Catherine Frazee

Poster promoting the film Life After, which will air on TVO at 9 PM on October 4, 2025.

If you are in Ontario with access to TVO, don’t miss this outstanding #disability rights film by Reid Davenport. This Sunday on air at 9 PM Eastern.

Poster promoting the film Life After at the Vancouver International Film Festival October 4 & 5, 2025

Highly recommend Reid Davenport‘s groundbreaking #Disability film if you are in reach of the Vancouver film festival on Saturday, October 4 on Sunday, October 5.

UN disability rights report on Canada deserves a fair hearing Disability rights defenders in Canada are watching.

UN disability rights report on Canada deserves a fair hearing canadahealthwatch.ca/2025/04/17/u... by @cfraz.bsky.social

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀: CanadaHealthwatch.ca/newsletter 🍁

Medical Assistance in Dying and Mental Illness: Perspectives from 2S/LGBTQ+ Individuals in Atlantic Canada - Egale Canada In March 2027, medical assistance in dying (MAID, also referred to asphysician-assisted suicide) in Canada will be available to those with mental illness (MI) as the sole underlying condition (MAID-MI...

NEW report: Medical Assistance in Dying and Mental Illness: Perspectives from 2S/LGBTQ+ Individuals in Atlantic Canada

egale.ca/awareness/ma...

Artist quits post after P.E.I. vet college tells him to remove painting based on U.S. politics | CBC News Christopher Griffin, the now former artist-in-residence at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown, says administrators were trying to censor one of his paintings after complaints from Americ...

#UPEI has some explaining to do #PEI #cdnpoli

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Full text posted here:

bit.ly/3Ypvx2h

Text-based image of news article. Headline reads "UN disability rights report on assisted-dying regime deserves a fair hearing."

We echo @cfraz.bsky.social op-ed in asking party leaders to clarify their position on the #CRPD committee's concluding observations report. The committee was clear in its rejection of Track 2 #MAiD - our elected officials owe Canadians an answer.

Read the full op-ed here: bit.ly/3Ypvx2h

#disability #humanrights

UN disability rights report on assisted-dying regime deserves a fair hearing Canadians deserve to know that our political party leaders will take seriously the report calling for reforms to the medical assistance in dying regime as we head to the polls.

My piece in today’s Hill Times. It’ll be paywall protected, but if you want a PDF, get in touch and I’ll oblige.

www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/0...

Life After | Hot Docs Disability cinema auteur Reid Davenport takes on assisted suicide, exploring how a practice intended to empower end-of-life decision-making has exposed the long-standing devaluation of disabled life.

This powerful documentary film about assisted suicide in Canada and the US will be screening on April 26 in Toronto.
hotdocs.ca/whats-on/hot...

United Nations report recommends Canada repeal MAID for people without terminal illnesses International committee also called on Ottawa to scrap the proposed expansion of MAID eligibility in 2027 to people whose sole underlying illness is a mental disorder

Last week UN CRPD committee released a report that among other things, called on Canada to repeal Track 2 MAiD.

Story here by @mikehager.bsky.social with comments from @trudolem.bsky.social and myself.

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Live: Speaking on Trump, Musk, and America’s Moral Moment on the Senate Floor | Senator Cory Booker YouTube video by Senator Cory Booker

Reflexive cynicism aside, this is the kind of political theater I've been wishing Democrats would engage in FOR YEARS. Good. Good. Good. Good. Watch it. Reward it. Let them know you want more of it.

This entire thread is excellent. An accurate recounting of the CRPD report and what it reveals about #disability and MAiD in Canada.

‘Extremely concerned’: UN tells Canada to stop Track 2 MAID UN tells Canada to stop Track 2 MAID A UN committee has recommended Canada stop offering MAID for people whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable

It is not for lack of effort on the part of #disability rights defenders that this watershed report is not being covered in Canadian press. Congrats to Meagan Gillmore for breaking through the wall of newsroom indifference.

www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/03/30/e...

UN committee urges Canada to abolish MAiD for people with disabilities Plus, Canada continues exporting weapons to Israel through the U.S.

An excellent overview from @readtheorchard.org of this week's landmark CRPD report and the deadly ableism of Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying regime. That report calls for abolition of Track 2 MAiD because it violates the rights of people with #Disabilities

open.substack.com/pub/theorcha...

"This is huge" is overused on here, but it is huge that the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has called on Canada to repeal Track 2 MAID, assisted dying for disabled people not at the end of their lives.

Canada's #disability rights defenders have struggled for years to resist expansion of #euthanasia beyond end-of-life conditions. Finally today, a breakthrough at the UN. Canada's #MAiD regime violates the #CRPD. See paragraphs 19-20 of downloadable UN report. tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/...

One must continue to imagine Sisyphus happy …

After this weekend, I feel it’s time to post this again.

Important documentary airing this Tuesday (March 25) on PBS. A timely reminder of the solidarity that #disability rights defenders worldwide share with our American sisters and brothers. The inherent dignity and resilience of #crip lives extends across all boundaries of nation and era.

