Disability policy tests Canadian values

It’s perplexing for us disabled people and advocates that so many media headlines point to the extreme financial struggles of people with disabilities in our inflationary economy while the powers that be continue debating details. What details? Our Parliamentarians are busy parsing the words of the proposed federal Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) as it wends its way through third reading in the House of Commons before it must go to the Senate for ever more debate and discussion. People with disabilities need financial relief and they need it now. While we want the CDB to be robust—not clawed back by provincial disability programs, for example—we need it fast tracked so that essential dollars are in the pockets of people who need it today and not some distant promised future. Poverty affects health outcomes—it’s part of what researchers call "the social determinants of health." Forty-one per cent of people living in poverty in Canada are disabled. More than 50 per cent of people who are food insecure are disabled. Persons with disabilities in Canada are punished by poverty, in other words. And it’s affecting their health, wellness, and longevity. Before the pandemic, persons with disabilities were almost twice as likely as persons without disabilities to report that most days are quite a bit or extremely stressful (23.4 per cent versus 11.9 per cent). Among those who reported experiencing at least a bit of stress on most days, persons with disabilities were more than 10 times as likely as persons without disabilities to report that their main source of stress was related to their health (13.8 per cent vs. 1.1 per cent). It’s safe to say that life during the pandemic has been even tougher for people with disabilities, especially if they are living in poverty. Rabia Khedr is a national director for Disability Without Poverty. Handout photograph Several people with disabilities have already left this world using Canada’s legal right to medical assistance in dying (MAID). Our society sees this as a humane and visionary social policy that reflects compassion for people who have medical conditions with no real treatment options. Many disabled people and their allies have also raised funds online as the only way for a person with disabilities to survive legislated poverty. Our society thinks giving money to people with disabilities encourages them not to work. Others have experienced police violence while in crisis needing mental health support. Our society does not even know they exist, nor the fact that they experience racism, ableism, and trauma at the hands of institutional policies on a daily basis, let alone a lifetime of poverty. So much is wrong with our Canadian values right now and it’s reflected in disability policy; the needs of people with disabilities come down to dollars and cents. So, let’s follow the money. MAID is a cheaper social policy alternative than footing the bill for appropriate health care and extended health services that would improve quality of life. Giving benefits with stringent requirements limiting opportunities to earn money or receiving gifts is seen as responsible administration that in reality pushes people to the margins further. Police intervention as the default option to crisis response for people with intellectual disabilities is a cost incurred, but not measured. Recent increases to provincial disability support programs has put very little real money into the hands of people with disabilities to pay for their basic needs like hygiene products and over the counter pain medications, for example. Most increases don’t even match inflation, which means they actually have less money this year than last. Yes, the CBD is making its way through our democratic parliamentary process. All we can hope for is that our Canadian values embedded in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms prevail—and we put life, liberty and security of the person first for this critical federal disability policy. But justice delayed is justice denied. If we wait for legislation determining all of the details of a perfect benefit, it will be too late for someone else. Rabia Khedr is a national director for Disability Without Poverty. The Hill Times