The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 · Page 7 CASSE founder remembered as passionate, dedicated BY DANIEL SCHWAB Olive Smith, the founder of CASSE (Canadians sking for Social Security quality), died March 28 at he age of 77. She began CASSE with a mall group in Essex in 996 after changes to the anada-U.S. Tax Treaty esulted in a higher tax buren for Canadian retirees ollecting United States ocial Security benefits. About 85,000 Canadian esidents were affected by he increase, said CASSE ember Bill Thrasher. "It was a devastating low," he said. "Some peole had to move from nursng homes. Some people old us their spouses died rom grief." remembers Thrasher mith as "a real fighter" for he cause. He first met Smith after xpressing his concerns in letter to the editor of a ocal newspaper. A few ays later, Smith sent a imilar letter and within a ew weeks, more and more eople were also writing. It was then that Thrasher eceived a call from Smith, sking him to form a group o petition the government bout the increase. It started with a group of ive or six seniors getting ogether to determine a lan of action. Soon after, he group held a public eeting that drew about 00 supporters. During the eeting, Smith was ecstatic" at the turnout and greed to become the chairerson of CASSE, Thrasher aid. Another meeting in indsor followed, drawing bout 2,000 people. The group continued its ause and eventually met ith former prime minister aul Martin. The Canada-U.S. Tax reaty was subsequently mended so that retirees living in Canada were subject to paying tax in Canada on 85 per cent of their U.S. Social Security income. But it was still causing hardship for many retirees, Thrasher said. "Instead of taxing 50 per cent of social security benefits like before, they were now taxing 80 per cent," he said. "It helped people but it never got them back to where they were." Recently, Essex MP Jeff Watson has continued the CASSE campaign with his Private Member's Bill C305, which would allow Social Security pensioners to claim only 50 per cent of their U.S. Social Security income for tax purposes. "Olive Smith is certainly one of the most caring and compassionate people I've met," Watson said. "When that tax hike was introduced, she was rallying. She went above and beyond the call of duty. Essex County is certainly going to miss her." Smith worked for a U.S. based trucking company. After starting CASSE, she received phone calls from thousands of retired Canadians in distress, Thrasher said. "She listened, gave advice and even drove people from Windsor to a social security office," Thrasher said. "She was absolutely amazing. A lot of lower income people can thank Olive Smith for her drive and dedication." essexfreepress@on.aibn.com with your comments at: E-mail: