A Follow Up Response

This is to follow up on what was written here.

Following is a rebuttal letter by Heidi Janz to AUPE's letter: AUPE Defends Its Record.  Before I go on, however, I wish to point out some details.

It took 8 days for the Journal to finally print Ms Janz's letter, which was published June 30th.  Then the Journal published AUPE's response on July 3rd - remarkably quick; especially when taking into account print deadlines.

Ms. Janz sent another response and waited a week to see if the Journal would publish it.

They haven't.

Ms. Janz has given the go-ahead to have her response printed here, since the Journal obviously doesn't have the testicular fortitude to print it.

RE: AUPE Defends Its Record
I need to thank AUPE Vice President Karen Weiers for her July 3rd response to my original Letter to the Editor entitled “Slap in the Face for Disability Advocates.” I am grateful to Ms. Weiers for writing the letter because, in it, she reveals the true depth of AUPE’s ignorance of and/or contempt for (it’s hard to tell which) the ongoing struggle of people with disabilities to preserve their hard-won right to live independently in the community and direct their own homecare (read: personal care) services.
As I read it, Ms. Weiers seeks to make two main arguments in her letter. The first argument is that, “Contrary to Ms. Janz’s claim in her letter, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees did indeed defend the model of care at Artspace in public statements opposing Alberta Health Services’ plan to cancel home-care contracts and hand them over to a handful of corporations.” Interestingly however, Ms. Weirs does not offer any references, with or without urls, for said “public statements.” I am also curious about why, given its staunch public commitment to defending the model of care at Artspace last spring, AUPE would have publicly advised their members to leave Artspace and seek employment elsewhere: “‘We are advising Artspace staff to take new employment as soon as possible, at the highest rate they can find. We are in a new era of health care where AHS is treating care as a commodity, so it is appropriate for staff to take whatever opportunity they can, at the best rate they can find,’ said AUPE Negotiator Kevin Davediuk” (June 11, 2013 http://www.aupe.org/news/ahs-terminates-artspace-housing-cooperative-home-care-workers/) This seems to me a very odd, not to mention ineffectual, way for AUPE to publicly “defend” the independent living model of care at Artspace.
Equally incongruous, if not incomprehensible, is the second argument that Ms. Weiers makes in her letter, namely that “AUPE members [have conducted numerous campaigns] in defence of public services for Albertans living with disabilities, including efforts to keep Michener Centre open and past campaigns to defend Alberta Hospital Edmonton from being closed.”
So, let me get this straight.... According to Ms. Weiers’ “logic,” AUPE has defended the independent living model of care by fighting to keep Albertans with disabilities locked up in institutions????
With “friends” like the AUPE, Albertans with disabilities surely need no enemies.
Heidi Janz, PhD
Adjunct Professor, John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, University of Alberta