An interesting story in the Toronto Star:
After 40 years as a registered nurse, Yvonne Gardner never thought she’d have to beg to get her federal pension benefits.
For 14 months, the Toronto retiree has been struggling to prove to Service Canada that she’s eligible for the $500 monthly Old Age Security (OAS) pension.
In the latest twist, she was asked for copies of plane tickets for all of her travels in and out of Canada since moving here from England in 1975 — a mission impossible — as proof she has lived here the minimum 10 years required to qualify.
Deprived of the pension she was counting on, Gardner, a native of Suffolk, England, is 10 months behind in rent on her one-bedroom downtown apartment and faces eviction.
If this woman’s issue is typical, then I will probably also have problems claiming OAS, as my family came to Canada in 1967 and I know for certain that we did not retain any of our travel documents from that far distant time.
However, the story is in the Toronto Star, which certainly has been willing to creatively tell stories that make the government look bad in the past. Here’s a comment on the story that has to be a joke:
I have no idea why this person thinks the story has anything to do with Capitalism, but he or she is certain that the answer is Socialism. Doesn’t much matter what the question is, I guess.
Even the most rabid Vikings fan isn’t really expecting a SuperBowl run this year: climbing from a 3-13 season to 8-8 would be a very significant improvement, and an honest fan would say that would be acceptable. Squeaking into the playoffs might be possible, except that the Vikings play in one of the toughest divisions in the NFL, so you’d need to be dangerously optimistic to expect that outcome.
