Member Stories

On September 17, 2010, I was struck by another driver making a left turn on Highway 17 just past Arnprior. I was driving 100 km/h when she turned directly into me, resulting a traumatic brain injury and a calcaneus fracture. Both injuries have not fully recovered. During my initial year of rehabilitation, my insurance company was very effective and I had a great report with my adjuster. After the one-year mark, my insurance company decided I was unable to return to my occupation as a press operator due to my inability to stand for long periods of time and started the process of retraining/re-education. That’s when things fell apart. I was set up with a vocational counsellor and two plans were submitted, one set at $10,500 and another at roughly $6,000. This took nine months to produce these plans and my insurance company suddenly decided they wanted to send me for my 104-week (2 year) review. In the process of debunking the retraining plan they required, over $17,000 was spent to avoid paying $6,000. The result of the review was that I was capable of returning to my previous occupation as a retail manager (regardless of the fact that I cannot stand for long periods of time). They also cancelled my income replacement payments with three weeks notice. As I write this, my family and I are destitute with no means to support ourselves. My fiancee suffers from a severe form of epilepsy and I have been unable to secure employment in the small town we call home or secure EI payments because I didn’t not receive any taxable income for the two years prior. Looking at this site and others like it, there is no doubt how broken the system is. If they state the reason for their actions is to counter fraud, why are they spending more money to avoid making payments than would take to simply make the payments as originally promised?