Come and celebrate Disability Awareness Month with California-based SINS INVALID, performing excerpts from ‘An unshamed claim to beauty in the face of invisibility' at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the Weston Family Learning Centre. 

The show will open with a performance from Toronto-based artist Masti Khor and a screening of the internationally acclaimed documentary, Our Compass. 

Sins Invalid, including cast members Alex Carafelli, Leah Lakshmi, Piepzna-Samarasinha and Leroy Moore, will follow this. 

The event is FREE, is wheelchair accessible, and has ASL interpretation and Attendant care.

Sins Invalid is a disabled performance project that formed in 2006 in San Francisco. Founders Patty Berne and poet Leroy F. Moore Jr., both people of colour with physical disabilities, wanted to celebrate artists with disabilities, especially those who were queer, racialized, gender-variant or otherwise marginalized. Their shows actively challenge what is considered "sexy" or "normal" by using personal stories from the artists and adapting them into performance pieces.

Performance

The More We Get Together is an extensive 107 page manual published by the Canadian Labour Congress as a tool for disability rights and labour activists alike. The manual not only acts as a guide for integrating disability rights issues into labour organizing, but explains and contextualizes disability studies theories and movements. Including workers with disabilities in union work is essential to effective organizing. The manual explains:

Disability theories

Demographics about people with disabilities

Ashley X is a Seattle woman born in 1997 with severe developmental disabilities. Her disability means that she will never progress further than having the intellectual and physical abilities of an infant.

In 2004 Ashley began to show signs of puberty. Her parents were her only full time care givers and were concerned about the possible effects on their ability to care for Ashley. As she grew, it took more effort to provide effective care and increased the chance of bedsores.

A documentary chronicling the lack of accessible transportation in London, Ontario and across the province. Follow Jeff on his mission to bring about the change the disabled population desperately needs by driving his wheelchair over 650km from his home in London, Ontario to the nation's capital in Ottawa.

Followed by a Q & A with Jeff Preston

This event is free

Accessibility Information: ASL Interpretation, Attendant Care, Communication Assistance, Vegan Snacks, Child friendly space

If we require additional accommodations for your participation please contact RyeACCESS at access@rsuonline.ca or 416-979-5000 ext 4504
RyeACCESS, Centre for Independent Living, DHPS, The Access Centre, Springtide Resources

On April 17, 1982 the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms became law, guaranteeing legal equality in Section 15(1) "without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability." Disability was omitted in the first draft of the Charter released on October 1980, shocking disability rights activists.

Excuses
Politicians feared that including disability in the Charter would force accessibility standards in to the government which would be costly. There was widespread ignorance among politicians about the experiences of people with disabilities and they feared that disability was too hard to define.

Join us at the Square, and come down to Occupy Toronto if you can! They're making great efforts to be accessible down there.

Why Disability Pride?

As a recognition of recent injuries and deaths of people with disabilities in interaction with Toronto Police. This march is not against police services, but recognizes the need for increased disability awareness training. No one should be dying in police interactions in Toronto!

Under the administration of Mayor Rob Ford, the annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities Celebrations, which recognizes the achievements of people with disabilities in Toronto, has been cancelled without community input.