Ladies and gentlemen we are currently in a human rights crisis. I am not speaking of any of the troubles in the Middle East or Africa I am speaking about something that is occurring in our own backyard.
Currently in this province there are hundreds of people with disabilities being wherhoused in institutions simply because they require assistance with the activities of daily living that able-bodied /nuro typical people enjoy.
I currently live in one of these institutions because the government has informed me I have no other option. When asked what the government is doing to correct this injustice their responses is something along lines of “we”re working on it”. I am extremely fortunate because I have the ability to speak up for myself and my rights, many people I live with do not have this ability, and due to a lack of resources are medicated and put in a corner sometimes literally. I have myself have faced physical violence as well as sexual assault at the hands of residence in my home. I consider myself very fortunate because my caregivers have never done violence against me. As far as I know no one in this institution has experienced violence at the hands of caregivers, but this is not the case In every home.
In a meeting I attended yesterday I heard stories of being dragged by the hair across the floor, being drugged when someone was in serious pain not to stop the pain but so that she would stop screaming. I’ve also heard stories of people with intellectual disabilities being called retarded or idiots by staff. In one case an 11-year-old boy died because the nursing home he lived in did not want to deal with him because of his complex issues so placed him in a hospital where he caught an infection and later died. I could go on and on but that’s not the point of this blog. I ask you is this how we treat Canadian citizens? Simply because someone is different does that make their lives worth any less than yours? Would you want to be locked away and to be treated in certain cases less than human? Of course not! If this was happening in a foreign country citizens would be outraged and demand action. Along with telling the disabled community they’re working on it they say that it is just too hard, to them I say the following:
If I let everything that was hard stop me I would never get anything done. I don’t use that as an excuse and neither should you.
Victoria Levack 