The Rand Institute for Justice, 2007, as catalogued in the Library of Congress, provides more evidence that the older drivers in Canada are being discriminated against by their own Provincial Governments.

The Rand Institute’s conclusions regarding the accident risk of older drivers is:

• Relative risk of accident by older drivers actually diminishes with age.

• The relative risk of older drivers changed little between the early 1970’s and 2003, despite a continually aging population.

• As the population ages, the number of injuries, especially fatal ones, sustained by older individuals in car accidents will rise.  However, the research concludes that this increase in injuries will occur, not because older drivers are more likely to cause accidents, but primarily because their likelihood of injury is high, when they are involved in an accident.

• The research also concludes that the middle age driver group, those between 25 and 64 years of age, are involved in 85% of all accidents.  And the younger drivers, those between 15 and 24 years of age, are involved in 45% of all accidents.  While older drivers, those between the ages of 65 and beyond, are involved in 23% of all accidents.

The Rand research states that ” The good record of the older drivers is likely due to experience of age, and self regulation, than any licencing policies, in reducing risk”.

Reference (https://www.aeaweb.org/annual_mtg_papers/2008/2008_365.pdf)

Sincerely, Ed. Rockburne,RCMP, Retired.

Ontario senior drivers must learn how to protect their drivers licenses.  Many have reported that when they visited their Doctor’s office  or were admitted to hospital for something entirely unrelated to mental health, they were administered some form of mental, cognitive or dementia test without their knowledge, without full disclosure by the health professional as to the purpose of the tests and therefore without having given informed consent as required by the Health Care Consent Act of Ontario, 1996.

Worse still, their drivers licenses were revoked by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation after unknowingly being given such a test.  In many cases, it costs the senior thousands of dollars before they could get their drivers license back.

8,000 Alberta seniors have been reported to have lost their drivers license to this discriminatory and discredited testing, causing much mental, emotional and financial hardship.

 Tricking of Senior Drivers by Some Doctors!

In one instance, the Senior reported actually being tricked into taking the test when his doctor said “ We are conducting some clinical experiments and need a few people to take part – would you take part?”.  The senior driver, who believed he was just helping his Doctor with a clinical study, had his license revoked by the MOT because he apparently failed some sort of ‘memory’ test!

That senior stated that at the top of one of the papers used by the Doctor it read, “Montreal”, which could mean they used an equally faulty dementia test called, ” The Montreal Cognitive Assessment”.  Two parts of that faulty test is now being used in the Ontario Seniors Test, “The Drawing of the Clock,” and “The finding of the letter “H” amongst the numbers”.

Under the Ontario Health Care Consent Act, 1996, all patients have the right to be FULLY informed of ANY treatment OR test to be administered by any and all health care providers before they give their consent.  The health care provider MUST fully disclose what they are planning to do and wait for you to consent.  They must have your informed consent BEFORE administering anything to you and you have the right to refuse such treatment.

HOW TO REFUSE CONSENT FOR ALL MEMORY, COGNITIVE AND DEMENTIA TESTING of Senior Drivers

It is strongly recommended that senior drivers who go to see their doctors or who are admitted to hospital for any medical checkup or treatment,  present a signed and dated written letter to the health care provider that states clearly the following:

By way of this letter, in keeping with my rights under the Health Care Consent Act of Ontario, 1996, I am formally Refusing Consent to mental, memory, cognitive or dementia testing during my treatment and visit with you, and particularly if it in any way is connected, directly or indirectly, to driver licensing or driver testing.  This refusal to consent to any mental, memory, cognitive or dementia testing by you, your organization, your staff or contractors is effective immediately until further written notice.

_______________________________     Date:  _________________
Signed

This procedure should be followed each time you visit a health care Practitioner because they could ‘lose’ or ‘forget’ that your refusal is in place.

Should your health care provider violate your Refusal of Consent, he or she will be acting unlawfully and can be held liable for damages because this Act was put in place specifically to prevent abuse of patients.  Advise us immediately of any such breach by your health care provider by contacting us at admin@stopelderdriverabuse.ca .

