Danny and Fred are joined by TikTok superstar Erin Novakowski to discuss the naming of the RV, the reinvention of traditional life milestones, and the disparities exposed by COVID-19. The trio also tackle the significant issue of ableism.
Danny and Fred are joined by TikTok superstar Erin Novakowski to discuss the naming of the RV, the reinvention of traditional life milestones, and the disparities exposed by COVID-19. The trio also tackle the significant issue of ableism.
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Guest Bio: Erin Novakowski (Calgary)
Erin Novakowski is a 22 year old writer, university student, and self proclaimed Instagram Baddie who is a Tiktok influencer in the disability sphere. She is a full time power wheelchair user, in school she studies Political Science and English, because her parents weren’t disappointed in her enough when she got a nose ring. When she isn’t busy with school or her work, she enjoys oversharing on her private story and making thirst traps for Tik Tok. She’s passionate about disability representation and advocacy, and you can often find her cyberbullying ableist politicians via Twitter. Besides her work online, she enjoys painting, chugging coffee, and cloud watching.
Hold on.
And 3, 2, 1.
It's Danny and Fred, they have a Crip Trip podcast.
This podcast contains strong language
and adult themes that may not be suitable for all audiences.
This podcast takes place in Calgary, Alberta.
It was recorded in the Crip Trip RV.
Hello Crips and criminals.
Welcome to the first ever Crip Trip podcast.
We're here in Calgary, Alberta with Erin Novakowski,
Noted influencer
and magnanimous individual who puts up with our bullshit.
I'm joined here with Frederick Kroetsch. Ally,
fellow shit disturber,
[Laughs]
and we limped our way here last night
after breaking down
and got thoroughly roasted by our social media manager.
Erin Novakowski so thank you for that.
It's what I get paid to do.
[Laughs]
How, how are you doing? I'm good.
I'm living. -Yeah. I'm alive. That's all I can ask for.
We didn't keep you waiting too long in this
sweltering heat.
Yeah,
I've melted. Probably never walk again.
[Laughs]
Happens to the best of us, Right, Fred?
Yeah. Yeah. -Can you relate? -I
You Can relate to that, Fred?
No, I, no, I'm abled, You're abled. Say it again.
I'm able-bodied With your head down.
I'm an able-bodied person. -And more shame.
Ugh
She should be a director. I just can't win.
She's doing a better job than I do (indisticnt). -I can't win.
But we are here in, we need
to name this RV. It needs a name.
True. Come up with a name.
Do do you have any suggestions
that we should take into account?
No. I'm just a visitor. I'm just a guest.
This is your guys' baby, so -It's very hot in here.
I got a couple ideas. Do you want to hear 'em?
I absolutely do.
Roxanne.
Roxanne. Okay. -Because she's a working girl. -Mm.
And at night we put out the red lights
to do photo developing.
So do you have any recommendations for names, Fred?
Ugh huh
I need to think about that.
I, none of the names I'm coming up
with are appropriate for a podcast.
Fair enough. You know, you gotta workshop things,
Hey everyone.
Okay. What if you named her Erin?
Oh, yeah. Just, just 'cause I'm cool.
[Laughs]
I'm, I'm not opposed to it. Okay. Well then it's settled
Your name carries weight, so you know,
it would be recognizable.
So many jokes that I can't say right now.
Say them. -No. -Come on try. I'm not going to.
Something about being inside you.
I'm sorry that's inappropriate,
[Laughs]
but like, I'm just saying, it's funny.
Where are you? We're inside Erin right now.
It's just weird to name it Erin. That's it.
Okay. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm now
It was a joke.
Sorry. It was only a joke. Okay, Fred?
So don't be gross.
For the record I said I wasn't gonna say it and you asked.
For the record.
Fred is a [Whispering] pervert.
For IDV, she called him a pervert.
I, I called him a pervert.
There you go.
Alright. So we wanted to talk to a bunch of people
with disabilities about different, important issues.
And one thing I really wanted to address is this idea
of milestones in your life, right?
And, you know, the prospect of missing milestones,
whether it's like moving outta your parents' house
or going to all these house parties
and just like the, the general lag time that people
with disabilities have.
Did you ever experience anything like
that when you were in high school?
Yeah. All the time. Constantly.
I mean, I am literally still experiencing it right now
because I'm a fifth year student
and I watch myself work just as hard as everyone else
for my first four years of my degree.
