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“People with disabilities need real support now,” said Larry Brown. “They have been sounding the alarm bells for years about their precarity and the pandemic made things even worse for them.”
Ottawa (25 Nov. 2021) ― The annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons (IDPWD) first occurred in 1992 following a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly. It is a day for celebration, education, optimism, and action intended to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development, and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. The theme for IDPWD 2021 is “fighting for rights in the post-COVID era.”
NUPGE sends letter calling for immediate financial aid for people with disabilities
In September 2021 Larry Brown, President of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), wrote an open letter to federal party leaders calling for immediate aid to be provided to people with disabilities. The letter compared the swift action taken by the government when people lost their jobs due to the pandemic with the poverty crisis being experienced by people with disabilities prior to the pandemic.
Many people with disabilities were making less than $2,000 per month before the pandemic. If the government admits that $2,000 a month is needed to survive (though that number is extremely low as in the average price in October for a rental listed on rentals.ca was $1,800 per month) there’s no excuse to not subsidize the wages of people with disabilities who earn less than that. Especially when you consider the increased expenses people with disabilities often incur through medication, assistive devices, personal support workers salaries, transit costs, etc. However, when people with disabilities who lost their jobs during the pandemic applied to CERB, money they received was deducted from their provincial disability cheques.
The letter also voiced concerns about the limited scope of Canada’s proposed Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP). The DIAP survey (which was open to the public) only asked questions about people with disabilities’ experience in the workforce. All people with disabilities, regardless of their ability to work, have a right to live with dignity and must be included in Canada’s DIAP.
Almost 1 in 4 Canadians identify as having a disability
22% of the Canadian population identifies as having a disability. In the news release for the Canada Disability Benefit legislation, which is now dead due to the dissolution of parliament for the 2021 election, the government concedes that the number of people with disabilities in Canada is likely much higher. That’s a substantial portion of Canada’s population. Should the bill be reintroduced it has the potential to aid many people with disabilities in Canada.
However, if the federal support is deducted from their provincial disability cheques, like it was with CERB, the federal support will be nothing more than lip-service and people with disabilities who are living precariously will become even more precarious.
COVID-19 threatens to increase the number of people with disabilities
One of the less talked about risks of contracting COVID-19 is the potential to contract post COVID-19 condition (also referred to as long COVID or long-term COVID). Symptoms range from breathing difficulty to organ damage to mental health problems to cognitive problems to extreme fatigue. The symptoms of many people who have reported experiencing post COVID-19 condition mirror those of other disability causing conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) published a clinical case definition of post COVID-19 condition, though it has been criticized by some in the health community for saying that most symptoms occur 3 months after contracting COVID-19 and last for at least 2 months. One of the arguments against the WHO definition is that people who start experiencing symptoms immediately after recovering from COVID-19 will have to wait 3 months before getting a diagnosis of post COVID-19 condition.
On the Government of Canada’s Post COVID-19 condition website, they state that about 80 percent of adults reported 1 or more symptoms in the short term, 60 percent reported 1 or more symptoms in the long term, and 10 percent said they were unable to return to work in the long term. There is no mention of financial aid or eligibility for provincial support programs on the website. That is a significant number of people with a serious health issue who cannot access support for people with disabilities.
“People with disabilities need real support now,” said Larry Brown. “They have been sounding the alarm bells for years about their precarity and the pandemic made things even worse for them.”
“And with the potential influx of people with post COVID-19 condition, the qualifications for who can access provincial aid will need to be expanded,” said Bert Blundon, NUPGE Secretary-Treasurer. “We need governments to work together and address this crisis immediately.”