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Folks,
I really need your support in helping my spouse (Josh), whose
life and health is likely at risk without intervention. He’s seriously
immunocompromised and is facing malicious charges that may see him
jailed at worst case scenario. His condition remains undiagnosed, but
a doctor has stated it acted similar to Lupus. He’s been hospitalized
three times with his life potentially at risk and has had a history of
poor health. The worst time was when he was in a three-week coma,
during which time his organs began to fail, his brain began to swell,
and the doctors held out little hope for recovery. He did recover and
I love him in my life. He has been practicing self-isolation during
the past six years, especially during cold and flu seasons.
I hope you forgive me for reaching out during all the uncertainty we’re going through with this pandemic.
Maybe your experience with the pandemic will help you better understand Josh’s situation. It all started when Josh tried to negotiate a work from home accommodation and some workplace safety features with his boss, for occasional times that Josh would require it. One of his colleagues kept coming to work sick. Josh would get sick as well and once ended up in an intensive care ward for 5 days. He was very stressed and didn’t know when a cold would trigger the underlying condition. If that happened, at best he could end up in hospital facing a long recovery. At worst it could take his life.
Long story short - his boss refused to discuss a medical accommodation. Josh lost his position. Josh challenged the system to the system’s immense displeasure. He needs to retain a lawyer to help fight the civil suit against his former employer as well as counsel for fighting malicious charges placed against him since his workplace rights violation. To that end I have created a FundRazr campaign to raise some of the funds needed.
For the full story please continue to read.
Thank you.
___________________________________
A few years ago, Josh Lehr (my spouse) was faced with constructive dismissal in his workplace after requesting a medical accommodation for his autoimmune disorder. A co-worker repeatedly came to work despite being sick. Inevitably Josh would get sick and at one point ended up in an intensive care ward for 5 days. Josh tried to deal with this matter. He kept a physical distance from her and avoided using the same equipment that she used. He did his best to address these issues with their boss over several months, even offering simple suggestions by the end that would accommodate him. That too proved fruitless. He tried discussing his medical condition and needs with his co-workers but got no support. When he pushed the issue with his boss by requesting a medical accommodation, he was told if he did not cease asking the workplace to take special measures on his behalf he should leave. Finding no support or respect for his condition and no way to safeguard his health he chose the latter.
Needless to say, Josh was emotionally shattered. But he didn’t give up. In the time that followed, he again tried to remedy the situation with his employer to no avail. All Josh asked for was for a sick co-worker to wear a mask if they had to come in to work sick, and for Josh to be notified so he could wear a mask until he could leave to work from home. He then proceeded with a human rights complaint seeking mediation, but his employer refused mediation. At that point Josh ended his human rights complaint by choosing to file a civil lawsuit against his former boss based on a code of conduct and duty to accommodate up to undue hardship.
Josh looked for other employment but did not find work. He was determined to seek all options and attempted to open a solo business. Determination and resiliency are only two of the many admirable qualities Josh possesses, in addition to his down to earth personality. He loves cats, is an avid gamer, is driven to help the underdog, and is a great snuggler. Throughout his life he’s accomplished much reading and research in areas of economics, political history and several other subjects. He’s been a long-standing advocate for human rights and has participated in many protests and solidarity events in his community to support marginalized groups and justice movements. As for beyond his community, he was highly active online for several years in advocating for social justice and civil rights, working to build an effective dialogue for online debates.
But determination unfortunately did not win the day for Josh in his own crisis. Starting a business is stressful. That, coupled with the gross disregard of his work accommodation needs, triggered a lot of grief for Josh.
Still he did not give up. He doubled down on finding ways to strengthen his own legal case. To that end he began to search for evidence of other similar workplace rights/legal rights abuses in Atlantic Canada. He did find other cases and decided to start a blog making those cases plus his own public.
When Josh started blogging about his personal experience and exposing the above info to the public, he made sure that what he wrote was within the letter of the law and he informed all persons involved of his actions. During the whole ordeal of the trauma while trying to deal with his own civil action and continuing to uncover misfeasance in similar situations to his, Josh went through much anger as part of the grief. He suffered a very controlled, despite appearances, relapse of CPTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptoms. This CPTSD stemmed from trauma surrounding life with his condition, childhood background, and other adaptive disorders he has.