And then everyone that I started with graduated
and then I had a whole identity crisis over it.
But yeah. High school for sure.
That was probably the first time that I started noticing it
'cause it was like relevant in my everyday social life.
But yeah, like even just house parties.
Nobody has, it seems like nobody wants to,
Accessible houses.
Nobody wants to get up off their ass
and make an accessible party.
Yeah. So it's just a little frustrating.
Well, and you know, especially when we were growing up,
I think it's, it's a little bit different now,
but like we were so invisibleized that like
people just didn't anticipate
inviting people with disabilities.
Yeah. -'cause they didn't see them, right. -Yeah.
So it's this, you know, self-reinforcing cycle
of the thing is inaccessible.
So we don't show up. So people don't make it accessible
'cause they think disabled people don't even exist.
Exactly. But exactly like you,
I took seven years doing my college degree
and I did an honors degree.
Yeah. -So I watched my cohort go off
and then do a masters. -Yeah.
And start a PhD in the time I was just finishing up. -Yeah.
So you do have that anxiety of like, am I doing enough?
And, and the, the, the constant drive
of like western culture to be like, I need
to be producing, I need to be producing.
I'm lagging. What am I doing? I don't have a family yet.
I remember we had a farm party, a pretty crazy farm party
and Danny and Jar came to it.
And I think that
Jer is my cousin.
And his like, and caregiver and stuff.
K -And we were there and I think,
I think it was like the first time you'd left your
house overnight or something.
And I was like, this, I'm honored.
This is a really good, this is a
really good thing to have come to.
'cause it was crazy. But I was like, I was like, what?
That's crazy to me. Yeah. I can't even fathom that.
You know? You know what I mean?
Yeah. -The, the, the first time you
overnight anywhere.
Right. There's so many access considerations.
Even getting out to the farm party. Right.
I was bringing my manual chair.
I didn't bring my power chair.
This was before we even had like, accessible vehicles
to like really make ease and like
before accessible vehicles were a thing you could rent.
Right. And that wasn't that long ago.
You know, like, that was
Six, seven years. Eight years.
Yeah. Yeah. -Nine years -Near the beginning
of our hanging out,
Beginning of our, not even a friendship?
We were friends -We, we, we were friends and we were
The beginning of our hanging out
Of whatever this is. I don't want to name this.
It was what do you, what? (off camera) You were friends? -Just
(off camera) -Yeah, we were friends. [Laughs]
Well, that's true.
Do you guys need a moment? We were friends.
I don't know where we are now.
Do you guys need a moment to work it out on the remix?
Sorry, that was a pop culture reference
that you probably wouldn't understand.
Work it out on the remix.
That's a Chappell Roan song? No.
It's a Chappell XEX song.
Chapell? -Chappell XEX. Nice. Sorry. How, how
Jojo Siwa.
You know the girl who invented gay pop music? Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. Jojo.
There you go. You got one. Sorry.
He was sorry (indistinct) I'm old.
But yeah. So like Fred,
when did you move outta your parents' house?
Oh, like when I went to university. So I don't know.
So like immediately? Yeah. I dunno 17 or whatever.
Okay.
And where we were living in Montreal was probably the
least accessible place in Canada.
It was all tiny walk-ups with tiny little rooms.
Like, but again, I never, I didn't know anybody
who had a disability,
so I never thought about that sort of thing.
Well and I like to illustrate a point, right?
Like, you know, so you went to Concordia, right?
Which, so you move cities at like 17, you know,
you moved into a college dorm, you know,
and then what, what was the
lifestyle like when you were there? Right?
It was intense. Yeah. A lot of partying.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly right.
So we have this, you know, we've been shut out
of, of the culture just due to like access,
like just wrought iron access, being able
to like get into an apartment building a, a house.
And you know, even the, even the prospect of traveling,
and this is one of the reasons why, you know,
I didn't do grad school was
'cause I'm like, okay, all of the schools I want to go
to are in different cities,
but like, I can't get divorced from my family
because they're 90% of my care.
And you know, to the point
where the provinces don't even communicate.
So getting care work in another province is
exceptionally difficult.
Right. You need to get on their health program
before they even start paying for it.
So the barriers to even contemplate doing that we're, we're
so mind blowing that it kind
of killed the prospect of grad school.
'cause so much of grad school was shotgun your resumes
across North America and just go to wherever accepts you.
