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International and National News and Announcements

Press Releases

DAWN CANADA DisAbled Women's Network Canada PRESS RELEASE
100% accessible: DAWN's goal for women's shelters

Women's shelters are a crucial resource for women fleeing abuse. For women with disabilities, this refuge is essential. It is estimated that women with disabilities are 1.5 to 10 times as likely to be abused as non-disabled women, depending on whether they live in the community or in institutions.

Unfortunately, these women's services, already underfunded, are often not accessible and available to all women with disabilities. DAWN-RAFH Canada hopes to uncover the access issues that shelters are experiencing and to encourage them to become more accessible.

"Anecdotally we know that there are transition houses that have had to turn women away.  The unimaginable potential tragedy that this reality begs weighs enormously on transition house staff.  Transition houses want the resources and the training so that they can accommodate women with a range of disabilities and they look to DAWN-RAFH Canada to provide that information.

The NAAS goes beyond an environmental scan – this undertaking will save lives.  Women with disabilities often live in isolation and stay in violent situations because there is nowhere safe for them to go, or no way to access the services. " says Bonnie Brayton, executive director of DAWN Canada.

Developed and tested in 2007, DAWN-RAFH Canada is conducting a National Accessibility and Accommodation Survey (NAAS) focusing on women's shelters across Canada. The survey, funded by Status of Women Canada, allows the shelter to do an in depth audit of its facilities.

"We understand that taking the survey takes time but that is because it is very thorough, very comprehensive.  And we completely appreciate that most transition houses are stretched for time and resources, but this is about resources,"  continues Brayton, "We can only make recommendations to the government for additional resources if we can show them why! The NAAS is a document about change.  Change is immediate because there are many modest changes that become evident in completing the survey.  Change in a mindset towards the inclusion of women with disabilities in every transition house in this country – 100 % accessibility."

DAWN-RAFH Canada will use the results of the survey to provide online and printed toolkits for ongoing use by women's shelters and to develop other resources for increasing accessibility to shelters for women with disabilities. Ongoing training and development for shelter and outreach workers is another important part of this initiative.

From April to July 2008, Special Projects & Research Assistant, Sujata Dey, will be surveying shelters across Canada. An online version will also be available through DAWN-RAFH Canada's website. The survey looks at all aspects of accessibility from environmental sensitivity issues to attendant care issues, to mental health issues, to help for mothers with disabilities who come to shelters. DAWN-RAFH Canada's Special Projects and Research Coordinator, Diane Driedger, who has been involved in many research projects concerning the issues of women with disabilities, will be analyzing and compiling the data in preparation for presentation at the first World Conference of Women's Shelters in September 2008. DAWN-RAFH Canada together with Women with Disabilities Australia will be co-presenting on a Panel on Best Practices.

DAWN Canada is a national feminist organization controlled by and comprised of women with disAbilities from all backgrounds and all disAbilities.

For more information, please contact:
DAWN-RAFH Canada
Office: 514-396-0009
Toll Free: 1-866-396-0074
Email: assistant@dawncanada.net

Announcements

21st century eugenics?

Nancy E. Hansen, Heidi l. Janz, Dick J. Sobsey
www.thelancet.com Darwin’s Gifts December 2008
Lancet 2008; 372: S104-07

200 years after the birth of Charles Darwin, his theory of natural selection continues to inform current practice in medicine and the related discipline of bioethics or health ethics. Although darwinian theory remains fundamental to the theory and practice of both disciplines, we contend that there has been limited critical analysis of the troubling notion that the common understanding of the “naturalness” of natural selection appears to be fundamentally disconnected from the daily lived experience of the human species. Impairment and disability are not commonly understood as natural variants in human biology but rather as biology “gone wrong.” We examine both historical and contemporary examples of the detrimental effects that uncritical acceptance and application of social Darwinism have had on both the “fit” and the “unfit.”

Read the full text in DOC format

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Commons site now lets you check how your MP voted

Alexander Panetta
CP; Canadian Press; The Canadian Press

Ottawa ONT - Want to know how your MP has been voting in the House of Commons? Finding out has just become a whole lot easier.

The House of Commons website has launched a feature that allows visitors to see how MPs voted.

Yesterday's change brings Canadian transparency one step closer to the system in the United States - where Congress regularly posts voting results within an hour and has records going back 20 years.

