Angry letter aimed at the family of an autistic boy sparks Canadian policy change
Jesse Colautti | Fulcrum Staff
AN ANONYMOUS LETTER delivered to the house of an autistic child in Southern Ontario suggesting that the family euthanize their 13-year-old boy because he is too loud outside and “is a hindrance to everyone and will always be that way” has sparked pressure across the country to turn such attitudes into government policy.
The letter, which first produced shock and extreme anger from the public, is now garnering support across the country. Gordan Wayne, the mayor of a large Southern Ontario community, says the wisdom of the mother’s words could fix problems that have been plaguing his community for years.
“Although at first the words were appalling, the more I thought about it, the more they seemed like a good idea,” said Wayne.
“Think of the money and resources we could save if we just eliminated the portion of the population who aren’t as useful to society as the rest of us. As a city we could redeploy millions of dollars that we’ve been wasting on the elderly, disabled, and mentally challenged for years .”
“Not to mention how it would save people like this ‘one pissed off mother’ the hassle of living in the same neighborhood as someone born different than her—no one should ever have to deal with that.”
The letter has made an impact on parliament, as legislation was brought forward this week that could significantly shift Canada’s policy toward those with special needs. John Swift, a Member of Parliament from Alberta, is in charge of the special task force faced with the challenge of secluding or eliminating the non-normal and unproductive members of Canadian society.
“What we are proposing is the immediate testing of the population to classify those who are different,” said Swift in a statement to the press earlier this week.
“Those with the most differences and needs would be eliminated immediately, but the majority of people who scored below the normal line would be put into secluded and contained communities where they would not disturb more functional Canadians,” said Swift.
“Based on this pissed off mother’s inspiring words that ‘no employer will hire him, no normal girl is going to marry/love him,’ we decided it would be wise to adopt the policies of the former Alberta Eugenics Board, and phase out these communities through systematic sterilization,” said Swift.
“We feel this mother’s suggestion that ‘they should take whatever non retarded body parts [the autistic boy] possesses and donate it to science’ doesn’t go far enough. Therefore, we have also proposed that the bodies of these citizens should be recycled into food to feed our lower income communities.”
“With decreasing food supplies worldwide, we feel this policy could be a groundbreaking step into turning the useless part of the population into something actually helpful for the rest of society.”
Mr. Swift’s proposed policy would make sure that future generations are free from past hindrances caused by such suspected autistic people as Beethoven, Mozart, Dickenson, Yeats, Einstein, Darwin, and Isaac Newton—all of whom contributed very little to the world, but who must have bothered people like this one pissed off mother with the “noise polluting whaling” they made.
