On the Wrong Track: A Critical Conversation about Track 2 MAiD

The podcast discusses the topic of medical assistance in dying (MAID) for people with disabilities in Canada. The host, Quinn, is an Indigenous disabled woman who is passionate about shedding light on this issue. The expansion of MAID in Canada now allows people with disabilities, based on disability alone, to access the service. However, there are concerns about the potential for coercion and the impact on vulnerable populations. Critics argue that MAID is not a treatment, but rather death for people who are not dying. A group of doctors and disability experts are voicing their concerns about the changes and the potential loss of doctors who cannot reconcile MAID with their oath to do no harm. The podcast aims to provide an intersectional analysis of how these changes will impact marginalized communities, particularly women with disabilities. From where I am recording this podcast, I acknowledge that my home in the beautiful area of Waskesiu on Treaty 6 territory. Treaty 6 includes the lands of the Nehiyawak, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, Anishinabe and the homeland of the Métis Nation. We pay our respect to the First Nations and Métis ancestors of this place and reaffirm our relationship with one another and that we are all treaty people. I am grateful to live, play, and work on this life-sustaining land in the area of Waskesui, Saskatchewan. Thank you for joining my podcast today. I’m Quinn - a 20 year old, Indigenous, disabled female. I use she/her pronouns. I’m providing a much neglected voice on a topic that might not cross the mind of the majority of Canadians…that is able-bodied Canadians. I am passionate about my topic - as it doesn’t get much attention…and it very drastically affects people with disabilities. This is my lived experience and I’m excited to add my voice. I’m not necessarily excited about the topic…because it has to do with dying. Like who is excited about dying? But you get my point. With that I want to warn you that my podcast will cover some really heavy topics including suicide, assisted death, the realities of living with complex disabilities, and experiences of marginalized people such as Indigenous and disabled people . If you are sensitive to these topics feel free to pause the podcast, perform acts of self-care, and come back to the podcast when you feel ready to do so. I’ve chosen to set the stage by reading hard-hitting words written by Gabrielle Peters. Gabrielle is a disabled writer and policy analyst and a commissioner on the Vancouver City Planning Commission. She is co-founder of Dignity Denied and the Disability Filibuster and has been a leading voice in applying a disability lens to local, provincial and national policy issues. Gabrielle’s lived expertise and acquired knowledge includes being a tenant of social housing that was transferred by the previous provincial government from public to non-profit housing and the significant transition she underwent from being understood to be fully human as a student and professional pre-onset of her condition to now falling outside society’s definition of a human as a fat, poor, wheelchair user with chronic illness. Her writing on disability has been published widely (Chow). Poor Crip Hope Asleep in the sheets Molotov in the streets I am rolling in piss, shit and blood I stick a dead fish in my mouth and clamp down until the eyes pop out I braid maggots into my hair as I lay in a bath of spoiled foodbank milk infused with month old no frills value pack ground beef, writing my recipe for 1 gallon of billionaire bisque. I may stink, but I still have more dignity in the fingertip that just emerged from my nostril than your suicide threat punctured in crip skin at the hands of a physician delivered to our door by the capitalist system. You can bleach the blood out of your white lab coats, but it still shows up under the red light of revolution. Fuck you death cult Fuck your rights that are wrong…kill me slowly I demand you give it your best shot Let me die with my fist thrust into your throat. Okay….now that I’ve scared away the Liberals Lets talk about hope Poor people are given the shit version of hope Hope for us is the voice you hear but can’t see as the side of your face is pinned to the pavement by their foot Tells you to shut the fuck up and stop complaining because it’s your own flawed fault. All of it. Whatever ‘it’ is And you’ll pay for thinking otherwise But hearing them means they haven’t shot you in the back. Yet Their hope is bootstrap A welfare worker behind glass yelling next while security steps behind you to remind you that you’ve had your chance. Hope is self-hate wrapped in a myth of meritocracy Hope is the middle class saviour lady speaking for us, reading our words and pretending she knows what they mean. Nothing about us without her. Please keep your seat in the VIP