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1/Yesterday, members of @ASDOttawaUnite engaged in a peaceful protest outside @HandCBarrhaven where a PCWomen and Politics event was happening. We assumed @MacLeodLisa would be there given it was her riding and we were right. @fordnation @OttawaCitizen @barrhavenindy @NepeanNews
2/ A number of noteworthy things proceeded. Within minutes of us arriving, a volatile staff member of @HandCBarrhaven came out and began screaming at us to go away. This was pretty shocking as much profanity was used and we had a number of children with us.
3/ Zero attempt was made to speak with us civilly and really seemed like a terrible move on his part given his volume and profanity drew far more attention from inside and outside the restaurant than we were causing.
4/ After this had de-escalated, thanks to a few common sense employees coming out and calming down their ragaholic colleague, Lisa arrived. We did not approach her but yelled "Shame!" from a distance. She fluffed it off with a smirk and proceeded inside.
5/ The event was taking place on a covered patio beside a walking path. Unusual in that we could hear Lisa and others fully chatting as we were only separated by a screen. We mainly stayed fairly quiet and continued to walk past with our signs in full view
6/ Eventually a police car arrived, followed by 3 more. @HandCBarrhaven and @MacLeodLisa must have felt we were very threatening, all 12-15 of us, including young kids and 2 babies.
7/ While we get that you are running a business @HandCBarrhaven and have every right to not want us on your property, the way you handled the situation was terribly hostile and disrespectful, not to mention terrible business practice. @barrhavenindy
8/ Eventually the @OttawaPolice came over and calmly told us where we were allowed to be and not be. They were kind and listened to us and eventually we all got into our cars and left with no issues
9/ The last parent to leave was parked out front and was able to hear @MacLeodLisa start a speech and say in reference to us Autism families, "You give them an inch and they want a mile." Minister MacLeod, is there any end to the level of disrespect you show our community?
10/ We are families swimming in debt, suffering from exhaustion, beside ourselves with stress and worry about whether our children will be able to develop the necessary skills to go to school, to get a job one day, to take care of themselves and live independently.
11/ You have given no "inches." You have done nothing but take away any hope that tens of thousands of children will receive the level of support they need. Not one single new child has received services since at least last fall. Let's let that sink in.
12/ You have quite literally created a catastrophe for Autism services in this province. Families who would have come off the waitlist last fall had you not FROZEN it, are now being told they may have to wait another 18 months, after already waiting for 2 years.
13/ When they finally recieve their funding, it won't come anywhere near covering the cost for children who require the greatest amount of support. Families who are able to leverage all they can will sink deeply into debt trying to help their kids, while...
14/ Families who do not have houses to remortgage or extended family to borrow from will have to live with the guilt that because of their circumstances their child did not recieve the therapy that could have helped them develop the skills needed to succeed in life.
15/ @MacLeodLisa We are not asking for a mile. There are no family vacations here, no sports cars, no designer hand bags. @fordnation says that you are protecting what matters most. Does that not include vulnerable children? @MTaylorNDP @MPPCoteau @ColinDMello @Travisdhanraj
