Mari mari kom pu che!

My name is Dani and I am a 51-year old Toronto-based DIY analog creator/visual storyteller and veteran community worker. I am a longtime fixture in underground punk, goth, hip-hop, grassroots arts and activist spaces for racial, economic and disability justice, as well as in 2SQTBIPOC communities.

I am non-binary/gendervoid and of multigenerationally mixed race Chilean background.

For the entirety of my life I have been active in the trenches, doing my best to show up for the communities I love and am connected to, even while navigating persistent job/housing insecurity, chronic illness, legal battles, family issues and numerous other types of life challenges of my own, because the connections I have in community are what literally keep me alive.

I am a parent of two teens, a 14-year old daughter living in the US with her mother and an 18-year old stepson i have been helping to raise since he was 12.

I am a long COVID survivor living with a variety of chronic pain conditions (herniated disc, nerve sciatica, arthritis, plantar fascitis, tendinitis) as well as severe digestive and respiratory challenges. I am AuDHD and I live with a variety of cognitive, neurological and developmental issues, stemming from numerous untreated brain injuries sustained throughout my life and deeply entrenched trauma accumulated throughout the course of navigating a lifetime struggling with challenges I was unaware I was living with, often internalizing harmful beliefs about myself and not accessing supports I needed.

For over 30 years I worked frontline in the social/community services sector, in shelters, drop in centers and outreach programs. I have worked in housing and food access/support, harm reduction/OD prevention, support for youth and other community members in conflict with the law.

I have worked tirelessly for many years, more often than not while struggling myself. My ability to continue doing so reached a crossroads with the advent of COVID 19, which dramatically rocked the relative stability of my world, as it did for billions of others worldwide.

I continued working in street outreach for the first several years of the pandemic, becoming infected on three different occasions in spite of being fully vaccinated. The third occasion in early 2023 was particularly debilitating, as i became sick with one of the variants, which wrecked complete havoc on my physical and cognitive functioning, caused me to lose much of my vision and devastated my immune system.

While I did my best to track and adapt to these severe changes to how my body and brain function, I continued working, attempting to negotiate in good faith with my employer in the hopes they could provide accommodation, which they proceeded to resist and fight me on every step of the way for two years.

After a long drawn out battle involving my union, by the time 2024 came to an end, I was physically, mentally and emotionally wrecked, no longer with the capacity to continue in my job duties, and in desperate need to access the care and supports I had long struggled (as well as neglected) to access.

After my paid sick time ran out, I was successfully able to access Long Term Disability (LTD) benefits, which was able to help me provide for my family and slowly start to build a life better suited to my changing conditions.

This all changed at the end of March, when I was informed that my benefits were being terminated, as I allegedly no longer met their arbitrary criteria for chronic disability. They cited the fact that I am able to periodically run errands, make my appointments and engage in social activities as alleged "proof" that I am able to return to work, and they claim the fact that I am an artist who periodically is able to sell some of my work and merchandise and vend at some community events as constituting some form of fraud on my part.

These allegations and assertions are not only cruel, arbitrary and outrageous, they are dangerously inaccurate and just plain wrong, in addiction to placing in jeopardy my ability to stay housed, access my necessary supports and continue fulfilling my basic and essential family responsibilities.

The appeal is going to be a long, arduous, drawn out and expensive legal process, and the simple fact remains that I am no longer able to continue working frontline in the same capacities as before, and it feels akin to a death sentence to force me to do so.

As I explore other options for building a more sustainable livelihood for myself, I need to keep a roof over my head, I need to have food in my belly, and I need to support my kids.

I am both needing and deserving of your support at this time, so that I can stay alive and continue to show up.

I am grateful beyond any words I have to express for any and all of your support.

In solidarity and gratitude,

Dani Kriatura

(04/19/2026)