Welfare, My Lovely!

Can you find me among the throng? A hint: I'm one of the small handful of men amongst a bounty of bosoms.




Here's a blast from the past for you! Back in the mid-late 90's I worked for Social Services of Peel as a Case Worker doling out tax-payers money to the mopes and the dopes, the needy and the greedy, and the Newfs and the goofs. I have my doubts that anything has changed, the louder you scream, the faster your cheque; the less you do, the more you get; the truly in need are the last to get feed. After 5 years of attempting to get a Union, we finally did and that very same Commie-unity couldn't help me as VP when the Management decided to make an example of me and I got sacked. Near the end of my time there, I had the Supervisor from Hell (the previous Supervisor got arrested for creating phony recipients and defrauding the system of 10s of 1000s of $), my caseload had tripled, my mother had just suffered a stroke and I was a razor's edge away from a nervous breakdown.

To retain my sanity, I started writing a Chandleresque Murder-mystery set within the system but I got so bogged down, I never got further than 6 pages! Now for your bemusement, a true cure for insomnia has risen...I give you: "Welfare, My Lovely!"

(If you are brave enough to plough your way through it, I must warn you that it was written for my co-workers benefit, so much of the jargon, short forms and lingo are specific to Peel's Welfare world. I don't plan to translate the jargon, so just cope. Click on any of the pages to super-size them!)































After losing my job and a year of being unemployed, I decided to go to Humber College, get a piece of paper that says I'm qualified to teach English, taught in Toronto for a year and then moved to Japan. Equilibrium has been restored!