SlapsCan
There appears to be a real and present danger to Canadians’ OAS, CPP, GIS, or private pensions despite recent speculation then governmental reassurances.
Up to 3 million seniors are at risk of having 50% of their Elderly Benefits cut at source. That is the number of boomer men who divorced between 1960 and 2012. They are at risk of 50% cuts to all forms of retirement benefits by often ignored diversion orders.
Those seniors are expected to seek social assistance at provincial and municipal levels to make up the 50% Gap to pay for food, rent and medical costs or be forced to make hard choices amongst these.
The same laws further cut by half those seniors’ assistance from provinces, cutting that make up half in half again. Then again, those laws cut by half any municipal assistance.
One family lawyer in London, Ontario, said he has clients living in single rooms subsisting on cat food. Others in Canada are not so lucky, some succumbing prematurely to disease, others to suicide (Cdn. Sen. Ann Cools, speech, Wash. D.C., May 27-2002).
Estimates of “Elderly Benefits” in Federal budgets between now and 2025 make the amount of this 50% Gap a $100 billion federal download onto provinces. Moreover, poorer seniors may suffer health problems prematurely, accelerating projected demands on healthcare facilities across Canada.
Recipients of diverted halves need not apply for or swear in person to claim this financial need. Diverting half of $100 billion in provincial or municipal assistance payments to non-authenticated claimants could rile taxpayers suffering program cuts and looking for transparency from governments (something politicians may comprehend in elections).
New immigrants sought by the Immigration Minister are more intelligent but are also more astute. Seeing Canadians slapped down after paying premiums for full pensions and promised retirement with dignity, these potential immigrants may deem this as unfair and may choose nations other than Canada to start futures and families. As a result, tax bases Canada-wide may suffer for generations, which is something the Feds say they are trying to mitigate, as they put it in their 2006 report, “The Demographic Time Bomb.”
How do divorced seniors become at risk? The devil is in the often over-looked details. Until tested veraciously a number of Federal diversion orders may remain false under family court biases as indicated by a Joint Senate and Parliamentary Committee (1998). Plus, an Ontario Court of Appeal decision sets up arbitrary support amounts or instant arrears ("facts not required by judges”). Combining these two in re-opening settled cases at any time may force up to 3 million divorced boomers into arrears, have their benefits diverted, and be legislated into poverty.
Martin Wong and Vance Ashby, co-founders of SLAPSCAN, say experts in family law, family sociologists and child development, have offered recommendations to the Harper and Ontario governments on how to make practical reforms with better outcomes for all, but so far none have been acted upon. The former Liberal majority government also ignored experts and witnesses in its 1998 Joint Committee Report. Experts said parents and tens of thousands of children have otherwise suffered needlessly. To that, we now add pensioners and seniors.
To help combat that ignorance, this February, Wong and Ashby co-founded a new non-profit online community designed to inform and encourage seniors to proactively participate in Canada’s democratic process to help legislators stop the unfairness and mistreatment: Stop Legislated Attacks on Pensioners & Seniors in Canada (SlapsCan). For more information, go to SLAPSCAN.org.
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CONTACT INFORMATION:
SLAPSCAN - Stop Legislated Attacks on Pensioners & Seniors in Canada
Website: http://SLAPSCAN.org
General Email: info(at)slapscan.org
BACKGROUNDER - Laws Hastily Enacted By Those Desperate For Re-election With A Majority
In 1997, Liberals sought a majority and made promises to female voters in May to end women’s poverty with increased support awards and enforcements. Voters returned Liberals with a majority government in June.
Despite those election promises, Statistics Canada plus reports from Campaign-2000 Child and Family Poverty show no change to women’s and children’s poverty since 1997.
Moreover, provincial audits of support enforcement agencies, such as Ontario’s FRO, put them behind in support allocated-but-not-paid to women totaling $1.6 billion as of a 2010 Audit.
Federal legislation has set up Canadians for increases in divorce. This is due to incentives introduced that increase odds of filing for divorce by women increased to 80% while the absence of the same incentives reduce those odds of filing to nearly 30%, according to a report co-authored by Simon Fraser University and published in the American Law & Economics Association Review (2000).
Additional Resource 1. - $100 Billion Download Onto Provinces
SLAPSCAN Co-founder, Martin Wong, has set out details of how 1997 Liberal legislation becomes a boomerang, hitting them with a $100 billion download.
Additional Resource 2. – Netting New Immigrants?
