Today is Canada Day and I am very happy to be a Canadian living here in Canada.   We can still enjoy living in one of the world's freest countries in the world.  I am happy and thankful that Canada is my home. I am thankful for our freedoms, our beautiful natural environment and our national health care system that generally takes  good care of all Canadians not just those who can afford the very best care. 

Not much positive though can be said on our national autism front, a point that was reinforced by the death this week of former Fredericton MP, national autism champion and all aground great guy Andy Scott.  Andy did succeed in getting autism on the national agenda with his private member's motion M-172 and tried to follow up to push the Harper government to action. Our Prime Minister and his submissive federal health bureaucracy though have done absolutely nothing to advance the cause of Canadians with autism, particularly those with severe autism disorders ... Canadians like my youngest son.   

Notwithstanding lack of autism progress nationally though events of the past year have brought home to me all too forcefully that I am very lucky to be living in this wonderful Canada. When I could not breathe while waiting in an after hours clinic I received immediate care, was sent by ambulance to the emergency clinic of the local hospital and received acute care attention for a week at minimal expense.  When Conor suffered grand mal seizures and an adverse drug reaction he received care for two weeks at the same hospital including 6 days in the intensive care unit where he received the medical attention that saved his life.

My family and I are fortunate to live in Canada even without national level autism effort. 

I will continue to fight on the national autism front with wonderful autism advocates like the members of Medicare for Autism Now! 

In the meantime I wish everyone a very happy Canada Day, eh!

An immigrant South Korean family, Sungsoo Kim, wife Sunmi Kim, daughter Lisa and son Taehoon, have been living in Canada for the past 9 years. A permanent residency application has been rejected  by Canadian officials because the 12 year old son   is autistic.  He  received the autism diagnosis several years ago but after he and his father, Sungsoo Kim,  had arrived in Canada.   

Change is difficult, very difficult, for many people with autism disorders.  For my severely autistic son slight changes in his daily routines and expectations can result in serious problems.  I can not imagine the harmful impact on this 12 year old autistic boy,  to be sent to another country now, after growing up in Canada over the past 9 years.  He has South Korean heritage, a Korean name and family but this boy after spending 9 of his 12 years in Canada IS Canadian.  

I understand the costs argument but it is still heartless for Canada to send this autistic boy to live in  a country he does not know, absolutely heartless.   If and when harm comes to this boy from this decision Canada must bear a major part of the responsibility.  

I am generally very, very proud to be Canadian but I am not proud of the way we treat good people who have chosen to live among us and become part of Canada because a child is diagnosed after arrival with an autism disorder. Woe, Canada!

ASHFIELD, The Hon. Keith, P.C. 

Dear Mr. Ashfield

I have the privilege of living in the Nashwaaksis area of the Fredericton riding which you represent in the House of Commons.   I enjoy the many advantages that accrue simply by being a citizen of Canada, the most fundamental of which is our truly democratic system of government.  Our democracy is more than a privilege, more than a right, even more than a set of Constitutional principles.  It is who we are as Canadians.  The recent news that an organized campaign of  misdirection, of "robocalls",  by which many Canadians were intentionally sent to the wrong polling station depriving some of the opportunity  to vote in the last federal election, the "robocall" campaign,   is the most serious threat to Canadian democracy that I have ever seen.

I hope that you, as our Fredericton Member of Parliament, and  a member of the current government are taking seriously this threat to Canadian democracy. This is not about a particular political party or the political fortunes of individual political candidates.  This is about our democratic values and ultimately about whether we choose to live as free people. 

I ask that you:

1)  take all necessary steps to ensure that our federal government holds a judicial inquiry into the "robocall" campaign, 

2)  examine any potential harm to Canadian democracy that has result from the "robocall" campaign, 

3)  take steps, including passing appropriate legislation to quash future such threats to Canadian democracy;

4)  to punish all those responsible for the recently reported "robocall" campaign.

Respectfully,

Harold L Doherty

Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3A 1T1

cc. Citizens of Canada

Two news reports show all too clearly that no one stands on guard for autistic children, youth and adults in Canada:

Leave the Wild Rose province of Alberta and head to Canada's Ocean Playground in Nova Scotia and things don't get much better for Canadians with autism disorders.

A father in Alberta doesn't see what the fuss is all about over his failure to provide a humane level of care for his autistic son.  In Nova Scotia a government Minister is "taken aback" and, golly gee whiz,  she is just all shocked and surprised to see that a group home which is supposed to care for its residents didn't care at all and put adult squabbles and interests ahead of the dignity and well being of an autistic resident. 

Other Canadian provinces are no better.  Here in New Brunswick we have twiddled our thumbs and stuck stubbornly with an adult care system that does not provide safety, security and a dignified life for its autistic residents.  Adults who   suffer from severe autism disorders are sentenced to spend their lives in a psychiatric hospital. No one, including an Ombudsman's Office that has done little to help autistic children and adults in New Brunswick, will do anything to provide a decent life for the autistic adults in the care of the government once their parents succumb to old age and death. 

Our Supreme Court of Canada reversed decisions by a British Columbia trial judge and three BC Court of Appeal justices and put deference to government decision makers ahead of the best interests of autistic children in the Auton Case. Our federal governments under both Liberal and Conservative Prime Ministers have done nothing to provide Canadians with a Real National Autism Strategy.  

A Real National Autism Strategy is needed to ensure that regardless of where autistic Canadians live in this country they will be able to live in decent, humane conditions.  If we can't we should stop parading around the world, with a holier than thou attitude,  lecturing others about the way they treat their citizens.

New Democrats recognize that providing support for families with Autistic children has to be a bigger priority for the federal government than another corporate tax cut. That is why Peter Stoffer has introduced Private Members' Bills, C-211, An Act to amend the Canada Health Act (Autism Spectrum Disorder) to "ensure that the cost of Applied Behavioural Analysis ( ABA) and Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) for autistic persons is covered by the health care Insurance plan of every province" and C -212, An Act respecting a Canadian Autism Day. ' The federal NDP is proud of Mr Stoffer's efforts to help put the needs of Autistic children on the political map."

 

The deportation order for the Maeng family of Moncton New Brunswick, Canada has been rescinded.  The family is no longer facing deportation because of their son's autism and epilepsy. The federal government rescinded the order after the Province of New Brunswick confirmed confirmed it will cover the health costs associated with the family's autistic son Sung-Joo Maeng 15. 

"They came to Canada to seek a better life for their children, but now they're being told to leave because their youngest son's illness costs too much. They came to Canada to seek a better life for their children, but now they're being told to leave because their youngest son's illness costs too much. The Maeng family from South Korea moved to Moncton in 2003 and within a few years set up a business, The Main Stop Oriental Market on West Main Street. They care for their youngest boy, Sung-Joo, 15, who has been diagnosed with autism and epilepsy, while their older son, Jung-Joo, 19, has worked his way through school, graduating with honours from Harrison Trimble High School last year before moving on to Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Canada has, to its shame and dishonor,  refused to include evidence based effective treatment for autism in the universal Medicare, our public national health care scheme,  that it offers to all Canadians thereby excluding  1 in 110 autistic Canadian children from receiving a fundamental benefit of our society.   Now it has extended that shameful treatment to autistic citizens of other nations, and even some of his family members, who would like to visit and reside in Canada.