Crow, M.A.\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>Mental health counsellor\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>Minto counselling centre\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cdiv\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"2\"\>Cochrane, Ontario\u003c/font\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cblockquote style\u003d\"border-left:2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);padding-right:0px;padding-left:5px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px\"\>\n \u003cdiv style\u003d\"font-family:arial;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:10pt;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal\"\>----- Original Message ----- \u003c/div\>\n \u003cdiv style\u003d\"background:rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 50%;font-family:arial;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:10pt;line-height:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal\"\>",1] ); //--></script></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />Sue is a powerful speaker. Her sincerity and honesty shine through, as well as her anger at how both she and her peers had been treated by psychiatric service providers. Her experience is a common one, but her ability to articulate and communicate her experience is unique.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />I have continued to be friends with Sue over the years. Without exception, I have found her to be a tireless advocate for all and any persons who come to her for help. At this time, she has focused most of her energy toward the abolition of electroconvulsive therapy, and her website is built around this purpose. She continues in her own way, however, to help others by providing information, support, and help with navigating the systems on which persons with psychiatric problems become dependent.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />I have grown to love, respect and admire Sue. I wish her all the best with her website and book.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />Marian Crow, M.A.</span></div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Mental health counsellor</span></div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Minto counselling centre</span></div> <div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Cochrane, Ontario<br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /></span></div></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br /></span>Sue Clark-Wittenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18311901514222332960noreply@blogger.com