Mad Pride is an arts, culture, and heritage festival created by psychiatric survivors, consumers, mad people, and folks the world has labelled “mentally ill”
Mad Pride Toronto holds “a Celebration of Madness” from July 8th to July 14th,2013
There have been multiple approaches to challenging discrimination against people with disabilities/disabled people including “Pride.” These started gaining ground in North America during the 1970s thanks to groups in the disability rights movement and other social movements. Similar to how LGBTQ communities are reclaiming the word “queer”, Mad Pride activists seek to reclaim language that has been used against us such as “mad”, “nutter”, “crazy”, “lunatic”, “maniac”, and “psycho”. Reclaiming language is political and challenges discrimination. Mad Pride participants use and refuse a variety of labels. Mad Pride participants choose “mad” as an umbrella term. [source: mad pride toronto 2013] (more…)
Five community-based nonprofit groups on the west coast have lost their funding from Vancouver Coastal Health in an unexpected decision that the health authority says will increase focus on “core health services.” The affected organizations include: 
The Mental Health Strategy for Canada promotes peer support as an essential component of mental health services. In particular, it recommends an increased number of peer support opportunities and the development of national guidelines for peer support.
A new documentary film, On the Road to Find Out, examines the re-location of people with mental illness from smaller communities on Vancouver Island to Nanaimo—in order to access mental health services. The film was commissioned by Columbian Centre and directed by Vancouver Island-based filmmaker Paul Manly.
Ride Don’t Hide
The 2013 annual meeting of the 