During this period he sent emails to his old workplace to have a chance to say how this situation turned his life upside down. He made sure to say that expressing his anger online was about healing and if asked, he would stop the things he could legally be asked to stop doing. He kept them informed from the beginning of what he was doing and why.
However in January 2017, police came to our home and arrested Josh. They later entered with a search warrant and took all his electronic devices for investigation. Josh was charged with Criminal Harassment and Uttering Threats and was under investigation for Extortion. The complainant was his former boss.
He was held in lock-up and not knowing if he had to wait days or weeks for a hearing, he accepted onerous bail conditions just to get out of the lock-up. Remember this is a guy with an autoimmune disorder who was self-isolating. Being in the lock-up and exposed to anything was terrifying. These were some of the bail conditions:
- They prohibited him from possessing almost all electronic devices used today for networking or communication;
- banned him from “using the internet” as a whole, or other digital networks;
- prohibited him from purchasing, possessing or using any device that was even “capable” of accessing the internet or other digital network (even if they weren’t hooked up to or being used for the internet - this would include laptops and desktop computers for the sole purpose of processing word documents, and even a basic cell phone with only calling card minutes to use in an emergency);
- to not reside anywhere with Wi-Fi or an internet subscription or connections, and to provide proof to the police that the internet/Wi-Fi had been cancelled to our home.
In short, they treated him like a cyber-terrorist.
These conditions were so strict and overbroad, they created
several unreasonable burdens and disruptions to his and my life, and
actually put his safety at risk twice. It made his isolating even
more challenging, especially while enduring trauma and grief. It
destroyed his ability to communicate online (his main form of
socialization and recreation since he isolated so often), destroyed
his ability to keep seeking and/or creating employment opportunities,
prevented him from looking up important information of any kind, put
strain on our relationship, and was generally detrimental to his
mental health’s ability to heal.
If you were charged with criminal harassment and uttering
threats (remember you are not proven guilty yet, if at all), you could
be ordered to not publicly discuss nor contact the complainant or
people involved. Josh could have been given a similar no-contact order
against those that filed the complaint. Instead, they decided to take
away his ability to use any internet-capable electronic communication
device in general.
He had tried to vary these conditions with the Court/Crown and
he provided very reasonable suggestions. He stated the grounds for his
application as grossly disproportionate, cruel and unusual, but most
of his applications were rejected.
Almost 6 months later Josh was finally permitted to use a cell
phone that wasn’t equipped with a data package, and we were able to
reconnect internet service to our residence. Josh was now allowed to
access the internet for the limited purpose of legal research
necessary for him to make full answer and defense of the criminal
charges pending against him and to prepare for any civil actions to
which he was a party. It was a whole 2 years after the original bail
conditions before Josh was able to use all electronic devices and to
access the internet for leisure or personal purposes, while not
contacting or posting about persons involved in the charges -
amendments that were initially rejected.
Josh has uncovered a variety of evidence suggesting that a biased
party disapproved of Josh spreading his story of workplace rights
violation and other misfeasance he found, and the evidence suggests
this party may have influenced Josh’s overly restrictive bail
conditions. Josh believes that the evidence gathered can demonstrate
that the purpose of these charges and the conditions that followed
were designed to shut him up and stop him from spreading the information.
In late August 2018, police came to our home yet again to
arrest Josh. The second set of charges consisted of Criminal
Harassment and Failure to comply with condition of Undertaking or
Recognizance. What he was doing was applying litigation pressure and
litigation offers by email to an opposing lawyer and gathering further
evidence (litigation research) for said ongoing civil matter. For self
reps or normal counsel, this is a tactic that can be used in
litigation. These charges were described to Josh as ‘bogus’ by the
Duty Counsel standing for him. However, he was held in lockup for 9
days before being released. All parties were aware of his medical
issues from the beginning.
