Ford government carrying out social murder and eugenics

Ford and his Conservative MPPs are engaged in widespread social murder and eugenics. You have one vote on February 27th. Use it wisely.

Twitter post by Disability Justice Network Ontario (DJNO) Credit: DJNO

January 1, 2025 was enforcement day for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). This provincial law, enacted in 2005, was supposed to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.

So, after 20 years of legislation, including the last six years under the Ford Conservatives, has the provincial government created a barrier free province?

According to Disability Justice Network Ontario (DJNO), “We have more disabled folks in precarious housing or unhoused, more unaffordability due to violently low social assistance rates, and a piece of accessibility legislation without a real plan for enforcement or standards that have kept pace with the needs of disabled Ontarians.”

In one word, that would be a resounding, NO! That’s because Doug and his bros massively dropped the ball on AODA. Then, they didn’t even bend over to try to pick it back up!

Here’s some information about the AODA. This act is provincial law that aims to make the province accessible for people with a wide variety of disabilities by setting standards for accessibility in various daily interactions. AODA compliance applies to physical access as well as signage and access to online content. The act must be reviewed every three years.

The province was required to be fully AODA compliant by 2025, but is no where near fulfilling that mandate throughout the healthcare system; at elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools; provincial parks like Bronte Creek, Forks of the Credit and Pinery; Queen’s Park and the list goes on ad infinitum.

Some of these changes are as simple Bronte Provincial Park installing several low-cost ramps for employees and visitors who use wheelchairs and scooters to access onsite historic houses and barns; installing an elevator on the outside of the main historic building which could have been worked into the capital budget and could also have been completed in stages; ensuring the right grade of gravel was used on trail paths to accommodate wheelchair users so parents, teachers and interpreters would not have to carry students in their wheelchairs along paths; having on-site stations for life skills youth and adult student visitors requiring diaper changes to use rather than management telling booking teachers they should use outdoor picnic tables or blankets placed on the ground in very public spaces; and up-dating information panels with AODA compliant font. After all, management had two decades to accomplish the required accommodations and in addition to provincial funding, the park receives generous financial gifts from The Friends of Bronte Creek Park, a volunteer group that raises funds for park initiatives.

David C. Onley (Right) welcoming Governor General David Johnston to Queen’s Park Credit: Facebook

The Honourable David C. Onley, Ontario’s 28^th Lieutenant Governor, was appointed to review the act and conducted public consultations in 2018 producing a scathing report in 2019.

In 2022, the Ford Government appointed Rich Donovan to conduct public consultations into the experiences of Ontario’s 2.9 million persons with disabilities and their families.

The Donovan Interim Report (March 2023) calls the Ford governments “efforts” a complete failure citing a lack of data collection; no plan; a lack of accountability and transparency; as well as failures and missed opportunities that left Donovan angered.

This short excerpt from the preamble of Donovan’s report provides an overview of the scathing report:

“The AODA begins with these words: “Recognizing the history of discrimination against persons with disabilities in Ontario”. It is clear to the Reviewer that this implied “history” of discrimination is still the lived experience of millions in Ontario. Every day. A word that comes up frequently in disability spaces is “ableism” – a form of discrimination that favours people without disabilities. The Reviewer heard this term, and accounts of discrimination, frequently over the past 10 months. The Reviewer has been told, repeatedly, of how Ontario has failed in its commitment to create a more accessible experience for Ontarians with Disabilities.

Following a first round of consultations with PWD [Persons with Disabilities] and AODA stakeholders, the 4^th Reviewer of the AODA has no choice but to assess this regulatory regime in its current form and practice to be an unequivocal failure. The reasons for this failure are straightforward and predictable. There is virtually no meaningful data collection on the experiences of PWD in Ontario. This, coupled with no plan for change for how Ontario will get from where it currently is to where it needs to be that can be practically enforced has made the goal of an accessible Ontario by 2025 difficult, if not impossible to achieve. In such an environment, there is no owner of regulatory outcomes, and thus no accountability. The result is a series of failures and missed opportunities that has spanned 17 years. It is the missed opportunities that most anger the Reviewer.” -- Rich Donovan

Then, there’s the Ontario Autism Program and Doug Ford’s 2018 election promise to streamline the process and clear the province-wide backlog of wait lists for autism therapy within 18 months.

In 2019 about 23,000 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders were waiting for government-funded treatment in Ontario. Approximately, 8,400 children were already receiving therapy at that time.

