Disability News Feed | PovNet - Building Online Community

Dashboard deceiversDisabled or dishonest?

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 06:46:45 -0700

Disabled permit prominently displayed on their dash, the couple pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot's disabled parking spot and hopped out of their van. Arm in arm, the couple, perhaps in their 30s, casually strolled to the store. No limp, no shortness of breath, no apparent reason for the disabled pass.

Disabled man looking for work after eviction from home

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 06:02:02 -0700

A disabled man evicted Wednesday from his family home in Scotia Heights is clinging to the idea of moving back, but he is starting to move on with his life by looking for work. Daryl Zenyk, 46, is staying with a neighbour while he hunts for a job and mounts a last-ditch court appeal to return to his family home.

Regina expands service for disabled golfers

Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:31:46 -0700

The City of Regina is expanding its accessible golfing program, allowing people who use wheelchairs to enjoy summer days on the links.

N.L. bus company leaves behind woman in wheelchair

Wed, 2 Jul 2008 10:08:51 -0700

A N.L. woman with a disability said the service she's receiving from the only provincial coach line is unacceptable, after she was left behind at the bus stop Wednesday morning.

Disabled parking permits face challenge

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 04:45:59 -0700

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission has challenged the criteria used to award parking permits to disabled people. Now the agency responsible for carrying out the provisions of the Human Rights Code could ask the provincial government to resol ve questions about who does -- or does not -- deserve the passes that give disabled people special parking rights.

Disabled veterans' families feel strain on finances, health: survey

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:14:35 -0700

People who care for Canada's disabled veterans often face overwhelming demands and financial pressures, according to a study prepared for Veterans Canada.

California Proposal Would End Health Care to Immigrant Families

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:48:13 -0700

New Program Offers Drug-Addicted Mothers Cash for Birth Control, Sterilizations
"The effort, Project Prevention, headed by Barbara Harris of North Carolina, who was invited to Mesa County by Commissioner Janet Rowland, offers $300 and the chance for drug-addicted women to receive free temporary or permanent birth control." The Daily Sentinel.

Schwarzenegger Proposal Would Cut Health Care to Immigrants
"Medi-Cal provides healthcare to about 6.6 million Californians, including poor families, pregnant women, disabled people and seniors. As part of a plan to strike the state's $15 billion deficit, the governor wants to limit benefits of legal residents who came to the country in the past five years so they qualify for emergency help, but little else." Ventura County Star.

HIV Rate Up 12 Percent Among Young Gay Men
"The number of young homosexual men being newly diagnosed with HIV infection is rising by 12 percent a year, with the steepest upward trend in young black men, according to a new report." Washington Post.

ICE Cold to Kids

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:32:49 -0700

Source:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3744/ice_cold_to_kids/

Lede picture:

Subhead:

At 10 a.m. on May 12, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended on a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa, about 200 miles northwest of Des Moines. ICE agents arrested 389 workers who it determined were undocumented — 304 of whom were indicted on various charges, mostly related to their immigrant status. The list of arrested did not include the owners or managers at the meat processing plant.

Body:

After Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2006, ICE adopted what is referred to as an “enforcement-only” approach to immigration. The incident in Postville is one example.

ICE arrests have increased 45-fold since 2001, according to the National Council of La Raza, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit. In 2007, nearly 5,000 workplace immigration arrests occured nationwide.

The children of those arrested — many of whom are U.S. citizens — suffer consequences. The raid in Iowa “created panic in the school,” said Janet Murgu’a, president of the National Council of La Raza, during a May 20 hearing before the House subcommittee on workforce protections. She said it forced St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville to mobilize and feed 450 migrants the first night of the raid, and to shelter 150 children who spent the night on mats and in pews.

The number of children with undocumented parents is unknown, but a March 2005 report by the Pew Hispanic Center found that 4.9 million children are in families with at least one undocumented parent. Of those, 3.1 million — or 63 percent — are U.S. citizens.

Last November, ICE adopted humanitarian guidelines after Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and others pushed for their implementation. The discretionary guidelines require agents to investigate whether humanitarian concerns exist among those arrested — including “those with serious medical conditions … pregnant women, nursing mothers, parents who are the sole caretakers of minor children or disabled or seriously ill relatives, and parents who are needed to support their spouses in caring for sick or special needs children or relatives.”

Agents are also asked to coordinate with other institutions, such as foster care systems and the Department of Heath and Human Services.

“What we’d like to see is those regulations enforced on a consistent basis — strictly enforced and not applied in a discretionary way,” Murgu’a testified.

Kathryn Gibney is principal of an overwhelmingly (96 percent) Latino elementary school in San Pedro, Calif., a community that experienced a raid in March 2007. She told lawmakers that members of her community have witnessed white ICE vans stationed near school grounds in Oakland and Berkeley to ensnare parents.

Gibney said the effect on her school has been “ongoing relentless terror.”

“The impact of these raids has been devastating,” she said. “Absentee rates have soared. Test scores have dropped. Students who do make it to school remain distracted, as they worry about whether their families will be at home when they return.”