section. Poverty tourism is so last century That’s their hope Not ours Hope doesn’t have to be about striving and achieving and climbing ladders so you can piss on the people below you Capitalism is the opposite of hopeful. (Peters) Gabrielle’s poem continues, but I will end there for now and pick it up again at the end of this podcast. Dr. Elizabeth Sheehy is a professor of law, an author, and an advocate who specializes in violence against women and has experience in the world of disabilities. She states, “We don’t usually talk about people with disabilities unless we are talking about them dying” (Tremain). And sadly, this rings true today. As you may have picked up from Gabrielle Peter’s less than subtle words - ‘suicide threat’ and ‘death cult’ - this podcast is looking at medical assistance in dying - MAiD. MAiD first came into effect in Canada in June of 2016. The Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation allowing the option for eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying. This came with restrictions that a person must have a grievous and irremediable medical condition and that natural death is reasonably foreseeable. Informed consent was also required. MAiD was only in place for five years before it expanded to include Track Two MAiD. This expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) on March 17, 2021 in Canada, has extended MAiD to people with disabilities based on their disability alone. Canada no longer requires that an individual be terminally ill to access or be offered MAiD. That is, people with disabilities who do not face foreseeable death are eligible. The Government of Canada is expanding MAiD again to Canadians with mental illness alone. This comes into effect in March of 2024 (Government of Canada). I’m not sure how you feel about this…but it is scary to me. I am disabled (have an irremediable medical condition) and I suffer with varying levels of anxiety. In times of extreme fear, anxiety makes me fear things I wouldn’t normally fear. This could lead to choosing immature death as you are in a vulnerable state, when your condition will likely, eventually improve with medical care. Q, a queer disabled person from the Disibility Filibuster group, aptly describes the inaccurate and ill-advised societal messaging behind MAiD. The story of a rich white woman - dying with a glass of champagne in her hand, or with a room filled with loved ones to celebrate her living and dying honourably and peacefully as they choose — is why we have reached this point in Canada. This is not mine…nor hers…nor many other’s reality. Indigenous, female, disabled, queer, etc. are the most vulnerable to coercion and systemic injustices and MAiD will kill many of us unless we collectively share our voices, and force the policy makers to hear our perspectives. An intersectional analysis is needed to understand how these changes will impact women with disabilities, racialized women with disabilities or women with disabilities living in poverty. This podcast will consider the experience of women with disabilities who are voicing their concerns about Track 2 MAiD using a critical Indigenous disability feminist perspective. This podcast isn’t about whether or not you agree or disagree with MAiD. It’s about the very real possibility that the expansion of MAiD to people with disabilities is part of ongoing ableist or medical violence towards people with disabilities. I invite you to take a few minutes from your day and learn with me. Let us consider the first issue at hand with Track Two MAiD. That is that an able-bodied Canadian is not eligible for MAiD. However, a disabled Canadian is eligible for MAiD. Dr. Isobel Grant, a professor of Law at the University of British Columbia speaks specifically to why track two MAiD should be of concern to feminists with a critical disability perspective. Track 2 MAiD opens up assisted death to people with Chronic pain, Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and Fibromyalgia. She unpacks it for us by critically examining language. MAiD is described as ‘medical treatment’ for those with disabilities. She argues though that this is not treatment. It is death for people who are not dying. Actual treatment would improve the quality of life, not end life (Tremain). A group of close to 900 Canadian physicians have united in MAiD2MAD.ca. They state as doctors they are infuriated about how politicians, people who know nothing about medicine or disability, have changed the practice of medicine by decriminalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide. These doctors have seen patients in shock over an accident, illness, and patients with depression and guilt, requiring care. They have seen that for many, with proper support and attention by the medical community, families and support people, that the condition improves. Dr. Catherine Frazee, a scholar and disability expert with lived