Right. So I know you're on the tail end
of your degree right now.
Are you thinking of doing grad school or stuff like that?
Or have you seen any changes?
You're you're in there a little bit. I mean After I am
No, in terms of like moving cities, like I think for sure
the actual like post-secondary institutions are probably
more accessible than like they were five years ago.
But like the prospect of me to move anywhere else is like,
so like insanely overwhelming that like, it,
it's not even like a feasible option.
And that's really sad.
'cause like when I started school,
school was always like my favorite thing.
I loved school. I had like a little like Gilmore Girls,
Rory Gilmore Dream.
I was gonna like go to
Harvard. Harvard or Yale.
Yeah. Like literally like, and,
and I was like researching schools like way back in,
in high school and I started at like a
new, like a different country.
Like wow, look at this amazing school.
And then I like realized like, yeah,
there's no fucking way that that's gonna happen.
Then I like scaled down
and I was like maybe BC I could move one province over,
you know, like it's still Canada.
I got into the school but it wasn't possible
because there was like, unless I took three years of my life
to plan my first year of university, it wasn't gonna happen.
And then I thought maybe within the
province, but a different town.
I got into that school too, I couldn't go
because actually that one I really stuck to for a while.
And I took it to like a transition meeting.
They had like a transition services with,
I don't know what the f* * her job was. An OT probably
Yeah. So some kind of social worker
or occupational therapist.
Yeah. That is there to assess you, to help you
Yeah.
Plan for whatever future you want to build.
And I came, I was so prepared.
I had all these like information,
I had information about the accessibility
of the dorms in Edmonton, like where I could live, like
what the accessibility,
like I had already contacted the accessibility office in
Edmonton, things like that.
I came there and I immediately told her this
and I think like I'm quite sure that like her as well
as my parents, like I came in, I was like,
so like I wanna talk about like
moving to Edmonton for school.
And I'm pretty sure they all laughed.
Like they like, they were like, yeah, yeah, that's nice.
So like you are gonna go to U of C or Mount Royal.
And I was like, okay, cool.
So like Yeah, completely ruining
that like autonomy and excitement,
that energy you have to like migrate
and like do something autonomous, you know?
Yeah. Literally. And it was just like,
and that's when I realized like, it's not like the amount
of work you put in, like I thought maybe like,
it just takes a lot of planning.
It just takes like, but like no matter the amount
of planning even now, like okay then how,
like I can plan the s* * out of where I'm gonna live,
but that doesn't mean I'm gonna have access
to healthcare right away
or if I move provinces, like half of my equipment is owned
by the government of Alberta.
Yeah, exactly. My wheelchair is
So what happens to that? Yeah.
Like it's just not like,
I genuinely dunno how to make it happen. So.
Well, and it's it's just
so heartbreaking when you finally have that discovery Yeah.
No amount of like individual
advocacy and effort. Yeah
And like, you know, scholarships even. Yeah.
I know plenty of people who have various scholarships
and they still couldn't make the Yeah.
make the grade to pay for what they have to do. Right. Yeah.
So it's, it's deeply ingrained into our social structures
that, you know, despite things like freedom
of movement being quYeah.
Codified in our constitution.
For who? Pepeople
with disabilities absolutely don't have that right.
Yeah. You know, there, there are so many things
that shackle us to the province world.
Like, okay, so I went to Montreal
'cause it was one of like, I don't know,
four film production, school degree programs in the country.
The Alberta only had like film studies, right?
Yeah. Yeah. But if they'd had film production,
obviously I would've gone to school at the U of A
because that would've been easy and cheaper.
Why don't you do grad studies at U of a?
Well, the reason for me was there's
very specific programs.
So like clinical psych is very different than counseling
psych, which is different than, you know,
what's called a PsyD.
So there's different types of grad school, right?
So the type of work that I wanted
to be doing was clinical psych,
but there's like maybe three schools in Canada
and they're all over the place.
So you have to go where your field is. Right?
So there's certain research interests that are codified
to location because their faculty is invested,
invested in a certain topic, right?
So if I wanted to go do research about people
with disabilities, there are specific faculties that deal
with that one specific thing.
But is, isn't there a point of compromise?
And like, okay, so I I it's not feasible for me to go
to New York City and do this clinical stuff.
Yeah. But there's gotta be something you could do.
