Thread by @GreenSnail_

PUBLIC NOTICE FOR ONTARIO: Please check on your friends/relatives who rely on ODSP

ODSP sent notices of account suspension out to many recipients earlier this month. It’s likely folks won’t be alerted until their landlords ask where their rent is #odspoverty #ontariostorm 🧵1/?

There is no question that this is part of Ontario’s current eugenics policy

Cutting off benefits over the holidays… My November payment left me in the negative after paying for rent & med copays:

Total payment: $1228
Rent: $1200
Prescription copays: $29

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I have been able to beg borrow and steal to pay my rent on time for January. My elder parents and sibling are helping me

But many people on ODSP don’t have any of these privileges. Their disabilities mean they struggle to deal with government red tape 3/

These are folks needing accommodations who, if lucky, have had a kind worker or family member/friend set up their bank accounts to automatically pay rent by the due date, expecting the payment to be there

When it’s not, folks will hear of it first from their landlords!

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The anxiety this will cause will be enough for some ODSP recipients to have a relapse

For example, when I found out my account was suspended last night, I managed to stay calm and get to sleep alright

But I was already in a CPTSD flashback and had horrific nightmares 5/

(And I am incredibly lucky to have been able to figure it out before my landlord expected my payment and manage the relapse enough today to communicate it will be late and when it will be paid)

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When this happens:

Some will be sent to overwhelmed hospitals
Many will face eviction
In January, during the worse wave of and going into the third year of the pandemic
In a province that can hit -40 Celsius in January/February

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Another huge advantage I have is the ability to work according to my abilities and accommodations needs

It was announced in the summer that ODSP was raising the amount of money that can be earned before clawbacks

It was raised to $1000 from $100, the cap in place since 1997

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Friends, I, *I* was too naive. Deep down inside this made me uncomfortable because I thought there’s no way they’re going to let people like me earn that much without penalizing us

But nothing happened for months

And now, this

Here is the letter I got:

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@AltTextUtil ocr

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They are asking for income reporting for December 2022

I can complete that paperwork, and would have done so if I received more notice than a snail mail letter in a very similar envelope to the statements that come every month

I got no phone call, no email, no text

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Inaccessible communication is but one of *so many* documented examples of inequitable, counterproductive and harmful ODSP policies that blatantly violate disabled peoples’ human rights. The Ford government has weaponized social policies unchanged since the Harris years

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This is where, what looks like at first glance to be just another checkmark on a bureaucrat’s checklist (collecting data they are entitled to by law and which all ODSP recipients are subject, is eugenics policy in real-world terms

Many disabled people are precariously housed 12/

and by definition many of us need accommodations that meet our communications needs, which are as diverse and subject to change as are any other person’s

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Going to take a short break, this is a heavy topic

Please feel free to rt/share your thoughts in the comments 13a/

Failure to leverage available technology to meet standard communications accommodations needs that email, SMS and phone calls would meet for many disabled people is cruel and abusive

I can’t call a single other gov’t office in Canada without being offered service in French!

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Here’s the contact info on the letterhead

Interesting. Why is my local office still listed accurately, but the mailing address is a random PO Box in Markham?

I’d love to hear from @/fordnation himself why that is, but who knows if/what he knows. Also he’s a bigoted liar

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@AltTextUtil ocr

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@Ursinos, is that the weird mailing address in Markham you mentioned?

I can tell by the postcode that the post office or business this postbox is located is very close to where I lived with my ex-husband in Markham

If I was still up there I’d check around

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to see if any specific licensed Canada Post outlets appeared to be receiving large volumes of mail. The volumes that a massive government ministry that insists on doing everything by hard copy and snail mail might receive

(If your work has PO BOX 3399, DM me!)

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(My bet is on a Canada post outlet in a Shoppers. Doug Ford’s government has given them so much access/influence over public health)

Someone works there at the PO desk for 8-16hrs/week for minimum wage knows something

I used to work at SDM, I wonder if I could investigate… 18/

@DrFullertonMPP, have you been hearing from your constituents about this?

If not yet, you will

We are getting these letters with a return address to a (presumably consumer/non-secured) PO BOX

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It gets even weirder. I checked Street View on Google Maps for a post office or business licensed to manage them, and it appears all the buildings with this postal code are residential homes

Check for yourself & lmk if I missed anything, please google.com/maps/place/Uni… 20/

I do not know much about how PO Boxes are registered and work, apart from being aware convenience stores and drugstores sometimes have some available

Those are tiny boxes that could not physically fit the daily volume of mail I expect the ministry to get! /21

If you can shed some light on what might be going on here, please share your thoughts in the comments and or DM me if you want to remain anonymous

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The upshot of this situation is that between the barriers disabled people have to overcome to even get this letter in the first place, and in enough time to deal with sudden or imminent loss of social assistance (my deadline is stated as January 11, 2023)

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@AltTextUtil ocr

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This community legal nonprofit offers bleak hope to disabled people that appeal: latest data is from 2020 and the wait for a decision is cited as 9-16 months stepstojustice.ca/questions/inco…

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@AltTextUtil ocr

24/a

In conclusion: Doug Ford’s government waited until now to (barely and poorly) communicate to disabled Ontarians on ODSP whose payments are suspended as of Dec 2022 they must appeal the decision immediately only in writing within 30 days

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#ODSPoverty
#onpoli
#Disability

If these conditions are not enough to convince the Ministry to restore your cash assistance, you may appeal via the Social Assistance Tribunal which was providing decisions 9-16 months after submission in 2020

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#NoAidNoMAiD
#MAiD
#DeadlyNewYear
#goodbye2022

It is unreasonable to expect folks who were already approved for ODSP prior to December 2022 to have the personal resources required to overcome this seemingly insurmountable and cruel obstacle that violates our basic human right to live with dignity

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Some folks will be evicted and may stumble along, keeping it together a few weeks or months

Until March 2023-when Parliament is slated to pass an amendment to existing laws that attempt to delineate between end-of-life agency & murder under the Crim. Code cmha.ca/brochure/state…

This is organized IN ORDER TO coverup genocide that abled people are primed to consider necessary (audits to weed out scammers🙄), right before expanded access to already-genocidal assisted suicide AND along continued failure to protect ourselves/each other IN THIS PANDEMIC 27/

It’s not accidental

It’s not a weird set of circumstances that randomly led here

The Ford gov is barely bothering to cover its tracks, because they know how abled Ontarians feel

We’re so hated/shunned/invisible, our “allies” didn’t even show up toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-record…

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HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO:

-Contact the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community & Social Svcs, @DrFullertonMPP AND your MPP’s office
-Demand to know why people on ODSP are being kicked off in January 2023
-Like/share/engage with this thread ola.org/en/members

Find your MPP:

#HappyNewYear disabled people in Ontario :\

https://twitter.com/noaidnomaid/status/1609462515104088068

Thank you to everyone for engaging and sharing to inform as many folks as we can. This is life & death

I have found more about the mysterious PO Box. This thread is so long, I’ll make a new thread for it (I’ll link to it below)

Here’s a video of snails kissing

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