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Reblogged solarpunkani
May 31 2016 - Collin Kennedy, who is a cancer patient, used expanding spray foam to disable a parking meter at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg where he gets his treatment. He says the fees are a tax on the sick. [video]
chronic-illness-support
yes!!!!!!!!
Lots of well-intentioned (I hope) but extremely condescending comments in the notes like “maybe don’t film yourself doing crime.” Respectfully… This man knew what he was doing. He didn’t just film himself, he invited media to film him. He did this to make his own statement, with his own voice, with his own face. He wanted himself and his actions to be visible.
Collin Kennedy died in 2018, just two years after this video was taken. What would anonymity have achieved for him in those last two years? Avoiding punishment? His whole point was that these parking fees are already a punishment on the sick.
Is public protest dangerous? Sure. Is it more dangerous than merely existing as a sick or disabled person navigating a hostile healthcare system? I think that is for every individual experiencing it to decide for themselves.
Collin Kennedy, 50, lived with multiple myeloma — a type of blood cancer — for 19 years.
He invited media to watch him fill a parking meter with spray foam to raise awareness about the high costs of parking for cancer patients and other sick people getting treatment. Video of Kennedy vandalizing the meter was widely shared on social media. It led to a Canada-wide petition to end the practice of charging for parking near hospitals.
He was a man who fought the only way he knew how, even if that meant taking matters into his own hands and disabling parking meters. He wasn’t in the boardrooms or corridors of power, he was on the streets trying to make a difference. (CBC News, December 12, 2018)
… over the course of his treatment, Kennedy spent over $17,000 on parking fees outside of hospitals.
$17,000.
$17,000
$17,000 !!!!!
yeah i think he makes a good point here