I used to believe Ges’s condition—how his mind and body work—made him broken. That he was somehow “less than” because of his impairments. It was hard to talk about his disabilities because I feared judgment — that he’d be pitied. It came from a set of beliefs my generation was raised with about disability. It came from an older story created by Francis Dalton and other Darwinians that divided humans into “fit” and “unfit” categories. “Unfit” were lesser humans than “fit”, subjected to segregation, institutionalization and sterilization. Eugenics.

In the waning days of the Canadian federal election, a story appeared about a leading candidate’s family and the fact that he’s parenting a girl who’s nonverbal.

“It isn’t a secret Pierre and Anaida Poilievre’s eldest child has autism, but it’s not something the conservative leader has ever brought up unsolicited.” The National Post reported on April 16^th.

“Little Valentina, she has some special needs … she’s non-verbal right now, so she has a hard time communicating with us but we’ve learned to take her cues and really celebrate the raw authenticity that she has,” says Polievre, Leader of the Opposition in Canada’s Parliament.

I hear the struggle behind his words. I’m not saying Mr. Poilievre believes as I did, but he didn’t run in 2020 because he was “grappling” with his daughter’s “emerging special needs.”

Most people think eugenics faded with the last century, but the truth is that we’re still trying to divest ourselves of “the fittest and brightest” mentalities. Ges and Valentina’s impairments aren’t tragedies housed in their bodies. Yes, they have impairments, but that doesn’t make them disabled. They don’t become disabled until they interact with environments, people and systems that don’t seek to understand, include and value them. Their isolation and exclusion disable them.

Photo ID: A man with his back to the camera swings a smiling young girl up in his arms.