Vision
We aspire to be proud citizens of our country, Canada. We want to put a stop to the expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). The Canada we want to live in would value, support and celebrate the lives of people with disabilities and mental illnesses.
Mission
We are engaged in a long-term effort to shift cultural views in favour of equally valuing the dignified lives of all Canadians.
We believe that there are historic inequalities in our treatment of native Canadians, disabled peoples, women, racial and other minorities that must be acknowledged and bravely addressed. We applaud and encourage all who are presently engaged in such efforts.
We are not opposed to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) for people who are dying.
We are strongly opposed to the expansion of MAiD to people who are not dying, as set out in law in 2021. We want the Government of Canada to repeal that legislation.
Medical assistance in dying, as first enacted in response to the Supreme Court’s Carter decision (as Bill C-14, 2015), introduced an informed and thoughtful approach that met the need to provide assisted death upon request to those whose suffering was grievous and irremediable, and whose natural death was reasonably foreseeable. This is the standard that we advocate should be maintained.
Our Purposes are:
a) Advancing public education on physical and mental disabilities in the context of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) legislation.
b) Alleviating poverty by assisting underfunded disabled community members in the development of local and/or online mutual aid skills and endeavours.
c) To promote community mental health, pride and esteem by offering online and real-world supports to people with disabilities and their caregivers.
Our Goal
Our three founding members are Patricia Seeley, Vernon Jones and Brenda Marceau. Our intention is to build a board and membership consisting of disabled and disability-adjacent people from a diversity of disability and cultural experiences.
Our main goal is to become effective allies for people who are struggling with all kinds of intersecting levels of oppression.
With media exposure, Canadians are waking up to the frightening state of affairs that has befallen people with disabilities, particularly those living in conditions of legislated poverty, in this wealthy country. People are being put in the position of having to “choose” death because they cannot afford to live. Inadequate palliative care, inadequate pain management, inadequate, unsafe and unaffordable housing, inadequate personal care, discriminatory COVID-19 treatment and support, inadequate suicide prevention counselling and other supports have allowed MAID to loom as a cheap and readily available “solution”. We find this appalling!
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