Category Archives: Disability

Healthy Housing for Ann – Help Needed

Posted on April 14, 2024 | 2 comments

 

My friend Ann needs to relocate soon, and really needs an accessible place where exposures to pollutants are minimized as much as possible.

The Plays that Says Here
Painting by Ann Cognito

 

She has written about her needs here:

Hello, I am a friend of Linda’s, who needs to find safe and accommodative housing. My name is Ann Cognito (pen name – my legal surname is Bucknor).

I am an older woman with disabilities and serious long term health issues including severe chronic pain (multiple causes) and severe environmental/chemical intolerances (probably MCS; I’m on a very long list waiting for assessment at the Women’s College Hospital Environmental Health Clinic). I am also agoraphobic, autistic, and have CPTSD.

Before my health deteriorated so much, I used to have a career, and owned my home.  I am very well educated, and an environmental activist. While I was still able to function more, I walked from Calgary to Ottawa with my support/service dog to raise awareness about the climate crisis. 

I am now looking for safe housing, again.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in Disability, Health, Human Rights, Environmental Health, Medically Required Housing, Accessibility, Air Quality, Community, Real Estate

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Are You Feeling Lucky?

Posted on May 5, 2023 | 1 comment

Some of us are fairly independent, (no-one is fully independent  in an interdependent society).

Some of us may need helping hands to exist, sometimes in little ways, sometimes in seemingly big ways, which can seem even larger if policies have been created that make solutions much harder to access or create.

Some people’s basic medical needs which make it possible for them to exist are expensive, and these survival needs may seem elitist to others who can’t afford them, because the system is set up to make healthier (and for some, medically necessary) options more expensive and unavailable to everyone, even though everyone would benefit from access to them.

Society has also been conditioned to add on a quiet “they must be doing something wrong if they can’t manage independently”, and “I can’t afford those things that I would like to have too”, or  “I had to work my ass off for those things, why should someone get them for free”.

Are you feeling lucky today that your basic needs are being met?

Here’s a list of questions to consider:

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Disability, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Health, Housing, Human Rights, Medically Required Housing, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

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Help Susy Find and Afford Safe, Accessible Housing to Prevent MAiD

Posted on February 14, 2023 | 2 comments

Long time MCS/ES community member Susy Mallin needs our support now.

She has managed to survive years of brutal conditions due to the severity of her MCS/ES, but all this has taken a big toll on her, and she is out of energy to keep struggling just to exist.

She needs medically safe, low toxicity housing on the Sunshine Coast area of BC where her family lives, housing that is affordable on a senior’s fixed income, a home where she isn’t exposed to chemicals, fragrances, smoke, pesticides, and other pollutants all the time. For these reasons, she can’t live in any multi-unit buildings.

You might see the issue with this need.

Housing is unaffordable for so many now, especially for people with medical needs for “healthy” housing, made with inert, low VOC materials.

People with MCS/ES don’t have a social safety net, our ability to live really does depend on community support, on you.

Please donate generously so that Susy can spend her remaining years in some relative peace.

Please be on the lookout for housing that could be suitable for her.

In a world that has otherwise made it abundantly clear that she, and others with more severe MCS/ES, aren’t really welcome, and who don’t care how much preventable suffering is imposed and endured, let’s show Susy that humans care enough to make it possible for her to exist, to be able to live out her natural life in dignity, and hopefully even be able to return to sharing her art with us.

♥
Read more, and donate here:

↓

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-susys-life

♥

Banner of 5 images of jewellery that Susy was previously able to create, including hearts, pendants, and initials, all hand-made of silver

Silver jewellery made by Susy when making jewellery was still possible.

Please share widely.
Thank you for anything you can contribute.

An UPDATE on Susy’s situation (March 11th, 2023)
Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Environment, Environmental Health, Generosity, Housing, Human Rights, Indoor Air Quality, MAID, Medically Required Housing, Real Estate

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MCS and Housing Update

Posted on January 26, 2023 | 6 comments

The MCS and Housing  page has an entirely new updated resource section, divided into a few different categories.

Hope you find it helpful.

