Disability and poverty go hand in hand

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Byline

Many Canadians assume people with disabilities are well provided for. Few understand that disability and poverty are synonymous. Disability can lead to poverty and poverty can lead to disability.

Harry Wolbert, disability activist

By HARRY WOLBERT, For the Winnipeg Sun

In less than a year, Manitobans, and possibly Canadians, will again head to the polls.

There are certain issues that are bound to surface again. They are poverty, housing and the closure of institutions for people with disabilities.

Disability poverty is an unacknowledged reality. Advocates and disability organizations have been calling for social policy reforms that would eradicate poverty.

One of the proposed reforms is for the introduction of a Basic Income Plan for Canadians with severe disabilities. The foundation of this plan is a new federal Basic Income program that would replace provincial and territorial social assistance for most working age people with severe disabilities. The disability community is also asking Ottawa to covert the existing non-refundable disability tax credit into a refundable disability tax credit. Continue reading →

Disability Community Needs PALS in 2011

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Byline

Scrapped mandatory census cuts even deeper for disability advocacy group

Laurie Beachell, national co-ordinator of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities

Council of Canadians with Disabilities – Statistics Canada’s Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) is the most important and comprehensive source of disability statistics in Canada and is seen as a best practice model internationally. CCD is concerned that Human Resources Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) has not yet committed funding for a PALS for the 2011 census.

It is crucial that PALS continue so that governments and community have the information and research needed to develop good policy and programs. It should be noted that upon ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Canada will be obligated to collect data on the socioeconomic status of persons with disabilities.

PALS and its predecessor HALS have been, and remain, extremely valuable survey tools. No other survey provides the range and depth of statistically reliable information about:

Continue reading →

You are one paycheck away from poverty

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Being on social assistance is often the result of mid-life disability over which people have no control

A recent Guardian Commentary resurrected some of the negative stereotypes of the past, quoting,

“Social Services, on the other hand, deals with the failures and fall-outs from all other social systems, beginning with dysfunctional families and going on to where health, education, attorney general (corrections), and community services have failed.”

In one sentence, the writer characterized those on social services as “failures”. “fall-outs”, “dysfunctional”, and rejects from prison. What is he thinking?

This is so far from the truth it is an affront to people who need social assistance to survive. For PEI’s disability community, social assistance is often the only way they survive from month to month. The problem exists across Canada and only varies in severity by Province.

Continue reading →

Should we give money to panhandlers?

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Byline

Alberta government’s new plan to discourage people from giving money to panhandlers and give to agencies instead

Anti-panhandling poster, Calgary Downtown Association

by Stephen Gaetz, Homeless Hub

The Government of Alberta has announced its intention to put forward a plan that encourages people to refrain from giving money to panhandlers, and instead to give those resources to agencies serving people who are homeless.

While many people may be annoyed at the sight of panhandlers, we need to dig a little deeper to understand what is driving this initiative. At the root of many people’s negative responses to panhandling are prejudices about homeless people, and why they panhandle in the first place. Is this same prejudice driving government policy?

The Alberta Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Jonathan Denis says: “Most people think if they are giving to panhandlers they are helping the problem, but they are hurting the problem. Almost 80% of money going to panhandlers goes to negative habits — drugs, alcohol, gambling — anything that can be destructive.” Continue reading →

Welfare income for disabled on PEI falls

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Disabled on PEI living on welfare at 57% of the poverty line

After tax LICO for person with disability on PEI

The National Council of Welfare has published statistics that show people with disabilities on PEI are living 43% below the LICO poverty line (or low-income cut-off).

People with disabilities were receiving almost 90% of the assistance they needed in 1992. Reforms to the welfare system on PEI hit the disabled hard and their situation deteriorated significantly since then.

Since 2003 the disabled have been living at 57% of the after-tax LICO.

The majority of Islanders on welfare are in that situation because they can’t find employment due to their disabilities. Continue reading →

Harper’s attack on the census: bad news for the poor

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Byline

Scrapping census will allow Harper Conservatives to shape policies that make the rich richer

Linda McQuaig, writer and social commentator

By Linda McQuaig, Rabble.ca – We hear a great deal about the lives of the rich, much of it sympathetic and often fawning.

Even Conrad Black, despite his history of anti-Canadian outbursts, is treated almost fondly by commentators who generally have a hard-hearted, tough-on-crime attitude toward less well-heeled felons.

The poor rarely get such sympathetic attention; indeed they rarely get much attention at all. And they’re soon to get even less.

That is the real reason for the Harper government’s decision to scrap the long-form census matters, and why the debate over it is more than a bizarre obsession with statistics in this overheated summer. Continue reading →

Harper Government makes direct attack on Canada’s disabled

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Cancellation of PALS 2011 will set back the process of providing human rights to 4 million Canadians with disabilities

Prime Minister Stephen Harper getting ready to kick cripples

PRLog – Losing PALS 2011 is a major blow to Canadians living with disabilities. It can only indicate that Prime Minister Harper intends to dismantle the existing supports for Canada’s disabled.

What kind of a bully picks on cripples?

The long-form census controversy is stirring many Canadians. The Globe and Mail reported a small part of the cancellation that will hurt the 4 million Canadians living with Disabilities. Scrapped mandatory census cuts even deeper for disability advocacy group Continue reading →

20th Annivesary of the Americans With Disabilities Act

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Stephen Pate

54 million Americans have a disability and are protected by the ADA, 4 million Canadians are still waiting

President Bush signed the ADA into law

PRLog - The civil rights of Americans living with disabilities were passed into law 20 years ago on July 20, 1990 by President George Bush Sr in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The law was meant to ensure that people with disabilities would not be discriminated in their employment, government services, housing and in the community. It granted them rights similar to the Civil Rights Act.

During the intervening years, the US Courts narrowly restricted the application of the ADA. President George Bush Jr. pushed through Congress and the Senate 1,100 pages of amendments to the ADA to ensure the law did protect them. The ADA Amended was signed by President Obama in 2009. Continue reading →

Scrapped mandatory census cuts even deeper for disability advocacy group

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Byline

Disability advocacy groups have major challenge ahead following cuts to the census and StatsCan’s disability survey

image: Abilities.ca

Campbell Clark, Globe and Mail

Making the long-form census voluntary instead of mandatory is not the first change to the way Statistics Canada collects data since the Conservatives took office. Several surveys have been discontinued.

The Participation and Activity Limitation Survey, Statscan’s major data collection on individuals with disabilities, was cut by the government department that paid for it, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

The Harper government has told advocacy groups a census-related survey that gathers statistics about disabilities will eventually be replaced by a database culled from tax information, welfare rolls and similar databanks – but there’s skepticism about whether that information will be as reliable. Continue reading →

Vancouver police abuse disabled woman

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Stephen Pate

What’s worse, the cop who pushes Sandy to the ground once or Canadian society keeps her on the ground for her whole life?

In June a woman with a disability was pushed to the street in Vancouver by a police officer. He walked away without helping her up.

While the Vancouver police department claims the incident was under investigation, the officers are still on the beat. We expect some official response that exonerates the officers will appear many months from now.

It’s clear from the video the woman has a disability. She has Cerebral Palsy (CP) which gives her a distinct walking pattern and affects her speech. She may sound intoxicated however anyone who has experience with CP can easily spot the symptoms. Continue reading →