In addition, should you be ordered to take a medical test, a memory test or any other test that is not a test that is given to all other drivers of all ages, whether by the Ministry of Transportation, the testing company DriveABLE or any other assessment centre, you can exercise your right to refuse and instead immediately get in touch with us at admin@stopelderdriverabuse.ca .

You may also choose to offer to take the driving test from any  testing company other than DriveABLE, however the point in all this is that any special medical, memory, or special driver testing of seniors is discrimination and must be stopped.

It has been reported that DriveABLE has shown hostility toward Seniors during their testing and that these tests, despite their various names, have a direct link to the Simard dementia test, through Bonnie Dobbs, the wife and part owner of DriveABLE.

Research has shown that Bonnie Dobbs sits on the Ontario Ministry of Transportation Committees that determine what punitive tests should be applied to seniors.  This is as gross a conflict of interest as anyone can imagine.

In fact, Bonnie Dobbs has expressed that by age 65 years, most people are becoming demented and by 70 are the most dangerous people on the road.   She has ignored all the research contradicting her statements, but it seems the MOT is choosing opinion and profiteering over science and fact …and Constitutional rights.

Give this advice maximum circulation by sending it to all of your contacts, with the request that they do the same.  If all senior drivers do this, it will reduce their chances of losing their licenses unfairly and will send a message to doctors that they are expected to abide by the law.

We have heard that senior drivers in Alberta and BC are ‘doctor shopping’ to ensure they find a doctor who is as disgusted and repulsed by this testing as senior drivers are.   Bonnie Dobbs has been reported to be trying to find a way to force the medical community to administer her ‘memory’ tests even though her ‘testing’ has been entirely discredited by top, ethical, researchers and doctors.

Yours Sincerely,

Ed. Rockburne,RCMP,Retired, email:erockburne@cogeco.ca, www.stopelderdriverabuse.ca, April 13,2015.

PLEASE BE SURE to contribute to the legal defense fund at www.StopElderDriverAbuse.ca what you can share and let us know of anyone who has been targeted by this discrimination and fraudulent scheme in the last 2 years who might be interested in being a test case in Small Claims court where we have been advised the best remedy in this situation would be found.

Please enjoy the numerous other blog posts at our website Stop Elder Driver Abuse

Attached article that ran in the Calgary Herald that is right on the money about the financial, mental and emotional abuse of senior drivers happening in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

Health Canada has shown that when senior drivers lose their driver’s license, depression, anxiety, mental illness and addictions increase dramatically, as does the negative impacts on finances and reduced social activities.  This suggests that the provincial governments of Ontario, BC and Alberta who are facilitating the simultaneous tax grab and enrichment of a private corporation called DriveAble is unlawful and a disgrace.

Elder Advocates of Alberta have been fighting this disgraceful behavior on the part of the provincial government.  

ANY TESTING THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DRIVING ABILITY IS A SURE SCHEME TO DEPRIVE THE TESTEE FROM THEIR DRIVER’S LICENSES, THEIR LIVELIHOODS, THEIR SOCIAL STRUCTURE, THEIR LIFESTYLE…AND LET’S NOT FORGET FROM THEIR MONEY!

Another Calgary Herald article called “Seniors Tests Have Nothing to do With Driving Ability” calls it as it is.  And the Calgary Herald polls show that almost 70% of those who voted felt these tests were plain and simply discrimination on the basis of age….completely against the law.

Sign the Petition now:  http://www.randyhilliermpp.com/petition_seniors_testing

Doctors routinely do not first obtain their patient’s informed consent to subject senior drivers to unreliable tests as is required by the Health Care Consent Act.  As a consequent many have lost their drivers licence unjustly.  BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN TO TELL YOUR DOCTOR WHEN YOU WALK INTO HIS/HER OFFICE THAT YOU DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY MEMORY, ART, DEMENTIA OR OTHER TESTING…you have a right to refuse ‘treatment’ of any kind.

There seems to be a trend developing in Ontario, where seniors go for routine medicals, either from a Doctor or hospital and end up being given some form of dementia test without the doctor first having provided them with full disclosure that the test is unreliable and that this is for drivers license purposes.

