The National ME/FM Action Network
is an "Action" Organization
“We do not react to unfairness. We act for change.”
The Network seeks to effect positive change in the attitudes, policies and practices of government, medical regulating bodies, business and media.
Although we are an independent organization, we work cooperatively with all ME/CFS and FMS support groups. We would like to thank the many support groups who participated in various projects of ours when a united front was needed.
National Awareness Day Proclaimed in 1994
In 1994, the National ME/FM Action Network successfully lobbied the federal government to proclaim May 12th as National ME/ CFS Awareness Day. We had fibromyalgia included in 1995.
Petitions and Letter Campaigns
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Our Petitions with 15,000 Names, requesting official recognition for ME/CFS and FMS, were presented to the House of Commons by Members of Parliament from the various provinces.
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Members of Parliament Issued a Press Release on Behalf of People with ME/CFS and FMS.
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A Private Members Bill was presented to the House of Commons on our behalf.
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We have written letters on behalf of the ME/CFS and FMS community on numerous occasions addressing specific concerns.
Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Disability Benefits
- Developed Guidelines to aid patients in completing the Application Form for the CPP Disability.
Disability Tax Credit Revisions
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Minister of National Revenue asked our organization to make suggestions for revising the Disability Tax Credit. We lobbied to have applications reviewed and approved or denied at the time of submission. This revision was implemented. Previously it took one to two years to be reviewed, and if denied, patients had to pay back taxes.
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1996 Disability Tax Credit Form T2201 Revision: We requested that a note to doctors be added, indicating that if a patient takes an inordinate length of time to do a specific activity of daily living, then the answer to whether the patient can perform this activity is “No”. This suggestion was implemented.
Legal Intervener Status
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Applied for Intervener Status in Mackie v. Wolfe In a 1995 Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta decision, the judge questioned the existence of fibromyalgia as a disease entity. We applied for Intervenor Status to challenge whether it is the function of the court to rule on the existence or non-existence of a disease. The Honourable Mr. Justice J. A. Kerans (Alberta Court of Appeal) kindly gave us what we requested without further court proceedings (Intervener Status). He stated in his judgment that we could not be adversely affected as the court “will not, in this appeal, and as a matter of law, say that there is or is not such a thing as fibromyalgia. That is not our function.” He ended his judgment with an apology to patients who may have been adversely affected.
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Granted Intervener Status in Lowe v. Guarantee Insurance The National ME/FM Action Network applied for and was granted Intervener Status by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Lowe v. Guarantee Insurance Company of North America. The Court of Appeal Order of Mr. Justice Lane, on September 2, 2003 disentitled the Plaintiff’s right to pursue an action for negligence and bad faith in the exercise of a statutory duty by a Designated Assessment Centres (DAC) doctor. We too this important issue to court on behalf of the ME/CFS and FMS communities.
The Intervener Status Judgment was handed down on July 15, 2005. The judgement is quite complicated but it basically supports our position that DAC assessors must be neutral and unbiased. We would like to thank and congratulate our lawyer, Mr. Hugh Scher, for a job well done. He is writing an article explaining the outcome and its implication. We will post his article as soon as it is ready.
The following letters and articles explain the importance of the Intervener Status:
Hugh Scher explains the judgment.