End Psychiatric Coercion!

End Psychiatric Coercion!

Started
December 14, 2020
Petition to
Canadian Legislators
Signatures: 1,196Next Goal: 1,500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Erick Fabris

End Psychiatric Coercion! It's not out of this world to protect the human rights of people involved in Canada's mental health system.

Non-coercive alternatives work. Canada has agreed with the UN to make it happen. So why isn't it happening?

This petition is presented by the Mad Canada Shadow Report Group. Our members have experienced human rights abuses within the mental health system and continue to see this happen to others. Our independent group is not affiliated with Scientology or with any pharmaceutical, mental health or other organization.

This petition calls on Canadian governments to stop using coercion and force and to start supporting persons with psychosocial disabilities (those labelled mentally ill) in organizing for human rights.

We call on Canadian governments to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Canada has signed and ratified, and to enact legislation that would prevent clinicians from:

• Detaining persons in facilities, and using physical restraints and isolation, and/or imposing any other limitations on freedom of movement;
• Using force, coercion, or surreptitious means to administer drugs which, despite being marketed as safe and effective, are known to cause physical and psychological damage, and which do not “balance chemicals in the brain,” much less solve the sociopolitical problems that often result in psychiatric diagnoses;
• Administering electroconvulsive “therapy,” which has been proven to cause brain damage resulting in devastating memory loss and cognitive problems; and/or
• Performing tubal ligations on unsuspecting and/or non-consenting women with psychosocial disabilities.

Whereas Canada’s federal government has claimed in its 2017 report to the United Nations to have met the standards of the CRPD; and

Whereas the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has reported that Canada is failing to comply with its obligations regarding protection against institutional abuses in the name of care, as outlined above,

We demand that the Canadian government work with provincial and territorial governments to enact legislation that forbids:

• involuntary or coerced admission to facilities, or deprivation of liberty or of freedom of movement in any setting;
• any use of restraint or seclusion;
• involuntary or coerced psychiatric intervention of any kind, including drugging, electroshock and sterilization.

We further demand:

• the release of persons presently constrained under existing restrictive psychiatric provisions, including Community Treatment Orders;
• access to affordable, independent housing of the person’s choosing, which is not dependent on treatment compliance;
• the accommodation of individuals, and organizations of persons with psychosocial disabilities in organizing to protect their rights under the CRPD, including funding for self-help and mutual aid networks and respites run by and for persons with psychosocial disabilities for the promotion of real, voluntary help; and
• the establishment of data collection and reporting mechanisms that effectively demonstrate Canada’s fulfillment of its obligations under the CRPD.

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Signatures: 1,196Next Goal: 1,500
Support now
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Decision Makers

  • Canadian Legislators