experience, shares her fear. MAiD expansion comes with a very real possibility that we will lose doctors as they simply cannot add euthanasia to their treatment methods after taking the Hippocratic Oath of doing no harm. This means less doctors…trusted doctors…for people with disabilities who do not want MAiD as an option in their most vulnerable states (Disability Filibuster). Dr. Isobel Grant, a lawyer, professor, and Dean of the Allard School of Law at UBC, shares that our country has come to this place (Track 2 MAiD) due to three ideals: that of - number one: autonomy, number two - intolerable disabled suffering, and number three - to reduce suicide rates. Our politicians and law makers have used these three tenets to back their legislation in making euthenasia and assisted suicide through MAiD legal in Canada. Let’s look critically at these three ideas - through my lens - that of an Indigenous disabled female. I want to speak first to the problem of autonomy or the ability of one to make decisions for themselves without external influence. Much of the discourse around Track Two MAiD was that MAiD, as originally created, was discriminatory against those with disabilities. This is complex and to assist me in helping you make sense of this, I’ll speak to it based on my own reality. As a young women with a disability, I have autonomy through this legislation. I can decide when my suffering is intolerable. But here’s the crux… my non-disabled brothers cannot. We need to question as a society…why do I have that choice? The people who have made these decisions are able-bodied and do not understand the implications of this legislation on disabled people. Margaret Dore, a lawyer that specializes in elder abuse, describes how MAiD or assisted suicide actually diminishes individual choice and control. She states “While the proponents of legalization argue that it would guarantee choice, assisted suicide would actually result in deaths due to a lack of choice. Real choice would require adequate home and community-based long-term care, universal health insurance, and housing that is available, accessible, and affordable - a full range of social supports largely unavailable today. In a perverse twist, widespread acceptance of assisted suicide could reduce pressure on society to provide these very services, thus reducing genuine options further” (Golden and Zoanni 20). Secondly, I want to discuss the idea of ‘intolerable suffering’. From a critical disability perspective let’s look at these terms. I am not physically suffering but I do have days that are difficult and uncomfortable. I don’t allow it to get me down. I have privilege in that I have incredible family support. My parents and grandparents are educated and have advocated for my needs since birth. We have a tightknit family circle that supports each other daily. I have homecare, I take care of my physical exercise needs with help from my mom and dad and I also access physio. I am constantly looking for ways to stimulate my brain and engage in meaningful, enjoyable activities. I paint, swim, downhill ski, waterski, and look for ways to give back to my community. I advocate for the welfare of animals, working with the SPCA and have sponsored the adoption of dogs. I am accepted, loved, and feel supported by my community of Waskesiu. I went to the beach and with my family for drinks to check out a new accessible restaurant in Waskesiu the other day. I am funny, intelligent, and bring joy to those who are privileged to know me. I have the ability to access grants for tutoring so I can fulfill my dreams of obtaining a Sociology degree as well as a Disability Studies degree. I have dreams and goals and I know I can reach them with the right supports. Due to my Cerebral Palsy and multiple other disabilities I am proactive in ensuring that I stay healthy. The word suffering doesn’t fit with my experience. In the March 13, 2023 Feminism, Ableism, and Medical Assistance in Dying Symposium held at the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies at UBC, Dr. Elizabeth Sheehy, through Jeanine Benedit consider the reality of intolerable suffering as it pertains to people with disabilities. The reality is that you can’t separate the suffering that is caused by disability and suffering that is caused by poverty, alientation, abuse, and deep depression (Tremain). Think back to Gabrielle Peters’ words. Where intolerable suffering may occur is when people like me don’t have the right support. Offering people who are not supported financially, educationally, socially, medically and emotionally death instead of ensuring the supports are available is in reality - legislated eugenics. This week I had the most amazing opportunity to meet Dr. Catherine Frazee. Catherine is one of my biggest mentors. She is a professor and author of the Disability Studies Program at Toronto Metropolitan University. She speaks from real