2007
- 27/03/2007 - Ontario Ombudsman on winning streak (Globe and Mail)
MURRAY CAMPBELL What did we do before Andre Marin came along? For nearly two years now, the Ontario Ombudsman has peppered the government with hard-hitting reports filled with fiery rhetoric that leaves cabinet ministers squirming in their seats.
- 27/03/2007 - Scratch and lose (National Post)
The new report on the Ontario lottery scandal from Ontario provincial ombudsman Andre Marin is not just a jolt to the moral and statistical conscience: It is also a sobering education in the way a public agency conducts itself when it is given a legal monopoly over a particular service. Marin's investigation of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has yielded tales of awful customer service, dodgy record-keeping, laughable investigative procedures and above all a near-total disregard on the part of OLG for the essential condition of its business model -- the customer's expectation that a winning ticket will be properly honoured.
- 08/03/2007 - An Insult to Victims (NOW Magazine)
Crime victims who have the tenacity to work their way through the bureaucratic maze of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board will not find a pot of gold at the end of their demeaning journey.
- 05/03/2007 - Province gives $20M to crime victims; McMurtry to review (Toronto Star)
Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry will recommend ways to revamp the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, in the wake of the ombudsman's scathing probe into the agency that is supposed to help victims.
- 03/03/2007 - Ombudsman welcomes review of compensation for crime victims (Brockville Recorder and Times)
Ontario's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board will receive $20 million - a doubling of its budget - to clear a backlog of cases and provide new services to victims, the province announced Friday on the heels of a blistering report from the ombudsman.
- 02/03/2007 - Ombudsman stands up for Ontarians (Cornwall Standard-Freeholder)
Members of the provincial bureaucracy can't be too happy with Andre Marin these days. But as our ombudsman, his job is to shine a light on the dark recesses within our institutions, not to become "Mr. Popular."
- 02/03/2007 - Delay disgusting (Midland Free Press)
If you're caught speeding or not wearing your seatbelt, you pay a victims' surcharge, but it appears victims of crime in this province are having a difficult time accessing funds from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board.
- 02/03/2007 - Red tape traps crime victims (The Ottawa Citizen)
As usual, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin has used colourful language to humiliate a government institution and its political overseers. And as usual, he's right.
- 02/03/2007 - Revictimizing victims; The body charged with giving financial aid to those in Ontario affected by crime has denied basic rights (The Toronto Star)
To those of us who have been involved in acting for victims, the findings of Ontario's ombudsman, Andre Marin, comes as no surprise. He describes the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board as a "rule-obsessed, paper-shuffling" vindictive bureaucracy. The mistreatment of applicants is not limited only to this board.
- 02/03/2007 - They should ALL hang their heads (The Toronto Sun)
To use the vernacular, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin ripped the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board a new one this week. But Marin didn't just come down on the CICB like a biblical prophet. Almost in passing, he dispenses with it as "unreasonable, oppressive, unjust ... wrong", all failings it is his job to report under the Ombudsman Act.
- 01/03/2007 - Board adding insult to injury (Barrie Examiner)
If you're caught speeding or not wearing your seatbelt, you pay a victims' surcharge, but it appears victims of crime in this province are having a difficult time accessing funds from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board.
- 01/03/2007 - Victims' board needs a heart (Hamilton Spectator)
Dalton McGuinty's government has certainly responded swiftly to a scathing report on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board by Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin.
- 01/03/2007 - Victims of crime victimized again (Toronto Star)
Victims of violent crime in Ontario who turn to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board for financial help are supposed to receive "compassionate, sensitive, patient and fair services."
- 01/03/2007 - Crime victims face physical, financial and emotional distress: StatsCan (Canadian Press)
Canadians who are victimized by crimes, whether violent or non-violent, face significant physical, financial and emotional distress stemming from such incidents, says a study released Thursday by Statistics Canada.
- 28/02/2007 - Ontario Ombudsman slams criminal injury compensation board as 'colossal failure' (The Globe and Mail)
Chronically underfunded, absurdly bureaucratic, Ontario's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board is a "colossal failure" that treats people "like rats in a cage," the provincial Ombudsman said yesterday in a blistering indictment of the board and it's overseer, the Ministry of the Attorney-General.
- 28/02/2007 - Victims treated like 'rats'; Ontario's ombudsman highlights two London (The London Free Press)
An Ontario agency meant to help victims of crime and their families financially instead treats them "like rats in a maze," a scathing report released yesterday said.
- 01/02/2007 - Exposing the cruelty that Aucoin faced (St. Catharines Standard)
You have to figure it takes a lot to shock Andre Marin. After all, he has been an ombudsman foralmost 10 years, first with the Department of National Defence and, since April 2005, with the Ontario government. It's his job to help the victims of bureaucratic bungling and indifference.
- 01/02/2007 - Province's treatment of local cancer patient was shameful (Niagara Falls Review)
Ontario's ombudsman Andre Marin couldn't have been more scathing in his report condemning the treatment Suzanne Aucoin of St. Catharines received from the provincial Ministry of Health.
- 01/02/2007 - Aucoin, Marin merit pat on back (Toronto Star)
Bravo to cancer patient Suzanne Aucoin for fighting the good fight while struggling with an internal demon that threatened her physical and emotional health.
- 01/02/2007 - Time for two-tier health-care system (Toronto Star)
Letter to the Editor, re: Ontario to pay $76,000 bill.
- 31/01/2007 - Ombudsman wants oversight of police-complaints superagency
A proposed independent body that would investigate complaints against police will have the power to demand answers from police chiefs and officers, but won't be accountable to the public, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin said yesterday in an effort to change legislation before it becomes law.
- 31/01/2007 - Ontario to pay $76,000 drug bill (Toronto Star)
She's fighting colon cancer but Suzanne Aucoin is elated after a rare personal apology from Ontario's health ministry, which admitted it was wrong in refusing to pay for her chemotherapy in Buffalo and is reimbursing her every penny.
- 30/01/2007 - Ombudsman defending his turf (Toronto Sun)
It is an age-old dilemma that perplexes any society -- seeking justice for all while protecting the rights of individuals against the excesses of those who enforce the law. In short, who polices the police? Police put their lives on the line to protect us from the bad guys --murderers, rapists, child abusers, punks who gun down shoppers on Yonge St. Even so, the police, as an armed and paramilitary force, must be scrutinized, reined in at times and held to account.
- 24/01/2007 - Watchdog pleads for children's aid oversight Ombudsman cites CAS 'horror' stories that his office is powerless to remedy
Tragedies such as the teen who pleaded guilty this week to murdering a toddler in a foster home prove it is time Ontario's provincially funded children's aid societies were held accountable, Ontario's ombudsman says.