Past Legal Challenges

The Inquest into the Death of Kimberly Rogers

On August 9, 2001, Kimberly Rogers was found dead in her Sudbury apartment. She had been under house arrest after being convicted of welfare fraud for collecting OSAP loans while on social assistance. She was eight months pregnant.

When Kimberly Rogers pleaded guilty to welfare fraud in April 2001, she was sentenced to six months house arrest, 18 months probation and was ordered to pay back over $13,000 to Ontario Works. Her social assistance benefits were automatically suspended for a period of three months. She was left with no financial support even though, while under house arrest, she would have no means of earning an income.

Kimberly succeeded in getting her benefits temporarily re-instated as a result of a court order, but they were far from adequate, amounting to only $468 per month. After paying her rent, she had only $18 left over for food and other necessities. Community organizations, already over-extended, could provide only limited support.

Then, on a hot day last August, Kimberly Rogers died.

On September 24, 2001, partly as a result of public pressure, the provincial Chief Coroner called for a formal inquest into her death. The inquest began on October 15, 2002 in Sudbury and final submissions were heard on December 11 and 12. The Coroner's jury released its recommendations on December 19.

The Coroner's inquest looked at the circumstances surrounding Kimberly Rogers' death and while it did not make findings regarding legal responsibility, it produced recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future.

The jury was clearly moved by the extensive evidence documenting the harsh realities of life on welfare and the role that social assistance policy may have played in Kimberly Rogers' death.

Some of the key recommendations relating to social assistance policy include:

• eliminate the lifetime and temporary social assistance bans for people convicted of welfare fraud;
• assess the adequacy of social assistance rates and base allowances on actual living costs within a particular community or region;
• Ontario Works drug benefits for the treatment of serious medical conditions should not be discontinued during any Ontario Works suspensions;
• permit local Ontario Works administrators to exercise discretion in the use of any suspension of benefits;
• establish a committee composed of various stakeholders across Ontario to develop a model for assessing whether cases involving allegations of welfare fraud should be referred for prosecution. The model should include an evaluation of the life circumstances of the recipient and the consequences of a conviction on the recipient and any dependents.

The full list of recommendations, along with suggested recommendations from the Coroner and various parties, can be found in the "resources" section.

Resources