Unlike the United States, Canada's parliamentary system usually forces MPs to toe a party line, so votes in the Commons tend to be far less dramatic than in Congress.

But party leaders sometimes allow MPs to vote freely on matters of conscience, non-binding resolutions that express the will of Parliament, or on bills not deemed matters of confidence.

The new changes will allow viewers four ways to access MPs' voting records through the parliamentary website (www.parl.gc.ca). One of those methods was launched yesterday; the rest will be up next week.

To view an MP's record, head to the website and click on the 'Senators and Members' link to find your member of the House of Commons. Your MP's site will list whether they voted yea, nay, or didn't vote at all on any given bill.

It gets a little trickier if you want to figure out what each bill actually means: You'd have to click on the link to the individual bill, then at the very least go through its summary for a description.

For example, if you clicked on the link for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the MP for Calgary-Southwest, you would see that he last voted in the Commons on March 25.

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National Eating Disorder Information Centre's Biannual Conference
Body Image and Self Esteem: Shades of Grey

May 11 - 12, 2009
Toronto, Ontario

Topics include:

  • Boys and men
  • Youth engagement
  • Physical activity
  • New media and self representation
  • Obesity
More information is available in DOC format

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Tax Tips with an emphasis on disability issues

Here are some Tax Tips with an emphasis on disability issues to help ensure you claim all the deductions and credits that you have coming to you. Get the scoop on the latest tax benefits for persons with disabilities, and some pointers for keeping your tax bill as low as possible.

Read more at www.ehwhat.ca

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Health Canada is undertaking a campaign to raise awareness of the MedEffect™ Canada initiative

Health Canada is undertaking a campaign to raise awareness of the MedEffect™ Canada initiative. MedEffect™ Canada is part of Health Canada’s Therapeutic Access Strategy, a five-year strategy to improve the safety, effectiveness and access to health products available to Canadians. The purpose of MedEffect™ Canada is to provide centralized access to new safety information about marketed health products in an easy-to-find, easy-to-remember location on the Health Canada Web site(www.healthcanada.gc.ca/medeffect). This Web site provides access to the latest advisories, warnings and recalls, issued by Health Canada concerning therapeutic drugs as well as other marketed health products including natural health products and medical devices.

Currently, the MedEffect™ Canada initiative and the reporting of adverse reactions through the Canada Vigilance Program are not well-known by health professionals and the public. Thus, Health Canada is launching a widespread awareness-raising campaign to publicize the MedEffect™ Canada initiative, increase the quantity and quality of reports pertaining to adverse reactions to health products, and consequently improve the safety of Canadians with regard to these products. To this end, a guide is currently being distributed to health care professionals throughout various channels. The public will be reached through media coverage and a brochure distributed in participating pharmacies.

To adequately inform those who work in the health care field and the public, we ask for your assistance in conveying our information to your colleagues, networks and members. By doing so, we can ensure the effective dissemination of information to the public. It is important that consumers know that whenever they report an adverse reaction to Health Canada, they are contributing to improving the safety of drugs and other health products.

Sincerely,

Mark Samadhin
Health Products and Food
A/Regional Director, Ontario Region
Health Canada

A Patient Guide for Reporting Side Effects from Health Products attached in in PDF format

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"Waves of Resistance!" || Spin-Offs of the Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering || RebELLEs wanted to take action!!!

Already three months have passed since the first Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering.  511 young women and young feminists from all regions of Canada, between 14 to 35 years of age, met to deepen, Mobilize, network, energize, and deepen the roots of the young feminist movement across Canada.  We should be proud of our collective success and to have made history in the feminist movement in Canada and in Québec. Today, we are renewing our contact with you, young feminists, to continue to organize our struggle and face the challenge of TAKING ACTION!

  You will find:

  A document entitled “RebELLEs wanted to take action” in DOC format and in PDF format
The English version of the Manifesto in PDF format
The bilingual version of the Manifesto in PDF format

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Service Canada - Pilot Project || Personalized Service Delivery for Persons with Disabilities

Service Canada wants to serve you better. Starting in February until June, Service Canada Project staff will assist Deaf and Hard of Hearing people with direct services. Service Canada staff will come to WIDHH every second and fourth Monday and Tuesday of each month. Monday mornings from 9:30am - 12:30pm Hard of Hearing people will be served. Tuesday afternoons from 1:30pm - 4:30pm Deaf people will be served and ASL Interpreters will be provided.

