Tag: inclusion

Thoughts About Ariis Knight and a Call to Step Up

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Full transcript:

Hi folks. It’s been a pretty emotional afternoon for us at DisabilityPride.net, for myself and Mary. This afternoon we learned of the death of Ariis Knight, who had cerebral palsy, and actually, Ariis had to go to emerge and did not get the medical treatment she needed or deserved and consequently, she died.

A big part of what happened, once again, was because she had cerebral palsy. There was a probably an attitude of, indirectly believing that her life was less valuable than someone who does not have CP. Unfortunately, ever since Robert Latimer murdered, and yes, I mean murdered. I use that word deliberately because that’s actually what it was. He murdered his disabled daughter Tracy, who had CP and ever since that, I find that the media has a habit of always, almost always, linking CP with intellectual disability, which is actually not common at all. I wish with all my heart that the media and others would stop doing that. Because the truth is, a  lot of people who have cerebral palsy are actually very intelligent and our lives are as valuable as anyone else’s.

What happened when Ariis went to emerge, she was not allowed to have someone with her to help her to communicate, which is another problem. Often people, whether it be doctors, nurses, bus drivers, people assume they cannot understand the person and as I always say, whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you’re probably right. It’s about attitude, it’s about recognizing the value of a person who has CP. It’s about recognizing their contributions to the world. It’s about realizing that they have friends, family, people who love them, people they teach and they assume, as well as those who would *presume it’s a two-way street.

This attitude of assuming that somebody who has cerebral palsy also has an intellectual disability has to stop. It has to stop. As soon as possible, because obviously, lives are at stake. Ariis lost her life because nobody gave her the opportunity to adequately communicate her needs, to communicate what was wrong, to communicate her fears. That’s something I understand very well because I know how frustrating and humiliating it is when whenever people think I have a comprehension problem. I don’t but yet, at times, I will get on a city bus and the bus driver will say “do you know your stop?”

What an outrageously stupid question. “Do you know your stop?” Part of me always wants to say “nah, I just thought I would get on here and let you figure out where I ‘m going.”

But honestly, even if I said that, 9 out of 10 times the driver would not bother to listen long enough to really get my sarcasm. Another thing Mary and I were talking about, if it was someone else in ariis’s situation, if it was a deaf person, if it was someone new to our country, they would almost certainly be allowed to have an interpreter or someone with them. Why was Ariis not allowed this? Why was the person she chose not allowed to be with her? Yes, I know Covid-19 is happening, and that’s scary enough all by itself but when you’re in the situation that Ariis was in, not being allowed to have someone to help you, in the last moments of your life…

I’m sorry, that is not acceptable. That is not. It’s just unspeakable. Something needs to change. So, our way of honoring Ariis at DisabilityPride.net is to make this video and try to tell as many people as we can this should never ever ever have happened. This is not ok. And this needs to be addressed by government, by medical professionals, by everyone, churches, clergy, teachers. C’mon people, it’s 2020. Let’s get a grip. Let’s respect every human life. Whether you knew Ariis or not, I didn’t know Ariis, but I know we have lost something that we should never have lost.

So, please just, remember her and next time, let’s not have this happen again. Sadly I know it will, but it shouldn’t. Let’s try not to have it happen. Thank you.

Construction Season is Coming! Don’t Let This Happen Again!

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As February ends, we can start to smell spring. With the warmer months come countless infrastructure and public works projects. With these projects comes signage. While we understand that some spaces become inaccessible due to the nature of construction, this is unacceptable! A whole sidewalk blocked with signage! It could have easily been placed on the green strip!

Please, please don’t let this happen again this year, HRM. We’re watching you.

A Good Day

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Last evening, we happened to take a look at this blog and realized that it’s been a while since we’ve actually posted something on here! It’s amazing how time flies!

Now, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been doing anything. Actually, the opposite. Mary and I are always putting stuff on the Facebook page and if you want to see the latest of what’s going on, you can always visit us there.

So, some of the highlights since the great wheelchair debacle:

We are plugging along with Teamwork’s Self Employment Program , every Tuesday and Thursday, and so far even with the snow, rain and ice, I think we’re becoming better than Canada Post, because we haven’t missed a class yet!

Beyond the SE Program at TW, Mary and I, along with my assistant Kristina and also help from Victoria, we are in the midst of the annual drudgery of doing T4s, (Yay) which is always a bit of a nightmare. If anyone thinks this is a simple process, think again. Things have to be checked and double-checked at every step, and inevitably there are always mistakes to be corrected, which can lead to ALL KINDS OF FUN! – Not!!!!!

However, there’s still lots of fun stuff to do, such as taking part in today’s “Biz Success Tips,” a business seminar and panel hosted by CEED (Centre for Entrepreneurship, Education and Development. ) We got to hear from graduates of the “Plan to SucCEED” program and get first voice advice about everything from self-care to bookkeeping, to work-life balance, to setting and meeting realistic goals, and much more. The panel were all excellent speakers and very willing to share their personal experiences with the audience.

