3. Flashback 2018: Rights, Advocacy
Wouldn’t it be nice to get emergency therapy yesterday rather than a needle in ER? Or housing yesterday rather than running from shelter to warming centre today...
Homelessness: Crisis, emergency,
Governments often see us as the targets of the emergency rather than the solution.
City council voted to not declare homeless an emergency on January 30th. Partly because homelessness is such an ongoing problem it isn't an emergency. Voting No means that the Mayor cannot make big decisions and spend money to immediately create housing and shelters and to ask for help from higher level governments.
Do you have thoughts? Petition at Progress Toronto. Get more information at https://bit.ly/2UvVOc1 If you really want to experience the debate: https://youtu.be/aZFy-8HPEHc?t=8374
State of Emergency - Opioid Crisis
Health advocates urge Ontario to declare state of emergency over opioids.
[Province has limited the number of OPS/SIS sites] “The cap is the exact opposite of a proper response to the current crisis,” said Sarah Ovens, an organizer with the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society (TOPS).
"It is like nobody is steering this ship, nobody is in charge of co-ordinating this response at a higher level,” Ms. Ovens said
Source: https://tgam.ca/2MKqxzz MORE at: https://www.facebook.com/TorontoOPS/ and https://www.facebook.com/CanadianAssociationofPeopleWhoUseDrugs/
Family of Soleiman Faqiri files $14M lawsuit over 'excessive force' they say killed him
More than two years after Soleiman Faqiri was found lifeless on the floor of an Ontario jail cell, the family of the 30-year-old man, who had mental illness, has filed a lawsuit against the province over the "excessive force" they believe ultimately killed him.
More than six months after his death, a post-mortem report deemed the cause of Faqiri’s death “unascertained,” with the Kawartha Lakes Police Service concluding there were no grounds for criminal charges against any of those involved. [CBC: //bit.ly/2HORqUa]
More information: youtu.be/VgcmP3PU1Sg
soundtimes.com/family-of-soleim…y-say-killed-him/
$633 million More for CAMH
vs
- $3.1 million Cut of Program Development Services Program for Independent Facilitation
More about the program at oifn.ca
You might want to Contact MP to save or not save Independent Facilitation
No news about about how much Ontario will provide for community mental health, community organizations, self organized groups. More at soundtimes.com/funding-increases-and-decreases/
Housing Now Plan - Toronto
The plan calls for 10187 new units on 11 City owned properties.
Check out this map and perspective.
How much land do you think should be deeply affordable? ACORN is calling for 50%. Do you think Toronto land (and condo potential) is enough that developers will commit to real affordable housing?
Stay tuned. This plan is new so you can help shape it:
Þ acorncanada.org/Toronto
Þ housingactionnowto.wordpress.com/
More at Soundtimes
Independent Street Checks Review: End Them
The Honourable Michael H. Tulloch (2018) review discussed the ways police "check" and target different people.
"...Given the social cost involved with a practice that has not definitively been shown to widely reduce or solve crime, it is recommended that the practice of randomly stopping individuals to gather their identifying information for the creation of a database for intelligence purposes be discontinued in those remaining jurisdictions that still employ the practice." More at soundtimes.com
And what about those intimate relationships
Too often people with disabilities and institutions are seen as unworthy of relationships or sex.Getting the relationships and sex you want is part of disability justice:According to the World Health Organization, "Sexuality is an integral part of the personality of everyone: man, woman and child; it is a basic need and aspect of being human that cannot be separated from other aspects life."
Can you u have a relationship when you are mentally ill?
Have you ever been asked how you could date (or be dated) someone like that? Is it different for “mental / psychosocial” disabilities than physical disabilities?
To enter the contest online, begin by reading through all the rules below and then click here to submit online.
Contest by Consumer Survivor Initiative: NISA/Northern Initiative for Social Action
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