Dear Reader, I have not disappeared, though I am transforming. Long-time followers of my blog may know that this space has undergone several metamorphosizes over its lifetime. One of my earliest and most popular posts heralds back from 2009, The Invisible Backpack of Able-Bodied Privilege Checklist. It too has revised and changed over time, as … Continue reading The Story of Where I’ve Been
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Recognize the Right to Housing in Law
Canadians have been urging their governments to recognize housing as a human right for over a decade. Last year, the federal government introduced Canada’s National Housing Strategy and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that “housing rights are human rights”. Now public consultations on the National Housing Strategy’s human rights-based approach to housing are underway until June 2018. The Government of Canada wants to hear what you have to say about the key elements of a human rights-based approach to housing, the proposed approach to new legislation, and new concepts to be explored.
We believe that the federal government MUST recognize that housing is a human right in law. Canada signed international agreements that must be upheld. We need clear remedies to hold our government accountable to their promise. Without recognition of the right to housing in law, a human-rights based approach to housing is merely symbolic.
Click on this link to send…
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My Letter to Mayor Tory regarding Accessibility for the TTC in the 2018 Budget
Dear Mayor Tory, I write to you as a concerned citizen of Ward 6 Etobicoke-Lakeshore, and the City of Toronto, to request your support to continue with some accessible buses on the 501 streetcar line and other streetcar lines, and for shuttle bus service for major elevator disruptions, and that these items be reflected in … Continue reading My Letter to Mayor Tory regarding Accessibility for the TTC in the 2018 Budget
Canada responds to years of pressure from community advocates by recognizing housing as a human right
Reposted from Right to Housing.
ACTO and the Right to Housing Coalition applaud recognition of right to housing in National Housing Strategy
November 24, 2017 (TORONTO) — For over seven years, the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) and the Right to Housing Coalition – alongside housing advocates from across the country, including those with lived experience of homelessness – have pressed for a National Housing Strategy and the recognition in law of the right to housing. Those demands have finally been heard by the federal government in their announcement of a National Housing Strategy.
“The courts repeatedly blocked our efforts to have these rights recognized under existing laws. But the community organizing on the ground sent a loud message to the government that enough is enough,” says ACTO lawyer Tracy Heffernan, one of the legal counsel in the historic Charter challenge. “The fight isn’t over just yet. Until new legislation is adopted by…
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Tell Canada’s Prime Minister to make affordable housing a human right!
Support the Fight for Affordable Housing, and make sure we include accessible housing too #Canpoli #RightToHousing https://www.acto.ca/campaign/right-to-housing/
The Canadian government has promised to fix the affordable housing crisis with Canada’s first ever National Housing Strategy. From June to October 2016, the Federal government asked Canadians to share their thought on the future of housing in Canada. They summarized their findings in What We Heard: Shaping Canada’s National Housing Strategy.
The federal government promised to invest new funds in the next 11 years through the National Housing Strategy, to tackle the affordable housing crisis. This fall, they will unveil the National Housing Strategy.
We believe that access to safe, adequate and affordable housing is a basic human right. And we want to make sure that our National Housing Strategy will guarantee everyone the fundamental right to housing.
Take action now! Click here to tell PM Justin Trudeau to make safe, adequate and affordable housing for all in Canada a legislated human right.
For more information:
Mind the…
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Accessibility Now Rally: October 11th
Join us Wednesday, October 11, 2017 starting at 4pm at Yonge & Bloor (north east corner) as Community takes to the streets to advocate for #accessibilityNOW
The list is extensive concerning barriers that TTC maintain/create thus breaching the AODA, Human Rights Code, Charter of Rights & Freedoms. Here are 8 that reflect an overall concern:
- Structural/Discriminatory Barriers – Presto Gates – the 1 or 2 installed in a station are significantly less than the inaccessible gates that are installed in the same station (think 1960s drinking fountains: ‘whites only vs colored’)
- Psychological Barriers – doing the very least so it can be said it was done – installing the least number of elevators (usually 1) in subway stations in order to claim/identify that that station is accessible. When that 1 elevator is no longer working, that station is no longer accessible.
- Attitudinal Barriers – failing to be proactive about ensuring…
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Metro News covers Elevator Situation
Metro news wrote an article on the elevator situation in my building. There's some great points in here about the importance of prompt elevator service, and a small mention of the Toronto Disability Pride March as well. Thank you Metro News! Read my original post.
Disabled People have better stories to tell
My proposed line-up of disability-themed movies: A group of crip sisters sharing stories of their struggles through the years, and how their crip sisterhood helped them through it. Maybe those crip sisters are on a spaceship, as part of a rebellion. Two young disabled people from divided houses fall in love. In an act of … Continue reading Disabled People have better stories to tell
Life, death, dignity, and the state
Originally posted at Socialist.ca Note: Since this article was originally posted April 13th, the text of Bill C-14 has since been released. It is still in it's preliminary form, and will likely change before it becomes law. The right to choose when and how we die, on its surface, may seem like something the government … Continue reading Life, death, dignity, and the state
Have Cane, Will Strut: Black Disabled Woman
Too good not to share, from SlowWalkersSeeMore
As a disabled Black woman born with a neuromuscular disability, I’m often asked “what are you?” and “what happened to you?” You know when you “appear” racially-ambiguous folks need to figure out how to categorize while casting a slight side-eye or sometimes smizing out of curiosity. Tis a funny thing to be straight-faced *giggles* with a not-so-straight gait.
Oh how they wait for the reply with eyes growing wide while dining on lines to describe your biology while scanning the expanse of your anatomy. The need to place you in a category and define who you will be, nothing in their frame of reference culled from mainstream imagery.
Let me tell you…
I’m a wool fedora pulled forward. I’m a calm struggle whose cadence is complicated. Staccato-strutting through life cracked, whole, complete with each clickety-clack of my cane tapping down the street. And my effort and pace solidifies occupancy of space…
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Sit Down, Fight Back 