Disability Justice Network of Ontario

Disability Justice Network of Ontario Building a world where Disabled People are free to be—a world where we hold political and social agency + the power to hold the powerful to account.
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http://linktr.ee/djnontario

Last week, we held our last workshop in our climate futures series facilitated by the wonderful 💐 💐 where we had many me...
04/20/2026

Last week, we held our last workshop in our climate futures series facilitated by the wonderful 💐 💐 where we had many meaningful conversations about how disability justice and climate justice are inseparable. It is the same systems that create environmental harms that also create conditions that leave disabled people and many others most at risk when climate disasters hit.

Access to clean drinking water is a human right. Access to dignified housing responsive to our changing climates is a human right. ✊🏾

Thank you to City of Hamilton office of climate change initiatives for supporting this series 🌱

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Disabled Ontarian’s express our profound grief, devastation, and rage over the death of a disabled woman in a government...
04/15/2026

Disabled Ontarian’s express our profound grief, devastation, and rage over the death of a disabled woman in a government-funded Community Living St. Mary’s care arrangement. We believe disabled people should be free to live good lives in community. 

Many of the premature deaths of disabled people in state care are avoidable, and a Coroner’s Inquest must investigate and make clear the factors which contributed to this avoidable death. 

In 2015, two coroner’s inquests investigated the deaths of Guy Mitchell and Jamie Hawley, the inquest reported pervasive, system-wide issues of neglect, abandonment, and the loss of autonomy of disabled people in state care. Police charges emerging out of the death at Community Living St. Mary’s indicates failure to provide the necessities of life. How did another death in the developmental service system occur after two coroner’s inquests recommended system changes to prevent such neglect? 

Given the history of neglect and abandonment within sites of institutional disability care, there is an urgent need for an inquest to determine the systemic factors which contributed to this death. 

The last inquest into the developmental services system was from those deaths in 2008. There have been at least 4,314 deaths within the developmental service system since 2010, including instance of choking, su***de, accidental deaths, and undetermined causes of death, none of which have had Coroner’s Inquests. 

DJNO has been calling for an inquest into deaths within the developmental service’s system since 2021, when COVID-19 deaths in group homes finally came to light. 

We affirm that disabled people deserve good lives, no one should die from neglect, no one can be left behind. Please sign and share this petition calling for urgent solutions to protect Ontario’s Adults and Seniors with Disabilities and their Caregivers in Group Homes.

Petition link: https://win.newmode.net/djno/group-homes

Join us for our last workshop in our Climate Futures series with Hamilton local artist Stylo Starr for a community colla...
04/08/2026

Join us for our last workshop in our Climate Futures series with Hamilton local artist Stylo Starr for a community collage workshop! Materials provided, but participants are welcome to bring any personal items they’d like to incorporate into their collages. We’ll open up space for conversation around how climate justice and disability justice intersect, thinking together about how environmental change shows up in our lives and communities, and what care and access can look like in practice.

This workshop series is in collaboration with Hamilton’s climate action strategy. Free registration link in the bio  💐💚🍃

Email [email protected] for assistance with registration or with any other access requests.

stylo starr is a collage artist whose work centres nature, fantasy and the Afrofuture. An esoteric from a young age, stylo has always turned to collage as a creative outlet and enjoyed the treasure-hunt process of collecting magazine clippings, trinkets and oddities. Her work is driven by the observation and integration of fine layered detail in collaboration with her amateur interests in astrology, crystals, herbalism and the metaphysical - all of which are frequently featured in her collages. stylo is based in her home town of Hamilton, Ontario, situated upon the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas.

Join us for our last workshop in our Climate Futures series with Hamilton local artist Stylo Starr for a community colla...
04/08/2026

Join us for our last workshop in our Climate Futures series with Hamilton local artist Stylo Starr for a community collage workshop! Materials provided, but participants are welcome to bring any personal items they’d like to incorporate into their collages. We’ll open up space for conversation around how climate justice and disability justice intersect, thinking together about how environmental change shows up in our lives and communities, and what care and access can look like in practice.

