MEDIA RELEASE: Liberals rejected an NDP proposal to get funds for people living with a disability

OTTAWA — On Wednesday, Liberals rejected an NDP proposal to consider an emergency relief fund to lift people living with a disability out of poverty while they wait for the Canada Disability Benefit.

“Close to a million Canadians with a disability live in poverty, and with the rising cost-of-living crisis, their situation is getting more dire every day,” said Bonita Zarrillo, NDP Critic for Disability Inclusion. “The Liberals don’t even want to explore the idea of delivering temporary help for people living with a disability. This is shameful. After seven years in power, the Liberals failed to lift Canadians with disabilities out of poverty — and now they’re doubling down on their inaction. This is wrong. New Democrats won’t stop fighting to ensure people living with a disability can live in dignity.”

The Liberals say that help is coming through the Canada Disability Benefit but people will have to wait over a year. People living with a disability are struggling to make ends meet and the challenges are increasing as the cost of food, rent and interest rates rise. They need urgent help now to afford to live in dignity.

“Canadians living with a disability are making impossible choices to put food on the table, pay their rent and afford their prescription drugs. But it doesn’t have to be this way,” added Zarrillo. “A temporary emergency relief fund could have been life changing for so many people living with a disability struggling to make ends meet. But the Liberals once again turned their backs on the most vulnerable Canadians. New Democrats will never do that.”

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Toronto Star NEWS: Canada launches ad campaign warning newcomers claiming asylum is ‘not easy’

When reached for comment, NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the new measures are an abrupt shift from past policy.

“This about face from Prime Minister Trudeau is a shameless and insidious attempt to use newcomers such as migrants, international students, and asylum seekers as political cover,” Kwan said in a statement emailed to the Star.

It’s a dangerous game on Trudeau’s part, said Kwan, in trying to “shift the blame for his failures” to asylum seekers — one she called “a recipe to further hype-up hate, resentment and discrimination toward racialized people.

“Instead of wasting $250,000 on advertising, they should be investing those resources in processing applications,” said Kwan.

immigration.ca NEWS: Marc Miller to propose reforms to Canada’s Immigration and Asylum System

Political opposition has also been vocal. NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan accused the government of scapegoating migrants for systemic issues, such as the housing crisis. Kwan called for a reversal of recent immigration changes, questioning their fairness to temporary residents and international students.

In response, Miller maintained that becoming a Canadian citizen is not a right.

Global NEWS: Sen. Woo downplays evidence that China ‘targeted’ MPs Chong, Kwan

In a statement, Kwan’s lawyer, Sujit Choudhry, said Woo’s allegation that the MP’s testimony was “flimsy” is “false and misleading.”

“It was CSIS who informed MP Kwan in a classified briefing that she was a long-time target of (Chinese Communist Party) interference and will remain an ‘evergreen target.’ MP Kwan testified and brought to the commissioner’s attention that she believed she had been de-platformed by Chinese community organizations,” Choudhry wrote in a statement to Global News.

Choudhry noted that CSIS officials testified that Beijing works through proxy agents in Canada’s Chinese diaspora and that Kwan is concerned the Chinese government used those proxies to target her for her advocacy on human rights issues in China.

“Senator Woo has every right to turn a blind eye to foreign interference actors and activities. MP Kwan chooses to use her voice to speak up and speak out to protect and defend Canada’s democratic institutions and processes.”