SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — World Autism Awareness Day
April 2, 2019
Honourable senators, I rise today to recognize World Autism Awareness Day. This morning I had the pleasure to attend the fifth annual Canadian Autism Leadership Summit. This summit is important for us policy-makers to hear details of provincial diversity, national initiatives and community-based services as we work together on advancing a national autism spectrum disorder strategy.
I wish to extend my gratitude to Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorders Alliance and our colleagues, Senators Munson and Housakos, as well as all ASD leaders from across Canada, including several self-advocates, families and service providers who came together to address ASD issues.
It is so important that we use our voices, our privilege as parliamentarians and our commitment to help Canadians living with autism, their parents, families and advocates work together for change.
At this morning’s opening session entitled “Nothing About Us Without Us,” the presentations highlighted the value of truly listening to lived experiences to build authentic alliances with self-advocates as we implement a national strategy. We heard about the move from autism awareness to autism acceptance. I would also like to add the need for action; so, autism awareness to autism acceptance, followed by action. It’s time to leave tokenism behind.
We also must not forget to address intersectionality issues. I would like to call attention to the intersection of race, racism and disability that impacts children from racialized communities who live with autism. Individuals with several marginalized identities will have different life experiences. One area of concern to me is children of African descent, who are either not diagnosed early enough, are often misdiagnosed, or their families remain stuck in a phase of denial. As we move forward together, I invite you to consider the ways in which those children and adults with autism who are racialized are differently impacted and how we can work together to dismantle those systemic barriers.
A blatant example of the intersection of racism and disability is during police street checks. Last week, Halifax Regional Police reported that young Black men aged 15 to 25 are nine times more likely to be stopped; added to the complexity of living with autism, such interactions can easily escalate.
Honourable colleagues, we must remember to include the valuable lived experiences in our policy development and action the requests of ASD self-advocates — Nothing about us without us.