So this is, this is a conversation about
COVID-19 now, right?
Because so many people with disabilities wanted access to
distance learning opportunities.
Right? And we were always told
by these institutional faculties that there was no way
to make it work and that it was too much effort
and you weren't getting what you needed outta the
education, blah, blah, blah.
Then covid hit and it happened overnight.
So now they had all, they all of a sudden had options.
And you were, you were in
university when that transition
happened. Yeah. What was it like watching that?
I mean, it was like super f* * * up
because like you said, like I had even, like,
I had only been in university for a year.
It was at the end of my first year that covid happened.
And like, I remember just struggling.
And then I was trying so hard to have a full course load be on
campus every day and like it was exhausting me.
Like truly like the workload
and like my brain could keep up.
And that was great. And it was really frustrating
that like my body could not,
but I knew that if it was like delivered differently,
like if I could like take one course at my own pace
online, that would've helped a lot.
But it happened immediately
and then everyone like complained about it for a bit,
but then all of the ableds started to get used to it
and they, oh like this is nice.
Like, oh, I don't even have to leave my house. Oh, like
Yeah, I can wear my pajamas in the (indistinct) class. Yeah.
I can, oh I'm comfy. Like, oh, I wasn't feeling good
but I can still come to class.
Like, so So the access things are helping everybody. Yeah.
Everybody was loving it
and like, that's the thing, it's just like I was watching it
and I was like, okay, so as soon as you need it you get it
as, but like for years when we're asking
for it, it's like nobody needs that.
Go f* * yourself. So,
And then they transitioned away from it when they
declared it over.
Yeah. Right. They took it away
And then, and then what happened
to the university atmosphere after that?
Did you feel safe in university? No.
When they pulled all the masking requirements,
No. Even when there was masking requirements on campus,
like students wouldn't wear them.
Students, there was like this one little f* * * bitch a* .
Can I say that? Yeah, yeah, go for it.
He like would purposely like see me wearing my mask,
like all masked up, like whatever.
And like he would like pull his mask down over his
mouth and he would like wear it like that.
Just like in the hallway.
Like while I was waiting for class
and I would like make eye contact with him
and I would all the time be like, could you
put your f* * * mask on?
And he'd be like, "oh, there's no one here."
And then as soon as the prof would come by,
he would put it on because
that was like one good prof. He was super good about
Enforcing Mmhmm the mask
like he wouldn't let like let people contribute to class
unless they had their mask on
Yeah. properly. And yeah
so it was just like so frustrating.
Like people didn't give a s* * and yeah, I guess. Yeah.
Well and there's something frustrating about, you know,
it being so easy for an able-bodied person
to just slap on a mask.
No. Literally. You know, pull it
down when they need to drink something.
Yeah. And yada yada yada. Yeah.
Meanwhile for me, I need an intermediary Yeah.
to like put it on my face, get it off my face when I need
to drink, put it back on my face.
Yeah. And then, you know, I have bad heat regulations,
so now I'm sweating infinitely.
That was the other thing, like since covid.
So like I had covid, I got it.
And ever since then, like my voice is like way
weaker than it was before
Mmhmm
I had covid. And I'm also like, when I wear a mask,
I can't like breathe.
Like my breath is not strong enough
to breathe through the mask.
So I start like sweating, overheating. Yeah.
Like hyperventilating.
And it's really like, I went through a long time of like,
like, I don't know, like I could go out without a mask
but like I'm not comfy doing that yet.
Yeah. And like I literally can't wear a mask at the
moment because other people didn't care enough
to like not give me covid.
Well and So sorry you guys are both saying like you covid is real.
Oh yeah. Really? [Laughs]
Sorry. I'm channeling my Joe Rogan podcast.
It's my first podcast guys. I'm sorry.
We, we gotta do horse tranquilizer
and snortsnort gungunpowder that'll
That'll get And vermectin.
Yeah. (off camera) II Ivermectin Yeah.
I mean, you know, like, and it's just the blatant disregard
and then, you know, the minute they deem it over all
of a sudden they make it unsafe for us to attend.
Yeah. And now all of those digital
means are disappearing.
Right. So then it's just segregating us again. Right?
And it's super f* * * frustrating to see
that you can do something, see it implemented
and then see it ripped away.
Yeah. Same thing with distance work. Right.