Here are a few more examples why Josh believes that the legal
system handling this is operating under apprehension of bias and/or
abuse of process:
- Once the first charges were pressed, a local internet reporter did a one-sided article on Josh’s situation. No info was collected from Josh’s standpoint. Before and after these charges, Josh tried to get local media to look into the evidence he had gathered on misconduct by legal actors and was met with a wall of silence. One media group reported Josh to the police for dropping off summaries of his findings to that media. National and local media blocked Josh online, before and after his arrest, from sharing the stories he had uncovered. Local media here reports on local crime frequently, but only the one small outlet mentioned above reported on Josh’s charges. Their article was poorly researched at best.
- On the record in court when discussing Josh’s charges, the Crown hauled out a public review of a legal professional’s misfeasance that Josh wrote and compared them to the charges Josh was facing. This was irrelevant to the criminal charges against him being discussed. The sitting judge shut it down. Several similar kinds of action suggest that Josh’s exposure of legal misconduct in the province was the motive in creating bail conditions to silence him rather than deal with the actual details of his charges.
- Disclosure issues occurred. These issues were later resolved upon request but raised a red flag in the manner in which they occurred.
- The court successfully pushed forward toward trial without a preliminary inquiry when Josh was a self-represented litigant and when he was too sick to deal with the issues. Preliminary inquiries are usually only waived for more serious charges like violence, robbery, arson, murder, rape or charges where there is likely sufficient evidence to have a conviction from a trial.
- A judge stated on the record to Josh that “this is going to trial with or without a lawyer”.
- At a hearing in November 2018 for a postponement of matters due to Josh’s serious health issues, Josh was requesting to have his matters put on hold until either his health recovered or he retained counsel. Available from Josh were affidavits from him and me regarding his recent patterns of health issues, written statements/records from his family doctor, rheumatologist and psychologist, and myself willing to testify in person as to his health setbacks that were preventing him from moving his litigation forward. I was not called to the stand. The judge ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to justify a delay and that a trial was set for three months from then. Even the Crown and Amicus stated they were willing to consent to a postponement of at least a couple months. Josh already stated previously on the record that he was willing to waive his Jordan Rights regarding the right to a timely trial, due to his health struggles. This hearing took place a couple months after he was released from the 9-day lockup over the second set of charges during which his health collapsed.
We have since attained a professional legal assessment that the
case against Josh was weak and that the charges were not ‘made out’ -
in other words, without full evidence to establish all of the
essential elements of the offences Josh was charged with. It was
stated to Josh that he didn’t do what he has been alleged to have done
and it wasn’t right.
Josh’s health went downhill due to the combined stress and
exhaustion from these few years’ events and still hasn’t recovered
fully. His immune system is slowly gaining strength again but its been
impossible for him to work on his matters at times. In addition to his
physical health taking a dip, his mental health took a hit also. Josh
has had suicidal ideation three times over the last five years. He saw
a psychologist for about four years as he recovered.
Not only has his health been too poor to properly maintain work
as a self-litigant, the significant benefit of having an experienced
counsel standing for him is strongly recommended.
Josh had looked awfully hard for a job where he thought he’d be
safe. After the worldwide fiasco we’re undergoing due to COVID-19, I’m
sure anyone can understand how little effort it can take to protect
someone in a workplace who has a chronic medical condition when there
is NO pandemic. Especially when this workplace is a flexible office
setting with less than two dozen people and Josh could have
periodically worked from home.
Everyone deserves a reasonable right to be safe in the
workplace and no one deserves to go through the battle that Josh has
been going through. His civil action surrounding the medical
accommodation refusal in his view is just as much about everyone else
as it is about him. He wants to make it known and put stronger
protection in place so that this does not happen to anyone else after
him. With public support, success is much more probable.
Donations can be accepted from debit, credit card or Paypal (debit
and credit options under Paypal also without needing to have an
account), and you can donate as anonymous. Any donation, no matter how
small, helps. I know that so many of us are dealing with financial
concerns during the pandemic right now. The campaign will be open for
as long as needed as we need help in affording the required legal representation.
If you cannot donate right now, please help our campaign gain
effectiveness by sharing it. Please feel free to reach out to any
human rights groups or media in your area.
We appreciate any support you can give to help protect and achieve
justice for Josh, and potentially several others in the future.
Thank you all so much.
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