Justice Irving Goldenberg:
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Nipawin - August 28, 2000 - By: Mario deSantis | |
fudge the data |
It was a great day for the advancement of individual rights in Saskatchewan when last |
Thursday, Justice Irving Goldenberg refused to drop Dr. David Cassidy from | |
Dr. Emma Bartfay's suit(1). Dr. Cassidy conducted a botched study of no fault insurance | |
in Saskatchewan and Dr. Bartfay quit in the middle of the study saying that Cassidy | |
tried to force her to fudge the data. | |
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disclose his contracts |
Under no fault insurance injured people cannot suefor pain and suffering. As a result |
of Justice Goldenberg's decision, Dr. Cassidy will have to disclose his contracts with the | |
Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) and he will have to answer questions on the | |
circumstances of Dr. Bartfay's dismissal from the University of Saskatchewan. | |
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Quebec study |
Dr. Cassidy not only manipulated data to support the results SGI wanted, but he |
showed his copycat approach to researches by basing his results on the previous | |
outdated Quebec study on no fault insurance and on the positive psychology that | |
injured people recover their health faster if they focus on getting better rather than | |
suing for pain and suffering. The Quebec study didn't conduct any original research, | |
as a matter of fact it was just a compendium of different researches; and the positive | |
psychology movement has been disclaimed by recent researches(2), in fact "little data | |
supports the idea that a positive attitude enhances health(3)." | |
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punitive damages |
In the light of Tort Reform laws which diminish the people's right to sue for punitive |
damages(4), I find Justice Goldenberg's decision a small but significant step towards | |
the betterment of the justice system in supporting individual rights and eventually in | |
reestablishing punitive damages in wrongful dismissals. Punitive damages are not | |
compensatory damages, they are exemplary damages and they tell employers that | |
their callous, malicious, and in Dr. Bartfay's case socially unacceptable behaviors in | |
dismissing employees are not going to be tolerated. And the importance of punitive | |
damages is becoming more relevant today when our no fault authorities are the | |
perpetrators of such despicable behaviors | |
-----------References/endnotes: | |
General reference for no fault insurance Coalition Against No Fault In Saskatchewan http://www.angelfire.com/nf/coalitionagainstnf/ | |
List of articles by Mario deSantis http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/authors/desantisNG.html | |
Saskatoon man still stuck in lawsuit, CBC Saskatchewan http://www.sask.cbc.ca/ Web Posted | Aug 24 2000 8:39 PM EDT | |
CTV Canada AM, August 17, 2000. The guest was Dr. Barbara Held, Clinical Psychologist and Author of "Stop Smiling, Start Kvetching." She can be reached at 207-725-3639. If you would like to obtain written transcripts you can call 1-800-663-3607 or video transcripts at (416) 332-7389. | |
Seeing Pessimism's Place in a Smiley-Faced World, by ERICA GOODE, NY TIMES, August 15, 2000 | |
A trend in Tort Reform laws: No-fault, no individual freedom and no responsibility, by Mario deSantis and reviewed by James deSantis, August 14, 2000 | |
additional references: | |
You might find this summary critisizing the New England Journal of Medicine's article interesting. |