Being able to work from home again, that is something
that really helped people
with disabilities get unstratified from poverty
because oh look all
of these job opportunities aren't requiring me
to come into work and it's just, you know,
clerical, bureaucratic, whatever.
Well, okay. You know, maybe the, the silver lining of
that stuff though in our industry
and tv, COVID totally changed it and it's still there.
Yeah. Because why fly a bunch of editors to come
to an office and (indistinct) when they can just remote edit,
like on our show, this is gonna be remote edited.
And so I think that opens it up to
so many more possibilities.
Wherever you are, whoever you
are, what your accessibility is.
If you have a computer can edit. Yeah.
You can now work in tv. So that'sAnd it's
Still there.
And it's, it's funny 'cause our industry is like one
of the most progressive in a lot of aspects.
You know, they, the way that they militantly enforce,
you know, things like representation, right?
So if there's a grant for black filmmakers, right, you have
to prove that the ownership
of the company has a certain amount
of black people who own company.
Right. Because they saw that certain companies were getting
around that by putting people in the, the lower aspects.
Right. That was one
of the things they brought up when I was over at Hot Docs.
And yeah, there's a lot of wisdom being shared in there.
You know, care is, care is in the budget lines. Right.
So, you know, giving people
with disabilities the means, right.
Even the continuity. Right.
If, if we at least had some kind of connection
between provinces,
it would open up our worlds pretty, pretty starkly.
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
So what's your, what's your housing situation like?
That's another thing that like really
interferes with milestones, right?
Being able to move out into your house.
What was, what was it like the first time you're like,
I'm gonna move out with Jared
and you know, try, try and try
and strike it out on our own
and have our own space that we can.
So first of all, Calgary is already like a s* * show.
There is no like open apartments.
Like everything is like so expensive. It's awful.
Like so with him like obviously
I'm the first cripple he's moved in with [Laughs]
Lucky boy.
Yeah. So like with him, like it's just the way,
like sometimes not to say that men always do this,
but sometimes men don't like to plan very much.
Cough. Cough. When you guys showed up.
I don't know what you're talking about
You guys showed up two hours late.
I find the insinuation vaguely insulting.
Anyways. I had to poop, I'm sorry.
Yeah, I know we had, you had to poop. Anyways
so like I was planning, I had, I was like, okay, as soon
as we decided that's our
plan, we're gonna find an apartment.
I was like, okay, we have to start looking now.
And like he very quickly in like searching for apartments
with me started to realize, he was like,
oh this one's in our budget and it
has none of the stuff that we need.
Yeah. Oh this one's in our budget
and it's in a good spot in town.
It doesn't have an elevator to get in.
And like, so I think he really quickly realized
like, oh it's not that easy.
But we were still like optimistic
and we found a place that was in our budget
in the part of town we needed.
And I like sacrificed a lot
because I knew it wouldn't be as comfortable
A hundred percent accessible.
It wouldn't be a hundred percent accessible.
I thought I could make it work
to the point where it would be comfortable.
But everyone that works in like medical supply, whatever.
Yeah. All those intermediaries that they're paying to,
they're f* * * Install shit
And they're paying to be useless.
Yeah. Literally. So like it was just a whole s* * show.
I signed a lease under the impression,
well not under the impression.
I was like directly told from people
who had checked out the space.
Like we'll make this shower accessible for you
and we'll put in the lift, whatever. It took them
Did you get it in writing or was it all verbal?
No, I have an email of them saying, There you go.
Yeah, we'll be able to put this in your space and whatever.
And then they couldn't admit
that they were stinky poo poo dumb dumb wrong.
And they like just ignored me for months.
Yeah. And then after four months
of me living in my apartment paying way more than I can
afford on rent and not being able to shower in my own space,
they finally were like, yeah, we can't do this.
So like, let's try and figure something out.
Like something else out for you I guess.
So we've lived here how long it's been April, May, June,
July, August.
So five months. I haven't been able
to shower in my own apartment.
What? I have to drive across town. That's f* * *.
And just the last thing on that, an OT came
to do like a yearly assessment, whatever.
And I didn't ask her for her advice.
I didn't ask her for help with this problem
because I did not think she'd have any great solutions.
But she asked me like, is your bathroom accessible to you?
And I said no because it's not.
And she said, oh, like what's the problem?
And then her suggestion, like she still like has said it
with like a smile on her face and like so happy.
