My Letter to Atos North America and the Organizers of the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games

Teddy Katz
Director, Media Relations and Chief Spokesperson, TO2015
416.957.2117
teddy.katz@toronto2015.org


Florence Vayleux
Communications, Atos North America
+1.914.733.8694
florence.vayleux@atos.net

Subject:  Atos Joins TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games as Newest Premier Partner


Dear Mr. Katz and Ms. Vayleux,

I am a 57-year-old Disability Studies specialist and disability activist from Montreal, Canada who has been reporting frequently and voluntarily, since January 2012, to senior United Nations officials. (See attached,  http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rp0uui and http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rtnc63 ) on the welfare crisis for the United Kingdom's sick and disabled. Austerity measures, consisting of draconian welfare reforms and "sham" means-testing (Atos Healthcare U.K. and the Department for Work and Pensions) are ostensibly to blame for their plight—with disability hate crime and inflammatory media attacks factored into this mix.

Just a short note to inform you that I intend to vociferously protest Atos joining the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games as its newest Premier Partner.

I will be compiling a massive bibliography of materials pertaining to the Work Capability Assessments (WCA) in UK, which is exclusively carried out by Atos Healthcare UK. This bibliography will, by virtue of its critical content, effectively deplore the immense suffering and hardship of sick and disabled Britons who have been deprived of benefits, made penniless, and even driven to suicide by Atos Healthcare UK and its sham assessments. In addition, I will be including articles on the London 2012 protests against Paralympic sponsor Atos, and the current opposition to Atos sponsoring the 2014 Commonwealth Games—in an effort to sway the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games organizers to contract with an IT company other than Atos.

These materials will be mailed to Toronto and Canadian government officials; major Canadian newspapers, radio and television companies; disabled persons organizations in Canada; and, of course, the organizers of the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games themselves.

Here's just a small sample of the materials that I have already compiled:

http://welfarenewsservice.com/inquiry-launched-atos-fit-work-tests/

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jul/31/atos-fitness-work-test-greg-wood
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/whistleblower-tells-inside-story-atos-2194951
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/nurse-makes-heartfelt-apology-after-1340838
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sheila-holt-woman-told-find-3048449
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544514/Government-workers-pursue-mentally-ill-woman-COMA-fit-work.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/atos-boss-accused-living-parallel-3087574
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q9QfRVB6HA
http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/2013/12/how-many-persons-has-atos-killed-today/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-claimants-lose-all-their-income-under-disability-benefits-reform-9107586.html
http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.ca/2013/03/pushed-over-edge-by-benefits-fear.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hundreds-protest-against-paralympics-sponsor-atos-as-anger-about-its-role-in-slashing-benefits-bill-intensifies-8092512.html
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/31/paralympic-sponsor-atos-hit-protests
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/aug/28/atos-paraylmpic-involvement-brings-protests
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/sep/03/paralympics-disability-political-games-atos
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/09/01/joyce-mcmillan-cynically-demonising-the-disabled-the-scotsman/
http://www.channel4.com/news/did-gb-paralympians-choose-to-hide-atos-branding
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-scots-cancer-sufferer-left-3120158
http://www.bigissue.com/features/3485/atos-healthcare-disabled-people-deserve-better
http://wowpetition.com/calums-list/

I look forward to any comments that you might have regarding this matter, and will carefully consider any arguments to dissuade me from my intended course of action. Please keep in mind that I do report voluntarily to the UN's human rights office, in Geneva, who are currently investigating Britain's welfare reforms, including the  Work Capability Assessments carried out by Atos Healthcare UK. (See http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/09/un-expert-says-disabled-people-feel-targeted-by-bedroom-tax/, http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/11/testimony-for-un-hears-of-food-banks-and-suicides/, and http://www.sodiumhaze.org/2014/02/08/un-expert-says-uk-disabled-people-are-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/).

I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Best wishes.


Samuel Miller

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Samuel Miller
http://independent.academia.edu/SamuelMiller
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dom-aversano/iain-duncan-smith-mortality-statistics_b_4301535.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics&ir=UK+Politics
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/10634947.My_bedroom_tax_fight_goes_to_UN/?commentSort=score
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/it-all-adds-up-work-and-pensions-press-officers-sent-on-statistics-course-8706145.html
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/letter-to-the-icc-at-the-hague-re-mistreatment-of-the-disabled-and-sick
http://mikesivier.wordpress.com//?s=Samuel+Miller&search=Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnHBfW0_u5A&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ5ypmTtL_s&feature=player_embedded
E-Mail: disabilityinliterature@gmail.com
Blog: Hephaestus: Disability Studies
http://illnessandcivilization.blogspot.com/
Blog: My Disability Studies Blackboard
http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.ca/2013/03/pushed-over-edge-by-benefits-fear.html
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Hephaestus7
(Montreal, Canada)

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