Heidi Janz has been a supporter of Friends of SAIL with her words of encouragement on Facebook. She also wrote an awesome Letter to the Editor (Edmonton Journal) explaining that the AUPE had nothing to do with SAIL getting their contract back last summer.
Patronizing and bullying
Edmonton JournalPublished: Friday, May 23
Re: "Dispute rages at housing co-operative," May 21 Under ordinary circumstances, the notion of a "patronizing bully" would be considered an oxymoron. But then the bitter labour dispute that's been playing out between striking health-care aides represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and their employer,
Supports for Artspace Independent Living, a userrun, not-for-profit homecare provider for people with disabilities who live in Artspace Co-op, can by no means be considered ordinary circumstances.
AUPE is insinuating that SAIL is being reckless with its hapless clients' money, when that money actually comes from Alberta Health Services. Why is the union picking on SAIL while letting the colossus that is AHS off scot-free?
As a person with disabilities who also requires home-care services, I am utterly appalled at AUPE's consistently patronizing portrayal of people with disabilities as pathetic pawns. AUPE is really going after the people with disabilities who both run and receive home care through SAIL, thus jeopardizing their continued independence.
A patronizing bully is still a bully.
When the AUPE wrote a letter to the editor in response, Heidi fired back with this....
(This is a letter to the editor which Heidi Janz sent to the Edmonton Journal, but they did not publish 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
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