You will be able to fill out the following application forms with assistance from Service Canada staff:

  • Social Insurance Number
  • Employment Insurance
  • Canada Pension Plan
  • Old Age Security
  • Passports Applications
  • Pleasure Craft Licensing
  • Apprenticeship Grant
  • Job Bank
  • Canada Pension Plan Disability
  • Canada Study Grant
  • Canada Access Grant
  • Canada Pension Plan Disability Vocational Rehabilitation
  • Permanent Disability Benefit
  • Canada Student Loans
  • Entrepreneurs with Disabilities
Get this information in ASL here
Please visit us online at www.widhh.ca

No appointment necessary, clients will be seen on a first-come first-served basis. We hope to see you there!

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BIAC National Bursary Program 2009

BIAC is now accepting applications for a $2,000 Bursary to assist students living with an acquired brain injury to pursue educational opportunities in English or French post secondary institution or apprenticeship / trades programs in Canada.

The deadline to submit your application is April 30th, 2009.  For more detailed information please refer to our website: www.biac-aclc.ca by clicking on National Bursary Program 2009.

You can mail your application at: Brain Injury Association of Canada/Association canadienne des lésés cérébraux
28, rue Caron
Gatineau (Québec) J8Y 1Y7
Attn : Harry Zarins, Executive Director

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Survey on academic/educational debt load and financial barriers of students with disabilities

  Leger Marketing, a professional marketing research firm, has been commissioned to conduct surveys on behalf of the Centre for the Study of Students in Postsecondary Education (CSS) and the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS), in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Disability Service Providers in Post-Secondary Education (CADSPPE). This study aims to assess the academic/educational debt load and financial barriers of students with disabilities in Canadian postsecondary education. Their interest is in understanding the relative debt incurred by students who report disabilities in postsecondary education, the financial barriers to their education that they experience, and the related impact their relative debt and financial barriers have on their educational experiences and decisions.

More information on this survey is available in a document in DOC format

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Important measures relating to the Canada Student Loans Program announced in the 2008 federal budget

National Educational Association for Disabled Students (NEADS)

January 21, 2009

Some important measures (see below) relating to the Canada Student Loans Program announced in the 2008 federal budget will be taking effect in the fall of 2009. While we shared this information when the budget was released, considering that the new measures -- particularly the Accelerated Repayment Assistance Plan for borrowers with a permanent disability who do not qualify for immediate loan forgiveness -- could benefit many students it's worth sharing again. We will monitor the effectiveness of these programs going forward.

Frank Smith, National Coordinator
National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS)
Rm. 426 Unicentre, Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6
tel. (613) 380-8065 ext. 201
www.neads.ca

The full version of this announcement is available in DOC format

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The Centre for the Study of Students in Postsecondary Education at U of T and NEADS Announce New Project Researching Financial Barriers Faced by Students with Disabilities

The University of Toronto's Centre for the Study of Students in Postsecondary Education (CSS) and the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) are proud to again announce the creation of an innovative new initiative through a funding partnership with the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. This project, "Assessment of Debt Load and Financial Barriers Affecting Students with Disabilities in Post-Secondary Education," is a year-long initiative, concluding in April, 2009.

Projet announcement available in DOC format

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National Network for Mental Health | Le Réseau national pour la santé mentale

Recovery Bracelets

Order a friend, a family member and yourself a RECOVERY bracelet today. These quality bracelets, made with genuine onyx and amethyst stones, make an exceptional gift which will show that you care deeply about mental health wellness. All recovery bracelets are created by persons living with mental health issues. Each RECOVERY bracelet comes with an inspiring wellness message and detailed explanatory letter detailing the significance and uniqueness of this truly inspirational gift.

Learn More and Order Today! National Network for Mental Health / Le Réseau national pour la Santé Mentale
55 King Street
St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 3H5
905-682-2423

International

WWDA News Issue 1, 2009

The new quarterly Newsletter from Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) is now available. WWDA News Issue 1, 2009 can be accessed via the WWDA website in Word and PDF versions. An HTML version will be added shortly. Click here

Alternatively, if you would like a copy emailed to you directly, please contact WWDA at wwda@wwda.org.au The Word version of WWDA News Issue 1 is approx 2 MB in size, and the PDF version is approx 1 MB.

