[van-announce] "Window Pain" Call for Help.

[disAbilityCoalition]

Please Post Widely!
 

Window Pain
Call For Support.

Kym Hothead and Janet Baxter present a collaborative art show

 

Sponsored by: The disAbility Coalition to Stop the Cuts and Individuals.

What: Art Exhibit

When: end of June ? to July?

Where: Still Seeking Studio Space preferably local to DTES.

Why: Overwhelm the decision-makers with support thereby forcing decision makers to halt the re-assessment process.

 

How Can You Help?

The Window Pain project grows from an outraged disabled population, who are under an attack of astounding proportions. They are a part of a government lead re-assessment.

In response we have gathered disability level 2 and level 1 recipients to collaborate on an art exhibit that asks the question, "How has the government re-assessment process affected your life?"

We are currently looking for support from those who are able to provide a financial boost to enable us to mount this moving artistic piece. 

Janet Baxter, a volunteer is photographing the faces of individuals who are currently a disability level 2 or level 1 recipient. The photographs will be displayed within a huge sixteen-pane glass window frame. Kym Hothead also a volunteer, is providing the inspiration and glue to pull this project together.

Also on display around the room are the people whose portraits appear who have answered the question, "How has the government re-assessment process affected your life?" through writing, multimedia installations, spoken word and visual art.

We aim to move our friends and neighbors to act. 

Will you be willing to send us a small donation to help us fund the production of this show? 

We need a space to house the show, preferably end of June.

We need money to hang the show, and rent a space. 

We are flexible however, we will take in kind donations of everything from lighting, nails and hooks to wire for hanging. 

We will also be happy with a donation of the space; even an abandoned building would work (if we can acquire money to create the space.. 

Please make arrangements with Kym at 604-253-0613 to make a donation.

Kym is a two-spirit activist, who was born in poverty, lived and worked successfully but who is currently on disability. Kym has studied life her/his entire life. She is also a multimedia artist and has shown her work in Calgary, Victoria and Vancouver. She has completed her first video called i'm telling at Video In as a project with the 'Out on Screen' film festival.  

Janet is a local photographer who specializes in portraiture. She studied at Emily Carr, her freelance work ranges from performance documentation, to CD art and wedding photography. Her personal work explores themes of ritualized behavior, anxiety and isolation. Janet's work has been shown to high acclaim in Canada and the United States. 

Background:

Premier Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals have repeatedly stated that their "New Era" legislative agenda is to get as many people working at private sector jobs as possible. To this end, at least 14,000 people are now in the process of having their current legally recognized disability status 'reassessed' by Human Resources Minister Murray Coell. However, this is just another one of the BC Liberal's "New Era" agenda strategies to save money by:

a)     Taking away tens of thousands of peoples' Disability Level I ($608/month) and Disability Level II ($786.42/month) status and benefits;

b)     Declaring many thousands of people who now have, or had, Disability Level I or II to be "employable" and to be put on regular income assistance benefits of $510/month;

c)     The final goal is to cut "employable" people off all benefits after 2 years of receiving regular income assistance and drastically reducing the benefits of "employable" parents under the 2-year "Time Limits". Many people would not be eligible for any benefits for another 3 years.

d)     Elimination of the Disability I designation. DB I recipients now must all try to qualify as "People with Persistent Multiple Barriers". But the government's "screening tool" is so flawed that as one advocate has stated, a person who is blind would not qualify. Huge numbers of older people with health problems (even 64 yr olds!) are being designated "employable" ($510/month) and must do an employment plan or be cut off welfare altogether!

e)     Targeting those with "invisible" disabilities like mental illness, Hepatitis C, diabetes and so on. Advocacy groups around the province are reporting extreme panic, stress and depression among the disabled people who have received reassessment forms. Suicide is commonly mentioned option.

 

Because of the "reassessment" process, thousands of people on Disability I or Disability II are enduring psychological abuse in the extreme at the hands of the BC Government. Disabled people (especially those with invisible disabilities) are being threatened with eventually being cut off welfare benefits altogether and ending up penniless and destitute should they not be able to find some sort of job.

All people with Disability Level's I and II have already gone through a very long, difficult and humiliating process to get their disability status. Many disabled people now see that they are being put on 'trial' once again for the 'crime' of either being physically or mentally 'different.'

 

"Because of the fear and distress the reassessment process has caused, there has been an estimated 30 suicides in B.C since October 1" (Times Columnist Nov. 22/02, The Province November 15/02)  

 

More individuals are bound to end up in the medical system if these so-called policies are not drastically re-thought or rescinded. For as well as being ill-conceived, the costs of these draconian measures are high for both society as a whole, and the person with the disability.

The government recently withdrew the reassessment process for some 5,000 mentally ill citizens, but there are still 14,000 people on Disability II who are still being reassessed and must fill out the 23 page forms.

 

We call on the government to grandparent in everyone who was on DBII and DBI, to rescind the 23 page application form, and return to the previous definition of disability.

 

Because of increasing outrage from disability advocates and health professionals, the deadline to submit their forms was extended to March 15, 03. However, the whole intent of this process is to disqualify people so they lose their benefits and the government has more money to spend on things like the Olympics, and, of course, on the salaries and perks for politicians many of whom make well over $100,000 a year.

 

While the deadline for the reassessment process has passed, many people have been unable to return their completed forms to the Ministry. Others who do not qualify for disability benefits under the narrower eligibility criteria will see their monthly cheque drop by nearly $300 a month. They will also lose their enhanced medical, their bus pass, and many could lose their housing.

 

The reassessment process must be stopped. Attempting to slash thousands of peoples' disability benefits and thus deprive them of more of the necessities of life is an incipient public health crisis and we call upon all who are concerned about this to join in this campaign.

 

 

 
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