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This petition has struck a chord with thousands and thousands of people, including those who receive PWD, their families and supporters, friends and fellow citizens, service agencies, policy experts, members of the media and an ever-growing number of community agencies. We are all stunned by a government that failed to even, at the very least, consult with people on PWD and the disability community, the result of which has become a stunning mess. We are all further astonished by a government that is so out of touch it presumed and expected the announcements would be welcomed as good news and even progressive.

What continues to be lauded by our government as a way to address the “inequity” and shamefully low PWD rates that 100,000 British Columbians are forced to live on, was nothing more than a condescending and mean-spirited exercise that failed at all levels. And it continues to fail again, again and again. This failure is only amplified by public relations efforts to clarify the “facts,” clear up “misinformation” with more and better graphs and divide the disabled community, basically reframing the information in the hopes we would all finally get it. Except nothing has worked. Why? Because we can all do the math, we understand the facts, we have done the research and we know the truth about what it’s like to live on PWD in B.C.

There are some who are suggesting that the petition and rallies are divisive. That a public display of dissatisfaction with our government lacks maturity and is unsophisticated. That by stubbornly sticking to our positions, we are outliers. That if we really wanted to “work together” we would approach these issues more collaboratively. In the flurry of political positioning, let’s not forget that the cornerstone of democracy is our right to have and organize public discussion. It is healthy and, in fact, necessary. And it is our duty to convene these conversations because this type of civic engagement leads to greater enlightenment, social justice and change.