People With Disabilities Trapped In Their Homes After Storm

By Stephen Pate – Recent snow storms have trapped people with disabilities and seniors in their homes all over Canada and the United States.  In the photo above a long line of people queue for groceries after record 30″ (76 cm) snowfall.

A simple trip to the grocery store becomes impossible when you have to push a wheelchair through a few inches of snow in and out of a store. Worrying about each footstep becomes a nightmare for seniors.

In Newfoundland huge lines formed outside a supermarket as people queue for groceries after record 30″ (76 cm) snowfall. There were no wheelchair users in the line. Seniors and people with disabilities are still locked in their homes. While local news reported seniors and people with disabilities needed help, CBC News didn’t find the story newsworthy.

Seniors and people with disabilities know the snow makes it impossible for them to move around. The situation is the same for the visually impaired and other disabilities. Walking in winter even for those with milder forms of mobility impairment is a high effort and risky job, especially after storms.

I live on Prince Edward Island where we had a small part of the Newfoundland storm about 8″ of snow. Yet I couldn’t drive downtown to an appointment on Monday because there was no on-street parking. My wheelchair can’t go through snow, my power wheelchair is in for repairs and my last resort crutches are good for 20 feet of careful walking. I’m one of the lucky ones who after 20 years of disability has developed multiple ways to cope with winter.

Some of Charlottetown’s streets continue to be snow-covered after the weekend’s snowfall. (Sarah MacMillan/CBC)

What was the lead story on the CBC PEI local news yesterday, seniors and disabled trapped in their homes? Sorry, the story was about downtown merchants who wanted their on-street parking cleaned sooner. “While the doors are open at Liquid Gold in downtown Charlottetown, the olive oil shop’s owner says it can be difficult to get customers through the door on snowy days.” Uncleared parking spots, snowbanks affecting some Charlottetown businesses

How tone deaf is that? Trudeau’s beard and on street parking are big news for the publicly funded CBC.  What about some stories vital to 25,000 Islanders with disabilities? They can’t get out after storms because the sidewalks aren’t fit to walk, or they can’t push a wheelchair through snow, slush or ice.

A few merchants trump 25,000 people because CBC is tone deaf. I suspect from my story and those of others the CBC has anti-disability bias. Americans call it abelist – “treating people unfairly because they have a disability (= an illness, injury, or condition that makes it difficult for them to do things that most other people can do.” Cambridge Dictionary

CBC regularly retires anyone who is disabled instead of accommodating their disability. One of the news cameramen on PEI was forced to retire early when he couldn’t carry the 70 lb camera, despite their being newer and lighter cameras. The ableist streak is so deep that when I got my press accreditation 12 years ago, the CBC conspired to have it removed. The CBC and Transcontinental (owner of The Guardian newspaper) spent 6 years fighting my human rights complaint to get it back, costing them over $250,000. It’s important at the CBC to keep the disabled in their place, at home and silent.

Governments respond to media pressure.  Media coverage will ensure street cleaned for merchant parking sooner than ways for people with disabilities to go shopping in winter. Just like we will likely get medically assisted death of people with disabilities sooner than assistance helping people with disabilities to live meaningful, pain free lives. There are hundreds of stories in Canada every week on medically assisted death and rarely any on the socialization of people with disabilities.