BC Disability Caucus

Nothing About Us Without Us

That governments choose advisors to represent the disabled that aren't disabled themselves has been and continues to be a problem. The nondisabled representatives of charities , business, or government speak for themselves and / or the able bodied interests they represent.  

Nicholas Simons recently made clear that his accessibility committee may have no representative who are disabled.   The practice is ableist and incredibly offensive but also counter-productive since govts and their committees remain in ignorance through their own wilful blindness and inevitably harm the disabled because of their uninformed decisions. One wonders if Nicholas practices medicine, law., or maybe dentistry on people without meriting those roles through education because outcomes are unimportant to him?     

What are you and your party going to do differently to address the ongoing discrimination against disabled people in the labour force? #elxn44 #CdnPoli #CdnElxn21 #CdnElxn2021 #disabilityrights #disabled #BCpoli #OntPoli #QcPoli #employment #Discrimination #humanrights #CRPD #inclusion #employmentlaw #workplace #equality People tend to hire people who are like themselves. Employers have to become more inclusive in their hiring practices and in their workplaces. Many employers don't want to take the risk or the time to hire someone who they perceived to be "different"

Discrimination and the "us" vs "them" culture can happen anywhere. It depends on what the dominant workplace culture is and how inclusive and accepting they are.

Sadly, there are employers who will give any reason not to hire a disabled person or see them as a viable interview candidate. For example, highly skilled, university educated, qualified, and experienced people with disabilities, injuries, and other health conditions in Canada routinely get rejected for jobs including in fields where supposedly there are skill shortages. Many have had to take any job they could get just to survive or go on welfare. Their resumes then become a patchwork quilt of work experiences with a non progressive career history that so many employers and applicant tracking systems screen out. Many applicant tracking systems also screen out applicants that have gaps in employment and lack recent relevant career experience or the right job title. Some employers screen out the unemployed and those lacking recent relevant career experience. Transferable skills do not seem to be valued by many employers. Volunteer work to use those skills don't seem to be valued by many employers. Having those skills may be valued more if you acquired them from a more well known or prestigious employer. The more disabled jobseekers get pushed aside to participate fully in the economy and workforce, the more they are marginalized and the more talent is lost. An employer has to take a stand to actively hire people with disabilities. Thinking that perhaps the next employer will do it is only passing the buck. Written by Margo Victoria Bok, BCom, MBA Founder of the BC Association of Professionals with Disabilities Image text: No matter how much we talk about inclusive hiring practices, people still tend to hire people who are like them. Image description: A group of zebras

According to polling firm Leger, about 95 per cent of respondents understand the meaning of racism & sexism, while only a third can define ableism https://lnkd.in/gfbSGc2V 

What will you & your party do to address ableism in Canada? #CdnPoli #Elxn44 

“ Ableism is the discrimination towards someone based on their abilities and results in favouring those who do not have a disability. This creates the stigma that sees people with disabilities as being inferior to others – less worthy of respect and less able to contribute or participate. 

Ableism comes in many forms and is present in schools, workplaces and the media. We are asking the public to confront ableism head on so that impolite stares, name-calling, exclusionary activities or inaccessible public spaces are no longer barriers to a future where everybody belongs. "In order to help kids and youth with disabilities live their fullest lives possible, we all need to understand the meaning of ableism and how it occurs in words and language, actions and behaviours,” said Julia Hanigsberg, president and CEO, Holland Bloorview. 

“Everyone has a responsibility to bring ableism to the forefront of our collective thinking so that we can take the steps to seek it out and dismantle it.” Other findings from the Leger survey include: 

Almost 80 per cent of Canadians agree that society favours those that do not have a disability and 

70 per cent feel that society sees less value in those that have a disability.

About half admit that in everyday conversations they sometimes use terms like “lame” or “dumb” (ableist language) to describe a situation. 

Four-in-ten know what they can do in their day-to-day lives to combat ableism.”

