Department of Justice 2025

These are damning words by @ODSPoor reflecting years of lived experience that should be listened to, to effect policy change at all levels. Every Canadian. Every disability. Lifetime support. #NDIP.

Reducing already below poverty level disability benefits to justify giving more people, money is an absolutely inexcusable, incomprehensible policy. Shame on Danielle Smith for sacrificing human beings to the relentless grind of greater poverty.

PLUS the cost of disability. If we don’t get rid of the cost of disability, many PWD/ disabled people will still be poor. #NDIP

This is why I don't see MAiD as compassion, with mental illness expansion on the horizon, and ppl ignoring the link between food insecurity & suicidal ideation...

@avilewis must speak to and design a policy that not only speaks to the inadequacy of the Canada Disability Benefit but the entire system that devalues people with disabilities not just for us as a voting block but to Canadians in general. The thinking about how human value is measured must change… and then it will change for everyone. Human value is more than the job you have, or do not have or don’t have the wellness to perform. It is the essence of the soul that counts: how one expresses, experiences life in community, in music, in ideas, in feelings, in light and in darkness. Every human being deserves safety and housing, healthcare and food and community. There must be no hierarchy with these essential things. #pwd

Thanks Gail for your continued advocacy. You’re a rock. Having a dignified life should be the base. Having a disability costs an average of 38% more to live. A detail often forgotten. @avilewis #NDIP

It’s a wrap. Did my best. Final message: The government has all the information they need on a national disability insurance model of support. Now it’s time for them to act.

Drive through euthanasia with your morning coffee and donut. Don’t forget to dispose of your needle in the bio hazard container on the way out.

To get a movement started you have to keep moving. Yes it means being at a table with people that have bad history. It seems they have acknowledged wrongs. It’s to their benefit big time. You will get them votes. Seize the opportunity. Help shape the future by raising all boats.

Love it.

What do people not understand about legislated poverty? When you eat so poorly you develop illnesses like the sliding hiatial hernia I have, which untreated wakes me up in the middle of the night with panic attacks from the acid reflux and GERD. This has been caused by a poor diet since I was 17 and first homeless on the streets on Guelph. The agoraphobia from 6 more times being homeless has eaten away at my muscles. I tried walking to University of Guelph to take pictures in the Arboretum. When I arrived I was terrified I couldn't make it back, my legs were shaking, my spine aches and I was on the verge of Charlie horsing. This has been caused by trauma, terror and being forced to live in horrible shelters, or slums with terrible landlords that threaten my physical and emotional wellbeing. I have no money, ever. I cannot go see a movie. I cannot afford a phone bill. My rent and groceries purchase empty my account at the start of the month and no one will hire me due to being stuck in my room for days with agoraphobia made worse by not having money to thrive or even survive. This has been caused by gaslighting about fraud (odsp is less than 1% fraud, it took me two doctors and seven years to be accepted, lived on $733 ow before that) and purposeful underfunding of shelters, addictions, and affordable homes by Premiers and Prime Ministers who care only about their friends and bank accounts. It costs YOU, the public, to keep me in legislated poverty. Less than three cents from your paycheck goes towards social services, how much are you paying for a spa in Toronto, how much for the fake private jet scandal, why $5 billion to expand an airport with less traffic than Pearson, why give away mining rights to foreign companies or forgive billion dollar dues for foreign owned highways???? #Ontario spends $33 billion on poverty maintenance, new first month's rents after illegal evictions from an overwhelmed judicial system (on purpose), or food programs as we allow a grocery monopoly led by an Eptein Lister in Galen Weston. #Canada spends $80 billion minimum on poverty maintenance whilst a fully funded basic income would cost only $60 billion. These terrible choices by Mayors, Premiers and Prime Ministers to make you hate the poor, disabled and unemployed is a gambit to keep you distracted while they steal from your pocket and vilify the sick and dying so you feel false righteousness. It's time to stand up and demand action from all tiers of government, for your grandparents fearing LTC, for your sick or disabled children who just want a safe place to learn with support, for your neighbors who lost their jobs to AI or for yourself. Anyone can become disabled, anyone can become unemployed and that anyone will be you if these greedy politicians have their way. #poverty

Do you use Aleve? Aleve gave me hives.

Between this news of Ford's failures in disability job training, #DougFord telling us we are lazy, need to find jobs and stop watching the Flintstones AND the Maytree report that ODSP and OW are built to fail... WHEN IS THE TIME FOR A MASSIVE LAWSUIT? We can prove criminal negligence, the funding has gone to foreign spa scams and Ford even forgave a billion in tolls to a foreign country. This conservative government is costing you more, paying over $33 billion in poverty maintenance instead of preventative measures like ABOVE POVERTY LINE social assistance. We go homeless, we become addicted, and we die frozen to your curb. I have been homeless 7 times because of insufficient support. People are dying from self-harm, MAiD applications and dangerous conditions on the streets, in shelters and even in slum apartments. #onpoli #Ontario Source Maytree: maytree.com/publications/des… Source Flintstones: pressprogress.ca/doug-ford-c… Source Erin (Veganlovebunny): ottawacitizen.com/news/local… Class Action Needed!!! We ARE DYING! @BakerLaw_TO @pooranlawpc @djnontario @StlawyersOttawa

"I didn't want to die, but at the same time I didn't want to live an undignified life stuck in longterm care." - Michal, LIFE AFTER participant When the lack of dignified care options drives people to apply for medically assisted dying, the care system is broken. It's unacceptable to give disabled people the means to die, before supporting them with the means to live and thrive. We need affordable, universal healthcare, home- and community-based services, and disability supports. Interested in diving more deeply into the why and how behind this issue? Gather your friends, community, colleagues and and watch LIFE AFTER together. Available to rent starting TOMORROW on Kinema, Apple TV, and Google Play." kinema.com/films/life-after-… #MAiD #assisteddying #cdnpoli

There’s a question that goes back a few years at the conclusion of the DIAP input. It wasn’t clear then either.

As a spec ed teacher, I was often the voice of the voiceless. After retiring, that hasn’t changed. Many disabled people are voiceless, fighting for survival, due to systems that have legislated them into poverty. If you want to lend your voice support an #NDIP @EveryCdnCounts

Not for disabled Canadians. I’m almost 35 and I’m back living with my parents because I can’t afford a place of my own. It was promised that the CDB would bring us out of poverty. $200/month doesn’t do that.

I think many lives are in flux. We learn as we go and improve where we can.

Those are very impressive statistics. Looks like you’ve started a new chapter in your book, and it’s looking good.