MCS and Housing

…

May safe, accessible, medically required housing be available for all who need it.

an illustration of different types of colourful housing on a green wavy landscape

6 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Housing, Human Rights, Medically Required Housing, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

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Hunger Strike for Access to Safe Health Care

Posted on May 12, 2021 | 21 comments

Ginette lives in Quebec and has been trying to access health care safely for years, without success. The fragrance exposures cause severe symptoms and her health is deteriorating as a result of not being able to have her basic needs met, because… fragrance.

She posted this video to her fb profile:

Here’s a  rough English transcript:

Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Action, Disability, Fragrance, Health Care, Human Rights, Policy, Public Health

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What Now?

Posted on March 13, 2021 | 20 comments

 

A brief account of a seriously “sensitive” to pollution person living in a society where fragranced and toxic products are more important than lives, where disabled lives are disposeable, where it’s now easy to be euthanized (even for for externally imposed and inflicted) suffering, but not to receive support to remove the causes of suffering, causes and conditions that have been made systemic for many people with disabilities.

I’m not a poet and I know it and I wrote it anyway…

What Now? Continue reading →

20 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Community, Disability, Environmental Sensitivities, Food, Fragrance, Health, Healthy Environment, Housing, Human Rights, MCS/ES, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Pesticides, Policy, Pollution, Support

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Canadian Petition for People with Chemical and Environmental Sensitivities

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

 

Dear everyone, if you are Canadian, please sign this petition, and no matter where you are, please share this with all the Canadians you know!

e-2729  Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:
…

We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:

1. Create an international classification of disease designation code in Canada for environmental sensitivities so that those affected may have access to medical care;

2. Include environmental sensitivities as a disability that must be accommodated on all relevant documents and forms in governmental departments and organizations that minister social assistance, housing, medical, and other public services; and

3. Ensure all indoor public spaces are declared scent and fragrance-free.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Government, Health Care, Human Rights, Policy, Public Health

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Proclamation, Video, and Other News for May 12th Awareness Day

Posted on May 12, 2020 | 2 comments

Toronto’s Mayor John Tory has lent (not given) his support with a Proclamation for  for Awareness Day:

“Proud to proclaim today as Myalgia Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Awareness Day. It is important that we lend our support and understanding to those living with chronic illness, especially as we deal with #COVID19.

 

(I’m sorry there’s no written transcript for the image)
Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Community, Disability, Environmental Sensitivities, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Policy

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The Power of This Pause

Posted on May 3, 2020 | 8 comments

Guest post by Judy Freed

The Power of This Pause

For just a moment, there is a pause.

A pause from the years of well-intended, ill-informed inquiries:

“So, what have you been up to lately?  What do you do for fun? See any good movies?  Go anywhere exciting? Get together with any friends?”

For this moment, nobody is asking me these questions.  Instead, there is an awareness that “normal” day to day life has been interrupted.  The questions now are almost always something like: “How are you doing?”  “How are you holding up?” “Are you ok?”

Finally – questions that make sense to me; questions I can answer without Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Community, Disability, Human Rights, Writing

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Homeless Canaries Need Access to Fragrance-Free Showers

Posted on May 2, 2020 | 12 comments

 

I saw an announcement on fb from a city agency that was opening up an arena to allow homeless people a place to shower, and they were also providing soap, shampoo, and other necessities.

“People who are homeless or precariously housed in (the city) relied upon bathrooms and showers in public facilities. But, they have closed their doors during the pandemic. There are now free showers and washrooms open daily at (the)  Arena.”

Homelessness is something far too many human canaries are intimately  familiar with, since there are so few accessible, medically safe housing options available when our ‘sensitivities’ become disabling.  Many  human canaries are  precariously housed too.


Graphic image text description:
Everyone welcome.
Toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, and more provided.
Free showers & washrooms
———————————————————————-
ACCESSIBILITY QUESTION:
Is the soap and shampoo fragrance-free so that people with environmental ‘sensitivities’ could also access the space?
MAY is MCS/ES Awareness Month
—

I was (due to MCS/ES related accessibility barriers) homeless myself for a year, and the need to shower did not go away. I know several homeless canaries now, one who just a few days ago was discussing her attempts to create a shower outside the van she is living in, so I asked the fb page a question about accessibility for homeless canaries.

Here’s what happened:

Continue reading →

12 Comments

Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Disability, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Fragrance, Human Rights, Medically Required Housing, Policy, Public Health

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