She was like, yeah well like, you know,
if it doesn't end up working out, like maybe you could look
into going to the YMCA to shower there. [Laughs]
And I was like, sorry, you're getting paid
to help disabled people.
Like just live. Yeah. Like just the bare minimum.
And then they give you the wildest just dumb advice
where they're like, go use this public resource
that probably 90%
of the time doesn't even do what they think it does.
No, literally that's the thing. And like it was just like,
I was like truly like, how dare you come into my house,
look at me, ask me if it's accessible.
And when you hear me say no, like
how dare you be like "well try the YMCA." Like shut the hell up.
And these are bureaucrats whose whole job
it is to like whip medi
Yeah. medical like intermediaries. Yeah. into shape. Yeah. Sure.
And like get that shit for you. Right.
And the fact like it's just never a high priority for them. Yeah
They're like, ah, well you can deal for a while
and this is like how we end up
getting f* * * institutionalized. Okay so Do a quick follow up
Do a what?
Follow up. Yeah. Well yeah. Okay.
So you know you're having,
you can't have a shower, you haven't shower in a week.
You are upset. You get up the pick up the
phone and you call Crip Trip. Right. Okay.
Yeah. Danny, Fred, I need an accessible washroom. Okay.
So the Van RV pulls up. David Baron
and David Puffer camera guys jump out with tools. [Laughs]
Right. And we accessible-ize, we visit-abilize
There's a good title here, I don't know it yet. [Laughs]
And then we, we show up
and we make people's houses accessible and visit-able.
Yeah. Do it. That's a new show.
Oh yeah, for sure. People would watch that.
Oh yeah. You gotta get permission from my landlord first
Yeah. Ugh And that's, that's where, that's where people
with disabilities really get f* * *
because there's like microgrants and stuff that are one time
and it's like, am I gonna pull the trigger on this
for a landlord or do I wait till I have my own
space? You know? So
like, But this one's like, am I ever, I don't think I'll
ever own my own space.
Like that's just not in the cards for me at this point.
Right. It's ludicrous
that I even have an accessible
house. Right. Like that thing was
We're trying to get you out the
house crowdified this is the whole problem.
And then, and then when you have it, they streamline you
for institutionalization anyway
so it never really insulates you
anyway. To kind of wrap things up,
do you any advice for disabled people, young disabled people
who are kind of in your situation
and like, you know, thinking about moving out
or wanting to advocate for themselves to go
to their friend's house party.
Like, so first thing like on the house, party front,
whatever, if you're like looking at all your peers,
like do like complete these milestones
and like in high school, for me at least I always seen
and I was like, wow, I must be like a f* * * loser.
Like I must not be cool enough to go
to the house parties like everyone's doing.
That's not true. I'm cool as f* *.
And like even like the internet, like I was allowed, yeah.
Like I was like, I sort of learned that
because like people that like I wouldn't like go
to house parties with, they would Snapchat me
and they would talk to me all day long.
They would like, because accessibility wasn't
like an issue there.
And they also probably didn't have
to like look me in the face and be like, disabled.
The digital spaces were actually accessible to you.
Yeah, they were. Which is what we saw
during the disability renaissance
during covid where we all found each other
Exactly. Exactly. So I would say if you think
that you're like not cool or not smart enough
or whatever for like, whatever you're wanting to do, like
that's absolutely not true.
Hop on the internet, find other disabled people
that like are in a similar situation to you
and like, whether that's like the same like mobility aids
that they use or like the same level of care,
like whatever it is, find those people
and like remind yourself
because you wouldn't look at them and say, oh you're lazy.
Oh you're not cool. Oh you're not smart enough
because you know that they are.
And just like remind yourself that that's you.
And then for people who wanna move out,
I would say please try your hardest.
Because like that's the only way
that it's ever gonna be made possible is like if the
disabled people with like more resources, more like
of a platform, more sway for whatever reason.
Like if you start normalizing it
and like making it through that struggle when you can.
That's the only way that it'll ever be possible for people
with less resources
And they have to see you.
Yeah. They have to see you getting ornery and angry.
Exactly. And trying to, trying
to fit in get in those spaces.
Yeah. Yeah.
And it's just like, yeah, I don't know everyone who wants
to do it has to do it and it sucks
and everything when you're disabled is extra hard.
But like, I just know so many people
who like have given up trying
'cause it's so exhausting. And I guess just like
To explain access needs over and over and over again.