Continue reading Senior Drivers ” Be Careful What You Tell Your Doctor” →

Stop Elder Driver Abuse (SEDA) has been receiving true stories of seniors being scammed by their doctor and the MOT.  We will publish any story of drivers license testing as long as the victim lets us publish their name (no personal information required).  Please feel free to forward widely as there is strength in numbers and light always conquers evil.

Here is Moe’s story:

Hi SEDA,

I am a retired member of the RCMP.  Here is what I experienced.

I went to my Dr. in Dec. 2013 to fill out the form I had received from the BC government. Unknown to me, with no previous information of any kind, my doctor calls up another form on his computer, different than the paper form sent in the mail. Not his fault, he was just following what he was instructed to do when a patient came in with the paper form.

When he got to the memory portion, he said he had to tell me of 10 different items, and I had to repeat them back to him. There was no way I could remember them all, not even 3 or 4, because at the time on that day I was under stress from other incidents at home. And it was the day before we were due to drive to Arizona, a trip of 1600 miles for which we were trying to get ready for.

So, after a couple of tries, I told my doctor to cancel it, forget it, I would get the test done in AZ. Which I did later at a doctor and he followed the steps in the paper form (wish I had kept a copy of this damm thing) and there was no testing to remember 10 items. The only small discrepancy was my blood pressure was a bit high, but it passed and he signed the form.

I mailed the form to the proper department in Victoria, and never heard any more about it. But I was really ticked off about the sneaky procedure this department was doing. They send this paper form with no advance warning, or information, that you may be tested differently than what was indicated on this paper form. No information to prepare for.

Later I read an article on my computer, I think it was either on Castonet.net here in Kelowna, or on Firefox. Not sure. This was about an RCMP member who was explaining about this test to seniors for “cognizant” memory. Never heard of this.

He went on to explain that the senior was asked to remember 10 different items and repeat as many as possible. Then the test went on to something else, and then came back to the 10 items again, and the senior had to repeat as many as he/she could remember.

And, this RCMP member seemed to endorse this testing procedure. Sounded like he was in favour of it.

I wish I had heard about your crusade before, so I could have kept a copy of the government form and the comments of this other member.

I have read the Stop Elder Driver Abuse (SEDA) and sent them a donation. I agree with what you are doing and will support any way I can. I have sent emails to all RCMP members that I know who are seniors, and asked them to forward the information to all of their senior friends. You may want to send information to Frank”s Fact’s & Funnies. You probably have already, and to FSRA.

I will write a letter to our premier, she represents our riding here in West Kelowna.

Keep up the good work, am sure you are appreciated by many.

Maurice(Moe) Cardinal

Folks, we can stop this madness…all we need do is work together.  Here’s what to do:

• Forward this and every post you get to as many people as possible, of any age to spread awareness and because they will be the next victims.
• Encourage everyone you know to subscribe at www.StopElderDriverAbuse.ca 
• Contribute to the legal defense fund so that we can fight test cases in smalls claims court asap.
• If you have a story, let us have it.  If you’ve been victimized in the last 2 years, contact us immediately at admin@stopelderdriverabuse.ca
• and for heaven’s sake give your doctor a signed and dated note, the instant you walk into their offices, that says “I do not consent to being given any memory, dementia, cognition or other tests that may affect my driver’s license now or in the future”.  You have a right under the Health Care Consent Act to refuse all tests and treatments.  The doctor has an obligation to disclose everything about the tests and the reasons for them, however, most seem to be acting like agents of the Ministry of Transportation and putting their patient’s rights last for the almighty dollar they get for giving this unreliable and discriminatory test.Give the doctor a new note every time, with a new date so that they cannot later claim ‘they lost it’.
• sign MPP Randy Hillier’s petition by clicking here.

The Candrive video on Randomized Trials makes it very clear that senior drivers are the safest on the road, despite the constant release of misinformation by those such as the governments of BC, Alberta and Ontario who are facilitating a simultaneous tax grab and unjustified testing by a business to enrich themselves.