This workshop series is in collaboration with Hamilton’s climate action strategy. Free registration link in the bio 💐💚🍃

Email [email protected] for assistance with registration or with any other access requests

stylo starr is a collage artist whose work centres nature, fantasy and the Afrofuture. An esoteric from a young age, stylo has always turned to collage as a creative outlet and enjoyed the treasure-hunt process of collecting magazine clippings, trinkets and oddities. Her work is driven by the observation and integration of fine layered detail in collaboration with her amateur interests in astrology, crystals, herbalism and the metaphysical - all of which are frequently featured in her collages.

stylo is based in her home town of Hamilton, Ontario, situated upon the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas.

Join Terre on April 16th on Zoom at 6pm in exploring Indigenous futurisms as a valid direction for creating justice. We ...
04/03/2026

Join Terre on April 16th on Zoom at 6pm in exploring Indigenous futurisms as a valid direction for creating justice. We will explore what is an Indigenous futurism and work together to build ideas and actions that lead towards permanent overhaul of systems that affect social justice.

Terre Chartrand is an Omámi Ininiwak (Algonquins of Ontario), French, and Welsh land based educator who brings a diverse background in storytelling, theatre, visual arts, photography, technology, and science into deep learning about the land. Terre is the founder of Red Osier Guild - a guild for land based learning, cultural resurgence, and survivance, she initiated Pins and Needles Fabric Company, an inter-arts collective, founded the urban Indigenous youth placemaking and arts collective Endaayaang – Our Home, and was the architect of O:se Kenhionhata:tie , a culture and Land Back camp for Two-Spirit youth. From consulting on gardens that include broad ecological relationships, to land restoration, to teaching about land based relationships and ecologies, Terre blends learning with skill building and community.

Image description: dark purple background with titles in black text on bright purple and lime green banners. In blue-toned circles below is a photo of Terre, an Algonquin, French, and Welsh person with light eyes, a nose ring and long red hair against a dark background. Diagonally left in a large green circle is the event summary and the green, purple, and white bubbles on the right have the event information. The second slide is the same except Terre's bio is in the green circle instead of the event summary.

At DJNO we often hear from loved ones and support workers about the criminalization of disabled people who experience im...
03/28/2026

At DJNO we often hear from loved ones and support workers about the criminalization of disabled people who experience impulsivity, psychosis, executive dys/function, aggression, and complex trauma responses.

This workshop will offer abolitionist care planning strategies and tools for disabled people and/or their allies, who may be, or have been criminalized, psychiatrized or institutionalized.

Join Megan Linton on Zoom on Thursday, April 9th at 6pm. Registration link in bio

Image description: dark purple background with titles in black text on bright purple and lime green banners. In blue-toned circles below is a photo of Megan, a white person with short brown hair, long earrings and black rimmed glasses smiling. The background is a residential area with trees, vehicles and houses. Diagonally left in a large green circle is the event summary and the green, purple, and white bubbles on the right have the event information. The second slide is the same but with Megan's bio instead of the event summary

Join Sam, Dreddz, and Sid | Voices 4 Unhoused Liberation on April 2nd at 6pm on Zoom!: They will present the praxis they...
03/24/2026

Join Sam, Dreddz, and Sid | Voices 4 Unhoused Liberation on April 2nd at 6pm on Zoom!: They will present the praxis they have developed for building community through doing out-reach, organizing campaigns and doing individual case-work on the harms experienced (such as service restrictions), as well as housing advocacy. They will also talk about our experiences with transformative justice as an organizing principle and conflict resolution.

V4UL is a group of activists and community members who who work to build power with unhoused community and confront the carceral shelter system in Tsi’tkoron:to.