experience and from a feminist disability perspective. Here is some of our conversation. Q: What are some of your biggest fears or concerns that you have regarding MAiD? C: Okay, let me give you sort of my top concerns, because I have concerns going all the way down when it comes to MAiD and the way it has been abused and what it has unleashed in Canadian society. First of all, I think that Track 2 MAiD is fundamentally discriminatory. It's discriminatory because it creates a special exception for disability, a special pathway for disabled people to have a doctor end our lives. And you can dress that up and call it, you know, recognizing a “right” of disabled people to die. But that's poppycock. It's discrimination. To me, it conveys that our lives are worth less than the lives of non-disabled people. Because the fact is that a non-disabled person who wants to die for whatever reason, maybe they're grieving, maybe they've had a horribly humiliating experience, maybe they've lost all their money at the horse races, whatever, there are reasons that a non-disabled person might want to die. We don't make it easy for them. We do everything we can to help them, to keep them alive, to get them past their crisis. And we do that because we value their lives, and we value what they bring to our society. Somehow when you have a disability, that's no longer the case. The presumption is no longer that “we need you, we're going to keep you alive and help you to find meaning in your life”. The presumption is, “oh you poor thing, we better help you die”. And I'm simplifying it, but I think it's really important to keep in mind that equality and human rights are very fragile. And that human rights have only been in existence since the end of World War II. That's still within living history for many people, many Canadians. And we can't go messing with what equality means without there being further consequences down the line. And disabled people know that special - special education, special transportation, special workshop employment, we know that none of that, special housing and institutions, none of that is equal. And the special pathway to death isn't equal either, and isn't going to be. We're going to live to regret it, all of us as a society. That's my one, my primary, my deepest concern, but let me flag one or two more that are maybe more obvious and less conceptual. The rationale for me is that people are suffering. And they shouldn't have to, people with disabilities anyway, shouldn't have to go on living with their suffering. But suffering is bloody complicated. Because everybody has a different threshold for how much suffering they can tolerate. And it's a threshold that's determined by what there is in your life that makes it worth living to you. So if you have people that you love and who love you, then you're willing to put up with a bit of pain and suffering. Because you're loved and you know you're needed because you give love. If you have meaningful work, meaningful creative expressions, like if you're in the middle of writing a really important novel, important to you and you believe to people who will read it, you're willing to suffer a bit to finish that novel and maybe start the next. If you have meaningful work, saving people's lives, helping people through crisis, giving people, other people, a reason to live, protecting animals or the land or the climate, then maybe you're willing to tolerate a bit of suffering. So you can't take suffering in the abstract and say, Oh, this person has pain. They're suffering. Therefore, you know, we should allow them to die without looking at what else is going on. What is the cause of their suffering? And why is it not tolerable to them? Is it grief? Is it loneliness? Is it poverty? Is it the fact that they're about to be moved to an institution and give up everything that's familiar and comfortable? Is it fear? Those are things we can help with. We don't have to kill people. And we're not asking the right questions. But only when it comes to disabled people. So, you know, that's a bit of why I strongly oppose Track Two MAiD. Q: Yes, thank you, Catherine. Thank you. Isn't she wonderful? I recently started reading her book. It's called Dispatches from a Disabled Country. I would highly recommend reading this book. She is an amazing woman, scholar, thinker, and disrupter. MAiD2MAD group of physicians state that in this country it takes upwards of a year to access a psychiatrist, and 70% of people in need cannot access palliative care. MAiD’s proposed safeguard for those whose death is not naturally foreseeable is a 90 day waiting period. These medical experts tell us how the system they are employed by works. These doctors say it is appalling that MAiD has been deemed an essential service under the Canadian Health Act, yet other services such as timely psychiatric and palliative care have not. “This bill creates the