Musselman’s Lake area resident Al Yetman, 74, has campaigned against Canada Post’s termination of rural mail delivery for two years. The campaign has even brought him inside a courtroom. He wants residents to make it an issue in Tuesday’s federal election.
Whitchurch-Stouffville
October 11, 2008 08:59 PM
Musselman’s Lake man battling for seniors, disabled during federal election
Amanda Persico
One man in Whitchurch-Stouffville carries the weight of undelivered mail on his shoulders.
For the past two years, Al Yetman, 74, has campaigned and gained support for a cause that affects more than 800,000 Canadians.
“I don’t intend to stop until something is done,” the Musselman’s Lake area resident said.
He is campaigning against Canada Post’s termination of rural mail delivery, a campaign that has even brought him inside a courtroom.
The main concern for Mr. Yetman, a former postal employee, is for seniors, being a senior himself, and people who are physically disabled, like his wife.
“Seniors have to walk up and down stairs, down the driveway, down the street, in the snow and ice,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s the taxpayers who will pay for (a senior’s) injury.”
He cites injuries such broken hips, the most common injury among seniors, as an unnecessary strain on the health care system.
For some seniors, their livelihood — pension cheques — comes through the mail, Mr. Yetman said, but getting to a community mailbox poses a dangerous problem.
Not only is getting to the mailbox during the winter months a hassle, but many community mailboxes are at intersections and do not offer parking spaces for those who cannot walk far.
His one-man battle calls for residents, who are forced to walk to community mailboxes, to contact local MPs and make this an election issue.
Last fall, a year after rural mail delivery was stopped in May 2006, Mr. Yetman filed a statement of claim with the courts, but his efforts went no where.
He claimed walking to the community mailbox, located on a busy street corner about one kilometre from his home, put his and his wife’s life in danger.
On his route to get his mail, which was once delivered to his mailbox at the end of his driveway, there are no sidewalks or a paved shoulder to walk along. There was a period when the community mailbox was even terminated, leaving Mr. Yetman mail-less for about a month.
Since then, mail service has been restored, but his mail is coming to a box adjacent to his neighbour’s mailbox.
“Just because (Canada Post) solved my problem doesn’t mean they solved the problem for others,” he said. “Let’s take the issue to Ottawa as one voice.”
To join Mr. Yetman’s campaign and petition, e-mail him at
zvpc@rogers.com For more information, call the Rural Mailbox Safety Assessment Information Line at 1-866-501-1669 or visit
www.canadapost.ca/ruralmail