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37th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION
Subcommittee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities
EVIDENCE
CONTENTS
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
| ¿ | 0940 |
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The Chair (Ms. Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's, Lib.)) |
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Ms. Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral (Laval Centre, BQ) |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Vernon Short (Recipient, 2002 Centennial Flame Research Award) |
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The Chair |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Vernon Short |
| ¿ | 0945 |
| ¿ | 0950 |
| ¿ | 0955 |
| À | 1000 |
| À | 1005 |
| À | 1010 |
| À | 1015 |
| À | 1020 |
| À | 1025 |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Vernon Short |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Reed Elley (Nanaimo—Cowichan, Canadian Alliance) |
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Mr. Vernon Short |
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Mr. Reed Elley |
| À | 1030 |
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The Chair |
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Ms. Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral |
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Mr. Vernon Short |
| À | 1035 |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Vernon Short |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Vernon Short |
| À | 1040 |
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The Chair |
CANADA
Subcommittee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities |
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EVIDENCE
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
¿ 
(0940)
[English]
The Chair (Ms. Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's, Lib.)): I call the meeting to order.
Vern Short is the recipient of the Centennial Flame Research Award. He's been down to the Centennial Flame to get his picture taken just now with the photographer. The photographer's going to come back so Vern can have his picture taken with the committee.
Vern just asked me whether we have ever given the Centennial Flame Research Award to a recipient from the west. So we're going to have to find out if we can get that research done.
The good part of this meeting is I have a cheque here.
Ms. Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral (Laval Centre, BQ): To do what?
The Chair: This is the most important part of the meeting. As you know, the Centennial Flame Award is taken from the collection in the fountain, and every year we get to present the cheque. We're very pleased that Mr. Short was selected as this year's recipient.
Maybe I'll stop talking and give it over to you, Vern. We would like to hear your presentation, and a little bit about the kind of work you're doing in Kamloops around advocacy and accessibility.
Thank you.
Mr. Vernon Short (Recipient, 2002 Centennial Flame Research Award): Good morning, Madam Chair, and good morning to the rest of the honourable members of the subcommittee. My name is Vernon Short and I am from Kamloops, British Columbia. I see my role in Kamloops basically as an advocate for persons with disabilities, whether they are invisible or visible.
As an advocate, there is such a need for people to be able to speak on behalf of other people who are not able to voice their own needs. I see myself as a systemic advocate, as well as an individual. I feel it is a very important part of society today, because sometimes those people with disabilities are lost in the shuffle of society's fast pace.
I am legally blind. I am a volunteer member of the board for the southern interior district of the CNIB. I am also a peer counsellor in Kamloops. As I say, I advocate for all persons with disabilities, whether they're physical or mental.
Last year I was successful in advocating for and getting a large-monitor computer for the local university college in Kamloops, so all persons with disabilities could have access to the computer.
The Chair: I apologize for interrupting, but we're just going to suspend for a second while we have a photo op.
¿ (0942)
¿ (0944)
The Chair: We're back. Please continue.
Mr. Vernon Short: I found my voice as an advocate during a rural communities conference in 2001, which was held in Vernon. It was the first regional conference of its kind in Canada. Since I am from a part of British Columbia where the majority of communities are rural, it's very important to bring forth the voice of people with disabilities in the rural communities and to express their well-being. It's very important for them to have access to the appropriate education and job training, transportation, affordable medical coverage, and certainly I'd hate to ignore affordable housing as well.
I would like to go back to a quote that sometimes people do not get a chance to think about. This quote is from Joseph P. Shapiro.
| Disability…is the one minority that anyone can join at any time, as a result of a sudden automobile accident, a fall down a flight of stairs, cancer, or disease…. |
So if you just reflect on that for a moment, sometimes we take our abilities as people without disabilities for granted.
You forget just how quickly you can lose that full life when you end up with disease that riddles your body, like a good friend of mine in Fort St. John who has a multitude of diseases, but mainly a form of multiple sclerosis. Her mobility is very restricted. Then, of course, we know that cancer is a very deadly disease.
There is a term within the community of disabilities that we use, and that is TABs. The acronym stands for “temporarily able bodies”. Today I would like to inform you, I would like to inspire you, and I would like you to get involved.
I think it is most appropriate that when we talk about disabilities we have a clear understanding of the definition of disability. Disability is broken into three segments. Impairment is any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function.
¿ (0945)
A disability is any restriction or lack, resulting from impairment, of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.
Since I am legally blind, I cannot read a newspaper with its font unless I have a reading aid. It is impossible for me to read, therefore I have a physical impairment, which is a vision impairment. But it becomes a handicap for me to read the newspaper or to, quite often, read street signs or addresses, so that becomes a social handicap.
A handicap is a disadvantage for a given individual resulting from an impairment or a disability that prevents the fulfillment of a role that is considered normal, depending on age, sex, and social and cultural factors of the individual.
If I may, I'll just list some international rights affecting people with disabilities: Universal Document of Human Rights, 1948; United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, 1975; World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons, 1983; Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, 1994; and Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development, 1995.
In doing the Centennial Flame project, I chose a friend of mine in Kamloops who I felt best fit the criteria of what the subcommittee was asking for. Today I want to inform you, influence you, and involve you by talking about one person who is an employee for the federal government agency known as Human Resources Development Canada.
¿ (0950)
His name is Todd Harding, and he's a program officer who happens to be blind. He contributes significantly to his community as a volunteer as well. In both positions he is able to offer his unique perspective to his employer and clients, and provide inspiration to his fellow volunteers in the community.To me, Todd epitomizes a person with a disability who is able to function and succeed in employment, and volunteer in his community.
