The words in the title are literal descriptors not self-pity or encouragement to pity me. Piss, shit and poverty feature prominently in my life. So I thought maybe it was time to write a bit about them and their relevance in discussing what is wrong with the current approach to disability policy by the Canadian federal and BC provincial government.
ableism / accessibility / Cities / Disability / disabled / Human Rights / inclusion / poverty / public policy / Uncategorized
Tick Tock It was thirty seconds to midnight in the life of a bill before becoming a law. Catherine Frazee – in Nova Scotia – contacted me – in British Columbia – with what she called a rough idea. Frazee’s rough ideas are most people’s keynotes. She laid out a plan for a round the…
Remarks prepared for an episode of CBC’s White Coat Black Arts that will not be included in their episode. Hello. My name is Gabrielle Peters and I am a disabled and poor woman. Now that Bill C-7 was given royal ascent I am among the class of humans for whom assisted suicide can be medical…
#inclusion / #poverty / #racism / ableism / Disability / disabled / Health / Healthcare / Journalism / medicine / poverty
3 men talking and now I have 3 minutes Start the clock I’m wondering how privileged and protected you have to be to call our culture death denying People in my world drop dead Fall from the sky Decompose while people walk by No funerals or memorials They are just gone Day I moved in…
Every year we gather to mourn and every year new names are added and our grief grows.Today we grieve knowing the Canadian state is set to legislate the right to do wrong. Bill C-7 and the amendments to it moves further along fulfilling the eugenics wish list articulated decades ago after the murder of Tracy Latimer by her father Robert Latimer.
Restraints Someone was ill in the washroom I am told. Two women were disinfecting it using UV ‘light – which means one stood holding the control end of a cord and another leaned against a cleaning cart. I said I didn’t mind waiting. “I don’t think you’ll like the smell,” the empty-handed one tells me.…
This is about something very hard to quantify and explain to the hyper-rationalists and proponents of Bill C-7. It is something from my personal journal. I wrote it years ago. I share it now for those who still have enough humanity to understand it.
I know that Bill C7 must be stopped because I know passage of this bill will result in preventable deaths of disabled people. I know this because I know those already happen. I know they already happen because I was almost one of them.
My name is Gabrielle Peters. I am disabled. I am poor. I am poor because I am disabled. Picking who will be poor is a function of society. Bootstrap is a lie. I didn’t choose to be poor. I was not given a choice. Politicians say if disabled people don’t want to be poor we…
The following letter was sent by me to Adrian Dix, Minister of Health; Selina Robinson, Minister of Housing and Shane Simpson, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction. Dear Ministers, I am writing to ask you to immediately make air purifiers available to low income people who need them through a rapid barrier-free emergency extension…
This post is about the truth lost and harm that happens when (with or without intention of malice) we flatten people’s identity and lived experience to ‘we’re all the same’ in a society where we are not treated the same.
I received this message from someone on Twitter. They wish to remain anonymous but said I could share the contents publicly.
What if your luxury is my accessibility? What if the things you deem extras are essentials to me?
Some of us get the long guns. I said this in a conversation with another disabled woman in the Accessibility Room at an Active Transportation summit. I was explaining why I believe policing is a vital part of the conversation about accessibility of active transportation and had, specifically sought out presenters to speak about this.…
Your job is to teach Vancouver students how to learn from history not how to memorialize and preserve the worst of it. Vote tonight to remove the slab of stone celebrating Cecil Rhodes from a Vancouver schoolyard playground. This should not be a difficult decision.
