My high school history teacher said there would come a time that I’d need to understand politics. And although I know bits and pieces of governmental bodies and systems, I can’t participate in dinner table discussions or understand news articles in a way I always hoped to. I want to learn more.
Now, thanks to Bill C-22, I have a reason to.
In its own words, C-22, called the Canada Disability Benefit Act, is “An Act to reduce poverty and to support the financial security of persons with disabilities by establishing the Canada disability benefit and making a consequential amendment to the Income Tax Act.” In plain words, this is what disabled Canadians have been fighting for, and even though it’s on the political radar with its second reading earlier this week, no one knows if it will even happen.
I can’t explain the details of C-22. I’m still learning about this myself even as I’m writing about it now. Nonetheless, I felt it was important to speak up, because this is an issue that directly impacts my life as a disabled person, and so many more lives.
Recently, I’ve been researching the statistics regarding blindness in Canada, and I came upon a list of such statistics from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind [CNIB]. Here, they list the numbers of Canadians living with sight loss in each province and territory. If you will, take a look through this list and I’ll see you in a minute.
- Alberta: 160,000
- British Columbia: 252,000
- Manitoba: 57,000
- New Brunswick: 37,750
- Newfoundland and Labrador: 21,700
- Nova Scotia: 49,500
- Ontario: 681,000
- Prince Edward island: 6,250
- Quebec: 205,900
- Saskatchewan: 43,000
- Northwest Territories: 1,220
- Nunavut: 1,280
- Yukon: 1,400
A significant portion of the population, would you not agree?
However, this list doesn’t account for Canadians living with the myriad of other disabilities, physical, mental, emotional and invisible. Can you imagine what the number is? It’s 22%, or 6.2 million over the age of 15.
That’s almost one quarter of the Canadian population. And what is being done to support those people?
My people.
“Oh but Rhianna, didn’t you get a Covid-19 benefit?”
You mean the $600 one-time payment that we received, when able-bodied, working Canadians received $2,000? Yes, yes we did. Thanks government for covering less than half of my rent for one month.
And let’s not ignore rising costs due to inflation, and the income PWDs [persons with disabilities] receive from the Ministry that don’t account for this, and already keep disabled people below the poverty level. If you want to read a more detailed account of how the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction handles income for its disabled citizens, particularly after marriage, you might want to check out my four-part series here.
Am I over reacting? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? [Whatever a molehill is… is it actually a hill where moles live? Someone tell me, I need to know!]
I don’t think so. Please let me offer another perspective from fellow disability advocates regarding C-22, the response from the Canadian government, and the heartbreaking outcry of disabled Canadians who just want to know that they are valued and be treated like equal citizens.
As a disclaimer, yes, I retweeted these posts, but that does not mean I take responsibility for the exact wording or the messages of other tweets on these accounts.
Inflation rises every day. Disability Assistance stands still. Every day disabled people fall further behind. #CDBby23 #LetsGetItDone @theJagmeetSingh @BlocQuebecois @JustinTrudeau @PierrePoilievre @DesjarlaisBlake @BonitaZarrillo @MikeLakeMP @Disability_WP @VBadawey
— Sue Marie (@SueMari85871822) September 20, 2022
Last night I told my brother about all the rules disabled people have to follow to keep their benefits.
He was like “So you basically have to live in poverty and STAY THERE to qualify for anything?”
That right there is the entire system in a nutshell.
— Dr. Wonder Cripple ♿️🏳️🌈 (@wonder_cripple) September 21, 2022
@TimLouisKitCon do you HONESTLY think $600 one time COVID relief was sufficient when you gave $2k a month to #abled canadians? Some of us risk our lives every time we leave the house due to the self centered anti-mask, anti-vaxx mindset of #abled ppl. #CDBby23
— MandoBear – Stop Delaying the CDB (@Ursinos) September 20, 2022
People with disabilities were already in dire straits before the pandemic.
And now, with sky-high inflation rates, their situation is even more unbearable.
I urge all of us to advocate for Bill C-22 NOW. #CDBby23 #LetsGetItDone— Michelle Baldwin (she/her) (@ml_baldwin) September 20, 2022
This is not about politics, elections or legalities. It’s about people. And it’s about time we start seeing it that way and treat each citizen like the equal, valuable member of society they are.