Using longitudinal studies at StatsCan (before they were cut off) SLAPSCAN Co-founder, M. Wong, illustrates how 1997 Liberal legislation may tend to scare away the more intelligent and more astute Immigrants now sought by Immigration Minister J. Kenney, here: Emigrating To Canada Risks
Additional Resource 3. – Poverty Unchanged, Women Voters Betrayed
References and proof sources of the same levels of poverty, here:
• Government audits show payment backlogs for Enforcement Agencies: 1999. Within the first 2 years after Liberal's 1997 Divorce Act, the Ontario FRO was 1.2 billion dollars behind in child support for women. As of March 2003, the FRO was 1.3 billion dollars behind in child support.
• Subsequent audits indicate continued failure. The Auditor General of Ontario Report of 2010 on Ontario's FRO put one backlog at $1.6 billion allocated to women but not paid (open report, scroll to Page 12, see right column, read Support Payments in Arrears).
• Non-governmental Independent Reports from a women’s national child-family poverty organization show no change in poverty in during the 10 years after Bill C-41 was enacted in May 1997: 2008 Report and in 2009 Report.
• Statistics Canada 2008 report shows little or no change for women in poverty in 10 years since 1997 enactment.
Additional Resource 4. – Seniors Politicized for Power
SLAPSCAN Co-founder, M. Wong, offers background on how those who brought Canada the “Ad Scam” Scandal
have exhibited another example of raw political ambition, here: The Hidden Genesis Of Family Laws
Additional Resource 5. – Papers Published, Sen. Cools Speech, Fed. Pension Diversion Act, Bias in Courts report, Arbitrary Arrears -
University reports:
http://bit.ly/WhatWereTheyThinking, Univesity of Calgary, 2000.
http://bit.ly/WhyMostDivorceFilersAreWomen, co-authored Simon Fraser U., published in Amer. Law & Econ. Assn. Review, 2000.
Suicides: Sen. A. Cools, Int’l Fatherhood Conf., Wash. D.C., May 27/02
New Immigrants Needed: “Demographic Time Bomb,” Fed. Gov. of Canada
Federal Diversion of Pension, Amount of Diversion, Sec. 36 ( 50% ).
1998 Joint Senate and Parliamentary Report, http://j.mp/Parliamentary_Senate_Joint_Committee
Ontario Court of Appeal decision, Drygala v Pauli, "…[T]here is no need to find a specific intent to evade child support obligations before income can be imputed."
http://www.duhaime.org/LegalResources/FamilyLaw/LawArticle-283/Child-Support-And-Employment-Change.aspx
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Up to 3 million seniors are at risk of having 50% of their Elderly Benefits cut at source. That is the number of boomer men who divorced between 1960 and 2012. They are at risk of 50% cuts to all forms of retirement benefits by often ignored diversion orders.
Those seniors are expected to seek social assistance at provincial and municipal levels to make up the 50% Gap to pay for food, rent and medical costs or be forced to make hard choices amongst these.
The same laws further cut by half those seniors’ assistance from provinces, cutting that make up half in half again. Then again, those laws cut by half any municipal assistance.
One family lawyer in London, Ontario, said he has clients living in single rooms subsisting on cat food. Others in Canada are not so lucky, some succumbing prematurely to disease, others to suicide (Cdn. Sen. Ann Cools, speech, Wash. D.C., May 27-2002).
Estimates of “Elderly Benefits” in Federal budgets between now and 2025 make the amount of this 50% Gap a $100 billion federal download onto provinces. Moreover, poorer seniors may suffer health problems prematurely, accelerating projected demands on healthcare facilities across Canada.
Recipients of diverted halves need not apply for or swear in person to claim this financial need. Diverting half of $100 billion in provincial or municipal assistance payments to non-authenticated claimants could rile taxpayers suffering program cuts and looking for transparency from governments (something politicians may comprehend in elections).
New immigrants sought by the Immigration Minister are more intelligent but are also more astute. Seeing Canadians slapped down after paying premiums for full pensions and promised retirement with dignity, these potential immigrants may deem this as unfair and may choose nations other than Canada to start futures and families. As a result, tax bases Canada-wide may suffer for generations, which is something the Feds say they are trying to mitigate, as they put it in their 2006 report, “The Demographic Time Bomb.”
How do divorced seniors become at risk? The devil is in the often over-looked details. Until tested veraciously a number of Federal diversion orders may remain false under family court biases as indicated by a Joint Senate and Parliamentary Committee (1998). Plus, an Ontario Court of Appeal decision sets up arbitrary support amounts or instant arrears ("facts not required by judges”). Combining these two in re-opening settled cases at any time may force up to 3 million divorced boomers into arrears, have their benefits diverted, and be legislated into poverty.
