Mother tells Trudeau autism care is a 'human rights issue'

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A Nova Scotia activist and mother of a nine-year-old boy with severe autism asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about his government's stance on setting up a national autism strategy during his town hall meeting in Lower Sackville, N.S., Tuesday evening.

Carly Sutherland's son, Callum suffers from violently aggressive fits. She has said she can't hug or touch her son. She said he screams and punches holes in the wall all day.

She has been advocating for nationwide, standardized support for people with autism, making up for aspects of care that are not paid for by the provinces.

"Families like mine should not have to subsidize health care and education for their disabled children," Sutherland told Trudeau. "This is a fundamental human rights issue."

Trudeau said while education and health-care delivery "are very much a responsibility for the provinces," there's more the federal government could be doing in terms of "the research side, on the advocacy side, on the support side."

Ottawa is investing "significant amounts of money" in autism research at the Canadian Institute for Health Research, he said.

Sutherland has been working to make changes in Nova Scotia to help families in similar situations. She held a press conference at the provincial legislature in November asking the government to take action, and has written a letter to the premier and other ministers outlining what her life has been like living without the proper supports.

Ahead of the the town hall meeting, Sutherland told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon autism is a federal issue.

"There's no cohesive leadership to set policy on how we deal with our assistance with autism," she said.

While a national strategy "will probably be too late for Callum," Sutherland said it could be helpful to other families.

"We need improved educational options for our children, we need evidence-based therapies to be provided. Families should not be subsidizing these kinds of costs. Right across the board it's a really desperate situation," she said.

I feel bad for Canadian autistics and there carers and Callum in particular. Everybody wants to put responsibility on somebody else and his mom thinks it is probably too late for him at age 9.

Ah Canada... They ban people from immigrating if they have any kinds of chronic health problems, or if their relatives (!) have such problems.
I'd say that this policy is just plainly fascist, literally.

While a national strategy "will probably be too late for Callum,"

Is this because support for autistic adults is already so wonderful that it doesn't need to be part of the strategy, or because Callum will cease to be autistic in adulthood?

Is this because support for autistic adults is already so wonderful that it doesn't need to be part of the strategy, or because Callum will cease to be autistic in adulthood?