Changes to the term "disabled" by the Doug Ford Government in Ontario are making disabled people like me targets of discrimination and poverty.

I recently found out through a CTV news article that people like me who have a mental disability and are just coming into the system of social assistance under the new guidelines will be denied Ontario works or ODSP because the Ontario Doug Ford Government is redefining the word disability, in my opinion to cut the costs the Government spends on Social Assistance. They are cleverly packaging this as empowerment to the poor, in the real sense that they will be encouraging the disabled who no longer qualify for financial support to re-enter the work force. They are saying that disabled people like me have become dependant on the system which has prevented us from working for a long time and by redefining the term disability to fall more closely under the Federal Guidelines, it will somehow cause disabled people like me to miraculously go back to work and re-habilitate myself. 

In all honesty, it has been a very long time for me not working, but the nature of my illness is long term and to say that I can be fully restored to mental health is unrealistic. It's not that I am not trying hard to stay happy and well, in 1999 I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a mood disorder and a psychotic depression. Under the new guidelines coming soon people like me will have a hard time receiving financial assistance from the Government of Ontario and will be encouraged to go back to work despite their failing health and serious mental health conditions.

I am writing this because I am concerned for myself loosing my ODSP and others like me being denied it. Right from the start my psychiatrist saved my life, and it was by his recommendation that I go on ODSP. Times have changed and I can imagine the stress on the system with the population increasing and more people qualifying for assistance. I have been living on about $1000.00 for about 19 years now per month, and I have dreamed of going back to work for many years but the hardships in my life seem to not end. I can tell you as a Christian, that I repent of my sins everyday and my definition of rehabilitation may differ from my governments. The hardest thing I have had to deal with is the stigma that comes with mental disability, and the thought of my Government doing away with that term for my condition leaves me with little hope. I have seen the decline in my county with things like euthanasia and other things which I have lost the freedom to talk about that don't line up with my faith, and this is just another blow to the vulnerable in our society.

I have recently personally disagreed with the new Cannabis Act, and as a Canadian citizen I am still for the prohibition of this drug. I see the reckless spending on things like making recreational drugs legal as immoral, and now my Province is attacking people like me who have been relying on the goodwill and welfare of this once great nation, to yet put another vulnerable peoples group out to the dust. What surprises me is that it is being done by a Conservative Government, a government that I have long supported.

My plea is that people like me, that our voices will be heard. This is Mike.