Mulroney is dead but his legacy lives on
No one is required to pretend it is a good one especially not disabled people
The image below of Brian Mulroney putting a million dollar check into a bucket balanced on Rick Hansen’s lap is one I use in presentations about ableism in Canada and Canadian disability history. I argue this is what has set Canada apart - in a bad way - and resulted in disabled Canadians not only being deprived of ( an inevitability imperfect but nonetheless an important tool in the toolbox) legislation. but more significantly, a collective political identity and organization, collective understanding of the discrimination we face and that it, not our ‘personal character’ or diagnoses are the cause of our exclusion from society. In the slide deck it comes after the Capitol Crawl, the laying in front of buses to demand accessibility, the mad activists and their bed push protests, the ‘Piss on Pity’ protests against the telethons, the Berkeley crew smashing curb cuts with sledgehammers…Meanwhile in Canada…One disabled person became rich and famous for ‘overcoming.’
Brian Mulroney was the third and less internationally infamous member of the unholy triad of neoliberalism made up of himself (PM 1984-93), Margaret Thatcher (PM 1979-90) and Ronald Reagan (POTUS 1981-89). To properly analyze Mulroney’s decisions as prime minister they have to be considered in the context of this ideological bonding. Mulroney was clearly not the leader of the pack, something I assume he would have known and used to his strategic advantage. The guy in the back that no one is paying much attention to has the chance to learn from the ‘mistakes’ of those in front.
It’s my assertion that Brian Mulroney is responsible for derailing Canada’s burgeoning disability rights movement, the impact of which remains in place today. He didn’t do this alone. He created Rick Hansen - not the man but the myth - to accomplish this.
Let’s start with some historical context.
It may seem strange to imagine, since the history is so largely unknown and since today disability occupies such an oddly quiet and contained place on the sidelines, but at the time the triad ruled, disabled people were causing problems for the those in power and we were receiving international recognition as a political class denied human rights.
1981 was proclaimed the International Year of Disabled Persons by the United Nations one outcome of which was the World Program of Action Concerning Disabled Persons. This was not the launch of disabilty activism rather, as is usually the case, a reflection of fact that it had grown to the point that it had to be acknowledged institutionally.
This was before the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which was drafted in 2006.
Disabled people in the United States, the UK and Canada, many of whom had been or were still institutionalized or living in nursing homes, were becoming political, united and organized. While you and I might think this is a good thing, especially if you understand the full-frontal dehumanization and denial of basic human rights they were operating within at the time, not everyone did.
Opposition to disability rights came from a few different places, including the government itself, not wishing to create and fund additional services or add regulations - two things neoliberals oppose. The strongest opposition outside of governement was from the business community which argued the extra costs would be unduly burdensome. And they really were unhappy with the idea of enforcement. There was also opposition from evangelical conservatives, (particularly in U.S.) because disability rights included (and still does) people living with H.I.V. The latter would come to a head in the U.S leading up to the passing of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) in 1990. 1
But the groundwork for the future ADA was laid long before.
“The anniversary of the date on which the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed, July 26, 1990, is commemorated in many towns and cities each year as “disability pride” day, but the anniversary of April 5, 1977, usually passes without comment. And yet the signing of the ADA in many ways marked the culmination of the national movement which had begun thirteen years earlier. On that spring day, demonstrators staged the “HEW,” or “504,” sit-ins, to protest the Carter administration’s reluctance to move forward with regulations to enforce what was at that time the most sweeping federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, is a single sentence:
No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States . . shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
But few people fully understood the ramifications of that simple statement. One individual who did, however, was Frank Bowe, executive director of the newly formed American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities. Bowe described how “the vast reach of United States Government funds, from schools to hospitals to mass transit facilities, meant that almost all of American life would be affected were section 504 to become effective.” 2
https://x.com/drunkhistory/status/966045518999801860?s=20
It is worth noting that to this day Canada not only lacks anything comparable to the reach and enforceability of the ADA, but the Accessible Canada Act (2019) doesn’t even include anything comparable to this line from the 1973 legislation in the US. Nor does if cover private businesses, nor does it allow for comaprable means of enforcement. To say we are behind on disability rights in Canada would suggest we are even able to qualify for the same category, which we clearly do not.
