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Recording of our second panel Abolish the Psych Ward: June 30th 2021 at 6:00 PM
This panel discussed the history of madness in Canada and the ways in which madness continues to be policed. Too often, conversations about defunding the police rely on the mental health system as an alternative. The psychiatric or “mental health” system is a fundamentally carceral system. The psychiatric system forcibly confines through the Mental Health Act, which has always been used to forcibly incarcerate Black and Indigenous people. Psychiatrists, security guards, social workers and healthcare workers police disability & madness and respond with medical and/or physical violence.
Abolition means an end to all forms of policing and incarceration. Abolition means futures where disabled & Mad people are cherished and supported, not isolated away.
This panel featured Dr. Ameil Joseph and Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware from Black Lives Matter Canada.