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My head has been spinning for a long time, and I keep shaking it as I pay attention to the ongoing crap coming out of our leaders' mouths. The latest craps belong to Sinclair Harrison, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), and to professor Ken Cooper-Stephenson, new chair of the governmental review panel on no-fault. Sinclair Harrison has said that the no-fault system has done an effective job of controlling insurance costs for municipalities(1), while Ken Cooper-Stephenson, the author of a textbook supporting no-fault, has deflected his rooted bias on behalf of no-fault by criticizing the way no-fault is run(2). I invite Sinclair Harrison and Ken Cooper-Stephenson to read the transcripts of the no-fault's coalition meetings held this Spring in Regina and Saskatoon(3), so that they can find out by themselves that no-fault not only is not saving money, but it is brutalizing the no-fault injured victims. I read these transcripts yesterday evening. I was moved by the many people who attended these meetings and who spoke out with their hearts and told their tragic stories in dealing with SGI's no-fault insurance. One injured speaker, Jack, said "I've dealt with 40 different people since January the 17th in SGI and No-Fault Insurance, and there are only three of them that I have some respect for that tried to help me and go along with me and they were fair and they were decent... By the way, one of the 40 people, but I'm going to take the three good ones out, 37 people said to me, he said, 'You know we've got to balance the budget'... The truth of the fact is that there is not one department under this present administration in Saskatchewan that you can't refer to as being nothing but a bunch of blood suckers and chiselers" Another victim, Carol Markwart, recounted about her family's terrible automobile accident where she lost her beautiful daughter Alana and she told of the abuses she, her husband and her family had to endure from SGI and then being "told by SGI that if we do not like what they have done to us to sue them. Where in the world does this make any sense? We cannot sue the ambulance driver for his irresponsible driving that caused this, but now [we can] sue the insurance company that is supposed to look after us."

The stories of the people victimized by no-fault insurance don't count for our Tin Pot dictators, what these Tin Pot dictators are looking for is just the manipulation of numbers under the banner of saving money. One million dollars of taxpayers' savings were given to Dr. David Cassidy for a research on no-fault insurance, and what did he do? Dr. Cassidy came up with a botched research, took a three year expense paid trip to Sweden, ran away from this province for the fear of being apprehended by no-fault victims, and now SGI is using Dr. Cassidy's research to support no-fault insurance in this province(4). This research is not going to help Crown Investments Corp. Minister John Nilson, rather the spin off of this research could very well topple down this corrupted government. In fact, Dr. Emma Bartfay has sued Dr. Cassidy and the University of Saskatchewan stating that she was told to falsify her data to favor SGI(5). The suit claims that "in or about September 1998.... Cassidy instructed her to produce results and graphs that would support the conclusion that an injured person's time (date) of settlement is a good proxy for that person's time (date) of recovery(6)."

In this province, very few litigations against governmental agencies or corporations end up in court, be for their political significance, be for their stretching for years and years until the individual plaintiff gives up, be for the fear of not being able to get a job for ever in the future. But Dr. Emma Bartfay's litigation is different, it affects the unethical behaviour of Dr. Cassidy's and of the University of Saskatchewan's, this litigation is not a personal litigation, this litigation is a political litigation because it affects all of us, it affects the principles of trust and truth which are the foundation of our universities. No, this litigation must not be negotiated, money can be negotiated, principles must not ever be negotiated. If we negotiate principles, you must think of what would happen to us next, to our children, to our society; where could we find the hope for a better future. If we negotiate principles we sell our souls, our future, our children. I encourage Dr. Emma Bartfay to hang on her fight against Dr. Cassidy and the University of Saskatchewan and hope that the same people who have rallied against no-fault insurance will rally around her, and support her till as Lorie Terry, Patricia Schryver, Brenda Kienas, Trudy langenhoff, and their coalition friends have been saying all along their fight against no-fault "the truth will set us free."

References & Endnotes

Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/default.htm

General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by Ensign

1. Nilson stands by no-fault review chair, by James Parker, The StarPhoenix, June 8, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2. Head of no-fault review praises system in book , CBC Saskatchewan, http://www.sask.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/06/09/weidlich000609 Web Posted | Jun 9 2000 10:18 AM EDT

3. Transcipts Of Our First Meeting In Regina! And Transcipts Of Our Second Meeting In Saskatoon! COALITION AGAINST NO FAULT IN SASKATCHEWAN http://www.angelfire.com/nf/coalitionagainstnf/

4. The incredible abuse of Saskatchewan No-Fault insurance By Mario deSantis, May 28, 2000 and reviewed by James deSantis http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000/desantis173/nofaultPt1.html

5. Presentation of Dr. Michael Freeman at first Coalition Meeting in Regina, Spring 2000 Transcipts Of Our First Meeting In Regina!, http://www.angelfire.com/nf/coalitionagainstnf/

6. No Gain, No Pain? Study Is Hot Topic:Research favoring auto no-fault collides with trial lawyers, Bob Van Voris, The National Law Journal, May 22, 2000, ©2000 Law.com Page printed from: http://www.law.com Refer to Check Out What New York Has To Say About The SGI/UofS Whiplash Study, http://www.angelfire.com/nf/coalitionagainstnf/page5.html