“Arrogance for Cruelty”: What Builds Exclusion into the Canada Disability Benefit

Authors

Thaddeus Hwong, York University

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The vision animating the Canada Disability Benefit exemplifies “arrogance for cruelty” in public policymaking. What could be the start of doing so much is just the end of doing so little—something is done, so nothing more will need to be done. Dangling hopes and then crushing them is cruel. What perpetuates such policymaking cruelty is a manifest complacency, asserting that what is usually done is what should be done, and so it is the best that can be done. Deifying such inertia, which fortifies inadequacies despite what the disability community has to say, is arrogant. Using the limited amount of aggregated data on persons with disabilities released into the public domain by Statistics Canada, this short article offers in part a response to—and in part a coping mechanism for—the policymaking melancholy.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Citation Information

Hwong, Thaddeus. "“Arrogance for Cruelty”: What Builds Exclusion into the Canada Disability Benefit." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 61.2 (2024) : 671-698.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.4022
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol61/iss2/14

References

1. Associate Professor, York University. Sincere thanks for all the contributions from readers and reviewers of drafts of this short article as well as presenters, discussants, participants and of course organizers of the “Women with Disabilities: Income Security and Tax Policy” workshop held at Osgoode Hall Law School on 11 November 2022.

2. The 2020 throne speech entitled “A stronger and more resilient Canada” stated, “[t]he Government will bring forward a Disability Inclusion Plan, which will have: A new Canadian Disability Benefit modelled after the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors; A robust employment strategy for Canadians with disabilities; And a better process to determine eligibility for Government disability programs and benefits.” Parliament of Canada, 43-2 (23 September 2020) at 17 (Governor General) online: [perma.cc/B8MN-L92S]. On the journey of the bill, see Parliament of Canada, “C-22 (44-1) - LEGISinfo” (2023), online: [perma.cc/N3PB-RCNA].

3. David Lepofsky, “It’s good the government has promised a Canada Disability Benefit. Here’s how to fix the flawed bill,” The Toronto Star (7 November 2022), online: [perma.cc/LW3X-2CMV].

4. For the text of the bill, see Bill C-22, An Act to reduce poverty and to support the financial security of persons with disabilities by establishing the Canada disability benefit and making a consequential amendment to the Income Tax Act, 1st Sess, 44th Parl, 2022, (second reading 14 December 2022), online: [perma.cc/Y5XR-M8P8].

5. For a recent framing of neoliberalism as a root of the malaise in society, see Heather Gautney, The New Power Elite (Oxford University Press, 2022), DOI: https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/10.1093/oso/9780190637446.001.0001. Even though the book is about the United States, Canada can learn from such a negative example of power concentration.

6. One way of viewing the data analysis in this article is that it anchors on class. Given the importance of gender and race along with class, separate articles making use of other data sources available would be best positioned to do justice to those nuanced considerations.

7. See Employment and Social Development Canada, “Supporting Canadians with disabilities – Bill C-22, the Canada Disability Benefit Act” (2 June , 2022), online: [perma.cc/4WK6-STN7]. The federal government seems to have removed the quote from its web site.

8. The federal government states: “This benefit will help reduce poverty among working-age Canadians with disabilities.” This is the rationale: “Working-age Canadians with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty as working-age people without disabilities and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has made things even worse.” Ibid. That seems like a misdirection as persons with disabilities were twice as likely to live in poverty as working-age people without disabilities even before the pandemic, and the pandemic did not make that significantly worse. See Statistics Canada, “Poverty and low-income statistics by disability status” (26 April 2024), online: [perma.cc/K73S-QG5R] [“Poverty Statistics”]. The data is used in Figure 1 of this article.

9. For a discussion of how arrogance envelopes neo-classical economic orthodoxy, see Ha-Joon Chang, Economics: The User’s Guide (Bloomsbury Press, 2014).

10. For a discussion of lack of dignity and respect, see March of Dimes Canada & Prosper Canada, A Benefit without Barriers: Co-Creating Principles and Recommendations for Canada Disability Benefit Administration (March of Dimes Canada & Prosper Canada, 2023) at 6, online: [perma.cc/UNC3-QC4S].

