Autistic kids' parents put MPPs on blacklist

TORONTO - These politicians wouldn’t hear them out, so parents of autistic kids put them on a blacklist.

Groups of parents taped up “Wanted” posters of 12 cabinet ministers and MPPs whom they claim have ignored their pleas to consider reversing recent changes to children’s autism services in Ontario.

The controversy stems around the government’s move to eliminate eligibility of kids ages five and up for provincially funded intensive behavioural intervention (IBI), which is designed to help participants develop life-building skills.

The poster campaign launched after word spread that Liberal MPP Bob Delaney, who represents the riding of Mississauga-Streetsville, called the police on parent Melanie Palaypayon late last week for threatening to hold a protest outside his office.

“It’s stonewalling,” said Bruce McIntosh, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, which organized the poster campaign. “They have blocked people on Twitter, they have just failed to answer emails. Meetings keep getting rescheduled or postponed, but you can only postpone something so many times before it’s clear that you have no interest in meeting. In hockey, they call it, ‘ragging the puck.’”  (more...)

Autistic kids' parents put MPPs on blacklist

Background:

MPP called cops on mother of autistic kid