INTRODUCING: INVISIBLE INSTITUTIONS
Invisible Institutions is a new documentary podcast exploring the past and present of institutions for people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Canada. Supported and advised by People First of Canada and Inclusion Canada’s Joint Task Force on Deinstitutionalization, the podcast investigates the under-reported and invisible harms of the institutional system.
For fifty years, self-advocates, families, and communities have fought to end the institutionalization of people labelled with intellectual or developmental disabilities. But today institutionalization remains an ongoing reality, present in sheltered workshops, long-term care homes and other congregate settings.
This seven part audio documentary includes interviews with survivors, self-advocates, community activists, and experts, as they work to expose the exploitation, isolation, resistance and survival facing people labeled with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Watch the Webinar
On March 28, 2022, the Joint Task Force held a webinar to celebrate the podcast, while highlighting ongoing concerns with institutionalization. The session included a panel discussion with David Weremy, Donnie MacLean, Vicky Levack and Jihan Abbas who shared their experiences and the need for change in our communities. For those who couldn't attend, a recording of the webinar is available to watch here.
INVISIBLE INSTITUTIONS: EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS
EPISODE #1: The Institutions That Remain
In memoriam of all the lives lost to the harms of institutionalization.
For over a century, people labeled with intellectual/developmental disabilities were confined into large-scale, state-operated institutions across so-called-Canada. In these places, labeled, people were isolated from their communities, subject to abuse and neglect, and removed of their autonomy, dignity and personhood, all in the name of care. People with disabilities and their allies have been working tirelessly for the last decades to bring these conversations to the light and to close these institutions down for good. But today, government’s continue to institutionalize people labeled with intellectual/developmental disabilities across this country, prevent them from making decisions about their daily lives, rationalize restraints and solitary confinement, and subject them to sub-minimum wage labour and poverty.
Read the episode transcript here.
Click here for show notes and more information.
EPISODE #2: Sheltered Workshops & Sub-Minimum Wage in Canada
In memoriam of Jean Marie Martel & Frederick Elijah Sanderson.
Sheltered workshops are segregated, sub-minimum wage workplaces for people labelled with intellectual/developmental disabilities. These programs promise training opportunities to prepare for employment, but for many it becomes a lifetime of training, exploitation, and poverty. Sheltered workshops come from a long tradition of coerced labour of labelled people, particularly those incarcerated in institutional settings. We talk to self-advocate & former sheltered workshop worker, Donnie MacLean, disability policy expert and self-advocate Ari Ne’eman, researcher Dr. Jihan Abbas, and institutional survivor David Weremy.
Read the episode transcript here.
Click here for show notes and more information.
EPISODE #3: The Hellhole From Manitoba, the Manitoba Developmental Centre
In memoriam of Joyce Gibbons, and all those of who have died at the MDC.
The Manitoba Development Centre (MDC) is one of few remaining large-scale government funded and operated institutions for people labelled with an intellectual/developmental disability in Western Canada. Institutional survivor David Weremy escaped the institution nine times, and since he escaped he has fought “to shut them down, every one of them”. Last year, the government announced it’s closure but for now, it's still open. We’re joined by David Weremy & People First of Canada’s Shelley Fletcher.
A heads up that today’s episode deals with confinement, sexual and physical abuse and suicide.
Here is the Episode 3 Transcript.
Click here for show notes and more information.
EPISODE #4: Lifetimes in Long-Term Care
In memoriam of the 16,664 people killed by COVID-19 in long-term care institutions.
More than 150,000 people live in long-term care in Canada, and every single one of them is a person with a disability. Government’s use long-term care as a stop-gap solution to the housing & care crisis, and one that is all too often used against people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. In Ontario alone, more than 2,900 labelled people are institutionalized into long-term care.
A note that this episode contains discussion of sexual violence, physical, emotional and mental abuse, confinement, and force-feeding.
Here is episode 4 transcript.
Click here for show notes and more information.
EPISODE #5: Let’s Talk About Sex & Reproductive Justice
In memoriam of Leilani Muir and all those killed by the conditions at the Michener Centre.
Throughout Canadian history provincial governments have worked to control the sexuality and reproduction of people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. For fifty years, Alberta’s Sexual Sterilization Act (1928), made it legal to sterilize people labelled with intellectual disabilities without their consent. More than 2,834 people in the Alberta were subject to involuntary sexual sterilization surgery, but experts say this is just the tip of the iceberg. And today, access to sexual and reproductive rights for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities continues to be compromised by both ableism and institutionalization.
Featuring Dr. Claudia Malacrida, Dr. Alan Santinele Martino & institutional survivors.
Here is episode 5's transcript.
Click here for show notes and more information.
EPISODE #6: Group Homes and Deinstitutionalization
In memoriam of Stephanie Jobin and all those killed by confinement.
In Canada, institutions for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities have never closed, they have changed faces and names. Institutions remain responsible for the segregation and isolation of labelled people. Today, group homes are the primary forms of supportive housing for labelled. And while not all group homes are institutions, all group homes have the potential to become institutions. With guests self-advocate Kory Earle and researcher Jihan Abbas.
Here is episode 6's transcript.
Click here for show notes and more information.
EPISODE #7: Life and Death in Canada's Institutions
In memoriam of Archie Rolland, Chris Gladders, Sean Tagert and all those killed by confinement.
In 2021, Canada expanded access to medical assistance in dying to all people with disabilities who suffer as a result of their condition. These changes expand access to death at a time in Canada when people labeled with intellectual and developmental disabilities are criminalized and institutionalized by the state.
This episode includes footage from the Freedom Tour documentary, and the Disability Filibuster. Featuring testimonies by Catherine Frazee, Sarah Jama, and Jonathan Marchand. Interview with Inclusion Canada’s Natalia Hicks.
Bookmark this page to return for future episodes. Thank you!