Brantford – Wilfrid Laurier University faculty member Katherine Rossiter and Jennifer Rinaldi from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology will be discussing their new book, Punishing Conditions: Institutional Violence and Disability, following a panel discussion on disability rights at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg Nov. 14.

Rossiter and Rinaldi will be joined by former residents of the Huronia Regional Centre, an institution for the developmentally disabled run by the Ontario government from 1876 to 2009. The former residents, who are the subject of Rossiter and Rinaldi’s book, will be speaking about their lives as institutional survivors who endured severe violations of their rights.

Rossiter said it is important to have a conversation about disability and institutionalization on a national level.

“To speak about experiences of institutionalization practices in this forum means we are slowly developing public recognition about some of the gross violations of human rights faced by people with disabilities,” she said.

This event will feature members of the Recounting Huronia research team and representatives from the Huronia Speakers Bureau – all people who survived institutionalization at the centre – as well as researchers who will be reflecting on arts-based and empirical findings from their research.

“Often people with disabilities are spoken for or spoken about, so I think it is critical that people who have survived institutionalization who have disabilities are given space to tell their own stories in their own words and in their own way,” said Rossiter.

After the panel, Rossiter and Rinaldi will discuss their new book, which explores the nature of institutional violence at places like Huronia. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Admission is free. For more information, visit humanrights.ca/explore/events.