International Day of Protest Against ABA 2024 – Ottawa

August 31st will once again mark the 7th International Day of Protest Against ABA. An international day of action for Autistic self-advocates and allies to organize in their opposition to Applied Behaviour Analysis.

Applied Behaviour Analysis was pioneered in the 1960s by Ole Ivar Løvaas, who spoke at length about his dehumanizing perspective on Autistic people, oftentimes physically assaulting, electrically shocking, and restraining Autistic children. ABA takes behaviours, oftentimes harmless cultural differences such as eye contact avoidance and stimming, and provides rewards and punishments accordingly. Even in its gentlest forms, it is Skinnerian manipulation that teaches a child to place the approval of their peers and authority figures over their own well-being. Many Autistic people refer to ABA as “Autistic Conversion Therapy”, and for good reasons. Ole Ivar Løvaas co-authored a study with George Rekers on gay conversion therapy, and Autistic people are disproportionally LGBTQ2S+.

For these reasons and the lived experiences of Autistic people, we will be hosting a protest on August 31st outside the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights at 5PM EST to make our voices heard, and call upon Ottawa City Council to make the following actions:

1. Prohibit businesses from providing Applied Behaviour Analysis to minors within city limits.

2. Cease the Mayor and members of Ottawa City Council’s associations with organizations that will defend the use of Applied Behaviour Analysis.

3. Implement further measures to work towards the abolition of ABA in the City of so-called Ottawa

In the event that Ottawa Police show up, here is a document detailing your rights when interacting with police: https://ccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Know-Your-Rights-Booklet.pdf