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"This year, MPs received a 2.1 per cent pay increase. This raised MPs' base salary by just more than $3,756 annually, from $178,900 to $182,656. With all 338 MPs receiving the pay bump, the total increase in expenditures on MP salaries is just short of $1.3-million. With the pay increase now in effect, MPs' base salaries cost just under $62-million annually."

"Disability Justice Network of Ontario and the Hamilton Student Mobilization Network created the group on Friday which has roughly 1,700 members as of Sunday afternoon.

This comes as Hamilton has announced five confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Savage joined the group the day it opened and has done four grocery runs so far.

"They're shocked people are actually doing this sort of thing. [They say] 'I still can't believe you do this,' and I'm standing there with eggs in my hand," he said. "Those people who are reaching out because they need help are getting the help they need."

Picture an average winter morning. You eat breakfast, get bundled up and begin your journey to wherever you need to be.

Everything is great - until your journey is over before it even began. You will not be going anywhere due to the uncleared, snow-covered sidewalks preventing you from even reaching the street.

What's worse is that the snow is from three days ago.

This scenario is a reality facing untold Hamiltonians every snowstorm. The disabled and the elderly are the overwhelming majority: Hamilton has the largest proportion of disabled people of any Ontario municipality, while the aging boomer generation has contributed to the greatest increase in the proportion of seniors since Confederation.

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A new Hamilton network aimed at empowering the city's disabled residents is set to launch in September, with an eventual goal of expanding across the province in three years, to "build a just and accessible Ontario."

Today’s episode is about activism, disability justice and community organizing. My guest is Sarah Jama, an organizer focused on disability justice and anti-racism based in Hamilton, Ontario.

"Sarah Jama, co-founder of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, says she wants drivers and transit users to be safe. But not everyone can find a willing and timely companion for bus rides.That means people with disabilities won't be able to take essential trips, which is "deeply discriminatory," she said." 

"In Hamilton, Sarah Jama and Samson Dekamo, organizers with the Disability Justice Network of Ontario and the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, have teamed up with the Student Mobilization Network to create the CareMongering-HamOnt group to help those in need."

 "Sarah Jama, co-founder of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, talks with Nam Kiwanuka about making change and building a society that fits everybodyWhile a student there, she co-founded the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, a group that works to create a world in which people with disabilities feel free to fit in anywhere and build community. The grassroots organization takes inspiration from Sins Valid, a United States-based collective committed to promoting social and economic justice for people with disabilities.

“Oftentimes, people with disabilities are taught from a young age that you’re a burden on society,” she says. “So, if you need support, you can go to this service or that service. But you’re not taught to ask the critical question of where to go when the services that exist don’t work for you. So we’re building the political capacity in young people to hold community spaces and institutions responsible for the spaces they create.”

Delivering a project at the idea or conceptual stage with a $207,800 grant over 36 months to hold workshops, design curricula and campaigns for racialized youth living with disabilities in Hamilton.

On December 1, 2017 Hamilton played host to the first Disability Justice “UnConference,” to celebrate and commemorate the International Day of People with Disabilities.

"Devin Glim (1L) is an activist in the disability justice movement. He highlighted his work with the Disability Justice Network of Ontario (DJNO), whose commitment is “to create a world where people with disabilities are free to be.” Devin began his work with DJNO shortly after its creation, and he has taken up its “many opportunities to build community within the disabled population, while also working towards creating tangible changes to public policy.” He explained that, having been politically active as a student advocate during his undergraduate studies, he “needed to find a way to continue to contribute to the social movements that were taking place.” “As a physically disabled person myself, the disability justice movement felt like a natural fit for me. I felt it was a movement that would not only impact my personal life, but that it would also create positive change throughout local communities.” “The fact that DJNO was new,” Devin said, meant that it was “an exciting opportunity to get involved and help shape the projects that the organization would take on.”

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An art exhibit at the Hamilton Public Library is exploring the diverse experiences of people with disabilities to tell a story that its curators say often goes untold.

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It's co-curated by Shanthiya Baheerathan, a co-founder of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, and Constanza Farias, a member of its youth action council.

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Baheerathan said they wanted to reflect people's personal experiences through a larger historical narrative. This way individual stories would be told together. 

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The trek towards a fair and inclusive Canada continues to be a long one. One population in particular — individuals living with a disability, remain one of the most marginalized and excluded members of our society.

A new Hamilton network aimed at empowering the city's disabled residents is set to launch in September, with an eventual goal of expanding across the province in three years, to "build a just and accessible Ontario."

A group of disability justice advocates from across the province gathered in Hamilton to discuss how to re-energize the movement.