“Senior after senior after senior, now eleven in a row, are being killed on urban crosswalks and roads that neglect to appropriately consider the needs of people who are slower movers…” The tireless Martyn Williams writes an open letter to the people who can and must fix this.
Patricia Neves of Inclusion Nova Scotia explains why she opposes Bill C-7, the terrible law that views a person’s disability as a reason to terminate life and essentially equates disability to suffering.
Signalized intersections are beyond doubt statistically the most dangerous place to cross the road, especially for people with mobility issues. The vast majority of signalized intersections in Halifax provide no dedicated infrastructure protection at all for pedestrians – just two faded white lanes and a legal right of way. Too many people have been killed there. Tell your councillor things must change.
I wasn’t planning for poetry this weekend, but that changed on the spot after reading this poem about ableism, Bill c-7, poverty, colonialism, and so much more, by the always brilliant Gabrielle Peters.
“Over the last year I watched my mom trying to escape Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and learned how the pandemic has increased the already substantial barriers for women trying to navigate the systems and resources.”
Judy HAiven: It turns out it’s not just university age women that party in bars who men rapists drug with rohypnol. Military men also spike women’s drinks with the date-rape drug. Likely this ensures a woman’s memory of the night before, of whom she met, whom she talked to and her knowledge of who raped her would vanish.
In her letter Brittanny Lynn raises the issues of inaccessible pathways and missing sidewalks in her own community in Pictou County, but we encounter the same problem in many places in rural Nova Scotia. People without cars and people with mobility issues are the ones most affected.
Catherine Frazee: “There is never a good day to pass a bill this dangerous to disabled people, but doing so today is cruel. We have been fighting this bill non-stop for months. And now, instead of a chance to catch our breath and remember a document that says our lives and rights are important and should be supported and respected, the Canadian government is determined to communicate they aren’t and won’t be.”
Bill C-7 expands Medical Assistance in Dying beyond those who are actually dying, but it only does so for persons with a disabling medical condition. In November of last year noted scholar Catherine Frazee addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice & Human Rights on the legislation via video. “What is it about disability that makes this okay,” Frazee asked. “Why such breathless confidence that Bill C-7 will bring no harm to disability communities?”
Today is the first day of the Disability Filibuster, a Canada-wide, round the clock protest against Bill C-7 by disabled people.