Martin Wong and Vance Ashby, co-founders of SLAPSCAN, say experts in family law, family sociologists and child development, have offered recommendations to the Harper and Ontario governments on how to make practical reforms with better outcomes for all, but so far none have been acted upon. The former Liberal majority government also ignored experts and witnesses in its 1998 Joint Committee Report. Experts said parents and tens of thousands of children have otherwise suffered needlessly. To that, we now add pensioners and seniors.
To help combat that ignorance, this February, Wong and Ashby co-founded a new non-profit online community designed to inform and encourage seniors to proactively participate in Canada’s democratic process to help legislators stop the unfairness and mistreatment: Stop Legislated Attacks on Pensioners & Seniors in Canada (SlapsCan). For more information, go to SLAPSCAN.org.
###
CONTACT INFORMATION:
SLAPSCAN - Stop Legislated Attacks on Pensioners & Seniors in Canada
Website: http://SLAPSCAN.org
General Email: info(at)slapscan.org
BACKGROUNDER - Laws Hastily Enacted By Those Desperate For Re-election With A Majority
In 1997, Liberals sought a majority and made promises to female voters in May to end women’s poverty with increased support awards and enforcements. Voters returned Liberals with a majority government in June.
Despite those election promises, Statistics Canada plus reports from Campaign-2000 Child and Family Poverty show no change to women’s and children’s poverty since 1997.
Moreover, provincial audits of support enforcement agencies, such as Ontario’s FRO, put them behind in support allocated-but-not-paid to women totaling $1.6 billion as of a 2010 Audit.
Federal legislation has set up Canadians for increases in divorce. This is due to incentives introduced that increase odds of filing for divorce by women increased to 80% while the absence of the same incentives reduce those odds of filing to nearly 30%, according to a report co-authored by Simon Fraser University and published in the American Law & Economics Association Review (2000).
Additional Resource 1. - $100 Billion Download Onto Provinces
SLAPSCAN Co-founder, Martin Wong, has set out details of how 1997 Liberal legislation becomes a boomerang, hitting them with a $100 billion download.
Additional Resource 2. – Netting New Immigrants?
Using longitudinal studies at StatsCan (before they were cut off) SLAPSCAN Co-founder, M. Wong, illustrates how 1997 Liberal legislation may tend to scare away the more intelligent and more astute Immigrants now sought by Immigration Minister J. Kenney, here: Emigrating To Canada Risks
Additional Resource 3. – Poverty Unchanged, Women Voters Betrayed
References and proof sources of the same levels of poverty, here:
• Government audits show payment backlogs for Enforcement Agencies: 1999. Within the first 2 years after Liberal's 1997 Divorce Act, the Ontario FRO was 1.2 billion dollars behind in child support for women. As of March 2003, the FRO was 1.3 billion dollars behind in child support.
• Subsequent audits indicate continued failure. The Auditor General of Ontario Report of 2010 on Ontario's FRO put one backlog at $1.6 billion allocated to women but not paid (open report, scroll to Page 12, see right column, read Support Payments in Arrears).
• Non-governmental Independent Reports from a women’s national child-family poverty organization show no change in poverty in during the 10 years after Bill C-41 was enacted in May 1997: 2008 Report and in 2009 Report.
• Statistics Canada 2008 report shows little or no change for women in poverty in 10 years since 1997 enactment.
Additional Resource 4. – Seniors Politicized for Power
SLAPSCAN Co-founder, M. Wong, offers background on how those who brought Canada the “Ad Scam” Scandal
have exhibited another example of raw political ambition, here: The Hidden Genesis Of Family Laws
Additional Resource 5. – Papers Published, Sen. Cools Speech, Fed. Pension Diversion Act, Bias in Courts report, Arbitrary Arrears -
University reports:
http://bit.ly/WhatWereTheyThinking, Univesity of Calgary, 2000.
http://bit.ly/WhyMostDivorceFilersAreWomen, co-authored Simon Fraser U., published in Amer. Law & Econ. Assn. Review, 2000.
Suicides: Sen. A. Cools, Int’l Fatherhood Conf., Wash. D.C., May 27/02
New Immigrants Needed: “Demographic Time Bomb,” Fed. Gov. of Canada
Federal Diversion of Pension, Amount of Diversion, Sec. 36 ( 50% ).
1998 Joint Senate and Parliamentary Report, http://j.mp/Parliamentary_Senate_Joint_Committee
Ontario Court of Appeal decision, Drygala v Pauli, "…[T]here is no need to find a specific intent to evade child support obligations before income can be imputed."
http://www.duhaime.org/LegalResources/FamilyLaw/LawArticle-283/Child-Support-And-Employment-Change.aspx
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