It's Tough To Make Ends Meet

Pity the poor woman. She had to do something to ensure she could pay the bills. So that her family would have a decent place to live in, nutritious food to eat. And of course, everyone needs clothing, needs to have some type of vehicle to get around. And then, of course, there's the need to get away from it all. The rigours of the workplace do require that people obtain some relief from all that pressure. Shouldn't everyone be entitled to a minimum standard of living, a living wage in compensation for their efforts on behalf of public duty?

Take, for example, a public servant, a caseworker for Ontario's Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee. Now, think about it: such an individual is entrusted with the care of peoples' everyday lives, their income, their health-care services, even devices meant to therapeutically assist them, if their physical well-being has been unfortunately compromised. And their existence of course, is already compromised since these people represent the homeless, those for whom society undertakes assistance; people who are not deemed competent to look out for themselves.

Someone's got to do it, in a compassionate society, isn't that right? So welfare agencies such as the one that Preadorshani Biazer represents as a case worker are entrusted with the duty to do so. Isn't that fortunate for those socially inept, lonely and confused, homeless people for whom this woman spent her long working hours taking care of? As things stand currently, Justice John Moore is mulling over what manner of jail term he should properly bring down for this civil servant charged with breach of trust, fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and laundering the proceeds of her self-emolument.

Perhaps she didn't quite understand that the funds she milked were to be used for purposes other than her own singular upkeep? Perhaps she was under the impression that the salary that she earned represented an honorarium, to be boosted by whatever funding for client services she could funnel into her personal bank account? Perhaps she wasn't sufficiently indoctrinated into the quaint social practise of civil service and service to community? Perhaps she felt offended by having to represent worthless people who were unable to establish their presence adequately in society?

In her defence, her lawyer pleaded with the judge to consider her circumstances: "There were months (Preadorshani Biazar would not have been able to pay her mortgage if she had not been taking from the system." Wouldn't the hardest heart bleed for this poor woman? Of course, she did plead guilty to the charges as laid, of defrauding 52 clients of between $1,000 to $400,000 each. Now isn't that an ambitious endeavour on behalf of one's family? And consider: this woman has three children dependent on their mother.

Whom her lawyer describes as a hard-working individual who "was able to do a lot of good for a lot of people"; those mentally incompetent homeless whose interests she represented, obviously. Obviously what they were unaware of, what they did not know, couldn't hurt them? Oh, perhaps it would make taxpayers irate, but how unreasonable can you get? Just because the average taxpayer doesn't live in a $865,000 Toronto home, drive a BMW X5, own a $30,000 speedboat, and travel to Europe, Dubai and Las Vegas. What of it?

The ordinary taxpayer obviously suffers from a lack of vision, a dearth of creative initiative. Which Ms. Biazar, mother of three, hard-working civil servant, obviously does not. Perhaps the ordinary taxpayer should think about getting a life; Ms. Biazar did. And now she can contemplate all the fun she'll be able to engage in, sentenced to penitentiary. Will she be penitent?