June 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)
Today, injured & ill workers and their allies will gather in five cities across Ontario as they have done every June 1st for 44 summers. This year, unfortunately, the events are taking place while Ontario’s Bill 105 proposes the largest changes to the compensation system since 1998, threatening to undermine the foundations of the workers’ comp system as we know it.
“Bill 105 is called the Protecting Ontario’s Workers and Economic Resilience Act,” says Janet Paterson, President of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups, “but hidden within it are changes to the law that put the financial security of every injured worker at risk.”
In 2025 the Ontario Government and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) handed over $4 billion dollars in “rebates” to employers – bringing the total handouts to well over $20 billion since 2017 – while also spending almost a million dollars on an ad campaign to improve their reputation with the public. For injured workers to be told that more surveillance and belt tightening will be necessary amid these billion dollar windfalls for rich employers and the compensation board’s media glow-up is rubbing many injured & ill workers the wrong way.
“Bill 105 threatens to remove what is called the 72 month lock in, which was created in order to provide some sense of financial security for permanently injured workers,” explains ONIWG VP Wayne Harris. “If this becomes law, permanently injured workers will be exposed to a lifetime of scrutiny and surveillance, and will never know for sure whether their benefits will be there next week, next month, or next year.”
“If there is money for billions of dollars in employer rebates every year and a glitzy WSIB ad campaign,” adds Paterson, “then why are injured workers continuing to face cuts, threats to our economic security, and more surveillance?”
This year’s Injured Workers’ Day events will take place in Windsor, Toronto, Hamilton, London, and Thunder bay. Details and media contacts for each community are below.
Provincial Event Details & Media Contacts
Toronto: June 1st • Queen’s Park • 11am
ONIWG VP Wayne Harris: 289-830-2103
Hamilton: June 1st • City Hall • 11am
Victoria Daniels, President, Hamilton Injured Worker Group: 905-818-3188
London: June 1st • Victoria Park Northwest Corner • 1pm
Rally organizer Kevin Jones will be available at event for media inquiries
Windsor: June 1st • MPP Office • 5452 Tecumseh Rd E • 4pm
ONIWG VP Liz Garant: 226-961-3906
Thunder Bay: June 1st • OPSEU Hall • 5326 Memorial Ave • 6pm Dinner/7pm Event
ONIWG VP Eugene Lafrancois: 807-767-7827
General media contact: David Newberry • 416-461-2486
GlobeNewswire, Inc.
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