Yeah. And like, just like don't don't just automatically
give up on something because you think it'll be hard.
Like give it a go
And the people worth keeping around want to help you.
Yeah. And yeah, that's, yeah, that's it, like,
People, that's how I got five degenerates in a van going
with me across country for a month
Literally. Because they're smart enough to like recognize
that you have cool s* * that you need to get done
and like they're gonna help you get that s* * done.
'cause otherwise they're missing out.
Exactly. Yeah,
Exactly.
I'm wondering if I have any advice. Yeah.
You know, advocate for yourself. Yeah.
Put put, put yourself out there. Right?
Like the worst you can hear is no.
And then you know, that person, you, you learn something
either way maybe that person's not worth keeping
around maybe, you know.
Yeah. Maybe, maybe there's a shift you can do,
But also like let it radicalize you like don't like,
be like thinking like, oh, this is just the way it is.
Like that's really s* * * for me.
Yeah. Be like, hey, that's super f* * * up.
Yeah. That this is the way it is.
I should be able to like have the same rights
as everyone else and move to a different province.
Yeah. If that's what you wanna do.
Like don't, don't like try to like brush it off as like
Yeah. It's easy to internalize the inaccessibility
Yeah.
That people throw at you Yeah.
And be like, this is a me problem.
Yeah. Well no, it's, it's a,
it's a communities problem.
Yeah. Right. People, other people
with the same rights are not, Yeah.
you know, dealing with any of these, you know,
added challenges.
Yeah. And you know,
if we do truly believe in egalitarian society Yeah.
And, you know, constitutional fairness
and all of these things, then it's gotta show up in policy
and we gotta have access to these things. Yeah.
Well, and I, I guess
for all my able-bodied homies out
there, some words of advice,
All three of you. You party, party party at my house
later, no.
You know, I think that, So we're not invited?
Is your house accessible?
I don't think it is
It's not in 4K.
You know, Jo, join your join, read,
read about the political parties in your province.
Go join one of them and you know, we can,
we can create change
by being active in our like, political community.
Yeah. When they know there's a vested interest in,
you know, lighting a fire under their ass when they see
that people actually give a shit about these issues.
You know, that's, that's when change actually happens.
Which is why we stir s* * up so often in this province.
Yeah. We're becoming a bit of a a,
a problem characters for these politicians.
Well, people don't know, like how,
like honestly since meeting you, all of this stuff is new.
I didn't understand
There's so much hidden bureaucracy. Right.
But no, just the idea of an accessible washroom.
I didn't get it until yesterday. Yeah.
I didn't get it until you're physically there
and you're in a space and you're like, whoa, this is,
how does this, how does the world work?
So many accessibility standards are done
by bare minimum, you know?
Yeah. Well and also like, if you think of like,
if you're able and you like come across these issues
and you're like, would you accept that
for yourself or like your family?
Yeah. Like, and if you're like thinking, you're like,
Would you go to a party where
you couldn't use the washroom?
No. Would you go to like, like if you would find
that unacceptable for yourself,
then like you should be pissed off that it's happening
to like your friend or your neighbor
or like the people around you.
So like talk about it and like get mad about it
and like, just like complain about it as much as you can.
Like, I don't know. That's the only way.
Let them have no peace. Yeah. Literally.
And yeah. By, by being annoying
and you know, stirring s* * up.
That is how we most efficiently affect change. Right.
Punk rock. Exactly.
That's what I say. Well y'all,
it was lovely chatting with you.
Thank you for joining me here today.
Thanks for having me,
Erin, keep continuing to roast us on the internet.
I will, I can do that. I will say I might live in this RV now.
You know what? 'cause that is a very steep ramp.
So that might be one with, what do we call her?
Roxanne? Gertrude.
RRoxanne. Is it Erin? Erin.
Erin. No. Scrap Erin.
Erin the, but I've always wanted to be a butcher. [Laughs]
So anyways, thanks for having me.
No problem. We will be in contact Of course
through social media and otherwise
They will never be able to escape me.
And that's it for Crip Trip.
And you can watch our show Crip Trip
On AMI-tv
And later on TVO. So please check it out.
AMI-tv.com
No, dot ca dot dot something. [Laughs]
It's right here on the screen.
We definitely know urls. That's good.
We should look that up.
Watch on AMI-tv.
or stream for free on AMI plus
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