Bruce Johnson was 57 years old. He’d lived with severe mental health challenges since he was 10 years old. 10. For nearly 5 decades he navigated a world that isn’t built for people like him. For almost 30 years he received AISH which is Alberta's disability support program and with it, he survived. Survived. Not thrived. Survived. AISH paid $1,940 a month. Statistics Canada's poverty line for a single person in a city like Calgary or Edmonton sits above $2,200 a month. That means the maximum disability payment in the province (the ceiling, not the floor) leaves recipients living below the poverty line. Bruce Johnson was not living comfortably. He was clinging to the edge. Then the Alberta government sent him a letter. Beginning July 1, he’d be moved from AISH to a new program called the Alberta Disability Assistance Program, or ADAP. His monthly support would drop by $200, to $1,740. And he might be required to participate in employment programs and job searches, or risk losing support entirely. No increase for cost of living, instead the exact opposite. So he was a man who’d struggled with mental illness since childhood. A man who’d already tried employment and knew his limits. A man already living below the poverty line who was now told he would receive less, and be expected to do more to keep it. Bruce Johnson wrote back. To the government, to media, to advocates. He tried reaching out to anyone who might care enough to listen. "The Alberta Government kicked me in the teeth with the introduction of ADAP," he wrote. "Just something that has finally pushed me to end everything." On June 8, RCMP responded to a fatal fire at a home in the Village of Empress. It was Bruce Johnson's home. The government's response was a press release. In it, Minister Nathan Neudorf expressed his condolences. He declined an on-camera interview. His statement didn’t acknowledge any connection between Bruce Johnson's death and the policy changes that Bruce Johnson himself named as the reason he could not go on. Premier Smith was conveniently unavailable. Her office referred media to the Ministry A man who was desperate wrote to his government. He told them exactly what their policy was doing to him. And when he was gone, they hid behind a spokesperson and called it a tragedy as if tragedies just happen, as if no one in power made the decisions that led here. Now look at the latest example of where this government chooses to spend. On October 19, 2026, Alberta will hold a referendum. Administering this referendum is projected to cost taxpayers up to $100mm. And yet there is $200 less a month for Bruce Johnson and others in his same situation. This isn’t a budget miscalculation. This isn’t a tragic oversight. This is a choice. It’s a deliberate declaration of who matters and who does not. He isn’t alone. Larysa Armstrong, a Calgary woman about to transition to ADAP, says her household will lose approximately $460 a month as of August. She said: "There are a lot of people who are afraid. This person who passed isn't alone. There are other people who are in despair just like him." Elaine Lee, another Calgary recipient: "That's actually how I feel. Like a dead end." When pressed about community consultations, recipients say simply: "Nobody asked us. Nobody asked for the change." The government claims it consulted the disability community. It cannot or will not say with who. We are not bystanders. We are concerned citizens. I’m writing this because Bruce Johnson had a voice and he used it, and no one in power listened. The people who will be hurt by this transition on July 1 are people who are already exhausted from fighting to be seen. They shouldn’t have to fight alone. We can be bystanders. We can scroll past this, feel briefly sad, and go about our day. Or we can be engaged citizens and people who understand that a government's budget is a moral document, and that silence in the face of injustice is its own kind of moral answer. The ADAP transition is weeks away. There’s still time. Please. Call your MLA. Write to Minister Nathan Neudorf at the Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services. Write to the Premier. Tell them you know what Bruce Johnson wrote. Tell them you are watching. Tell them that a government willing to spend $100 million on a separatist referendum while cutting disability supports below the poverty line does not get to call itself a government that protects its people. Hell start a petition - because they clearly listen to those. Bruce Johnson told them. They chose not to listen. Now it is our turn to speak for others who can’t and, worse, are not heard when they do. And this time, don’t stop until someone listens. - Arlene If you or someone you know is struggling please call or text 988