Thread by @ottawa_asd_mum

1/ Tonight, maybe three blocks away from where I sit, a Santa Claus parade is still chugging it’s way down the Main Street in Barrhaven, #Nepean. I was there. But I had to leave.

My husband left maybe 10 minutes before I did. My son Jack has severe autism, and each year we try

2/ our luck with the parade, and each year, it’s no better than the last. Too late, too many flashing lights, too many bad memories from the year before. This year may have been the nail in the coffin. He doesn’t have many words to tell us, but it’s clear this “fun” Christmas

3/ activity just isn’t for him. My husband took him ahead home leaving me with my daughter who is also on the autism spectrum.

The Parade has been cause for reflection for me. A year ago, we stood roadside, and with just the right amount of happenstance, @MacLeodLisa’s

4/ festive float passed by as my son melted down, kicked his snow boots into the road, clawed at my husband’s face, thrashing, drawing blood. Our MPP waved to the crowd, oblivious to the chaos playing out below. How appropriate this memory is, when compared to the past 9 months

5/ that Ontarian families of autistic children have spent rallying, begging, imploring, pleading the @fordnation government to reconsider the egregious changes proposed by @MacLeodLisa, then Minister of Children, Communities and Social Services. For my family, Lisa coasting by,

6/ surrounded by happy children, waving to the crowd and bouncing to the beat of Jingle Bell Rock as we struggled a mere 10 feet away, literally bleeding in the street, is a perfect metaphor for the agony of the days passed since February 6, 2019.

There’s no reason to

7/ blame you for our parade disaster, Lisa. That was our fault, and our son lacks the ability to articulate what is borthering him; how he’s feeling. Although, 5 years old then, and 6 years old now, he is still benefitting from the therapy that gives him the tools to communicate.

8/ This year, he called out “GO HOME!”, and home his father took him.

That meltdown wasn’t your fault, @MacLeodLisa .

However, I’ll happily articulate what IS your fault.

You ignored families. You made it about you. You accused the Official Opposition of giving families

9/ “false hope”. You ignored the science. You threatened this community’s lifeline to therapy, both literally with @ONTABA1, and figuratively in casting out a half-baked plan that wasn’t worthy of lining the bottom of a birdcage. You communicated that you didn’t care. You failed

10/ to listen. You accused us of taking an inch and then demanding a mile. You failed to empathize with those you were meant to keep safe. You failed to represent those you were mandated to serve. You shut down, built walls and turned your back on the autism community.

11/ And @MacLeodLisa, THIS is what we blame you for. You knew families were in crisis. You knew we were begging for your help. And you did nothing. Our lives are not a Christmas Parade. You can’t just coast on by, smiling and waving, and bopping to beat of the music.

12/ As the mother of two beautifully brilliant autistic children, I will never forgive you for the choices you made and the path you took that quite literally stole 9 months of my life.

It doesn’t matter whether I am a parent who continues to protest weekly outside your

13/ constituency office. Or a parent pounding out angry tweets, penning frustrated letters, sitting in Question Period day in and day out, or simply sitting at home desperate, wondering when support will arrive from the @fordnation government. You have stolen 9 months of our

14/ lives on top of the years we have already spent waiting. And today we continue to beg @ToddSmithPC for urgency. And today we continue to wait; 17 months after you, Lisa, were first handed the file, and first concocted the Childhood Budget Scheme that will continue to

15/ terrorize this community for months, if not years to come.

But I mentioned, Lisa, that I left the parade. I left because the moment your float came into view, and the moment I saw you waving cheerfully to the crowd, 9 months’ worth of frustration and agony and ire bubbled

16/ to the surface and I cried. I cried like my son did the year before. I cried like I have on nights when you stripped away our hope. When you chose to ignore the needs of autistic children in the province and stubbornly insisted you were right. I cried like thousands of

17/ families still do. I cried, because I’m not sure you’ll ever know just how badly you hurt us, @MacLeodLisa.

And because I cried, my daughter cried. And we decided to follow the other half of our family home.

It’s just a parade. It’s not the end of the world.

18/ We’ll celebrate the holidays in our own way later. We can walk away, and it will be ok.

But we can’t walk away from the mess you made, Lisa. The mess that will continue to haunt families while you visit Disney, attend sporting events and rock out to the Rolling Stones.

19/ You can move on, Lisa. But we can’t. It may have been your job, but it remains to be OUR lives.

Our whole lives, Lisa.

Merry Christmas, anyway.

#autismdoesntendatFord #NeedsBasedTherapy #AllIwantForChirstmasIsTheOAP #onpoli @MacLeodLisa @ToddSmithPC @JR_Ottawa @AmyFeePC

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