After the seminar, we made a short visit into the March of Dimes {MOD} office, (in the same building as CEED) to introduce ourselves and DisabilityPride.net. We had a nice chat with Beth Lynch, who is the Lead Conductor, of their Conductive Education program. During our conversation, Beth gave us two pieces of information to share. First, on Thursday, February 20, the MOD Bayers Road office is having an Open House, from 3pm-5pm; and second, they’ll be starting a Cerebral Palsy Mobility Pilot program, as well as a Free Balance and Mobility Program for Stroke Survivors, soon. So, If you’d like to know more, visit: www.marchofdimes.ca/ce

And with it being Valentine’s Day and all, we decided to celebrate a little by going out for our first “Business Lunch” at the Chameleon Café and Supper Club , where we had two excellent servers and we want to give a big shout out to Erin and her coworkers. We thanked them in person for their excellent service, but want to acknowledge them and he Chameleon Café, here too.

And of course, we want to wish all our readers, followers and supporters a happy Valentine’s Day!

Don’t forget to check in with us on Facebook . We love hearing from y’all!

The Phantom Tollbooth

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Mary here! You may notice something new on the blog. You may not notice it either and that’s why I’m writing this. Either way, I would like to draw your attention to our Phantom Tollbooth . This tollbooth will be occasionally appearing as a link at the bottom of some of our posts, or elsewhere, it’s unpredictable like that. It’s a link to our PayPal.me site and we are hoping that folks who see the Phantom Tollbooth will pay the toll. There is no set minimum (or maximum) for the tollbooth, if you would like to chip in $1, $5 or $42 to help support the work of Gerianne and DisabilityPride.net, we would be endlessly grateful. Our work is important and with enough support we can grow even more, bring more content to the blog and maybe even expand our team with some freelance writers, especially writers with disabilities.

The Phantom Tollbooth is mysterious. It disappears and reappears at random and never refuses any payment. If you see it and choose to ignore it, we’ll never know because we didn’t even know it would be there! That said, the tolls keep the booth (and DisabilityPride.net) open. If you choose to pay a toll, we will be grateful.

A (Not Really) Good-Bye

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Most Thursday mornings, I go over to my church. In my mind, I’m going to hang out with my minister and a couple of people who are generally in the office on Thursday mornings. For me, this is “my time!” It’s a couple hours each week where I can put all (or most) of my stress, my obligations and my worries aside and just be among friends. We talk, laugh, tease each other, etc. That’s how I look at it.

But last February, at our Annual General Meeting, our minister really surprised me. Usually at our AGM’s, people are thanked for this and that and various things they do and what not. So, as Mike was going through his list of thank you’s, honestly, I was half zoning out and it took me a few seconds to hear him say: “I also want to thank Gerianne.”

My first thought was: “What the hell is he thanking me for?” He went on to tell people “Gerianne comes over most Thursday mornings and is with us in the office. She contributes ideas, gives feedback and input, helps us plan things like bible studies, our 3D family worship evenings, and so on. So, I want to thank Gerianne for her valuable contributions.”

I sat there thinking: “Wow! And I thought I was just hanging out. He’s making it into a purpose thing – with intent and value. That’s friggin’ awesome.”

What I didn’t have the chance to directly tell Mike that evening is how much I really appreciated his thank you and comments. As I said, he saw a purpose to the time I take “for me.”  Mike saw the bigger picture and my contributing to the life of our church.

Still, of course, when it comes to Mike and my relationship, there always has to be a punch line. So he ended his remarks by mentioning that in one of our bible studies, he asked us to journal our reactions to what we were learning. His last comment was: “And for those of you who didn’t like the journaling, y’all can thank Gerianne for having to do that, ’cause that was her idea!”

Recently though, I’ve been accepted into Teamwork’s Self-Employment Program, and as fantastic as that news is and as much as I’m looking forward to learning incredible things, since the program’s classes are all day Tuesdays and Thursdays, it means for 4 months I won’t be able to hang with my amigos. I know we all say: “It’s only 4 months.” But sometimes the possibility exists that “it’ll never be quite the same.” New “inside” jokes and “you know” things will naturally take place, and that’s to be expected. Still, it was nice to get this message from Chelsey when I got home from my first Thursday “away”: She wrote: “Weird without you today!” These words tugged at my heart-strings for a bit. Everyone deep down wants to be wanted and hopes they’ll be missed. It’s just nice to know that I was missed this week.

Just a random end thought. One of the things I very much love about the Presbyterian denomination (going back as far as I can remember) all of the clergy go by their first names. There is Mike, Sydney, Nancy, Kenn, Gwen and so on. There does not seem to be an attitude of superiority. Not very often do I meet a clergy where they introduce themselves as: “I’m Rev. so and so.” There is very much the attitude of we’re all in this together. No one is greater or less than, which is really nice if you think about it.