Category: Uncategorized

Autism Speaks Canada shuts down in January. Good.

a4aontario
A4A members protesting at the Autism Speaks Walk, 2018

By Autistics for Autistics

As Canada’s autistic-led advocacy group and an international affiliate of the Autistic Self Advocacy Organization, we are relieved that Autism Speaks Canada will be shutting down in January of 2025.

Autism Speaks Canada has long sponsored a pseudoscientific “autism gene” project that collected 10,000 Canadian autistic children’s DNA, without their consent, for use in a shared database by scam artists around the world to develop genetics-related products–including prenatal tests that do not truly detect autism and that lead to the termination of healthy, planned pregnancies. Their DNA boondoggle has never found an autism gene (surprised-NOT), but it has certainly promoted the idea that we don’t deserve to be born.

As well, Autism Speaks Canada held back progress on Canadian inclusion and disability access by lobbying for a National Autism Strategy that would allocate the lion’s share of federal autism funding to a consortium of less than 5 autism orgs through sole-source contracting, without any opportunity for groups to apply. This left autistic-led groups and other local agencies without a seat at the policy table, unlike the US, who include autistic groups in their policy meetings.

Shockingly, in its farewell message Autism Speaks Canada actually highlighted those two projects as their major achievements. It perhaos reveals the real reason they failed: They were never able to focus donor dollars–or energy–on the needs and ideas of the community because they were caught up in “curing” autism & keeping control of funding dollars.

Harmon Pope, chair of ANLFO, an Ottawa-based rights group, has been monitoring & leading protest actions against Autism Speaks for the past 5 years. “I’d been noticing their local team in Ottawa slowly losing influence,” said Harmon, who emphasized the need to challenge other autism organizations in Canada that have similar policy positions to Autism Speaks.

This is an opportunity for autistics and our families to collaborate locally to build new, neuro-affirming spaces and projects. If you are interested in this, or in helping advocate to the federal and provincial governments, please contact us here. We also welcome donations of any size, here.

As A4A Board Member Gaby put it: “It’s a Christmas miracle, Charlie Brown!” Let’s take this opportunity to undo the damage Autism Speaks has done in our community, and create something better.

–The Autistics for Autistics Board of Directors

Support Bill C-273 to ban physical punishment of children in Canadian schools—& everywhere

a4aontario

More than sixty countries around the world have banned physical punishment of children—but in Canada, physical punishment of kids is endorsed by the Criminal Code!

We have a chance to help keep kids in Canada safe. (See below for how to email your MP.)

Peter Julian, a Member of Parliament from Burnaby BC, has introduced a Private Member’s motion, Bill C-273,  An Act to amend the Criminal Code. It would remove Section 43 of the Criminal Code that permits physical punishment of children in Canada.

Right now, the Criminal Code of Canada Sec. 43, states: “Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in for a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care…” The legislation was written 1892.

MP Julian’s Bill would repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code and “end the legalized physical punishment of children in Canada,” in the words of MP Julian.

Amazingly, this is not a sure win. In fact, there have been 18 attempts over the years for a repeal. In 2003, the issue was brought before the Supreme Court of Canada who  ruled that the Criminal Code could continue to allow physical punishment of kids. As many of us have experienced and witnessed, violence and abuse towards children (especially in special education and especially students of colour) is not only tolerated, it is normalized.

Repealing Section 43 of the Criminal Code would create a legal grounds for individuals and families to fight back against Canadian schools’ use of seclusion rooms, restraint and all forms of physical abuse.

Please take a moment to find your MP’s email address/phone and contact to their office with this message, or one of your choosing:

“As your constituent, I am urging you to support Bill C-273, a Member’s Bill by MP Julian. It is long past time to end the physical punishment of children in school or any other setting. It is banned in more that 60 countries already. Please vote in favour of this Bill.”

There is no date set for the vote, but it could come up fast. The third reading is in progress, last step before MPs vote. Let your MP know how you feel today!

Many thanks to A4A member Cheryl for research! And many thanks to all for contacting your MPs.

__

Autistics for Autistics is Canada’s self-advocacy organization. We are an autistic-led group and an international affiliate of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN).
Media requests: a4aontario@gmail.com

Autistics for Autistics 2023 Report: Education, Support & Advocacy

a4aontario

2023 was a year of education, advocacy and outreach for our team. It was also a year of rest, renewal and support. It’s been 7 years since we founded A4A and in the true tradition of a sabbath/sabbatical, we used 2023 to take things a little slower while still making big changes through education, community-building and advocacy.

Here are some highlights from 2023:

MEDIA COVERAGE
As Canada’s autistic-led advocacy organization, we have become a go-to for media calls related to autistic human rights and the neurodiversity movement in Canada. Examples from 2023 include a Brampton Guardian story where Rishav addressed the issue of police violence against autistic people and CBC’s  interview with Anne about autistic rights.


