Montreal, May 18, 2025 – We are shaken. Outraged. And above all, we refuse to stay silent.
This week, on 98.5 FM, Luc Ferrandez and Nathalie Normandeau crossed a red line.
Faced with the tragic situation of Florence, a young woman with an intellectual disability who was imprisoned due to a lack of adequate resources, these two former political figures turned commentators seriously considered — out loud — that the “solution” might be… death.
Not better care.
Not increased support.
Not restored dignity.
But the chilling idea of a gentle disappearance, administered, disguised as liberation.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/disabled-woman-put-in-solitary-confinement-for-over-a-week/
This is unacceptable. And profoundly dangerous.
To speak of euthanasia with logistical calm, as if it were a measure of social efficiency, is to deny the value of different lives. It is to slip down a eugenic slope, the very same that has led history into the abyss.
This is not lucidity.
It is abdication.
It is abandonment disguised as reflection.
When a former mayor and a former minister consider that the morgue would be a “logical” outcome due to a lack of adequate public services, they relieve society of its moral, political, and human responsibility. They yield to the temptation of rejection, in the name of the comfort of the able-bodied.
https://www.985fm.ca/audio/699292/l-avocat-kaven-morasse-merite-une-medaille-nathalie-normandeau
Behind their pseudo-rational veneer, they opened a breach:
one that involves ranking lives, justifying the unjustifiable.
And we, at RAPLIQ, alongside thousands of disabled people and their families, say NO:
No to the trivialization of death as a “social solution.”
No to this false compassion that hides a deep contempt.
No to this morbid fantasy of liberation which is nothing but a shameful surrender.
Disability is part of the human condition.
It is not a virus to eradicate.
It is not a problem to be solved through erasure.
To reject disabled people is to reject one’s own humanity.
We choose, for Florence and for all the others:
Solidarity, not suppression.
Adaptation, not abandonment.
Dignity, not disappearance.
Quebec can do better. Quebec must do better.
Solutions exist — here and elsewhere. What’s lacking is courage.
We challenge Luc Ferrandez and Nathalie Normandeau to give RAPLIQ a voice on their show.
Not to shout. But to debate. Argue. Rehumanize.
Because this conversation cannot remain frozen in the embarrassed silence of those who dare not disagree.
Florence deserves better. WE deserve better.
Linda Gauthier Steven Laperrière
Senior Advisor General manager