Mr. Speaker, in light of last weekend's tragic incident in a Toronto subway, I want to address the desperate plight of the thousands of mentally ill in our country, people who have been deinstitutionalized without the support needed to allow them to lead safe and productive lives.
The federal government has consistently denied its responsibility for the disabled. It abolished the Canada assistance program, disproportionately affecting those with disabilities. It cut $4 billion from medicare, ending important community programs. Cuts to provincial education have left thousands of children in supposedly integrated classrooms without support. Almost half of Canada's four million people with disabilities remain without jobs.
The government's decision to wind down federal support for Canadians with disabilities will mean repetitions of the Toronto incident as the divide between the elite and the street widens.
It is time the government made more than a passing reference to persons with disabilities. New Democrats hold the Liberal government accountable for not maintaining our social safety net and ask it to now assume its responsibility for all of those in our community.