to this user and everyone else who has lost their empathy and compassion for our people.
being “mentally ill” or a patriot, doesn’t excuse you from being racist.
our land, and our children, has been defiled and stolen. the country in which you stand so proudly behind has committed atrocities against us. are our lives not worth more than your picnics and parties? your fireworks and your pride?
For anyone who doesn’t know what’s going on in Canada right now (which, let’s be real, is probably everyone who’s not in Canada):
This week, a mass grave was discovered at a former Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, BC. The grave contained the bodies of 215 Indigenous children.
For people outside of North America, residential schools were places that Indigenous children were sent to, to have their language and culture stripped away from them. They were literally stolen from their families, and scattered across Canada, to ensure that they would be surrounded by children who didn’t speak their language. They were given Christian names and forced to speak English. They were horrendously abused, and the survivors have been traumatized.
Hundreds of children never returned. The assumption has always been that they died. This has now been confirmed.
The school in Kamloops closed in 1978. They are now trying to identify bodies to inform family members. The last residential school closed in the 1990s. There is growing demand to search all of them, but the government hasn’t responded to that, as of yet. Ottawa JUST gave in to pressure to fly the Canada flag at half mast. They weren’t even going to do that.
This is the reality if anti-Indigenous racism in Canada. The residential schools may be closed, but that hasn’t stopped the abduction of Indigenous children, let alone the hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
In Ontario, disability (ODSP) payments are so far below the poverty line that people on disability are seeking out medical assistance in death (MAID). The only thing our premier has to say about it is that disabled people should just work if they wanna get out of poverty so bad.
Ewald’s payments total $1,169 per month to cover rent, food, and other essentials. He tells CityNews he will apply for MAID if his situation gets worse and knows several others who are doing the same.
“I’m not suicidal. Sometimes it’s a choice between burning to death and jumping out of a high-rise building. I’d like to have that choice. I’ve suffered. I really don’t want to suffer past a certain point,” said Ewald. “I wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t so stuck in this situation with ODSP.”
[…] He tells CityNews he survives, as many do, by learning the “ODSP diet.” For some, it’s not much more than a potato a day, while others drink coffee because caffeine is an appetite suppressant.
[…] “For the people who are unable to work, for any reason, be it physically, mentally, I will always be there to support them,” said Ford. “But the people who can work in any capacity at all, there’s endless jobs in every sector and the best way to help someone who can work is to get them a job.”
[…] The Ontario NDP and The Green Party of Ontario have promised to raise rates if elected this June, while the Liberals have yet to make an announcement on the issue.
Aside from being callous ableist bullshit, Ford’s response ignores that:
- getting approved for ODSP is a NOTORIOUSLY gruelling and difficult process - there are far too many people with serious and documented disabilities that STILL can’t get ODSP, so this alleged “issue” of “people who could work but are on ODSP instead” is extra-ridiculous
- if he’s implying that people should be working while receiving ODSP - YOUR SUPPORT IS REDUCED IF YOU MAKE TOO MUCH MONEY! Even if you are able to work a LITTLE (although if you got approved you probably aren’t, see previous point), anything over a very low threshold (around $200 per month as per the link below) is going to reduce your ODSP payments. The extra amount you could earn is absolutely not enough to lift ODSP recipients out of poverty.
I don’t know if I’ve seen God, or not. (Would you know if you had?) But I have seen gods. Chris must be one of them. If this work isn’t sacred, what is?
