FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2024
WINNIPEG, MB – Today, on Human Rights Day, the last institution for people with intellectual disabilities in Manitoba, the Manitoba Developmental Centre (MDC), closes its doors for good. Inclusion Canada and Community Living Manitoba celebrates the advocacy that led to the closure of MDC and recognizes the hard work and many years it took to get here.
The closure of MDC has been pursued by self-advocates and families for over 30 years. The Inclusion Canada and People First of Canada Deinstitutionalization Task Force has also played a particularly impactful role with their collective work on this issue. After delays spanning many years, the Manitoba Department of Families announced that MDC would be closed once all residents were transitioned to their rightful place in community.
“As a Board Member of Community Living Manitoba, I am relieved that MDC has finally closed its doors,” says Debra Roach, Board Member of Community Living Manitoba and sister to an MDC survivor, “As a society we must ensure that it never reopens and that people with intellectual disabilities live happily, are protected like everyone else and encouraged to live with the same opportunities available and accessible to everyone and free from harm. As the sister of a woman who, at 11 years old, spent 16 months at the Manitoba School, I will be forever haunted by the atrocities that I learned happened to her during her stay at the institution.”
Beginning in the early 1970s, people with an intellectual disability and their families have been pursuing community-based housing options in Manitoba and in Canada. Inclusion Canada and our federation of provincial, territorial, and local organizations, including Community Living Manitoba (CLMB), have played a central role in the Community Living movement that has pushed for deinstitutionalization across the country.
In 2006, Community Living Manitoba filed a human rights complaint against MDC based on the numerous accounts of mistreatment reported by Manitobans with disabilities who were housed there. In 2011, the government found MDC guilty of a human rights violation, opening the doors for David Weremy, an MDC survivor, to lead a class-action lawsuit against MDC in 2018. With the lawsuit underway, justifying keeping MDC open any longer became a losing battle for the Manitoba government and they finally made the decision to close the centre down for good. As a result of David’s fight, in 2023 the government settled the case providing compensation and a public apology.
“The closure of MDC is a victory for people with an intellectual disability and their families across the country,” says Moira Wilson, Board President of Inclusion Canada, “Forced confinement and segregation of any sort is a human rights violation. As a society, we must guarantee future generations of people with intellectual disabilities and their families that we will not create institutions in any shape or form again. People have a right to live in homes of their own in community like anyone else where they have choice, dignity and control over their lives.”
As part of the MDC settlement agreement, The Winnipeg Foundation will be administering a $1 million endowment fund, called the Manitoba Inclusion Fund. This fund supports initiatives that foster and promote greater inclusion of individuals with an intellectual disability. You can read more about the fund here. The fund will support people impacted by institutionalization in their personal journeys towards closure and will fund initiatives to ensure that these tragedies never repeat themselves.
Inclusion Canada, and Community Living Manitoba (CLMB), will never cease in our fight against the institutionalization of people with intellectual disabilities. Along with our partners at People First of Canada and the National Deinstitutionalization Task Force, we will continue to combat segregated housing practices across this country.
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Marc Muschler
Senior Communications Officer, Inclusion Canada
416-661-9611 ext. 232
mmuschler@inclusioncanada.ca
Debra Roach
Member-at-Large, Community Living Manitoba
416-661-9611 ext. 232
About Inclusion Canada
Inclusion Canada is the national federation of 13 provincial/territorial member organizations and over 300 local associations working to advance the full inclusion and human rights of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Inclusion Canada drives social change by strengthening families, defending rights, and transforming communities into places where everyone belongs.
About Community Living Manitoba
Community Living Manitoba is a strong provincial network of 11 Local Branches working together with partners, families and governments. They seek approaches to support the empowerment of people with intellectual disabilities in all aspects of their lives. They are a board governed, grassroots organization that has always been comprised of self-advocates, family and community members, as well as members of Local Branches throughout the province.