COMMUNITY/EDUCATION
Global: International Disability Day of Mourning

Every March 1 since 2018, A4A has led vigils for the international Disability Day of Mourning, remembering those who were murdered by their parents/caregivers and saying: Never Again. Thank you to Gaby for co-ordinating, and to Caroline, Morgan, Raya, Rishav, Sam, Shannon and everyone who makes this important vigil happen.

City of Toronto: Vaccine Outreach
2023 marked the end of the Disability Vaccine Outreach Initiative, in which we partnered with the Centre for Independent Living Toronto (CILT). This City of Toronto-funded initiative helped ensure access for vaccinations including one-to-one support by our amazing Vaccine Ambassadors, Gaby and Sam, for autistic Torontonians with support needs.

City of Toronto: Neurodiversity Flag Raising
We have raised the neurodiversity flag at Toronto City Hall and are currently planning our event for 2024. It is an amazing celebration, with speeches and cake, and a moment of visibility as a part of our city. Many thanks to all organizers and to the City for welcoming our flag and celebrating neurodiversity.

The Autistic Health Access Project
Darla and Anne continued our groundbreaking Autistic Health Outreach Project, educating Canadian medical students about autistic health access needs at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University medical schools. They will be presenting this month at University of Toronto. Read more about it here.

Support: Our Discord & Facebook groups
Our chat groups on Discord and Facebook are a space for autistics to share resources and information, to connect, to vent, and brighten our days with cat memes! Our admins do an amazing job of organizing within the channels and everyone in the groups is an integral part of these supporting spaces. Endless thanks to all.

Community speaking engagements
We speak at workplaces, mental health agencies, schools and other venues about autistic realities and autistic rights. A 2023 example is Gaby’s presentations before Centre for Addictions and Mental Health about Autism, Neurodiversity and Models of Disability. Watch it here. Also in 2023, Charlotte (Métis Nation) spoke before the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society on Disability Across the Lifespan. Watch it here.

Advocacy for students and families
Throughout 2023, we wrote advocacy letters for families whose children face discrimination at school, and we connect them with resources. Sometimes all it takes is to share some resources and tools to help a school facilitate a child’s belonging and inclusion. Other times, it’s necessary to connect families with disability lawyers to fight for their rights.

Recently, we consulted with a community coalition about the need to modify the existing Accessibility for Ontarians Act. Autistics are not included among the disabled groups protected by this legislation, which creates a barrier when individuals and families try to seek inclusion and pursue human rights complaints. Autism should be a category of disability in Canadian law and we will continue to advocate for this.

Publication consulting
Several of our members review neurodiversity content of publications to ensure the diversity of our community and needs are represented. A 2023 example is Bridget and Anne’s work consulting on the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada’s Resources for Autistic and Disabled Youth and Service Providers for Youth.  Read the Guides here.

Coalitions: GTA Disability Coalition, Community Living Ontario
We are proud members of the GTA Disability Coalition, comprised of disability rights and services organizations across the Toronto area. In 2023, our group spoke at the Coalition’s online conference for the International Day for Persons with Disabilities, gave depositions on housing and transit at City of Toronto Budget Hearings and supported other coalition work.

In 2023, we continued to support and collaborate with Community Living Ontario to work towards ending abusive long-term care and institutional housing in our province, through the Alliance on Aging and Disability. Thank you to all partners and to Shawn from Community Living for inviting us.


LEGISLATIVE CHANGE: LOOKING BACK ON 7 YEARS
While we took a break from visiting politicians this year, we also celebrate achievements of the past 7 years in our work to end ABA, including: helping to get SLP & OT therapies and AAC devices included in Ontario autism funding and to decrease funding for ABA; legislation introducing oversight of Ontario’s ABA industry by an arms-length association; and autistic-led organizations being invited for the first time to assess and critique Canadian autism policy before the Senate of Canada in 2022.

While our efforts on Bill 160 to ban seclusion (isolation) rooms in schools faltered due to pandemic shutdowns and political change at Queen’s Park, we are glad to report there is a newly-created Canadian chapter of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint, whose work we support.


2023: WORKING TOGETHER
Many thanks to everyone for all their efforts in 2023!

We encourage autistics across Canada who are interested in getting involved to contact us so that we can connect you with our planning networks.

Another way to support our work is with a small donation. We do not get grant funding and we appreciate individual donations to help pay for ASL at our events, as well as server fees and material costs for events. Donate here.

 

 

Freedom to stim, under attack. What do we do? Act up, write back

a4aontario


Sometimes people send emails asking us to promote their products/services or give opinions about them. And some of these products and services are clearly problematic or even abusive for autistic people.

We recently got an email from a scientist seeking to create a technology they hoped to license to Apple Watch that would monitor an autistic person’s stims–the rhythmic movements we make when we need to regulate our emotions—and alert about the person’s stims. They then seek to develop ‘a whole set of wearable devices to capture all aspects/features of [stimming] in ASD in near future.”