Strangely, now that legitimate statistics and studies categorically show that senior drivers are the safest drivers on the roads, there are no meaningful investigations done into those who pose the greatest hazards on our roads, and that is the majority of drivers of the other age groups, 18-54 years.

Talk about deliberate and wilful ignorance and undemocratic behavior by our governments…harassing the safest driving group on the roads, there reluctance may also be because, it is known that a large number of Canadians of all ages, are on prescription drugs, which are causing cognitive impairment, which would be a poor reflection on our pharmaceutical industry, if exposed.

Sign the Petition at: http://www.randyhilliermpp.com/petition_seniors_testing

Ed. Rockburne, RCMP , Retired.

THE ONTARIO MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION’S DECEITFUL STATISTIC ABOUT SENIOR DRIVERS HAS BEEN DISPELLED, yet the Ministry continues to insist that it’s new memory and driving testing of senior drivers is ethical, moral and justified.  It is none of these and worse, it is a gross violation of the constitutional rights of senior drivers not to be targeted for tax grabs and enrichment of private businesses.

On August 6th., 2014, I sent the following information to a long list of people (see bottom of this post for the list) to dispel the deliberate misinformation provided by Bonnie and Allen Dobbs who started this whole scheme in Alberta and who are now pushing it right across Canada.

“The statistics from the Alzheimer’s Association of Canada dated 2011 states that”  747,000 Canadians are Living With Cognitive Impairment, Including Dementia.

Of these, ONLY 14.9 Percent are Over 65 Years of Age.  These same statistics are closely mirrored by the Alzheimer Association International, Headquartered in London England.

This means, 85.1 percent of Canadians under the age of 65 years of age, are living with a Cognitive Impairment , including Dementia.

First the MOT said they brought in this discriminatory testing against the senior drivers because they had a higher risk of accidents than any other age group.  Every major statistical record, in Canada , the United States , Australia, and the Provinces own statistics have shown, year after year, the elderly are the safest on the road.

Then the MOT said ”they brought in the discriminatory testing based on the high percentage of the senior drivers that have  dementia”, which now we know is also false.  Only 14.9 percent of those over 65 years have the cognitive impairment, while a whopping 85.1 percent of those under 65, suffer cognitive impairment.

This is an outrage, and should inspire all those with the slightest bit of moral integrity, to take action, if we are to consider ourselves a democracy.

Where are all those agencies, both Government, and non Governmental, that point fingers at other countries, who deny rights to their Citizens while ignoring robbery of the  rights of the seniors in Canada?

This is a serious situation, and is only the tip of the iceberg.  If you think that taking your licence away unjustifiably is traumatic, consider the message you have just sent to your Governments:    Seniors will not fight for their Rights, so future funding will be diverted to other groups, while your benefits, like nursing homes, where they are so under-funded and understaffed that patients  are routinely sedated rather than listen to their complaints… and the criminally Insane are lodged, unmonitored, in the same rooms as the elderly.  Startling statistics about the Crisis in Care were revealed by CTV’s W5 in Feb 2013.   According to CTV’s W5 investigations, W5 segment on September 27, 2013 , sixty elderly are murdered in nursing homes in Canada annually, by the Criminally Insane.

And what about future funding of your share of medical treatments?

Think about this real hard and share all this widely, because the time to act is now, not when you have lost your licence and are in a nursing home being treated as a non-person.”

Yours very concerned of the future of the Elderly in Canada,

Ed. Rockburne, RCMP,  Retired, erockburne@cogeco.ca.”

Sign the Petition at:  http://www.randyhilliermpp.com/petition_seniors_testing

Sent to:

Carp, The Association of Retired People
RCMP Veterans National Association
Randy Hillier, MPP, PC, Lanark County
Scott Reid, Federal Member of Parliament
Alberta Elder Advocates
And Contacts in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

The horrific health and financial damage caused senior drivers when they are unjustifiably subjected to special driving tests is captured in this newspaper article out of BC. These tests have been scientifically proven to be not only unreliable, but designed to fail.