11. Employment and Social Development Canada, News Release, “Government of Canada reintroduces legislation to create a new Canada Disability Benefit” (2 June 2022), online: [perma.cc/Q6EG-M3VP]. A part of the quote without the “everyone” part was recycled in the 2023 news release when the bill passed the House. See Employment and Social Development Canada, News Release, “House of Commons adopts legislation for a Canada Disability Benefit” (2 February 2023), online: [perma.cc/WWA6-S2VZ] [Employment and Social Development Canada, “House of Commons adopts legislation”].

12. See Employment and Social Development Canada, “Additional information on the proposed Canada Disability Benefit Act Regulations” (29 June 2024), online: [perma.cc/5DPR-S5XM].

13. For data, see Statistics Canada, “Income of individuals by disability status, age group, sex and income source” (26 April 2024), online: [perma.cc/CU4V-9BYQ], DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1110008801-eng.

14. See “Poverty Statistics,” supra note 8.

15. “Low income measures (LIMs), are relative measures of low income, set at 50% of adjusted median household income. These measures are categorized according to the number of persons present in the household, reflecting the economies of scale inherent in household size.” Statistics Canada, “Low income measure (LIM) thresholds by income source and household size” (26 April 2024), note 2, online: [perma.cc/9AVW-N8DN], DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1110023201-eng. For the relevant page in the census dictionary, see Statistics Canada, “Dictionary, Census of Population, 2021: Low-income measure, after tax (LIM-AT)” (17 November 2021), online: [perma.cc/SC6P-ZJCK].

16. Based on data from Statistics Canada’s Table 11-10-0090-01. See “Poverty Statistics,” supra note 8.

17. See Employment and Social Development Canada, News Release, “House of Commons adopts legislation for a Canada Disability Benefit” (2 February 2023), online: [perma.cc/6FJJ-BSU5].

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Canada has a complex array of disability benefits. For a menu of federal offerings, see Government of Canada, “Disability benefits” (27 June 2024), online: [https://perma.cc/QUR5-PHD8]. Adding to the complexity are the provincial ones.

21. See Statistics Canada, “Distribution of market, total and after-tax income of individuals by disability status” (26 April 2024), online: [perma.cc/L5UN-6TR7], DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1110008701-eng.

22. Based on data from ibid.

23. Bill C-22, supra note 4.

24. See Jinyan Li, “Opinion: How to fix the Canada disability benefit,” The Financial Post (1 December 2022), online: [perma.cc/34K5-WY2N]. Li observes that, “[t]he broad human rights law notion of disability needs to be translated into a legally enforceable test that connects disability to poverty and is also fiscally sustainable.”

25. Jennifer Robson & Lindsay Tedds, “The Canada Disability Benefit: Battling Ableism in Design and Implementation” (2024) 61 Osgoode Hall LJ 577 at 607:

There will be substantial work to detail the design and implementation of the CDB through the regulations authorized by the legislation. And that work must be conducted through an inclusive and intersectional lens to ensure that ableist assumptions are not embedded into benefit design. These assumptions both treat the absence of disability as the default or normal state for persons and treat persons with disabilities as a homogenous group, without regard to the intersections of gender, or the nature and severity of the disability. Hopefully, an inclusive process of design will happen as a consequence of the government’s commitment to substantive involvement and co-design, not simply consultation, with the disability community.

26. See e.g. Income Security Advocacy Center, “Brief for the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities Study of Bill C-22” (16 November 2022), online: [perma.cc/X3J9-99R9].

27. Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, “Tell the Senate to Strengthen Bill C- 22, the Canada Disability Benefit Act Action Kit,” Accessibility News (12 February 2023), online: [perma.cc/EPE6-ZX4X].

28. Rudy Mezzetta, “Liberals reject key Senate amendment to disability benefit bill” (16 June 2023), at 6-7, online: [perma.cc/YRV5-7CWW]. See also, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, “Trudeau Government Gives Seriously Problematic Reasons for Refusing to Ratify the Senate’s Ban on Private Insurance Companies Clawing Back the Canada Disability Benefit from Vulnerable People with Disabilities on Private Long-Term Disability Benefits” (16 June 2023), online: [perma.cc/L5Z9-UXU2].

29. Disability Without Poverty, Disability Poverty in Canada: A 2023 Report Card (Disability Without Poverty, 1 June 2023), online: [perma.cc/U4YY-E6FR].

30. “Toronto woman with disability says flying Air Canada made her feel like an ‘unwanted burden’,” CBC News (24 February 2023), online: [perma.cc/75R3-AFX8].

