Roger Fowler has been fighting for 26 years for compensation for the cancer he says was caused by the many years he worked amid asbestos and chemicals at the General Electric plant in Peterborough.

His hopes were raised earlier this year when the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board promised to take another look at some 250 previously rejected cases.

Then, last Friday, Fowler received a call from the WSIB and was told that, yet again, his case wouldn’t be reexamined — because it has been denied in the past.

“I was so upset I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat,” said the 71-year-old, bursting into tears several times while he spoke, adding he immediately reached out to his MPP but hasn’t heard back.

“I don’t know where I’m at or what’s going on.”

“It’s hell” for the hundreds of workers who believe they developed cancer and other illnesses from working at the plant, whose claims for compensation were dismissed by the WSIB — often despite strong medical evidence — and who are left waiting for reconsideration of their cases, he added.

Another 70-plus new cases are now also in limbo.

In this video, originally published in Dec., 2016, Roger Fowler, a former GE employee, reads one of his poems during the Celebration of Life, an annual event by former GE employees to honour those who have died of ca

Fowler, who has had a number of surgeries and now suffers from recurring hernias, was among a small group who came to Queen’s Park on Wednesday to urge the government to take action.

The Labour Ministry had promised $2 million in funding for a special, locally based team to help workers build their claims, which they were later told was going to be cut to $1 million. In any event, the money still hasn’t materialized.

“We are here to demand the government quit breaking its promises,” said New Democrat MPP Cindy Forster (Welland), her party’s labour critic. “It has made a number of promises to this group of workers, their families and their widows this year. Since March, they have been promised that cases were going to be reviewed and that there was going to be funding” available to help prepare them.

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A 2016 Star investigation uncovered the “lethal legacy” of the plant. Earlier this year, a study by Unifor, the employees’ union, found that conditions in the GE plant contributed to an “epidemic” of workplace illnesses for those who were employed between 1945 and 2000.

The Peterborough employees, the report found, were exposed to thousands of toxic substances — about 40 of them believed to cause cancer — at levels well beyond what is safe.

Aaron Lazarus, vice-president of communications for the WSIB, said that since 1993, about 80 per cent of the 2,400 claims regarding GE Peterborough were allowed. Critics, however, have raised concerns that the number of approved cancer claims is much lower.

Given updated information and new science on the risks of exposure, “we have responded to community concerns by launching a review of more than 250 claims,” Lazarus said, adding he anticipates all cancer-related claims will be reviewed by early 2018.

“We are also encouraging anyone who believes they became ill because of their workplace but does not have a claim with us to file one.”

“If you look at the history of this, you’ve got a population of people that worked at GE that were exposed to chemicals in a way they simply should not have been,” Labour Minister Kevin Flynn told the Star on Wednesday.

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“They were let down by the health and safety associations that were supposed to help them, by the clinics that were supposed to help them, by their own trade union, by their employer and perhaps by the WSIB at the time.

“What I’ve tried to do is put in place a process that is going to deal with a majority of the outstanding claims — to deal with about 250 claims that I think we can get to very, very quickly and get the justice that these people deserve.”

Last month, the WSIB said a review team would look at both cancer and non-cancer-related claims. The agency also said it would look at claims from widows, widowers and children of former workers who died without realizing their deaths may have been linked to a workplace illness.

Flynn said a number of the 250 cases have been processed and benefits paid, and “we are closely monitoring this process to ensure that there is continued progress.”

He said money for a special team to help workers prepare claims for the WSIB is still being reviewed.

Some in the community are skeptical about the WSIB handling claims fairly, when it was the very body that denied workers in the first place.

However, Flynn said the WSIB “is an autonomous agency of the government. Only it can determine the process whereby workers’ benefits will be determined. We do continue to look at other methods of adjudicating claims more efficiently and fairly.”

The plant has employed tens of thousands of workers over its 125-year history in Peterborough, and their health and safety has always been the company’s “No. 1 priority,” GE has said.

The plant, which is slated to close, produced appliances, nuclear reactor fuel cells and locomotive engines.

Forster said the minister has made commitments, and must follow through.

“You have raised the hopes of all of these people who are ill, and all of these people who are worried about becoming ill, and not taking any action on it in a seven-month period of time” is despicable, she said.

“Nobody’s listening — that’s the hardest part for us to take in our little tight-knit community,” added Sue James, whose father worked at GE for 36 years. She herself worked there for 40. Her father died of lung and spinal cancer.

She said families have been pleading with different governments for years.

Her hope is that Flynn will allow automatic compensation for any claims from workers who were employed between 1945 and 2000, as he has said he’s considering.