While the scientist claimed that the product would be “supporting the autistic community with a technology to promote Self-Advocacy,” this technology does not support self-advocacy at all. It supports the absolute friggin’ panopticon of the ABA industry, which seeks to license new and crueler tools to monitor, grade and punish autistic people—especially those who are intellectually disabled—for our natural ways of being.

But here’s the really interesting part: the scientist identified as autistic. So, we wrote back.

“Thank you for your email. Autistics for Autistics does not support ABA in any way, shape or form and cannot endorse your research that enables ABA and its harmful impacts on autistic people.

“Monitoring gadgets like this only enrich the developers and licensers without providing something of value to the end users. They end up being forced on autistic people who are not given the opportunity to say no and that is unethical.

“It is our hope that autistic researchers consider their own quality of life as they go down the research path, think about what services and products or social research could meaningfully improve the quality of life for autistic individuals and focus on that, because that is rewarding work. You are young and still have time to shift your path in that direction.”

As to the scientist’s aspirations that AppleWatch would ever pick up such an application, we’d invite anyone who finds that plausible to look at the autistic apps supported by  Apple, including Proloquo, GoTalk, Keeble and Time Timer. Or travel to Cupertino and watch the developers there, pacing and fidgeting and stimming their way to a new suite of amazing applications and products that legit do improve quality of life.

We have the right to stim, to move in the ways we need to move to regulate our bodies and emotions. Nobody should be monitoring, stigmatizing or shaming us for it. Join us each year on September 17 for our online event, the International Day of the Stim. 😊

 

 

Autistic advocacy in Ontario: Highlights from 2022

a4aontario

The past year has been exciting, as we returned to in-person events and continue to grow, with new projects and connections across Canada!

Some highlights:

  • We raised the neurodiversity flag at Toronto City Hall, after 2 years of virtual observances. It was incredible to be together again in real life and to break bread (well, cake) and feel so welcomed by the protocols staff at Toronto City Hall. Thank you to all who attended.
  • We provided info & spoke before the Senate of Canada, together with Autistics United Canada (AUC), about the need for federal policymakers to move from a charity perspective to a rights perspective. Canadian policymakers need to begin to study best practices in disability policy and consult with autistic-led groups.
  • We continued to partner with the Centre for Independent Living Toronto (CILT) to improve vaccine access for autistic/disabled people through the Disability Vaccine Outreach Initiative, including our vaccine info webinar, social media outreach and one-to-one outreach by our amazing Vaccine Ambassadors, Gaby and Sam, to ensure access for autistic Torontonians with support needs. We are so glad that CILT included us in this important project!
  • We led the annual Disability Day of Mourning in Ontario, remembering those who were murdered by their parents/caregivers and saying: Never Again. Our members read names, gave speeches and provided support through a virtual vigil on March 2. Thank you to everyone who made this important vigil happen.
  • A4A members presented to the Ontario Association of College and University Housing Officers and to University of Waterloo about inclusion, student life and new research on autistic students in college and university. We have more invitations to present on this topic early in the new year!
  • We continued our groundbreaking Autistic Health Outreach Project, educating Canadian medical students about autistic health access needs at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University medical schools.
  • We continued to support and collaborate with Community Living Ontario to work towards ending abusive long-term care and institutional housing in our province, through the Alliance on Aging and Disability. Thank you to all partners for all their hard work on this issue, to our rep Taryn and to Shawn from Community Living for inviting us.
  • A4A was an organizing partner in the online annual Canadian national conference on the International Day for Persons with Disabilities (United Nations), which was hosted by the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, streamed on Accessible Media International and featured speakers and participants from around the world.
  • We were contacted by media for stories about ABA, restraint and seclusion in schools, media portrayals of autism and other topics. It was especially awesome to be contacted by OWL magazine for their neurodiversity feature!
  • We consulted with a community coalition about the need to modify the existing Accessibility for Ontarians Act. At present, autistics are not included among the disabled groups protected by this legislation, creating a barrier when we try to seek inclusion and pursue human rights complaints.
  • We attempted to consult with the Public Health Agency of Canada about priorities in federal autism appropriations. Unfortunately, PHAC continued its pattern of devaluing autistic people’s input and time, so for the well-being of our reps we left the conversation. We will continue to connect with MPs, Senators and other federal agencies instead.
  • We continued to educate employers on inclusive supports and communication access for autistic people through our Autistic At Work presentation, and to present to mental health organizations about access and inclusion.
  • We began to plan for 2023, including launching our Neurodiversity Library with support from the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network; joining a new, national coalition project to work for regulating legislation on restraint and seclusion in schools; taking action to promote supported independent living options for autistic and intellectually disabled people; new advocacy to protect people with epilepsy from cyber attacks; policy work, education initiatives and much more.

I feel so honoured to work with the Board and volunteers, who are the most incredible people. Any policymaker, parent, educator or organization is lucky to have access to their time, perspective and ideas. I can’t wait to see what the future brings for autistic rights in 2023.

-Anne Borden King