31. The permanent debates concerning targeting and universalism, like those between the conservative worldview and the progressive worldview, deserve to be revisited again and again in future studies devoted entirely to them.

32. For a recent stab at targeting, see Matt Bruenig, “Universal Benefits Are Actually Cheaper Than Means-Tested Ones,” Jacobin (14 November 2022), online: [perma.cc/TCZ3-3LMY].

33. See Bilal Qizilbash as told to Rachel Rabkin Peachman, “Long COVID Changed My Life Forever—Every Day Brings Pain and Hope,” (16 October 2022), online: [perma.cc/V63U-77G6].

34. See Erica Alini, “Canadians with long COVID: Sick and, increasingly, worried they’ll go broke,” Global News (10 July 2021), online: [perma.cc/HFE9-F6RB].

35. Irelyne Lavery, “Why Bill C-22 will be a ‘life-saver’ for many Canadians amid possible recession,” Global News (30 October 2022), online: [perma.cc/L7KT-7S42].

36. The United States just might be ahead of the curve on this compared to Canada. See US Department of Health and Human Services, “Guidance on ‘Long COVID’ as a Disability Under the ADA, Section 504, and Section 1557” (26 July 2021), online: [perma.cc/U4WY-FSGM]. What should jump out from the page—it is a civil rights issue. But any recognition does not automatically lead to positive policy outcomes. See Christopher Rowland, “Covid long-haulers face grueling fights for disability benefits,” The Washington Post (8 March 2022), online: [perma.cc/5L7C-U673]; Morgan Stephens, “Long Covid disabled them. Then they met a ‘broken’ Social Security disability process,” CNN (last modified 20 March 2023), online: [perma.cc/38N8-LQJ4].

37. The Ford Pinto case is a classic indictment of cost-benefit analysis. See e.g. Rachel Dardis & Claudia Zent, “The Economics of the Pinto Recall” (1982) 16 J Consumer Affairs 261, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6606.1982.tb00175.x.

38. “The findings lend no support to the oft-cited critiques that unconditional money given to families residing in poverty will be spent on alcohol, cigarettes, and related temptation goods.” Lisa A Gennetian et al, “Unconditional Cash and Family Investments in Infants: Evidence from a Large-Scale Cash Transfer Experiment in the U.S.” (2022) National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No 30379 at 25, online: [perma.cc/6X8E-EBEJ], DOI: https://doi.org/10.3386/w30379.

39. A recent op-ed describes the patchwork as a result of that, and it does not look pretty. See Tom Jackman, “Disabled people kept in a cycle of poverty,” The Province (5 January 2023), online: [perma.cc/7BW7-P2LE].

40. Supra note 7:

The Canada Disability Benefit is a key commitment and is the cornerstone of Canada’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) – a Plan that was promised in the 2020 Speech from the Throne. The DIAP is a blueprint for change to make Canada more inclusive for persons with disabilities. It is based on the understanding that disability inclusion benefits everyone. The DIAP will evolve over time – the aim is to take action across the Government of Canada and make targeted investments to create lasting change.

41. For a sense of the sentiment toward the paltry benefit amount, see “Globe and Mail Editorial Commendably Blasts Trudeau Government for Severely Underfunding the Promised Canada Disability Benefit but Offers Solutions that are no Better” (1 August 2024), online: [perma.cc/5S2T-6CYK].

42. Ron Anicich (2 August 2024), online: People’s Voice [perma.cc/YHJ2-YAS6].

43. Opportunities can be lost because of a lack of urgency. See e.g. Ricardo Tranjan & Randy Robinson, “Poverty in the Midst of COVID-19: A report card on child and family poverty in Ontario in 2020” (February 2023), online: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives [perma.cc/8FJE-E4BD]. Robinson and Tranjan observe: “Timid policies that unfold incrementally over decades are of no use to children who will be grown up before we finally get around to taking action” (ibid at 5).