conditions for cheap and easy death through euthanasia or assisted suicide” (MAiD2MAD). Let me remind you of the meaning of the term Eugenics and its history. Eugenics is a set of beliefs that aim to improve the genetic quality of human beings through the altering of the gene pool by excluding those considered inferior (de Melo and Goering). Methods of eugenics in history include genocide of certain cultures…for example Hitler’s regime of executing Jewish peoples, and anyone considered to be hereditarily ill as they were considered a “genetic and financial burden to society and state” and “unworthy of life” (de Melo and Goering). This included forced sterilization, and marriage laws to uphold the “healthy” Aryan superior race. They offered a euthanasia program..euthanasia meaning ‘good death’ to those with mental and physical disabilities. These programs were secretive and deceptive. In essence the doctors tricked parents and patients into entering institutions where they were gassed, and fictitious (natural) causes of death were reported (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). This may seem an extremist connection to current day MAiD…but maybe not. Let’s next consider Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a euthanasia proponent in Michigan. Kevorkian ‘assisted’ over 130 people in dying while it was illegal in the state. He turned his attention to terminally ill people only after his request to test his killing machines on inmates was denied (CNN). He was hailed a popular hero in the media in advocating for the rights of terminally ill people, but the statistics of those he assisted reveal an ugly truth. 71% of those he killed were women, and in autopsy reports, 35 of the estimated 130 were not even ill. “Fear, bias, and prejudice against disability play a significant role in assisted suicide” (Golden and Zoanni 17). Researchers have concluded that fear of disability typically underlies assisted suicide. Janet Good, an assisted suicide advocate who worked with Jack Kevorkian, was clear about this as she stated that many of the patients who asked to die, did so because of a fear of being disabled and needing help. She stated that pain is not the main reason patients wanted to die. It was the indignity they felt, or were worried about feeling, and having to rely on others for help to get out of bed or use the toilet (Golden and Zoanni). But as many thousands of people with disabilities, including me, who rely on personal assistance know, needing help is not undignified, and death is not better than reliance on assistance. How ridiculous is it that in our society we encourage or assist people in dying because they need help with wiping their butt? Ableism at its worst. Why is our society stubbornly determined on believing that living with a disability is so horrific, they’d choose death over needing assistance? Our course, WGST 210, requires that we critically examine the media and how it informs the general public on societal norms. Gabrielle Peters discusses the media’s portrayal of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. The media assisted Kevorkian in framing the narrative around the term ‘mercy killings’ and referring to him as the ‘Angel of Death’. He was treated as a folk hero relieving people of their unconsolable suffering (Peters). Kevorkian began by devising a machine where patients could dispense the life-ending substances into themselves, helping them with their suicides. However, after getting away with so many murders, he switched to giving patients a lethal injection himself. Kevorkian’s work was widely displayed for the general public through CBS’s program 60 Minutes. A 52 year old patient, with Lou Gehrig’s Disease named Thomas Youk, requested assistance in dying. His wife testified that Thomas was a quiet man and wanted dignity and privacy in his dying. However, the manner in which Dr. Kevorkian went about assisting Thomas Youk in death was anything but private and respectful. He recorded Mr. Youk’s death for the purpose of broadcasting it on national television. Why? Media is hungry to invade people’s most intimate moments. The recent popularity of reality television programs feeds this invasion. Jack Kevorkian televised the death in order that he would finally go to trial and challenge the existing laws against medically assisted suicide. This decision was blatantly disrespectful of the life of Mr. Youk. The media has incredible power and their choices very truthfully put lives like mine in danger. The way they report and the language they use about people with disabilities informs the general public. Karen Schwartz and Zana Lutfiyya’s 2009 study through the University of Manitoba was thorough research that examined news stories covering the assisted death of people with disabilities in Canada. The Saskatchewan case of Tracy Latimer and the case of Charles Fariala, are included. In these cases, the