Books
The wealth of writing by, and about, marginalized people makes it the ideal time for The Audacity of Inclusion. Often, tragic events shine a light on the inequalities faced by marginalized groups: the heartbreaking discovery of unmarked Indigenous graves, the horrific killing of George Floyd, the repugnant atrocities leading to the #MeToo movement. But the light rarely shines on the everyday tragedies of the people considered intellectually disabled who have lived, and continue to live, in deplorable conditions, unseen, and friendless, on the fringes of society, where people rarely take the time to listen to, or to know, them in any real way. In The Audacity of Inclusion, Dulcie McCallum ignores the norm by stepping into their lives as their companion, where their emotional intelligence is revealed, listening and weaving their stories into this gem of a book.
The Audacity of Inclusion shares true stories from, and about, persons labelled with an intellectual disability--people, who despite being treated as the least able, have themselves tackled the most egregious forms of oppression head-on. It is the foundational stories of her companions, intellectually disabled individuals who have spent their lives fighting for equality--Barb Goode from Burnaby, Harold Barnes from Red Deer, David Weremy from Winnipeg, Sir Robert Martin from New Zealand, Paul Irwin from Burnaby, Mary from Victoria, Mallory Horner from Halifax, Lisa Maki from Saanich, Tracy from Truro, and Ian Cole and Justin Clark from Smith Falls, who along with other labelled people have guided the narrative. The Audacity of Inclusion heralds an important message: each and every person is unique and belongs to the heterogeneous interdependent human collective who all have a story to share.​
When Dulcie McCallum began her forty year journey into the halls of injustice with people who had been labelled, she was stunned and angered by the legal effrontery, indifference and bigotry faced as labelled people tried to navigate their way to equality: children denied access to an education, adults refused entry into the workplace, people subjected to abuse, assault and harm without recourse to justice, and adults subjected to the all-encompassing disenfranchisement of guardianship law. With the fear of a return to eugenics and its history of sterilization and euthanasia lurking, The Audacity of Inclusion transforms how we envision the right to meaningful equality and full inclusion for all.​​