In 2021, Canada expanded access to medical assistance in dying to all people with disabilities who suffer as a result of their condition. These expansions to MAiD come at a time when people labeled with intellectual and developmental disabilities are criminalized and institutionalized. 

Featuring footage from the Freedom Tour documentary, and the Disability Filibuster.  Featuring testimonies by Catherine Frazee, Sarah Jama, and Jonathan Marchand. Interview with Inclusion Canada’s Natalia Hicks. 

Transcript and full show notes available at invisibleinstitutions.com

Fundraisers: GoFundMe for Gwen,  and Family of Donna Duncan

In Canada, institutions for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities have never closed, they have changed faces and names, but have remained responsible for the segregation and isolation of labelled people. Today, group homes are the primary forms of supportive housing for labelled. And while not all group homes are institutional, all group homes have the potential to become institutions. With guests self-advocate Kory Earle and researcher Jihan Abbas.

Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AI-NJ4IEyvy7Hfjd1nX-EcGhAcF5-1yovXnEYprdO1o/edit?usp=sharing 

Throughout Canadian history provincial governments have worked to control the sexuality and reproduction of people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. For fifty years, Alberta’s Sexual Sterilization Act (1928), made it legal to sterilize people labelled with intellectual disabilities without their consent. More than 2,834 people in the Alberta were subject to involuntary sexual sterilization surgery, but experts say this is just the tip of the iceberg. And today, access to sexual and reproductive rights for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities continues to be compromised by both ableism and institutionalization.

Featuring Dr. Claudia Malacrida, Dr. Alan Santinele Martino & institutional survivors. 

Transcript:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MNKZqY-JIcZNutmSy8J91_kLSnoEa1NnPJgD6ikGIYQ/edit?usp=sharing 

CW: sterilization, sexualized violence & explicit language