two children’s parents assisted them in dying. The general public through the media’s coverage of the cases described the parents putting their children out of their misery and ending their suffering…coined as a “mercy killing”. Nobody wants to see their child suffer but there are ways parents can help their children through pain and changes in circumstances without assisting them in death. The press, however distorts the experience of disability and is often inaccurate about medical facts and incorporate gruesome language that evokes fear and pity. Examples are phrases such as ‘the incessant whirring and wheezing of a respirator stuck through a hole in his neck’ in describing someone with a tracheotomy. Anyone who has required a tracheotomy to breathe is likely thankful for being able to breathe, but the language used by media constructs fear. Janz (2008) examined the Latimer case revealing the term “cross-crip” being used to describe Tracy, the 12 year old with cerebral palsy. I have cerebral palsy and that term is utterly disrespectful and devalues both my life and hers. It completely ignores what Tracy and I bring to this world. Janz concluded her study saying, “It becomes painfully evident that the mass media is at once mirroring and perpetuating the common public perception of people with severe disabilities as somehow less than- human being condemned to a burdensome, pain-filled existence. The lives of people with disabilities are thus being subtly but systematically devalued in our society” (Janz 70, as cited in Schwartz and Lutfiyya 29). A study by Haller and Ralph agree that, “media are important mirrors of societies, and in the case of disability issues, media are crucial in framing issues for the general public, who may have less contact with people with disabilities than with other social groups…media content tells us what the message the public is receiving about disability” (Haller and Ralph 34, as cited in Schwartz and Lutfiyya 34). Their studies illustrate how the media informs society, who in turn then justify programs such as Track Two MAiD so people with disabilities can choose death even though the end of their lives are not reasonably foreseen. It is also crucial to critically examine the power imbalances of our society when it comes to patriarchy, ableism, and racism. Dr. Catherine Frazee has spent decades in Disability Studies, education, and activism. When Tracy Latimer’s life was prematurely ended by her father Robert, Frazee describes how the safety of disabled lives was shook. But Frazee describes that she and others in the disabled community were slower to see how ableism and racism were engaged. “Latimer was a sucker punch to those of us who lived comfortable lives in Disabled Country. It struck hard, and fast as lightning. But slower to pierce our consciousness was awakening to the role that whiteness played in the collective Canadian embrace of Robert Latimer’s rightness” (Frazee 21). She describes how in the court of public opinion Robert was innocent - described as a hard working canola farmer and salt of the earth. He was an honest, white settler, self-reliant man who had been dealt some tough blows in having a disabled daughter. Through a critical Indigenous, feminist, and disability lens the ideals of ableism, racism, and sexism are glaring. Dr. Elizabeth Sheehy’s work also allows us to critically analyze how the power of patriarchy affects women and MAiD. In a symposium entitled “Feminism, Ableism, and Medical Assistance in Dying”, Sheehy unpacks women’s autonomy by describing how our choices are impacted by what our society teaches us. We are taught that once we require care or assistance we are no longer valuable. We are taking up space and are a burden. The statistics show that women in their 40s and 50s have the highest rates of requesting MAiD. This is hugely problematic because as a society that teaches that women are caregivers, also teaches that the very caregivers don’t get that care when they need it. Women feel guilty that they are a burden. Caregiving isn’t reciprocated to women, the elderly, or people who are disabled in our society (Tremain). The power of the medical community in MAiD also requires our critical attention. We put so much faith in the authority of doctors and that they will do the right thing by us. The medical system was created by men, the research has focused on men’s needs. Therefore we see women who are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed, due to lack of research, and lack of compassion or empathy for women’s particular needs (Tremain). I myself understand how it feels to be treated unfairly as an Indigenous, disabled, woman in the healthcare system. I had stomach pain and on examination, the doctor said I was fine - it was the stomach flu. I knew better. This felt different - excruciating. The pain worsened forcing me to go to emergency where it was determined that my