Disabled bill may fail due to rejection by Conservative Canadian senators

The Canadian PM Harper has stacked the Senate with conservatives who seem only interested in protecting their well heeled cronies. How can they turn down helping 400 disabled people who will lose their benefits next month due to the negligence of Nortel and the indifference of the Canadian government to those who need the most support? Canada is retrogressing into the dark ages under this leadership.

The following story was published yesterday.

Tory senators poised to kill bill for disabled Nortel pensioners
Published On Thu Nov 25 2010
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—The Conservative-controlled Senate is poised to kill a bill that would have protected former Nortel employees from losing their long-term disability benefits.

Conservative senators have used their majority on the Senate’s banking, trade and commerce committee to recommend that the upper house not proceed with the bill.

The chamber, dominated by Tories thanks to a raft of recent appointments by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is likely to accept the committee’s report.

The bill, proposed by Liberal Senator Art Eggleton, sought to ensure that 400 disabled Nortel employees would be given preferred status among creditors when the once-mighty telecommunications technology giant is finally dissolved.

Most of the company has been sold off since Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009.

Without Eggleton’s bill, long-term disability benefits will cease at the end of this year.