Greetings from Melbourne, Australia.

I was first diagnosed with AS (Asperger's Syndrome) back in 1991, even though a GP my family used to see back in the days when I was a pre-schooler told my parents back then that he thought I could be autistic; well, eventually over time he was right, and years later when I got diagnosed as having it, I was referred to a agency we have in Melbourne that deals with adult autism "cases".

I can definitely relate all of Michelle Dawson's analyses of the official position taken by Autism Society Canada and blindly favoured by the current Canadian government to my own situation all too well. For years I too have had to endure the same harsh realities of ABA and the same nasty negative stereotype about us Aspies and other autistics as being supposedly "weak, lacking intelligence, and therefore need to be brought into line". Sometimes I can't even leave my own home to do anything meaningful like shopping or some form of recreation in my own home area without the threat of certain non-autistic louts or hate-crims yelling verbal abuse at me from their cars.

I am deeply shocked when I hear now that most governments and the laws these governments pass actually encourage this type of prejudice and fearful attitude against people with autism/AS. That is why so many progressive Canadians and progressive Aussies etc want these negative attitudes about autistics changed now!

After hearing Autism Society Canada and several Canadian government officials involved in ASC's very discriminatory hidden agenda caricature and condemn us, it's no wonder so many Aspies and other Autistics (especially those in even the most affluent/well-off of neighbourhoods and family homes) still live in lonely closets of guilt and fear or even take their own lives.

Michelle, I congratulate you for the courage you have shown to speak out and stick up for all autistics and to show the rest of the world that autistics are not a "plague" or a supposed "epidemic" or "threatening social disease" as the narrow conservative "cure-and-control" agenda crowd behind the Canadian government's new anti-autistics policy would want the public to believe about us. You are to be well and truly commended. You are a very brave person to be doing what you're doing to expose the Pharisees behind the anti-autistics agenda for who they really are - self-righteous, stuck-up control-freaks.

Let's all ring some real Liberty-Bells and light some real Democracy-Candles next Christmas Day!

Love and Cheers Everyone,
Steven Wood (autismbass@yahoo.com.au)