Work or Die: Disabled Under Capitalism

Explicit content warning

07/18/23 • 58 min

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What does Doug Ford mean when he says "every able bodied person should be working"? What is the impact of those words and the legislation behind them?

Host Jessa McLean and Disability Advocate Jay Woodruff unpack some of the recent developments in Canadian politics that reinforce the narratives so prevalent under capitalism.

Topics include:

The passing of the Canadian Disability Benefits Act and the inadequate Provincial support programs that prompted the demands the federal government do something.
Meritocracy and the stigma attached to people on social assistance.
Eugenics and the expansion of MAiD, or assisted suicide, in Canada.

What does Doug Ford mean when he says "every able bodied person should be working"? What is the impact of those words and the legislation behind them?

Host Jessa McLean and Disability Advocate Jay Woodruff unpack some of the recent developments in Canadian politics that reinforce the narratives so prevalent under capitalism.

Topics include:

The passing of the Canadian Disability Benefits Act and the inadequate Provincial support programs that prompted the demands the federal government do something.
Meritocracy and the stigma attached to people on social assistance.
Eugenics and the expansion of MAiD, or assisted suicide, in Canada.

Previous Episode

The Fight for Toronto

A post election wrap up of the Toronto Mayoral election that saw the progressive front runner, Olivia Chow win by a slim margin. Hosts Jessa McLean and Santiago Helou Quintero discuss the tone of the election, examine some of the larger campaigns and breakdown what the results mean for politics in Toronto.

We talk about Olivia Chow's "platform", Chloe Brown's impact, the right wing candidates egos and what their results mean.

Voter turnout, Provincial politics, the organizing behind the campaigns and the prospect of a progressive Mayor are also big parts of this discussion.

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Next Episode

Rabble Rants: Search the Landfill and 129 Peter Street

In this weekly roundup, hosts Jessa McLean and Santiago Helou Quintero cover:

Search the Landfill:

Camp Morgan is a place of resistance - a blockage of the road leading to the private landfill where Police and community members expect to find the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran. The authorities have failed the families and have refused to search the landfill or even stop continued dumping in that location.

Hosts cover the anti-Indigenous racism prevalent in this stories as well as the stories of resistance at the blockade and the use of injunctions to stop peaceful protests.

129 Peter Street

In an attempt to limit access to the shelter system, the City of Toronto defied their own sanctuary City policy and started turning away asylum seekers. This lead to a large number of people sleeping on the sidewalk outside of 129 Peter Street in an attempt to access services.

We talk about the inadequate shelter system, attitudes towards migrants and the unhoused community and the various efforts of mutual aid in response.

References and Resources:

Housing & Homelessness Research & Reports from City of Toronto
Lorraine Lam Linktree - This includes a link to the ongoing needs for the folks at 129 Peter Street.
Diana Chan McNally (Community Worker) on Twitter - Diana provides some updates and first hand accounts of what is happening in the shelter systems, outside Peter Street and a lot of the other work being done with the unhoused community in Toronto.
Resistance to injunction
News on Injuction

Be sure to catch all our other Inside the NDP episodes to get the full picture.

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Blueprints of Disruption - Work or Die: Disabled Under Capitalism

Transcript

Jessa (01:20.418)

We titled this one, Work or Die. It'll become clear as we go through the episode together just what we mean by that, but I wanted to insert myself here to provide a trigger warning. As we work through some of the tough realities and ugly narratives facing disabled people in Canada, the topic of assisted suicide, or made necessarily, comes up.

We raise it in the context of various legislation and policies in Canadian politics that work to reinforce this work or d