“Power concedes nothing without a demand” 

- 2021 is our election to demand disability rights

Whereas issues of race, gender, gender identity & expression, and sexual orientation are widely accepted by virtually everyone concerned with human rights today, disability discrimination and oppression are still mostly ignored, even though disability rights are protected by the Charter, Human Rights Codes, and by the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and its optional protocol.

Ignoring a Whole Social Movement

The notions of disability rights are largely unknown among progressives and conservatives and yet are a living, breathing part of contemporary Canadian society. These rights notions are founded on the very simple concept that it is the structural and attitudinal barriers of society, not medical impairments, that prevent people with disabilities from achieving their rights. In other words, disability is largely a social construct determined by the cost-cutting constraints of an increasingly neoliberal capitalism. An entire social movement is out there fighting discrimination daily, but is ignored by both progressives, conservatives and the mainstream media.

This is no small problem. In virtually every area of social life, people with disabilities face systemic discrimination from employment to transportation to income levels to education and even in expressing their sexuality and their right to have relationships.. It should give pause that at least with respect to services, the Americans, with a militant, grassroots disability-rights movement and a strong Americans with Disabilities Act in place, have arguably removed more barriers more systematically than here in Canada. This is, in part, a result of direct-action tactics undertaken by the American disability-rights activists like ADAPT, that has engaged in confrontational in-your-face demonstrations to get their message heard.

Universities, colleges and public schools are another area where barriers, both physical and attitudinal, are systemic across Canada. It is not surprising that the unemployment rate for people with disabilities remains enormous, even with a robust economy over the last several years.

A Disability Rights Agenda

What, then, is to be done? Clearly the broad Left and Right need to pay more attention to disability rights. Disability is arguably the least well-theorized of the "new social movements," yet astonishingly, most activists on the Right or Left, whether they are feminists, Greens or anti-poverty activists, or those in business, politics, or civil society they have and display little or no interest in the topic. Publications on the Left and Right rarely write about it. While even the most sectarian of Left or Right organizations have been forced to at least reconsider their approach to race, gender and sexual identity, few have anything to say about disability politics and disability rights. On a practical level, meetings, be they about globalization or feminism, the climate crisis or gay rights, politics, business or social change are often held at notoriously inaccessible locations, without captioning or sign language with embarrassed apologies issued after the fact. Material in alternative formats for those with visual impairments is often only available late or not at all.

There is so much work to be done, theoretical and practical, that only the most tentative of projects can be outlined here. However, one crucial item that merits consideration is providing disabled people with an adequate standard of living and social protection. In order to function as full and equal citizens, people with disabilities need an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families sufficient for housing, food, clothing, clean water, and affordable access to services, devices, and assistance for their disability related needs. Yet, as the debate is currently framed, the voices of disabled people are excluded and restrained.

Our article 28 right to an adequate standard of living and social protection was removed from the provincial government’s “Accessibility Through Legislation” consultations by the government and its government funded service providers and advisers (such as the large disability charities and business groups) There is no reason why progressives and conservatives (other than fear and disinterests) cannot form a cohesive alliance with disability-rights advocates to campaign for the full implementation of our rights under the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities beginning with our article 28 rights.

Thus, social actors of all stripes need to support disability-rights activists in their day-to-day struggles, systematically incorporate disability rights analysis in all things disability related, and continually strive to ensure that disabled people are fully included in all areas of society.

Ableism

Discrimination in favor of nondisabled people; prejudice against or disregard of the needs of disabled people.

