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Happy Access Awareness Week everyone!

For those of you who are unaware, access awareness week is a time that the disability community gets together to celebrate it’s victories in improving accessibility for all individuals in their community. Before I go any further I would like to plan out that accessibility is not only about accessible spaces physically but making sure that all individuals have the same opportunities regardless of neurological or physical differences.

Nova Scotia has had an accessibility week for decades but for the first time ever there is now a national accessibility week because of the new Accessible Canada Act set to go into effect next month. As thrilling as it is for us to be able to have this legislation which for undoubtedly improve the lives of thousands of Canadians and allows them to be full citizens, it is important to remember that legislation is only the first step.

What I mean is, now that we have this legislation it is important to make sure that it is enforced and taken seriously. After all, legislation changes faster than peoples attitudes and unfortunately many people still view people with disabilities as fundamentally different from themselves. Now that we have this legislation it is more important than ever to change this mindset because as of right now the topic of disabled individuals being full citizens in their communities is more in the public consciousness than ever before. There are many ways to do this and I would caution against doing it in any formal way as this can be seen as preachy. I think the best way to do this is to go about our daily lives and treat people the way we wish to be treated. I know this seems simplistic but it is the simplest things that have the most impact and they are certainly less draining on a persons energy. Trust me as someone in the advocacy community being frustrated and angry is very tiring so I try to limit that as much as possible.

Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate us all on a job well done and I look forward to continuing this work with my community. We’ve proven it can be done so let’s keep doing it!

Hi everybody,

I wanted to make this a very positive space for discussion and education. However, the world is not very positive right now and I can no longer ignore it. For those of you who are unaware, Alabama recently passed a bill banning almost all abortions including for rape and incest cases. When I heard this yesterday I was horrified. I am a firm believer in bodily autonomy and this takes it away from women. What do a group of mostly male politicians know about being pregnant? That would be like me trying to regulate the economy. What’s even scarier is that most of these politicians who support this bill don’t even know how a female body works. One politician believed that you knew that you were pregnant right away. This is of course not true. You would not know you’re pregnant until you miss a period and then go buy a test. Another politician believed that you can re-plant an ectopic pregnancy, you cannot. This type of situation can be very dangerous for the mother and has to be dealt with right away by removing the fertilized egg or whatever stage the group of cells happens to be in at the time.

I know this probably goes without saying but I’m going to let you know anyway. Forcing a victim of rape or incest to carry the rapist”s fertilized egg in her body is just plain wrong. You are forcing this survivor to remember her attack for at least nine months if not her entire life. Why are you punishing the woman for being attacked? She had no say in whether or not she took the risk of becoming pregnant. Let’s say she decides to keep the child for whatever reason, she will be forced to look into the eyes of someone who reminds her of her attacker every day. I don’t know about you but I would find it extremely difficult if not impossible to love that child which of course would lead to a very unhealthy childhood which no one deserves.

Many people who become pregnant may not be able to afford the cost of raising a child which is very expensive. As a result that child will be forced to live in poverty and not have opportunities available to more affluent individuals. Unless the government is going to pay entirely for that child’s welfare they should have no say in whether that embryo becomes a human. Furthermore, it’s not only the child who will suffer the consequences but the mother as well. If a girl becomes pregnant while still in high school for example, she may not be able to finish school which will of course make it harder for her to find a job to support herself and her child. As far as I’m concerned forcing a woman to give birth benefits no one. Before someone says “but what about the children!?”I ask you is a life of poverty and resentment what any child deserves? If you care about children at all your answer should be “of course not.”

Now I know this is not happening in Canada. To that my answer is “not yet”. With the wave of conservatism taking over our country’s government I fear the land of the glorious and free may not last. I urge every single Canadian to fight for our sisters to the south as well as ourselves. Complacency is no longer an option. When I say fight I do not mean acts of violence but to protest through acts of civil disobedience and by combating ideas with logic and reason.

Thousands of women and men fought for the rights we have today. I believe it is our duty as citizens to ensure that their hard work is not dismantled and to go forward not back.

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.