We're tweeting from the Special Joint Committee on #MAiD this morning. The first panel is Catherine Frazee, Isabel Grant, and Megan Linton. Here's the link: parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/Pow…

We're here in Ottawa in person, so the tweets might be a bit higher level today. "We spend every waking hour throwing out lifelines to save our disabled kin... bearing witness to the injusticew that afflict them... Our people are dying." - Catherine Frazee

"The genie is out of the bottle and we are left counting our dead. That government is now are seeking ways and means to ensure the protection of people with disabilities is a hard pill to swallow." - Catherine Frazee

"So much to say. So little time. So much to grieve. So little hope." Catherine Frazee.

Megan Linton is talking about suicides in institutions. "Here in these institutions, there is such disregard for autonomy... People are very clear. They would rather die than live in an institution"

"We are haunted by the possibility of loss at all times... It is clear, track two MAiD must be ended" - Megan Linton. Folks, it is so powerful to hear these words spoken in person. In such a quiet room.

"Disabled people do not need your help to die. We've been killing ourselves for years."

Okay, back to Isabel Grant: "The Supreme Court of Canada describes discrimination against people with disabilities as being premised on a distorted view that disability is a flaw that needs to be fixed or eradicated."

"It is precisely this ableist view of disability that fueled C-7 and is now killing disabled Canadians. This ableism sadly, has also permeated these hearings." - Isabel Grant

Catherine Frazee is being projected on a big projector screen while she answers questions. She refers to the cases of concern being tracked by communities of persons with disabilities.

"They don't need help dying, they need help living." - Isabel Grant shares how the disability community sees track two MAiD as being only for them.

"I have so many disabled friends who have died by suicide." - Megan Linton

A quick side note: It's hard watching people shake their heads in opposition to the witnesses' presentations. However, it's powerful to see people's jaws drop when @megan marie talks about legislated poverty in institutions.

"If we could have more than 60 seconds to have a conversation, let's talk" Catherine Frazee comments on the quick and limited pace of these committee hearings.

Senator Kutcher asks Megan a hypothetical question about a person with persistent unrelenting pain accessing MAiD. Megan replies "I am a person, with persistent, unrelenting pain..." This is such a personal issue.

Catherine points to how in the US, marriage equality for LGBTQ2S people led to a reduction in suicide rates. She warns that this law does just the opposite.