This Digital Marketplace Illustrates the Shocking Truth for Canadians with Disabilities

The Bleak Market, a digital marketplace created by Disability Without Poverty and Rethink aims to shine a light on the difficult reality for many Canadians with disabilities.

Canadians with disabilities, living in poverty, are oftentimes forced to sell their medical necessities on online marketplaces like Facebook, Kijiji and Craigslist, just to make ends meet and buy more time before facing starvation or becoming homeless.

Introducing The Bleak Market, which serves as a central hub where real people with disabilities list their medical necessities 'for sale.' This marketplace was created by Disability Without Poverty, to bring this underground exchange to light. The listings on the Bleak Market are based on real stories, from real people, and authentically reflect lived experiences.

On the site, the listings include voice recordings of the sellers’ heart-wrenching real stories. One voice recording from The Bleak Market says the following:

“I have multiple autoimmune diseases. My pharmacist gave me a large supply of one of my meds, pregabalin… I don't have my own wants or needs, because benefits don’t afford me that luxury. Just basics. But I need money for my daughter. I just want her to be able to buy books at the school book fair. I often skip meals - at times, for days - to protect from ever not having enough for her.”

Locals in Toronto may have noticed that online marketplaces like Kijiji, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace were flooded by listings for medical necessities - medication, mobility scooters, wheelchairs, diabetes sensors, specialised GPS devices for people with low vision, canes, and more.

It’s a soul-crushing reality, especially given the 2023 federal budget promised inflation relief, but no guaranteed support for Canadians with disabilities. For people with disabilities, the added costs of being disabled increase their daily struggles. Some simply cannot work due to the severity of their disabilities. We see people with disabilities choosing between eating and paying rent, being homeless or on the verge of it, and resorting to selling vital medical necessities as the last straw.

A step in the right direction would be to get Bill C-22, the Canada Disability Benefit, expedited and properly budgeted. The benefit would massively increase disability benefits, and ultimately eradicate the need for the Bleak Market. The federal government has yet to prioritise the bill. 

The Bleak Market paints the importance of providing more relief to Canadians with disabilities.