By Kendall Worth!
I have been following Carrie Ann Bugden’s story since before I posted Part#1 on August 19, 2023. Before I go on though, I want to give new readers an understanding of who this woman is.
Carrie-Ann Bugden is currently a psychology, youth and family studies, student at Mount Saint Vincent University. She is a wheel chair user who’s disability is caused by cerebral palsy (CP) She also has some other invisible disabilities including ADHD and CPTSD. She receives no support or financial assistance from Income Assistance, or any part of the Department of Community Services, nor any other department in Nova Scotia as University students in residence remain in every province, considered residents of their home province.
I am writing this post on December 12th, 2023 and her flight is now booked for her Unwanted and Unprepared for move home to Newfoundland. As reported in part#6 this is what she has to do now, in order to keep herself from becoming homeless. Carrie Ann is living day-to-day life in a small room, on campus, feeling very sad, and, as each day goes by, she is taking care of her mental and physical health to the best of her ability.
Home in Newfoundland , their system will only pay Carrie Ann $341.50 Bi-weekly. $341.50 x 2 = approx. $683.00 a month. Money from employment earnings get clawed back under the Newfoundland system, dollar for dollar. Here in Nova Scotia, if she became a resident, Carrie Ann would most likely be approved for the Standard House Hold Rate $950.00 (of course not as a student) a $267.00 a month jump from the system in Newfoundland. Here in Nova Scotia she would also be allowed to keep $350.00 of any employment earnings before Income Assistance starts clawing back. Also according to Carrie Ann, Newfoundland has no program like ESIA’s Career Seek, in which long term welfare recipients are supported to attend university.
Carrie Ann is struggling to take care of her mental and physical health, while, at the same time, staying confident she can complete her educational commitments, before she gets on that plane home to Newfoundland. She remains confident that she will get through studying for and writing her final exams, without having a mental health break down. She remains confident despite being emotionally traumatized.
Carrie Ann wants to come back to Nova Scotia in the New Year; but there is no way for this to happen, as explained in previous BLOG posts. To return, the miracle of finding affordable off-campus housing would have to happen. It is not an ideal solution for Carrie Ann to return to MSVU to continue living in that Room at Assisi Hall. However as pointed out in Part#4, Carrie Ann has a list of questions that she is asking the University Officials/Administration in her meetings with them (Please Click on the Part#4 Link to see the list of unanswered questions), including why they will not let her return to her preferred accommodation in Westwood.
In Part#1 I give you readers a full overview of who Carrie Ann Bugden is and that the Mount Saint Vincent University administration officials had moved her from a residence with a shared apartment in Westwood, to a single room in Assisi. Then in Part#2 I reported on her unwanted and and in her view uncalled for, but mandatory move from Westwood to Assisi Hall. In part#3 I report on the following:
the fact that an on campus Support Person was appointed for Carrie Ann. The support person is an on campus professor who is also a disability scholar (The name I will not mention because I do not know if I have permission to publicly mention her name) got appointed by the University to act as support for Carrie Ann during this academic year. Part#3 includes reporting on the fact that this is good news in Carrie Ann’s situation, and why.
Also in Part#3 I report on how meetings between her and University officials have begun to resolve various issues with the university.
Also In part#3 I provide a more detailed description of the discriminatory behaviour of her former room-mates at Westwood who were never disciplined by the university.
Then in Part#4 I elaborate further more on her room-mates behaviour at Westwood.
Before going any further with talking about the nitty gritty of Part 7. I want to bring up 2 questions that arise when you consider Parts 1, 2, and 3 of her story.
Q – What does the Carrie Ann Bugden story do to encourage and promote disability inclusion in Nova Scotia?
Q – The province of Nova Scotia has services for persons for persons with disabilities offered through the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, for persons with disabilities who are residents of Nova Scotia. What about when a person with a disability wants to come from another province or from an another country to study in Nova Scotia?
A – Nothing and nothing when you take the Carrie Ann Bugden story from top to bottom, you can consider nothing being the answer.
Anyway something-else I touched on in Part#6 is how Carrie Ann has all along been advocating to stay in Nova Scotia and for Nova Scotia to provide the supports she needs – like wheelchair accessible housing at very low cost. She has been trying to get someone to help her access Nova Scotia services since spring 2023. She tried to get in touch with her MLA who she believed was Rafah DiContanzo. However, according to a recent e-mail I received from Rafah DiContanzo’s office, Carrie Ann was mistaken about who her MLA actually is, and they suggest she never asked for help. The following is a screen shot of the E-mail.
Turns out her MLA is Patricia Arab. However, in Part 6 I also talked about a visit in September from Halifax Chebucto MLA Gary Burrill. In Part#6 I included what she was hoping to get, with the assistance of an MLA. Gary Burrill told her during his visit that an MLA has no authority to assist with complaints or to resolve the issues between her and University officials, because universities are independent from government, although they receive funding from government.
Here is the bottom line! In order for her to stay in Nova Scotia now (she is currently prepping for an unwanted and barely prepared for return to Newfoundland. ) she would have to immediately find accessible housing. The date that she has to be off campus (as she will, by choice, not be returning to her room in Assisi) is quickly approaching. So the question is Stay in Halifax and live where?
Even though she is happy about seeing her family at Christmas, living with her mom, is not something she can do for long. She cannot see that as a permanent solution for her. These days with the average rents in Halifax at $2300 a month for an accessible apartment, and not satisfied with university accommodations, she would find herself in a tent. The University is claiming that they have no other wheelchair accessible accommodations to offer her on campus, while being very clear they will not put her back in Westwood.
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| She expected her roommates at Westwood, and university officials to have an understanding what this book teaches us. She was not expecting her roommates to be her personal assistants. |
Carrie Ann knows that there are people out there who want to support her, but these days at least, a supporter who could help, would have to be someone who won the lottery and be willing to use some their millions to help Carrie Ann find a place to live. This is what would need to happen to continue to live in Halifax or come back to Halifax following Christmas break. This article explains what a difference someone with millions can make in the life of people living in poverty.
At one point at the Mount, they arranged for an Occupational Therapist to come and visit Carrie Ann when she got sick. What the OT said was that the Mental Health Crisis Team could not take her to the hospital for a mental health assessment, which was confirmed by the mental health crises team.
At this point, Carrie Ann is tired, and feels like she needs the mental health break that being back home with her family in Newfoundland will provide. What Nova Scotia and other circumstances are making her feel this way is explained in Parts 1 to 6.
Once Carrie Ann is back home in Newfoundland, I will continue to advocate for services to allow her to return to Halifax and continue her studies at MSVU.
Lets hope for the best for Carrie Ann moving forward!
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