State Sanctioned Poverty and Death for the Disabled: Durkheim’s Fatalistic Suicide and Income Support Coverage for ODSP Recipients
Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Oral Research Presentation
Challenges Theme
Open Challenge
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Ronjon Paul Datta, Associate Professor Department of Sociology and Criminology
Proposal
Emile Durkheim’s investigation of suicide as a sociological phenomenon is relevant to the classical context and able to be expanded upon to account for current socio-political trends that have altered the landscape since his death, Specifically, Durkheim perceived fatalistic suicide as occurring under conditions when people experienced excessive regulation, had their futures pitilessly blocked and their passions violently choked by oppressive discipline. By comparison, my research explored recent socio-political contexts imbued under Canadian welfare state structures and found evidence of conditions like those envisioned by Durkheim existing for those reliant on Ontario’s income support system for people with disabilities (Ontario’s Disability Support Program/ODSP) as their sole source of livelihood. Consistent with a present-day Durkheim example, current Canadian social policy decisions made by successive Ontario governments have facilitated the case for fatalistic suicide for those people with disabilities lacking in personal and financial supports such that they become reliant on our provincial social safety net income support systems for their sole source of basic needs, hence survival supports. Complementing said, once the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation in June 2016 allowing eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying (MAiD) alignment occurred between such bleak state-sanctioned and enforced conditioning and a compatible option of exercising self-determination and social choice for ending life through suicide rather than continuing to live a life of state-sanctioned tyranny. This session will explore the ODSP recipient experience consistent with those people considering and/or having committed MAiD within Ontario.
Grand Challenges
Viable, Healthy and Safe Communities
State Sanctioned Poverty and Death for the Disabled: Durkheim’s Fatalistic Suicide and Income Support Coverage for ODSP Recipients
Emile Durkheim’s investigation of suicide as a sociological phenomenon is relevant to the classical context and able to be expanded upon to account for current socio-political trends that have altered the landscape since his death, Specifically, Durkheim perceived fatalistic suicide as occurring under conditions when people experienced excessive regulation, had their futures pitilessly blocked and their passions violently choked by oppressive discipline. By comparison, my research explored recent socio-political contexts imbued under Canadian welfare state structures and found evidence of conditions like those envisioned by Durkheim existing for those reliant on Ontario’s income support system for people with disabilities (Ontario’s Disability Support Program/ODSP) as their sole source of livelihood. Consistent with a present-day Durkheim example, current Canadian social policy decisions made by successive Ontario governments have facilitated the case for fatalistic suicide for those people with disabilities lacking in personal and financial supports such that they become reliant on our provincial social safety net income support systems for their sole source of basic needs, hence survival supports. Complementing said, once the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation in June 2016 allowing eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying (MAiD) alignment occurred between such bleak state-sanctioned and enforced conditioning and a compatible option of exercising self-determination and social choice for ending life through suicide rather than continuing to live a life of state-sanctioned tyranny. This session will explore the ODSP recipient experience consistent with those people considering and/or having committed MAiD within Ontario.