But it wasn’t just legislation and costs that would have concerned a neoliberal like Brian Mulroney, it was the activism taking place in US ,UK and increasingly in Canada as well. The famous 504 Sit-in was supported by as wide array of groups as the Salvation Army and the Black Panthers. The Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King Jr. and Black Americans had informed and inspired the disability rights movement, which also included those fighting AIDS discrimination.
In Canada too disabled people were starting to mobilize and had acheived many important victories already.
In the UK a movement was forming and growing - one which would go on to shut down telethons and lead to their own disability legislation as well.
Meanwhile Rick Hansen, a wheelchair user and athlete, who the media referred to as “clean cut” was inspired to become the next Terry Fox. As far as I can tell Hansen never presented himself as a voice or representative of disabled people before Brian Mulroney became involved. He wanted to raise money for a cure for spinal cord injury. He had not engaged with or been involved in anything to do with disability rights or the broader disability community which is diverse and includes a range of people with impairments, chronic illness, mental illness, severe allergies, sensitivities, people who are neurodivergent, etc. He was not advocating for any policy changes. He was not highlighting the inaccessibility of our country, all he was doing was raising funds for medical research. When he spoke to Vancouver city council before starting his Man in Motion tour, he was given $100 donation.
But that changed dramatically when Brian Mulroney entered the scene. Rather than present day me tell you how disabled people felt about this, I’m asking you to watch what they said for yourself. Spoiler, they saw where this was heading and pleaded with Rick Hansen to stop. I apologize the video is not captioned. I have asked CBC to do so repeatedly - especially given its significance to disability rights history.
Today we feel the impacts in what - and who - constitutes disability policy in Canada. A professional class of predominantly privileged wheelchair users, who participate and benefit from the oppression of other disabled people. They confirm Canadian bias that Canada is just so gosh darn nice and disabled people are so golly gee happy and grateful.
Rick Hansen Foundation did a copy/paste (with many deletes) of the freely available, public policy in the US and turned it into a privatized accessibility scheme, (he learned well from his neoliberal teacher), which is entirely useless to disabled people as it provides no transparency, no specific details on accessibilty and no accountability. But somehow, despite clear evidence that is harmful not helpful, not only businesses, but governments continue to give them money - often public money.
This is the disability representation Brian Mulroney wanted and this is what we have been stuck with. A financially and otherwise privileged class of disabled people who delude themselves about their own insights while they sit at a table made to look like the grown-up version but that still keeps everyone in place. Their sycophant and self-serving tendencies ensure they never make a fuss while acting as ambassadors of ‘keep quiet, you don’t matter’ to the rest of us. They have always caused harm but in an era of MAID the pretence of ‘inclusion’ they create is dangerous. Those of us who are disabled poor, marginalized, and/or just humans with an understanding of oppression and a vision for a more just future, need to push these placeholders aside and claim our space.
Brian Mulroney effectively neutralized the disability movement by denying disabled people our own leaders, our own platforms, priorities, our own basis for unity and relationships with allies. But that damage does not need to and must not be forever. Let’s deny him his legacy with a new one of our own that we create together.
If you want an image of disabled Canadian doing some extraordinary physical act, consider Bill Chapman.
“VANCOUVER (CP) - A disabled logger who has perched in a wheelchair atop a wooden pole since Christmas Day to protest a paltry disability pension will get his case reviewed.
But the provincial workers' compensation board, which he has battled for years, will not be taking part.
Bill Chapman, 47, of Hope, about 125 kilometres (75 miles) east of Vancouver, hoisted himself to the top of a 33.5-metre (100-foot) pole on the Pacific National Exhibition fairgrounds to draw attention to his fight.
The B.C. government's labor ministry stepped in yesterday, saying its workers' advisory office will review Chapman's case.
Chapman says he has received a $50-a-month pension since injuring his back and stomach in a 1968 fall.
He is continuing his protest for now.”3
MILDEN, I. Examining the Opposition to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990: “Nothing More than Bad Quality Hogwash.” Journal of Policy History. 2022;34(4):505-528. doi:10.1017/S0898030622000185
PELKA, Fred. What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement. University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. Project MUSE. muse.jhu.edu/book/13657
(CP). (December 28, 1989, Thursday, FINAL EDITION). Wheelchair-on-pole protest wins B.C. review of pension. The Toronto Star. https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:3WG1-Y880-00H1-R0W3-00000-00&context=1516831.