The Contents of WWDA News Issue 1, 2009 include:

  1. New National Women’s Health Policy
  2. WWDA Strategic Planning Forum
  3. Violence Prevention Update
    • UNIFEM Releases Facts & Figures on Violence Against Women
    • Australia – National Violence Action Plan Update
    • WWDA Wins Violence Prevention Awards
    • New South Wales Strategic Framework on Domestic and Family Violence
    • Launch of the United Nations database on violence against women
    • Journal Article: Intimate Partner Violence and Women with Disabilities
    • Online Learning Tools on Violence Against Women
    • Victorian Government Launches New Family Violence Protection Act
    • New Research Funded
    • ‘Words to Action’: UN electronic newsletter on violence against women
  4. Australian Youth Ambassadors For Development Program (AYAD)
  5. State & Territory Women With Disabilities Networks
  6. Study Report: ‘The Price We Pay’: Women, Disability and Emotion
  7. National Human Rights Consultation
  8. Building Better Lives for Young People in Nursing Homes
  9. Disability Support Pensioners to Receive Increase in Pensions
  10. Homelessness White Paper
  11. ACSSA Research Project
  12. News Wanted For WWDA NEWS!
  13. Women with Disabilities in Development: International Roundtable
  14. Pay Equity Inquiry Hearings
  15. WWDA Annual Report & Summary
  16. Resources – Books, Reports, Websites, Lists
  17. WWDA Letter to Federal Health Minister
  18. Join WWDA!
  19. Feedback Letter to WWDA re Violence Prevention Work
NB: Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA) will now be producing our newsletter, WWDA News, quarterly. If any organisation or individual has any relevant information/news that you would like to share please forward to wwda@wwda.org.au for inclusion. Each quarter we will send a friendly reminder asking for any valuable input. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Second-International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide - Never Again

In the past several months we have witnessed the passing and now implementation of the Washington State I-1000 assisted suicide Initiative making assisted suicide legal in that state. We were shocked when Judge Dorothy McCarter legalized assisted suicide in the state of Montana by judicial fiat.

Luxembourg just passed a bill that legalized euthanasia that was delayed by Grand Duke Henri who refused to sign the bill into law forcing the Luxembourg government to amend their constitution to remove the historical power of the monarch to sign legislation into law.

More information in DOC format

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CALL TO ACTION

Change the lives of women to change the world.
Change the world to change the lives of women.

We, activists of the World March of Women, struggle together against the root causes of poverty and sexist violence. Ten years after our first International Meeting, we gathered together in Panxón, Galicia, from 14th – 21st October 2008. We were 136 women from 48 countries from all five continents, joined together to construct proposals around our Action Areas: Peace and demilitarisation; Common good; Violence against women; Women’s work.

The complete Call to Action text available in English in DOC format
The complete Call to Action text available in Spanish in DOC format
The complete Financial Crisis Declaration in English available in DOC format
The complete Financial Crisis Declaration in Spanish available in DOC format

Speaking Out

Because Women with Disabilities Are...
Jen Robinson 
April 2003
Note from author: This is inspired by the somewhat famous lengthy "because women's work is underpaid or unpaid..., etc" quote that ends with "and for lots and lots of other reasons, we are part of the women's liberation movement" (or, "we are feminists", depending on what version you're reading).  It started on a leaflet by a student group in London and has since been reprinted on t-shirts, postcards, web graphics and lots of other things. The below is my own and doesn't speak for all women with disabilities, nor does it represent situations which always occur but they all do, sometimes, occur, and that's why they're here.
"Because Women with Disabilities Are..." is available in DOC format

 

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DisAbled Women's Network Canada
110 Sainte-Thérèse Street, Suite 505, Montréal, QC  H2Y 1E6
Phone: 514 396-0009  (QC);  Fax: (514) 396-6585 (QC)
Toll free (Canada): 1-866-396-0074
Phone the toll free number first to arrange a facsimile transmission (Canada)
Email: admin@dawncanada.net
Facebook Group

DisAbled Women's Network of Canada Réseau d'action des femmes handicapées du Canada