The history of the disabled in Canada.
The Unfit
In the beginning, children with disabilities were literally kept hidden. Parents were often torn between a love for children and a shame or desperation that often led them to send sons and daughters away to institutions. Some were even advised by doctors to “pretend this one died and go on with your life.” Some parents found that because of a lack of resources, and pressure from others, they were simply unable to keep their child at home. The parents who refused to send their child away were often left with the soul-destroying task of facing an uninformed public—including their own family and friends—and trying to meet their child’s needs without service or support. With such a gloomy start, it is no wonder society has struggled with how it views people with disabilities and how it responds to the needs of families. [1]
During the 1800s, young persons with special needs were excluded from the education system and deemed burdens, often confined to institutions where they festered away in isolation. Though some arguments were made about this being for their own good, the most prominent rationale was that exclusion and institutionalization would prevent persons with special needs from tainting the general population. [2]
The “Orillia Asylum for Idiots” (1861-2009) [Orillia, Ontario], Canada’s oldest and largest facility for the care and protection of children and adults with disabilities, was once praised as a beacon of humanitarian progress… [But f]ar from being for child protection and care...Orillia Asylum was a site for multi-faceted and all-encompassing violence[—]...systemic neglect and cultural discrimination, daily humiliation and dehumanization, and physical, sexual, and emotional abuse…
[H]ow [could] such violence...occur for so long in a facility maintained by the state, a state invested in protecting children[?]…
[C]hildren who were admitted to the Orillia Asylum were not considered to be “Canada’s children” at all by virtue of being labelled as “mentally deficient”, “feeble-minded”, “not-quite-human” and “not-quite-children.” [3]
Feeble-minded was a term used from the late 19th century through the early 20th century to loosely describe a variety of mental deficiencies, including what would now be considered [the intellectually disabled]…, and learning [differences] such as dyslexia. [4]
As you may have noticed, I like to assign pictures to each list of monthly blog offers.
September? Leaves, of course.
October? Pumpikins, duh.
But November... How I love it, so. It's my birthday month.
But November. Dear darling November, you threw me for a loop.
November? I settled for gloves.
