Recap Monday: Another New Feature

Okay, so it’s not Monday anymore but pretend like it is and read this post anyways. Recap Monday is a review of the JHC activities over the past week where we give you a glimpse into what the JHC is doing on a day to day basis. Since “human rights education” can be kind of vague, here’s a look at our work!

So, the 4th Human Rights Facilitator Training Program is currently in session and is winding down in the next couple of weeks. The Human Rights Facilitator Training Program is part of the Human Rights City Edmonton initiative led by the JHC and the purpose is to train community members to become facilitators for human rights issues. They go out and facilitate dialogues about human rights issues in their own community or workplace to get the discussion going on the value, meaning and action surrounding human rights issues (which can be anything of interest, really).

We also bring in guest speakers each session to highlight or talk about a relevant human rights issues. Our speakers tend to be highly knowledgeable, super passionate and very cool people in general. Last Friday (March 19, 2010) we invited Roxanne Ulanicki, who is an accessible housing advocate for persons with disabilities. Roxanne is one of our favourite people as she constantly challenges and inspires us with her knowledge and the sheer passion she has for her work. She’s also a part of IDance Edmonton, which was a recipient of the Human Rights City Edmonton Human Rights Awards 2009 for New/Emerging Group.

We are pleased to reproduce, with Roxanne’s permission, a powerful letter she has written expressing her frustrations with how persons with disabilities are seen and treated in our society and we hope that it will inspire you to reflect or take action to rectify this sorry situation.

Alberta’s Dirty Little Secret….

Warning: it’s Crude and not the kind of crude that first comes to mind.

It’s the crude way we spend astronomical dollars to keep people disabled in an able world.

It’s the crude and inhumane way in which we treat our most vulnerable citizens.

People with disabilities are Alberta’s dirty little secret.  While others continued to thrive through the cuts of the 1990’s, my peers were devastated by budget cuts.  We made huge contributions to debt reductions without any recognition or gratitude.

We are exploited by systems of support that tell us we should be grateful to pay more for services than everybody else.

We should be grateful to pay $250 dollars more to get a driver’s licence because it is a privilege, not a right.  I find it interesting that some pay more than others for privileges.

We should feel grateful to pay to urinate (I pay 70 cents a day) and I’m not talking about toilet paper here.  I wonder if the average Albertan realizes that urinating is a privilege in this society.

Most of us live in inaccessible housing.  Many of us have unhealthy family and friend relationships because of this lack of functional housing.  We are treated like burdens, often unintentionally, because we cannot find accessible housing.  Many of us work and earn an income, but we cannot afford the extra costs of our disability, so we make huge sacrifices just to survive.

We are also expected to be solitary and celibate.  Our government makes it financially unappealing to mate with a person with a disability. Once we become a spouse we immediately lose what few supports and income we may have found.  Our dignity is gone once we realize we are now considered a dependent of the person we have found to share life with.  We are no longer equals, but more like parent and child.

I find it interesting how on one hand our government marginalizes its weakest citizens and other the other hand aggrandizes its strongest and crudest.  Where are the leaders in this province?

We struggle with many challenges every day, but there is one challenge you could help us meet that would indirectly assist with all the others. On behalf of my peers, I am pleading with the leaders of all levels of government to address immediately the lack of equitable accessible housing at every income level.  Today, in the UK, no home can be built without basic wheelchair access.  I am pleading with you to find the wisdom and the compassion to give people with disabilities the opportunity to move beyond the third world conditions they are subjected to in the richest province in the nation. Please allow us become productive members of this province. I beg you to reach out to the disability community in a meaningful way rather than the paternalist way that has been the habit too often in the past.

Roxanne Ulanicki

July 25, 2009

See more of Roxanne’s work at http://brokencandy08.spaces.live.com/