Articles

How should we approach unintentional ableism? Erin Ball. October 12, 2019 Saturday, Kingston Whig-Standard. (Image: Erin Ball performing at the St. John's International Circus Fest) https://www.thewhig.com/opinion/columnists/unintentional-ableism

Ableism In The Workplace: When Trying Harder Doesn’t Work https://www.forbes.com/sites/drnancydoyle/2019/11/24/ableism-in-the-workplace-when-trying-harder-doesnt-work/?fbclid=IwAR1x1NVh7pRXfXjEeUH3UCbrzc9HA0FySZybLU_lMjgKC-2rEHZOrus-3Jk#6997a8bd15ae

I face ableism in the workplace: What I wish my company did differently https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/i-face-ableism-in-the-workplace-and-heres-what-i-wish-my-company-did-differently?fbclid=IwAR0UpIE5ncuosV8RfiwDxTHA2FvG65DloAjUEswuA1pl_2VOPIBrXNWNIpM

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The BC Disability Caucus

Advancing the interests of BC's disabled

2020 is our year to demand disability rights "Power concedes nothing without a demand" - Frederick Douglass

#DisabilityRights #CRPD #CndPoli #BCPoli #nspoli #ontpoli #abpoli #nlpoli 

#skpoli #mbpoli #nbpoli #NWTpoli #qcpoli #nspolitics #peipoli #YKpoli

#humanrights #justice #law #inclusion #diversity #disabled #politicsandlaw 

#rights #vanpoli #discrimination #politics #democracy #equality

#prejudice #pwd #multicultural #exclusions #bc #ableism #elderly

#seniors #wealthtax #housingcrisis #neoliberalism #legalobligations 

#accessibility #raisetherates #disability #wealthinequity #incomeinequity 

Canada gives less financial support to disabled people than they receive in most OECD countries See: OECD (2021), Public spending on incapacity (indicator). doi: 10.1787/f35b71ed-en (Accessed on 23 March 2021) https://lnkd.in/gVp6Vyp “Public spending on incapacity refers to spending due to sickness, disability and occupational injury. It includes disability cash benefits that are comprised of cash payments on account of complete or partial inability to participate gainfully in the labour market due to disability. The disability may be congenital, or the result of an accident or illness during the victim’s lifetime. It also includes spending on occupational injury and disease, which records all cash payments such as paid sick leave, special allowances and disability related payments such as pensions, if they are related to specific occupational injuries and diseases. Sickness cash benefits related to loss of earnings because of a temporary inability to work due to illness are also recorded. This indicator excludes paid leave related to sickness or injury of a dependent child which is recorded under family cash benefits. Social expenditure on services for the disabled people encompasses services such as day care and rehabilitation services, home-help services and other benefits in kind. This indicator is measured in percentage of GDP.” #disability #humanrights #cdnpoli #bcpoli #ontpoli #crpd BC Disability Caucus Nicholas Simons, MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast #elxn44 #CdnElxn2021 #disabled #ykpoli #QcPoli #OntPoli #DisabilityBenefits #Poverty #abpoli #CRPD #SecureTheFuture #BeDaring #Agirpourlavenir #nlpoli #mbpoli 

Why do disabled Canadians living on provincial disability assistance have fewer rights than other Canadians not on such assistance?

Because it’s permitted to treat those on provincial social assistance / welfare differently from other Canadians under Section 6 - Mobility Rights -  Subsection 3 - Limitation - of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This can include their ability to: be married; travel outside their province; earn and keep income; be eligible or ineligible for disability based on family income and assets; and keep income streams that are not clawed back.

What will your party do to address the ableism in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

Federal Election 2021

#justice #government #law #CdnPoli #HumanRights #YKPoli #BCPoli #nspoli #ontpoli #abpoli #nlpoli #skpoli #mbpoli #NWTpoli #qcpoli #nspolitics #peipoli #CRPD #CdnElxn21 #Elxn44 #Elxn2021 #Charter

#rights #Disabled #disability #clawbacks #welfare #DisabilityBenefits

#MarriageEquality #Family #Travel #income #discrimination

Liberal Party of Canada • Parti Libéral du Canada Justin Trudeau

Conservative Party of Canada Erin O'Toole

New Democratic Party of Canada Jagmeet Singh

Green Party of Canada • Le Parti vert du Canada  Annamie Paul

Parti Québécois  Yves-François Blanchet  

#FightingForYou #SecureTheFuture #BeDaring #Agirpourlavenir

Disabled Canadians typically pay extra or go without healthcare they need.