stomach was twisted. A condition that has fatal outcomes. Thank goodness I have supports and people who advocate for me to stand up to the power of systems. I knew I wasn’t fine but didn't have the agency to convince doctors to do the necessary exam to figure out what was causing my pain. This experience taught me how much effort it takes to stand up to the power of ableism and the medical system. Now consider someone in poverty, without people advocating for them in this situation. Imagine an Indigenous woman, caring for children while living in an abusive relationship trying to access care. We need look no further than the case of Jordan River-Anderson, who didn’t have the supports that he needed in place which resulted in his death at the young age of 6. His death was preventable but due to systemic racism in healthcare, he fell through the cracks. His death prompted the creation of Jordan’s Principle - Federal Funds to fill gaps in Canada’s flawed systems. Scholarly activists from the Disability Filibuster describe that MAiD has disproportionately impacted Indigenous people through the incredibly inequitable colonial systems. Looking through a critical disability, feminist, and Indigenous lens, it is clear how intersectionality further impacts vulnerable people, including children. Colonization and capitalism have created this hierarchy of the most superior people to the least. It isn’t written anywhere - but we need to be taught to look between the lines. And Track Two MAiD has opened up another can of worms…or horror. There is now the possibility that through MAiD, organs and tissues can be harvested from the least desirable of folks to prolong and improve the lives of the privileged upper classes. The medical community has had to develop guidelines for the donation of organs and tissues from patients who choose to die by MAiD (Downar et al.). This is a frightening reality but is an extension of societal practices. The poorest and most desperate in our communities have very little means of making a living, and are often left with nothing but their physical body. Money made through prostitution or selling a kidney is the only choice in providing food and shelter for themselves or their children. A further cold and hard fact is that MAiD is a cost-effective measure for our health care system. Research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in January 2017 concluded that the savings through MAiD deaths could save up to $138.8 million dollars annually (Trachtenberg and Manns). A $300 lethal injection is far cheaper than providing housing, medical care, and resources for social support and inclusion in society. Research from other countries, such as Hendin’s research from the Netherlands in 1996, provides a global look - that the expansion of assisted suicide/death programs is inevitable and therefore a dangerous, slippery slope for vulnerable people. Canada is quickly being seen around the world as an example of what not to do. With only seven years of MAiD under our belts, we’ve already expanded the criteria widely and have reduced the number of safeguards. We’ve gone from 1,018 deaths by MAiD in 2016 to 10,064 in 2021 (Government of Canada). And here we are. As the numbers of people with disabilities ‘choose’ MAiD the cost-savings to our healthcare system and society overall won’t be ignored by capitalists in this colonial hole of a society. I hope you understand now that I say ‘choice’ with tongue in cheek. I travelled to Ottawa last year to advocate for Bill C-22, also known as the Canada Disability Benefit. I’ll quote what I wrote on Facebook with you shortly after that. A Canada Disability Benefit means more dignity and opportunity for Canadians with disabilities. It also means a more compassionate & equitable future for Canada. A Canada Disability Benefit will help Sask. people with disabilities live a brighter future. All Canadians with disabilities deserve to live above the poverty line. Having a disability shouldn’t mean living a life of poverty. Or considering MAID because of poverty. It shouldn’t be so hard for Canadians with disabilities to do ordinary things like afford groceries and live a good a life. Let’s make history. Let’s make it unanimous. Remember this? The Canada Disability Benefit Act passed 2nd reading with unanimous consent. Let’s get this done in 2022. Let’s make history. Let’s be unanimous. MPs have the chance to deliver on the 2018 promise of a #CanadaDisabilityBenefit by bringing Bill C-22 to 3rd reading in 2022. Time to address disability poverty & work towards a better . Bill C-22 means equity not wealthy. Time to finally start fixing systemic poverty so that Canadians with disabilities can thrive. Let’s make history. Let’s be unanimous. In Sask, people with disabilities are assured $1064/month on SAID. The poverty line is $1902/month. Let’s trade legislated poverty for dignity #saskpoli #PassC22In2022 I’m