The Simard MD dementia test (also known by other names such as Dem Tech) was concocted by Bonny Dobbs,  wife of one of the owners of the driver testing company, DriveABLE, which profits from every senior forced into an unjustified driving test by her dementia testing.  By her own words her test is at best 50% accurate, yet she has managed to make it a mandatory experience for all the elderly drivers when their driver’s licenses require renewal.

With such a high failure rate, many elderly drivers  predictably fail her dementia/memory test and are sent to her husband’s company, DriveABLE  for further testing, with the fee of $250.00 or more borne by the senior. Those senior driver’s who fail the DriveABLE test then lose the right to drive again unless they continue to pay for testing until they pass!

Thus it is pretty clear that the ‘testing’ has less to do with dementia and memory and more to do with being strong enough to financially and emotionally withstand a marathon of testing until, just as suddenly, one is deemed ‘normal’ again.  In other words the Dobbs couple decides for everyone who is normal, who is demented and how many times one must take the test to convince them.

It almost seems as though the Dobbs own our driver’s licenses and we are at their mercy.

Naturally this is a classic conflict of interest situation, especially since Bonnie Dobbs also acts as an Advisor, to the Governments of B.C., Alberta, and Ontario.

The collateral damage that the DriveABLE and ‘memory test’ scheme is causing senior drivers and their families defies full reporting as it affects absolutely every area of their lives just at a time when they should be enjoying life.

According to senior driver reports, the provincial governments of Alberta, BC and Ontario are now co-opting Family Doctors and having them, often secretly, ‘test’ their patients with a ‘memory test’ concocted by Bonnie Dobbs and deemed completely useless by experts in ageing and the Canadian Medical Association, who have gone on the record to confirm that there is no known test that is reliable for diagnosing dementia.  How does one tyrant’s opinion get so much traction in our governments then?

There can be NO mistake that this new ‘memory testing leading to new DriveABLE testing’ is a tax grab and business scheme of unimaginable proportions. Those senior drivers who cannot afford to keep paying hundreds of dollars to be retested by the DriveAble company end up walking home from the testing site…their lives changed forever. Those who can keep paying, often to amounts as high as $700 each (the fee in Ontario for DriveABLE tests), do so until finally they are ‘passed’ as normal.

There is NO scientifically accepted test for dementia, cognitive disability or any other ‘memory assessment’. Yet, on the say-so of Bonnie Dobbs suddenly everyone over 65 years is presumed to be demented ! She claims that those who reach 70 years old are the most dangerous drivers on the road. Yet, all statistics and studies show the exact opposite. Senior drivers become better drivers as they age and are presently the safest driver group on the roads.

It seems the only way you will ensure you are safe from this tyranny is to never tell the doctor anything that could affect your ability to drive: keep your problems as a secret.  We have heard stories from people who discovered they were secretly tested after telling their doctors they felt stressed and tired (by death in the family or illnesses of loved ones, etc).

Since the Health Care Consent Act is supposed to guarantee that everything done to you is first disclosed and that your INFORMED consent is obtained before proceeding, it would seem that family doctors are seriously in violation of their own laws and ethics.

PERHAPS WE SHOULD ALL ENSURE, GOING INTO THE DOCTORS OFFICE, THAT WE ADVISE OUR DOCTORS, NURSES AND OTHER HEALTH PRACTITIONERS THAT WE DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY MEMORY TESTING!

http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/200337321.html

Sign the Petition at:   http://www.randyhilliermpp.com/petition_seniors_testing

It’s time we questioned the true priorities of the CCLA, since they seem to exhibit major selective bias when it comes to who they will support.  Certainly they appear not interested in supporting the civil liberties of senior drivers…the very ones whose sacrifice made it possible for them to be free to exist in the first place.

On July 29, 2014,  the undersigned wrote to the CCLA about their apparent hypocrisy since my letter to them about the severe loss of civil liberties of senior drivers as a result of the unjustified scheming between the MTO and a business couple went entirely without a response. Continue reading Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) Playing Favorites: they have abandoned abused senior drivers →