44. Christina Frangou (last modified 2 May 2023), online: [perma.cc/Q5T7-K2XS].

45. Leyland Cecco (11 May 2022), online: [perma.cc/CBS2-Q2A2].

46. Brennan Leffler & Marianne Dimain, (8 October 2022), online: Global News [perma.cc/MU6Z-NCUS].

47. Avis Favaro, CTV News (last modified 4 May 2022), online: [perma.cc/7DUU-P8T5].

48. Padraig Moran (16 December 2022), online: CBC Radio [perma.cc/RJC4-JBQ2].

49. Kevin J Jones (13 December 2022), online: Catholic News Agency [perma.cc/9VAL-2RHW].

50. Samantha Kamman (2 February 2023), online: Christian Post [perma.cc/9TXR-KM6D].

51. Audrey Tung & Kendall Fraser, (2 February 2023), online: The Tyee [perma.cc/TD9W-S6KU].

52. Tyler Griffin, “Calls grow to declare Toronto homelessness a public health crisis after extreme cold” (5 February 2023), online: CBC News [perma.cc/BFH3-M6JH].

53. City of Toronto, “Deaths of Shelter Residents” (last modified June 2024), online: [https://perma.cc/8JNM-BHWJ].

54. Progress Toronto, “Petition: 24/7 Indoor Warming Spaces,” online: [perma.cc/6HG6-KNKQ].

55. The free market antitax claque supplies more than food for thought for such argumentation. For example, a recent missive from the Fraser Institute couches its offence against taxing the rich under the cover of concerns about competitiveness. See Jake Fuss & Nathaniel Li, “Measuring Progressivity in Canada’s Tax System, 2022” (27 October 2022), online: Fraser Research Bulletin [perma.cc/3W3H-D7QB].

56. For a recent take on market fundamentalism, see Naomi Oreskes & Erik M Conway, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023).

57. For data, see Statistics Canada, “Upper income limit, income share and average income by economic family type and income decile” (last modified 26 April 2024), online: [perma.cc/QX7A-QELA], DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1110019201-eng.

58. A recent study focusing on a poverty measure that differs from the one used in this article says, “Persons with disability (PWD) in Canada experience disproportionately high poverty rates.” See Craig W M Scott et al, “Disability Considerations for Measuring Poverty in Canada Using the Market Basket Measure” (2022) 163 Soc Indicators Research 389 at 389, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-022-02900-1.

59. A short data visualization essay using OECD data pokes at the free market antitax claque’s maneuver to focus on poverty, thereby sidelining inequality concerns in order to argue against taxing the rich more. See Thaddeus Hwong, “Tackling Poverty or Inequality? You Don’t Have to Choose” in Raju J Das & Deepak K Mishram, eds, Global Poverty: Rethinking Causality (Brill, 2022) 296, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004514607_013.

60. Income inequality could be fatal, literally. Stephen Bezruchka, “Inequality is literally killing us: The most unequal societies suffer most in public health metrics” (27 November 2022), online: [perma.cc/2QJ8-RHJH].

61. Inequality: What Can Be Done (Harvard University Press, 2015) at 82-83, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674287013.

62. The market income share of the bottom decile is often estimated to be zero or close to zero.

63. Some would use this to argue that transfers are more important than taxes, as the bulk of the reduction can be attributed to transfers. They would argue that the focus of policymaking should be solely on transfers, not on taxes. But in general, transfers are funded by tax revenue. Unless by design all transfers are funded by non-tax revenue, taxes are equally, if not more important, for redistribution in more ways than one.

64. Statistics Canada, “Census in Brief: The contribution of pandemic relief benefits to the incomes of Canadians in 2020” (2 August 2022), online: [perma.cc/C77W-GJNU].

65. Government of Canada, “One-time payment to persons with disabilities” (last modified 27 July 2022), online: [perma.cc/EN3S-L58J]:

This non-taxable, non-reportable, one-time payment provides up to $600 in recognition of the extraordinary expenses incurred by persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This payment complements other emergency supports, such as the one-time special payment through the Goods and Services Tax Credit and the one-time payment to seniors.

66. One Canada Revenue Agency news release states: “By delivering targeted financial support to those who need it most, the one-time top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit represents just one of the many ways that the Government of Canada is working to make life more affordable for Canadians.” It is a band-aid to a weeping wound. And it is cumbersome. According to the news release, “Eligible Canadians will need to retain receipts or documentation for six years to support their application in case the CRA contacts them to validate eligibility.” Canada Revenue Agency, News Release, “Lower-income renters in Canada can now apply for a one-time $500 top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit” (12 December 2022), online: [perma.cc/TRN3-AH3E].