Opinion: If you want peace, prepare for war – an ancient lesson Canada must remember President Trump wants to take our land. And the risk of that happening is higher if we pretend it doesn’t exist

A deeply unsettling perspective here, but one that merits serious discussion. Several of the embedded links are also very sobering and worthy of our attention.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

3.7K views · 57 reactions | Intrepid and astute, trailblazer Audrey King shares her experience and wisdom in this week’s Project Value contribution. Thank you, Audrey! | By Why Us? by Project Value | ... Intrepid and astute, trailblazer Audrey King shares her experience and wisdom in this week’s Project Value contribution. Thank you, Audrey!

We lost a tiger yesterday. Farewell Audrey King. Thank you for your tireless service and generous wisdom.

www.facebook.com/whyuscanada/...

A stirring, soulful reflection from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social

Opinion | There’s a Name for What Trump Is Doing to Trans People: Denationalizing The message is that we are a threat to the nation. The subtext is that we are not of this nation.

In which I try to put it all together.
The Hidden Motive Behind Trump’s Attack on Trans People www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/o...

Bravo! Your voice is much needed. Let us know if there’s a livestream, but if not, I’ll be there in spirit and solidarity.

While curb cuts, captions on TV screens, and braille on elevator buttons seem commonplace today, it took the work of dedicated activists and elected officials to get us there. #ChangeNotCharity: THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT premieres Tues, March 25 at 9/8c on PBS. #disability #disabled

Canada can help tame Trump We can co-ordinate a group of democratic leaders and demonstrate that the United States is not, in fact, the indispensable country it thinks it is

Some fresh thinking in this opinion piece detailing Canada’s options.

www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/1ce47f9...

768th Meeting, 32nd Session, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Consideration of Canada

MAiD was a major focus at UN formal review of Canada's CRPD compliance - 6 hours of in-depth questioning by world experts in disability rights. This recording is cued to the pointed interrogation by Australia's Rosemary Kayess, who wasn’t buying Canada's canned responses
webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1n...

The image features a solid deep blue background. At the top is a white emblem consisting of a circular outline containing a map of the world surrounded by olive branches, the United Nations logo. Below the logo, centered text in white font reads: Canada has many obligations to disabled people in Canada and around the world it is failing to fulfill. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Review on Canada is happening in Geneva now. DJNO and many groups have endorsed submissions to highlight these issues to the United Nations and challenge Canada’s record on disability. See djno.ca/international-work for some key submissions."

On the same blue background, a circular version of the Palestinian flag with the title in white next to it: Canadian International Violations Submission. Below, centered text in white font reads: "This submission illustrates how Canada's persistent shortcomings in this regard negatively impact people with disabilities abroad. Specifically, Canada’s failure to adequately regulate the arms exports that help enable Israel’s atrocities in Gaza contributes to serious violations of the rights of people with disabilities. … Partially discontinuing direct arms exports to Israel, while continuing to allow exports to Israel’s primary arms supplier free of any oversight or control, is inadequate to discharge Canada's obligations under the CRPD. As a group of UN experts, including various Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and UN Working Groups, emphasized in a statement of 20 June 2024, the obligation to cease military exports to Israel extends to “indirect transfers through intermediary countries that could ultimately be used by Israeli forces, particularly in the ongoing attacks on Gaza.”

On the same blue background, a circular version of the Palestinian flag with the title in white next to it: National Disability Org. Submission. Below, centered text in white font reads: Our Report provides a response to most articles of the CRPD within the context of the List of Issues for Canada, Canada’s Report, and the 2017 Concluding Observations on the initial report of Canada. Our Report highlights key concerns of disability communities. Through community discussions, the following five areas were identified as prevalent needs shared throughout this Report: Need to abolish harmful policies and laws that violate the CRPD, including: institutionalization, seclusion, segregation, restraints, forced treatment, and Track 2 MAiD for people with disabilities who are not dying; Need to increase individualized funding and availability of services and supports to ensure that people with disabilities can live with dignity and independence in communities of their choice; Need for all levels of government (federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal) to increase and coordinate their measures to implement CRPD rights; Need for more meaningful involvement and participation of diverse disability communities and organizations of persons with disabilities in the development of disability-related laws, policies, programs and services; and Need to collect and disaggregate data on a variety of disability rights issues, and make the data publicly available.

On the same blue background, Logo for National Housing and Homelessness Network followed by white text. ”Systemic gaps and ableist policies in housing create an array of vulnerabilities for individuals living with disabilities. Particularly, women and gender-diverse people with disabilities, are multiply marginalized when trying to access safe, affordable housing that meets their unique needs. Inadequate income and supports systems, gaps in policies, and inconsistencies across jurisdictions are creating egregious violations to the rights of people with disabilities, disproportionately impacting women and gender diverse people. Our submission highlights key areas of disparities and outlines recommendations.”

Friends, the UN is taking a look at Canada's record on disability rights internationally & nationally—from Canada's Arms Sales to Israel, seclusion in school, chasms in accessible housing, & MAiD targeting us all. Check out some of the submissions: djno.ca/international-work