asking all Sask MPs to make history. Pass the #CanadaDisabilityBenefit in 2022. Let’s be unanimous that a safe, secure & bright future for Saskatchewan people with disabilities needs your support to #PassC22In2022. I’m 19 years old. It’s impossible to see my myself or my bright future living on aprox $12,768/year on SAID benefits. A #CanadaDisabilityBenefit will be life changing for proud s w/disabilities, like me. As a 19 year old with multiple disabilities, I need to know that my governments want me to live my best life, safe & secure. Please contact your MP and ask them to make sure Bill C-22 gets to 3rd reading in 2022. Vote in favour. Securing the safety, dignity and future for Canadians with Disabilities should be unanimous. Make history. Thank you for being an ally (Smith-Windsor). Simply put, the Canada Disability Benefit will save lives. It will redirect Canadians with disabilities from a pathway to MAiD by offering them a better chance. But still, we need to proceed cautiously. The bill received Royal Assent on June 22, 2023 and will come into force in about a year as they prepare to administer the Canada Disability Benefit, of which I’m proud to have played a role through activism. Last, let’s consider if MAiD really does assist in preventing suicide as the proponents insist. The idea is that if someone knows that their suffering could be legally ended with MAiD that they will have more hope and keep fighting through difficult, painful, and hopeless periods of suffering. Kalie Hubick provides her experience of the deepest depression and applying for MAiD. As a disabled and depressed person, she saw the legalization as pressure to die. The legalization further solidified the messages that her life wasn’t worth living. Through a connection with members from the Disability Filibuster movement, she received the support she needed. Most remarkably, a bed, a rollator, and connection to community. She is alive today to explain how the expansion of MAiD only increases guilt and the desire to die (Disability Filibuster). MAiD does not prevent suicide. I end by quoting Dr. Catherine Frazee, someone I look up to as a wonderful, brilliant, well-spoken, disabled scholar. As she gave her testimony regarding Bill C-7 to the Senate she asked, “Madame Chair, Will lawmakers cut out other shortcuts for people… Or will you rise to the defence of human rights? If the latter, I respectfully urge that you start with us - Disabled people. As our equality right now is on the line” (Justice Committee Parliamentary Hearing). Sadly, the Senate didn’t value her voice and Track 2 MAiD was passed. The Senate heard what they wanted in the case of Julia Lamb. Julia, currently disabled but healthy, fought for her right to choose MAiD sometime in the future. She has no plans of choosing that now, but her relative privilege as a young, well-spoken, and attractive woman was heard above the many other disability educator and activist voices. Jean Truchon, a middle-aged man with cerebral palsy, also fought to expand the procedure. He lived in a Montreal long-term care facility and decided to die by MAiD after Covid-19 took his ability to see his loved ones away. He was lonely. His case was heard over others. I won’t judge the suffering and choices of others. Disabled people are not a monolith. We are individuals with varying bodies, feelings, and experiences. What I am sure of is that I want to continue advocating for an anti-ableist, anti-racist, anti-oppressive society where I have equal opportunities and respect as my able-bodied siblings do. Increased equity in this place called Canada over the history of the last hundred years has only come from the pressure of organized activism. I thank Catherine Frazee, Gabrielle Peters, Elizabeth Sheehy, Isobel Grant, and others who have organized. They have created paths where there were none, for me to see myself as able to accomplish anything I decide to. They are mentors and have created community and a space for people with disabilities to participate meaningfully in society in Universities, law, politics, publishing, advocacy and the like. And I end as I began, with Gabrielle Peter’s words: We scare them. Us. Collectively. What has been missing in this fight is us. Our ways of being and knowing Other people need to stop repeating our words Our voices come with our presence We bring more to this than photos of empty fridges And stories of what we don’t have and what we lack Fuck that deficiency frame Seriously Fuck That Noise They should know better We are fullness We are stone soup It is the poor crips Poor and racialized Poor and queer Poor and racialized and queer Poor single parents Poor working poor Poor with no legal ID Poor on the street, poor in care Or poor locked up, or poor sleeping on threadbare sheets. Poor Even as the rich get richer on their stolen land We are hope We are the only hope I love you folks. (Disability Filibuster)