Well, Ford and his cronies, including Lisa MacLeod, Ontario's Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, managed to grow the wait list to over 60,000 children.

In fact, in 2023, Amanda Hunter from Lincoln was told by her Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff to move out of province – aka Alberta – to get the autism assessments, services and supports she and her two autistic children not only needed, but deserved and were entitled to receive.

There is also Ontario’s Developmental Disabilities Sector that funds programs and services for adults with developmental disabilities. Their funding has been frozen for the past 15 years and Ford didn’t see a need to change this.

DJNO maintains that Ontario needs Accessibility Standards that include all aspects of life. Existing standards need to be revised to match the lived realities of people and the systems we now have in place. There needs to be a greater focus on investing in the social system in Ontario including actual, accessible, affordable housing, and livable social assistance rates.

Folks living on Ontario Disabilities Support Program (ODSP) receive up to $1,368 per month/$16,416 annually, while folks on Ontario Works (OW) get $733 per month/$8,796 annually to cover rent and all other expenses.

The 2024 poverty line for a single person in Ontario is $28,750 annually. If a single person’s net income is less than $50,000 then they are considered low income. To be considered middle class an individual needs to earn between $53,359 and $106,7171.

In 2023, Ford earned a base salary of $208,974 plus benefits totaling $291,000 for a grand total of $499,974. All 30 cabinet ministers earned $165,851 per year. The 43 Conservative MPPs appointed to serve as parliamentary assistants saw their pay bumped to $140,000. Conservative MPPs chairing six of eight committees earned an extra $16,000 bringing their salary to $132,000. None of these figures include the $200,000 to over $300,000 annually that Ford’s MPPs each receive in benefits enhancing already generous taxpayer funded salaries.

Find more information about Ford and his MPPs at ontariosunshinelist.com. The Ontario Sunshine List is a yearly list of public sector employees in Ontario who earn more than $100,000.

And, what did this Premier and his Conservative MPPs accomplish since taking office? They failed to implement provincially mandated AODA compliance by January 1, 2025. They failed to speed up diagnosis and access to autism therapy instead increasing the waitlist while leaving parents to fend for themselves and pick up the costs of private care.

Hamilton social justice advocate and basic income recipient, Michael Hampson, who thrived while on the basic income pilot, but died after Ford cancelled the program and he was forced to survive on ODSP Credit: Jessie Golem

They cancelled the Basic Income Pilot before it was complete and threw folks into dire situations while claiming that ODSP recipients should be grateful for increases of 6.5 per cent (2023) and 4.5 per cent increase (2024) which amount to $84.50 and $62.30 per month respectively after suffering through Ford’s initial 1.5 per cent cut as soon as he took office.

And, please remember that any financial windfalls that ODSP recipients might receive like gifts of cash from family or friends, or Ford’s $200 cost of living bribe, are routinely clawed back by the Ford government.

OW rates have remained the same since October 2018, when they were increased by 1.5 per cent. But let’s face it 1.5 per cent of $733 is less than nothing. And, most folks receiving OW actually should be on ODSP, but are put on OW while their cases are reviewed – a process the Ford government has managed to drag out.

It’s important to note that, Ford introduced Bill 276, “Supporting Recovery and Competitiveness,” in May 2021. Bill 276 promoted the modernization of social assistance — a dog whistle for privatization using the Virginia-based firm Maximus who was tasked with providing cost-effective assessments of ODSP applicants who are terrified they will no long qualify for benefits while wondering what wrap around services will still be available.

Ultimately, Ford wants to force folks who are not able to work, or are only able to work limited hours due to their abilities, to convince a private American firm that they should be eligible for social assistance and not cut off from the meager amount they currently qualify for.

If you think the unhoused crisis is bad, just wait.

Bottom line is, Ford and his Conservative MPPs are just too expensive!

And, I’m not just referring to actual dollar amounts, I’m more concerned with preventable accidents and even potential deaths that are going to happen due to inadequate AODA accommodation and enforcement; collateral damage from undiagnosed and untreated autism; as well as unhoused and starvation deaths due to inadequate ODSP/OW payments as well as the cancellation of ODSP/OW benefits for folks who would actually qualify if a qualified social worker were handling their cases rather than a minimum wage employee working for an American corporation checking off boxes on a list.

Ford and his Conservative MPPs are engaged in widespread social murder and eugenics. And, it’s important to remember, that even if we start life healthy, as we age we all become disabled to varying degrees.

You have one vote on February 27^th. Use it wisely.

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Thanks to everyone who read today’s article. With your continued support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.