Dreddz (he/him) is an anti-suffering activist with lived expertise of the shelter system, encampments, and TCHC. He is a beloved community organizer, published author, and podcast host for Trial by Shelter, dedicated to fighting for unhoused peoples rights and well-being.

Sid (they/them) identifies as a q***r, non-binary, mad, white settler with lived experience of poverty. They are a poor people’s liberationist, writer, researcher, community engaged artist, working for an enlivened future and freedom possibilities.

Sam (she/her) is an Indigenous, LGBTQ+ harm reduction worker and community organizer whose lived experience in detoxes, shelters, jails, and mental health institutions shapes her work and advocacy. This firsthand knowledge drives her commitment to abolition, centering care, dignity, and autonomy, while supporting unhoused and criminalized people through outreach, advocacy, and harm reduction.

V4UL centres the voices of the unhoused community members with whom we work while offering critical analysis of poverty, homelessness, and institutionalization. As an intersectional social strata disproportionately populated by Indigenous, Black, disabled, q***r, trans folx, women, and migrants, as among the most vulnerablized, criminalized, and stigmatized, V4UL sees the struggles of poor people as a vital contingent in the fight for a transformed future that is sustainable, redistributive, and based on care and reciprocity. As abolitionists we strive for liberation of poor people from the carceral structures that contain/displace, control, and punish.

Image description: dark purple background with titles in black text on bright purple and lime green banners. In blue-toned circles below is Voices 4 Unhoused Liberation's logo, a thin red circle inside a larger thin black circle with a grey power fist with VOICES 4 UNHOUSED LIBERATION in black text overlayed on top. Diagonally left in a large green circle is the event summary and the green, purple, and white bubbles on the right have the event information.

Join us with Aurra Startup | Community Justice Initiatives on Thursday, March 26th at 6 PM on Zoom. The workshop will of...
03/13/2026

Join us with Aurra Startup | Community Justice Initiatives on Thursday, March 26th at 6 PM on Zoom. The workshop will offer a Restorative Justice 101 overview, building a foundational understanding of restorative justice and how it works in practice. It will explore how referrals come into Community Justice Initiatives, what case flow looks like, and how participants’ healing and justice needs can be supported in meaningful ways. The session will also introduce survivor-centred practices and open discussion about the realities of working within funded systems, as well as the possibilities of earlier intervention and restorative approaches beyond the criminal legal system.

Aurra (she/her) comes to this work through a deep belief in the importance of having a range of options available to support people in their healing and justice journeys. For her, this work is about nurturing choice and opening pathways for dialogue, expression, and self-rediscovery while walking alongside others in the shared pursuit of understanding and repair. She is drawn to spaces where people can speak to impact, imagine repair together, and honour those most affected by harm.

Image description: dark purple background with titles in black text on bright purple and lime green banners. In blue-toned circles below is a photo of Aurra in front of a dark background: she has light skin, dark-rimmed glasses, and is smiling and wearing a shiny beige hijab that matches her dress. Diagonally left in a large green circle is the event summary and the green, purple, and white bubbles on the right have the event information. The second image is the same but instead of the event summary contains her biography.

Join us today for our 2nd workshop in our Climate Justice series, where Elizabeth will be reimagining disability futures...
03/09/2026

Join us today for our 2nd workshop in our Climate Justice series, where Elizabeth will be reimagining disability futures in nuclear waste/land(s). This workshop series is in collaboration with Hamilton’s climate action strategy. Free registration link in the bio  💐💚🍃

Email [email protected] for assistance with registration

Join us today for our 2nd workshop in our Climate Justice series, where Elizabeth will be reimagining disability futures...
03/09/2026

Join us today for our 2nd workshop in our Climate Justice series, where Elizabeth will be reimagining disability futures in nuclear waste/land(s). This workshop series is in collaboration with Hamilton’s climate action strategy. Free registration link in the bio 🍄 💚🪴

Email [email protected] for assistance with registration

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423 King Street East
Hamilton, ON
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