Re: The Unusual Status of Autistic Canadians

[Guest guest]

Two words:

HOLY SHIT.

[Guest guest]

> Two words:

>

> HOLY SHIT.

The girl really gets with it, don,t she? My fave is her Bettelheim

peice. But for pure passion, nothing I've seen quite approaches

,s Why I Am Angry at autistics.org---smokin!

--DKM

[Guest guest]

I have to agree and disagree with this article... I agree that she does

kick butt, but trying to argue that other people of difference (colour,

ability, gender, sexual orientation, mental illness, etc.) are not also

excluded by the flaws in our constitution, (to say nothing of the

bigotry of society) well I can't agree with that... even just the true

history of the First nations people alone in Canada are a horrible

example of what assimilation tactics can do to a distinct group of

people (and especially all the sub groups within that broader category).

I consider what I went thru and what they want me to do to my son to

help him appear normal, to be tanatamount to assimilation, and while it

is true that the rights of women, first nations, queer people, and

people of colour have made more headway in fighting for their respective

rights, I beleive it is also true that disability rights is in its

infancy (esp compared to gay rights, or feminism for example).

So does this mean " we " are not recognized under the law? oh sure it

does... love those canadian loopholes...

but does it mean we are singled out for bigotry, insults, being treated

as less able, from invisible unintentional chauvinism, to intentional

ignorant hate..? yes.

but is that an " unusual status " for any Canadians? No it's not that

unusual. not from where I stand.

jmho

dani

jypsy [ janet norman-bain ] wrote:

> Note: for readers unfamiliar with Canadian constitutional law, the

> Charter

> of Rights and Freedoms is notorious for having the " Notwithstanding "

> clause, a loophole whereby guaranteed rights and freedoms can be

> unguaranteed.

>

> NOT WITH STANDING IN CANADA

>

> The Unusual Status of Autistic Canadians

> by Dawson

>

> There's a big group of Canadian citizens who don't qualify for the rights

> and freedoms guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and

> Freedoms. We

> are autistics.

> You may have heard people talking about us.

>

> We are baffling, mysterious, a puzzle. We are tragic, condemned, soulless

> hollow shells. We are devastating, horrifying, a nightmare. Our

> numbers are

> exploding, there is a dramatic and staggering increase. We are an

> epidemic,

> a crisis, a plague. The destruction we wreak exceeds that of Aids, of

> 9/11.

> We are a source of unimaginable suffering, sorrow, and grief; we are

> worse

> than cancer because unlike cancer, autism is not fatal. The nightmare is

> 24/7 and never ends.

>

> You may have heard people arguing about us.

>

> For years now, our parents have gone to court to force their

> governments to

> pay to save those of us who can be saved, before it's too late. Unlike

> non-autistic children who need only care and education suited to

> themselves, everyone agrees that autistics need transformation by heroic

> and very expensive interventions or else we are doomed. Everyone agrees

> autistics are unable to communicate, or to learn from the environment;

> and

> we're preoccupied by repetitive movements and interests that everyone

> agrees are useless and worthless--never mind bizarre, and repugnant. This

> doesn't sound like an argument, so why all the court cases? These

> cases are

> serious: one has been fought all the way to the Supreme Court.

>

> The opponents in these fiercely-contested legal battles have agreed

> throughout that autistics have no place in these proceedings, and no

> interests, except in no longer being or at least acting like ourselves.

> Unreconstructed autistics are assumed to contribute nothing to

> society; we

> have no abilities and no strengths, no characteristics and no

> achievements

> worthy of consideration or protection. So we are excluded from these

> cases.

> We are neither invited nor consulted, and everyone agrees on this also.

>

> The Charter has been busy in these cases. For example, Section 7 has been

> used to argue that who we are, unless irrevocably altered via intensive

> behavioural interventions, is an offence to the inherent dignity of our

> persons. We were also deemed an affront to the inherent dignity of our

> parents' persons. The judge in this case seriously considered these

> arguments, but decided they could be incorporated into Section 15, the

> one

> about equality, regardless of many things, including disability.

>

> people without it in order to have rights, dignity, and freedoms. Jewish

> people are not required to be less Jewish, nor homosexuals less

> homosexual.

> In their own time, both these groups were vilified and considered

> plagues,

> and there have been aggressive treatments for homosexuality. Equality

> rights for autistics, in contrast to all other Canadians, amount to an

> obligation to be or act less autistic or not autistic at all. Remarkably,

> everyone agrees to this also.

>

> So what are they fighting over, these parents and governments who

> speak for

> and represent autistics and ensure we cannot identify ourselves, proudly,

> as autistics without putting our liberty and employment at risk?

>

> They aren't fighting, or even arguing, over legal rights for autistics.

> Their actions consistently indicate that on all fronts they agree we

> shouldn't have any. There is real complicity between the supposed

> opponents

> wherein they both agree to denigrate and exclude autistics in whichever

> ways are expedient to achieve their respective financial goals. They, the

> parents on one side and the governments on the other, are merely haggling

> over whose burden we are. In Canada, where the possibility that autistics

> contribute to society--because of, not in spite of, being who we

> are--does

> not exist, this haggling is given the extreme privilege of status as a

> Charter issue.

>

> It then becomes easier for me to understand why an eminent physician,

> Chairman of the Board of my Regional Health Board, can call who I am a

> plague--prominently, in writing--in the context of an as-described

> important international autism conference.

>

> He will be defended on the grounds that there is, it has been decided, a

> phenomenon going on with autism. With us. And it is appropriate and even

> helpful to call this phenomenon a plague. He is also tacitly supported by

> the Provincial Health Minister.

>

> When an official naively asked me about seeking support from an autism

> society, I had to explain that adjacent to the eminent physician's plague

> remark, the president of the local autism society (and vice president and

> spokesperson for the provincial federation) also writes that who I am

> is a

> plague, a plague which must be eradicated once and for all. In addition,

> she writes that I can't speak for myself, I simply suffer, and must be

> spoken for by people like herself and her collaborator, the eminent

> physician. She equally merits the tacit support of the Provincial Health

> Minister.

>

> None of these statements or actions would be considered human rights

> violations; in Canada they are considered true and proper and no

> objections

> are raised.

> I am autistic and, because I am excluded from the Charter of Rights and

> Freedoms, I am not a Canadian. Now I am not even sure I am human.

>

> This article, in a slightly edited version, originally appeared in the 12

> December 2003 New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal (Guest Commentaries),

> page 9,

> under the headline, Autistic Canadians have to deal with their

> " unusual " status

>

> http://www.sentex.net/~nexus23/naa_not.html

> <http://www.sentex.net/%7Enexus23/naa_not.html>

>

> ________________________________

> Ooops....Wrong Planet! Syndrome

> Autism Spectrum Resources

> www.PlanetAutism.com

> jypsy@...

>

>