67. See David Thurton, online: [perma.cc/7Z4E-8LPW].

68. The data from the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability (“CSD”) should have made policymakers think twice. No doubt policymakers could have demanded access to the treasure trove of CSD data while incubating the CDB idea that ended up in Bill C-22 long before the data was officially released to the public. An infographic entitled “Measuring disability in Canada” captures the kind of data collected. See Statistics Canada (2 December 2022), online: [perma.cc/W555-5HRQ].

69. See Statistics Canada, “Canadian Income Survey: Income-related information by disability status, 2013-2020” (last modified 7 September 2022), online: [perma.cc/9NEL-P9XT].

70. For a book review bashing “the fixation of income redistribution” of a bestseller, see Philip Cross, “A Failure on Several Counts: Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” Fraser Book Review (September 2014), online: [perma.cc/G8NJ-ARVT].

71. More redistribution can help disarm the billionaires in the pursuit of economic justice. “The super-rich don’t have one, single lever that gives them political influence; rather their influence is pervasive and often invisible. Their enormous wealth enables them to disproportionately influence virtually every variable that determines political outcomes.” Linda McQuaig & Neil Brooks, “The urgent need to tax billionaires out of existence” (23 August 2021), online: [perma.cc/AR52-VRWH].

72. In a world where trickledown economics refuses to die, the anti-redistribution commitment is sacrosanct, no matter what research might say. I doubt the anti-redistribution crowd would admit the following statement is not fake news: “[M]aking a tax system more progressive does have a real impact on market economy outcomes by reducing inequality, but nevertheless no detrimental impact on growth.” Claudia Gerber et al, “Income Tax Progressivity: Trends and Implications” (2020) 82 Oxford Bull of Econs & Statistics 365 at 382, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12331.

73. At times the helplessness is getting to be too much to bear for activists whose hearts are in the right place, so they have to do something—anything. See “Activists glue themselves to Goya paintings in Spanish climate protest” (5 November 2022), online: [perma.cc/R7M4-TVN3].

74. More like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are needed to be elected everywhere. For Sanders’ platform to tax the rich more, see Bernie Sanders, “Tax on Extreme Wealth” (last visited 6 August 2024), online: [perma.cc/LNX9-FS52]. For Warren’s platform, see Elizabeth Warren, “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” (last visited 6 August 2024), online: [perma.cc/4JRA-DL2X].

75. Max Page, “Millionaire Tax Wins in Massachusetts” (16 December 2022), online: [perma.cc/243M-LCNJ]:

On November 8, the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition, led by unions and dozens of community and faith-based organizations, won passage of the Fair Share Amendment. It’s a change in our state constitution that will institute a 4 percent surcharge on annual income over $1 million, with the proceeds dedicated to public education, public transportation, and road and bridge maintenance.

76. Among the possibilities include venturing off the beaten trek by supporting a nebula of independent social justice digital journalism outfits. For examples of lower profile Canadian outfits, see The Breach, online: [perma.cc/5AC2-RC9U]; The Maple, online: [perma.cc/6FUM-6HJM]; The Tyee, online: [https://perma.cc/PFK3-3J2S].

77. See CBC News, “‘I sang the facts,’ says Jully Black about 1-word change to O Canada at NBA All-Star game,” (20 February 2023), online: [perma.cc/Q5TD-BTXK].

78. See Space10, “Couch in an Envelope: Challenging Archetypes with AI” (2023), online: [perma.cc/8MDB-VPDF].

79. Kathleen Toner, “This could be the most beautiful homeless shelter you have ever seen, and it’s getting results,” (9 June 2023), online: [perma.cc/R5PP-XDCV].

80. Duncan Kennedy, Karl Kare & Michael Turk, “A Wagner Act For Tenant Unions” (15 June 2023), online: [perma.cc/G634-ZXGL].

81. Nicole, “Letter: Global North leaders must redirect trillions from fossils, debt, and the 1% to address global crises” (19 June 2023), online: Oil Change International [perma.cc/PNL6-JAK2].

82. Sadly, the pursuit of the common good does not make major headlines daily. Are we too comfortable basking inside our bubbles in spite of what has been happening around us? The pursuit of the common good deserves its own venue for a proper discourse. The footnote here is just to point out that even something as hard to pin down as happiness can be delivered by redistribution in pursuit of the common good. See e.g. Ryan J Dwyer & Elizabeth W Dunn, “Wealth redistribution promotes happiness” (2022), 119 Proceedings National Academy Sciences, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211123119.