It is hard to believe that it has been more than 11 years since the day of my injury in 1996. These years went by very quickly, and I must say they were full of pain, suffering, and depression. I got my injury at work doing repetitive heavy lifting and excessive air gun use working for a large manufacturer. Since then I have been fighting my claim to get proper compensation from WSIB, but so far things are not resolving. I have lost my health and so much time going through this endless battle, and at the same time trying to understand how it works and what went wrong in my case.

Through the years, I have been involved with the injured workers movement at Injured Workers' Consultants, attending many meetings and part of many events, and I was involved in the participatory research action project that Michael Polanyi and Bonnie Kirsh had organized some time ago. Then I became very interested in becoming part of RACCWI to share my experience, to learn and to support other injured workers.

I have learned a lot from other injured workers, community leads and our academic participants, and the more I know, the more responsibility I feel towards other fellow workers. My goal is not only to fight my claim, but to be a helping tool to a better and fairer system. I am hoping that one day can be more effective towards my community and especially new immigrant workers so they can be aware and educated about workers? compensation before they launch into the work force.