Inquest
On its first day, the inquest was informed that the actual cause of Rogers' death was suicide by an amitriptyline overdose, and that Rogers may have altered her antidepressant prescription to ensure that she had a sufficient supply of medication to constitute a lethal dose. However, they were asked to review the impact of the government's welfare fraud policy on Rogers' decision to commit suicide.
On 19 December, the jury delivered its decision. Their first recommendation was that the lifetime suspension of benefits should be eliminated — temporary suspension would still be permitted as a penalty, but could no longer be imposed retroactively on a person whose fraud conviction predated the adoption of the legislation.
The jury also indicated that suspension and/or prosecution should not necessarily be automatic, but that each case should be evaluated by Ontario Works administrators and/or a stakeholder committee to determine the most appropriate response to the individual situation. As well, the jury ruled that drug benefits should not be suspended even when regular benefits were, that Ontario Works should make more effort to uncover fraud situations earlier so that the penalties had less emotional and financial impact on the recipient, and that the government should review the adequacy of social assistance rates, which until then had not been raised (not even by a simple cost of living adjustment) since the Harris government cut the rate to $520 per month in 1996.
As well, the jury made several recommendations to other government ministries. They ruled that the government had a responsibility to ensure that a person under house arrest had access to adequate shelter, food and medication, as well as an obligation to help individuals on probation or parole locate the appropriate community services to assist their adjustment back into society. They also recommended improved communication between government departments, in response to evidence that Justice Rodgers had not even known that a fraud conviction would lead to a suspension of Kimberly Rogers' benefits, and clearer communication to citizens of both the definition and the potential consequences of welfare fraud.
The jury also recommended several improvements in the province's medical system to prevent potential abuse, including the creation of a computer database network to improve pharmacies' access to a patient's prior prescription records. Doctors would also be asked to write out prescriptions in both number and text in order to reduce the possibility of prescriptions being altered, and to review the use of tricyclic antidepressants.
Read more about this topic: Kimberly Rogers