Canadian Disability Policies in a World of Inequalities

Deborah Stienstra
Additional contact information
Deborah Stienstra: Department of Political Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada

Societies, 2018, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Canadian disability-related policies are shaped within a global system of inequalities, including colonialism and neoliberalism. Using a critical theory framework, this article examines the complicated material inequalities experienced by people with disabilities and evident in the intersections of disability, gender, Indigenousness, race, and age. The collectively held ideas that give context to disability policies are at odds. Human rights protections are found in the foundational documents of Canadian society and part of its international commitments, yet these commitments often become window-dressing for a pervasive logic that it is better to be dead than disabled, and medical assistance in dying legislation supports this choice. While human rights protections are essential, they are not sufficient for decolonizing inclusion. Constructive actions between Indigenous peoples and settlers may help to find new ways of addressing disability and inclusion in Canada.

Keywords: disability policy; Canada; intersectionality; human rights; Indigenous; colonialism; neoliberalism; capitalism; medical assistance in dying (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/2/36/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/2/36/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:36-:d:149731

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().