Video Archive

Disability Filibuster 2023

February 19, 2023

Hosts gather to analyze the MAID report published by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying.

Disability Filibuster 2022

April 19th, 2022

The Disability Filibuster returns to the fray in 2022, in protest of further expansions to Canada’s eugenic MAiD regime. In this first broadcast of the 2022 series, guests discuss eugenics, necropolitics – the political calculations that determine who will live and who will die – and the ways in which our people support each other to organize and survive. The session is co-hosted by Tonye Aganaba and Catherine Frazee, with guests Stephen Lytton, Ameil Joseph, Garth Mullins, Allen Mankewich and Neil Belanger, and features spoken word performances by poets Amal Ishaque and Rabbit Richards.

April 24th, 2022

Featuring a discussion of Medical Ableism with guests Dr. John Neary, (Braveheart) Kalie, Rabbit Richards, Serena Bains, Dr. Jennifer Baumbusch, Lucia Lorenzi, and others TBA. Hosted by Q Lawrence and Catherine Frazee.

April 29th, 2022 - Special Edition Disability Filibuster

Presentations by Dr. Leonie Herx and Dr. Sonu Gaind
Guests: Serena Bains, Aasiya Hussain, and others TBA
Co-Hosts: Catherine Frazee and Ramona Coelho
Dr. Herx and Dr. Gaind will share their medical insights on the perils of MAiD expansion, after having their testimony earlier this week at the “Special” Joint Committee on MAiD rushed, disparaged and discounted in a heavily biased Parliamentary process.

May 1 - Medical Ableism and MAiD, Part 2

Guests: Kelly Johnson, Rainbow, Sandra Tavares, Tara Mikiovic, Skittles, Novelette Murray and others TBA
Co-Hosts: Catherine Frazee and Doris Rajan
A focused reflection on medical ableism as it is experienced by a diversity of people with intellectual disabilities, and what the expansions of MAiD mean in light of their experience.

May 6, 2022 - Everyday Ableism = Dehumanized Every Day

Co-hosted by Spring Hawes with Luna Aixin
Joined by Sunny Chiu and others TBA

This Filibuster will discuss the way ableism affects our everyday lives and our self worth. Concepts discussed include:

  • How ableism teaches us to see disability as a tragedy.
  • The harmful myth of “Overcoming”
  • Framing disabled people as “burdens”
  • Demanding “gratitude” for basic rights
  • Disability as a tool for ridicule.
May 12, 2022 - Laid back evening filibuster
Join a laid back evening Filibuster gathering hosted by Q Lawrence, with Jay, Mitcholos Touchie, Sunny Chiu, Rainbow, and others TBD for discussions of disabled joy, bitterness, poverty, and survival.

May 20, 2022 - Mature Minors
May 31, 2022 - Disability Filibuster - Carceral Ableism & Confinement: the deadly role of institutions and carceral ableism and the ongoing expansion of MAiD

This filibuster was about Carceral Ableism & Confinement: the deadly role of institutions and carceral ableism and the ongoing expansion of MAiD
Guests include Jaclyn Tompalski, Aisha Bensilmane, Megan Linton, Amit Arya, Sarah Jama and others

June 8, 2022 - The History of Assisted Dying and the Myth of Compassion and Choice

Please join us for a virtual fireside chat with University of Essex Lecturer, Rees Johnson.
Rees presents on “The Myth of Compassion and Choice”, drawing from his PhD research examining the history of assisted dying, its underpinning ideologies and its shifting contexts of power relations.

Panelists include Dr. Geoffrey Reaume, Jess Thomson, Catherine Frazee and others.

Disability Filibuster 2021

Regrettably, some of what happened at the Disability Filibuster 2021 is preserved only in the living memory of those who were present in the moment. During our intense efforts to keep the Filibuster going without paid staff through the critical final days of parliamentary debate, errors were made in the recording and storage of large video files. If you have photos, private recordings or personal reminiscences about some of these missing segments, we’d love to hear from you!

Approximately half of the footage transmitted during the Filibuster is catalogued here, along with a few late arrivals and some historically significant expressions of opposition to Bill C-7 from our allies and elders.

March 8, 2021
Evening host Catherine Frazee picks up from Jaz Whitford with some introductory observations and begins a relaxed conversation among those present at the inaugural Filibuster broadcast. The session is abruptly cut short when hackers take over the space. It’s a rude interruption, but one that is overcome with renewed determination (and extra security) 24 hours later.
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March 10, 2021
March 11, 2021
By times hilarious and by times enraging, this Filibuster segment with friends Jane Shi and Sunny Chiu is a cathartic blend of readings and commentary from the perspective of those who have survived psychiatric incarceration, medical racism, ableism and cisgendered oppression in the Canadian healthcare context. Bonus Content: A lesson in Mandarin, featuring key phrases for Bill C7 resistors.
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March 19, 2021
After debuting her protest song “Stop Bill C7!” as a spoken word performance on a Disability Filibuster broadcast on March 10, Jane Field returns to the Filibuster with musician ally Moon Joyce, who rose to the challenge of setting this song to music and performs it for all to hear. You heard it first, along with a conversation about the artists’ inspiration, on the Disability Filibuster!
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