The San Pedro raid last year occurred in the predawn hours before a state-mandated exam. About 40 students were absent that day — seven times greater than the school’s normal absence rate.

According to Gibney, in San Rafael, Calif., on May 8, ICE agents stopped a second-grade girl who was on her way to school with her father. The agents couldn’t communicate with the father in his native language, so the girl served as translator. The agents eventually arrested her father.

ICE insists it acts humanely when rounding up illegal aliens. Acting Deputy Assistant Director of ICE James Sperro told Congress that agents involved in the Postville incident questioned detainees “no less than three times about humanitarian issues, such as child custody concerns.” He said agents eventually released 62 of those arrested, but added that those released are still likely to be charged.

As Gibney told the committee: “There must be a way to execute a federal mandate in a more humane manner.”
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Kay Steiger associate editor of Campus Progress, is a former editorial assistant at The American Prospect. Kay has covered feminism, student debt and veterans issues for The American Prospect, Bitch and Campus Progress. Read her blog here.

Lede picture caption:

On Monday night, a Homeland Security bus leaves Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, with immigation detainees.

Affiliate:

In These Times

teaser:

After Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2006, ICE adopted what is referred to as an “enforcement-only” approach to immigration. The incident in Postville is one example.

Canadian Transportation Agency Decision Ensures Sufficient Space for Service Animals

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:59:00 -0700

Health Canada Warns Consumers Not to Use the Dietary Supplements 6-OXO and 1-AD Due to Potential Serious Health Risks

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:05:00 -0700

Power to the Brown People

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:30:05 -0700

Power to the Brown People

By Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, ColorLines, May/June 2008

IT WAS AN IMMIGRANT RIGHTS ORGANIZER’S dream come true.

On December 10, 2007, with just a few hours notice, close to 2,000 South-Asian Canadian immigrants flooded Vancouver International Airport. They paralyzed the international departures section and surrounded a cab taking a severely disabled 48-year-old Sikh refugee, Laibar Singh, to his deportation flight. The crowd did what no other protest in North America had done before—using civil disobedience, it stopped a deportation proceeding in its tracks.

The protest prompted a tense, hours-long standoff at the airport. Officers of the Canadian Border Services Agency announced, a bit nervously, that they were unwilling to wade into the crowd. And after eight hours, the cab—well, it just started backing up. Someone helped Singh climb out of the cab, and he was ushered back to the Sikh place of worship (a gurdwara), where he has sought sanctuary while awaiting a resolution of his legal challenge to stay in Canada.

Media Advisory - Lieutenant Governor to welcome HRH The Earl of Wessex

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:45:46 -0700

TORONTO, June 4 - The Hon. David C. Onley, and Her Honour, Mrs. Ruth Ann Onley will host a private luncheon for His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Thursday, 5 June. Guests will reflect representatives from the disability community. The Lieutenant Governor will greet His Royal Highness at the Sas.....

Funding given for disabled workers

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 21:00:00 -0700

The provincial government is planning to provide $1 million to help people with disabilities return to work.

$1 MILLION PROMOTES DISABILITY RETURN-TO-WORK POLICIES

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 11:16:56 -0700

VANCOUVER - A one-time, $1-million grant from the Province will support British Columbians with disabilities in returning to the workforce, announced Claude Richmond, Minister of Employment and Income Assistance.

disRespect - Aeron Hall Tasered Seven Times

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 17:18:19 -0700

Taken by police in 2004 to test him for drunkenness, native B.C. man Aeron Hall limped because of a disability. 3 police officers tasered him 7 times in the station for refusing to remove a necklace which on Indian advice he had been told never to remove.

Nain woman threatens hunger strike over disability assistance

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 08:38:47 -0700

A disabled woman in northern Labrador says she is prepared to starve herself if government does not take action on her poverty-stricken plight.

Media Advisory - Ontario celebrates National Access Awareness Week

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 03:00:21 -0700

TORONTO, May 29 - To mark National Access Awareness Week, Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur will visit an Ottawa business that has made accessibility a priority. Meilleur will speak about accessibility for people with disabilities and why it's good for everyone's business. There will also be a tour of the.....

Lack of support aids holds back disabled

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 21:00:00 -0700

ottawa -- Canadians with disabilities say the main reason they cannot participate as fully as they'd like in everyday activities is that the specialized support aids and devices they need cost too much, according to a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday. The report found that more than half -- 56 per cent -- of needs that could be addressed by specialized technology go unmet because of the high price of the assistive devices.

Dozens support 'Jordan's Principle' bill at Manitoba legislature

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 13:40:49 -0700

Manitoba Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard assembled some of the province's top aboriginal leaders and child-welfare experts Tuesday at the legislature as his private member's bill concerning health services for disabled aboriginal children had its second reading.

Volunteer for disabled events faces sex charge

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:41:34 -0700

A volunteer chaperone at Calgary events for adults with disabilities has been charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a person with a disability.