It is time for people with disabilities to reclaim their rightful place in society. Persons with disabilities are persons first, and differ only in their personalities and abilities. Therefore, persons with disabilities, when given the opportunity for meaningful employment and equal payment for the job done, can be seen as assets to their employers, providing clients and customers with their unique perspectives on the job.
Inclusiveness in today's workforce is the right thing to do, thus enabling persons with disabilities to develop their full potential so they may live as agents of their own destiny in the rapidly changing economic and social conditions of the country and the world.
I thank the committee for putting up with my reading here.
I based my working thesis on four points I wanted to make to the members of the committee. One was certainly to examine Mr. Todd Harding's community and professional profile. Second was to certainly get across that persons with disabilities should reclaim their rightful place in the workforce. Third was that persons with disabilities should be considered assets to employers in offering their unique perspectives to clients and customers. Fourth was that persons with disabilities should be seen as valuable contributing volunteers in their communities and society.
All too often the prevailing attitude toward all people with disabilities in communities across this great nation is that they are not a benefit to employers or volunteer agencies. I say that is the wrong attitude.
On job security, some people have the feeling of being over-qualified, and there are tables I have provided to the clerk for this presentation.
Table 1 shows fear of losing one's job in the next year for persons with and without disabilities in Canada in 2000. Of people with disabilities, 10% fear that losing their jobs is very likely; 8.2% fear it's somewhat likely; 12.2% feel it's somewhat unlikely; and 60% feel it's unlikely. Of persons without disabilities, 77.1% feel it's very unlikely.
¿ (0955)
So even though people with disabilities are chomping at the bit to get employment, most often they are rather loyal long-term employees. But it's still very much in the back of their minds that if they don't meet their deadlines or be competitive with their colleagues who don't have disabilities, their employers will find a loophole and let them go. That is what I certainly want to point out to the committee.
It's no secret that disability and poverty go hand in hand. People with disabilities are generally poor because of the problems they encounter finding paid employment. The difficulty in finding paid work means that many thousands of Canadians with disabilities cannot earn enough money to support themselves. As a result, many turn to income support programs. Rather than provide self-sufficiency, these programs often hamper the transition to employment.
I'd like to point out income levels. This was taken as of 1991 from Statistics Canada. Only 13% of people with disabilities have total income from all sources of more than $35,000 per year. Of people with disabilities, 65% have total income from all sources of less than $10,000 per year. Madam Chair and other members of the committee, I am not ashamed to tell you that I fall into that category. My current annual income is $9,400 per year. With rent, food, whatever medications you need, and utility bills, quite often I'm left with less than $200 for the remainder of the month, and I am not alone in that category.
À (1000)
Of adults with intellectual disabilities, 74% have total income from all sources of less than $10,000 per year; and 58% of people with disabilities have total income from all sources of less than $15,000 per year. I do not have any income figures for our aboriginal brothers, but I suspect they would be similar or even lower. My heart and feelings go out to the aboriginal community, as 30% of their population have disabilities of one kind or another. I find that very hard to swallow. It hurts me personally.
In the course of gathering information on Mr. Todd Harding, I approached five people in the professional community who had working relationships with Todd Harding, who is a program officer for HRDC. I've provided to the subcommittee a copy of all eight questions I asked them to respond to. They were very positive and enthused about this man, who by the way has been at his job for 11 years. I must add that this project almost did not happen simply because he was in a severe car accident last year, where a vehicle t-boned him and he was laid up for a length of time. He has since returned to work in a full capacity with greater passion and love for his job, his fellow colleagues, and unemployed individuals.
Mr. Todd Harding will be the first to tell you that society's attitude is the most predominant barrier and obstacle to persons with disabilities securing meaningful employment. Yes, we've had ongoing success. We've managed to bend those barriers and obstacles. We've managed to remove some of those obstacles on a permanent basis, but the barriers will still exist for quite some time, I'm afraid. It will be an ongoing process to change the attitude of today's society toward hiring persons with disabilities, whether they are invisible or visible disabilities.
À (1005)
I too am passionate about this. I see communities only gaining benefits from hiring persons with disabilities. Yes, I realize some persons have disabilities too severe to allow them to function in jobs. But some persons with disabilities are able to function fully in jobs, with support--large monitor screens for their computers, audio software, desks that are able to accommodate people in wheelchairs, or flexible work schedules. There again it comes back to the stress factor.
Traditionally, the official unemployment rate in Kamloops, listed by Stats Canada, has been around 17% to 19%. Unofficially it's more like 22%. I found out only recently at the beginning of May that the town of Hazelton, British Columbia has an unemployment rate of 93%. You can just imagine what chance a person with a disability in Hazelton has of finding part-time or even full-time employment.
À (1010)
In approaching this project, I worked diligently and completed it with a three-hour interview with Todd Harding. Throughout the interview he spoke of the prevailing attitude. What sticks out in his mind is society's attitude toward people with disabilities.
I have some closing comments from that interview. The business community sooner or later is going to have to change their attitude toward people with disabilities. After all, people with disabilities are consumers of services and products like everyone else in society. Adopt a change in attitude and accommodation and we will come. People with disabilities must be seen as people first. Extend that opportunity to people with disabilities and you will be educated.
I think it is most important and critical that I inform the committee of Todd's community involvement profile. For the City of Kamloops, on the mayor's task force, he sits as the chair of the committee that deals with persons with disability issues in the community. He's been chair for the last four years.
He sits on a committee in Kamloops for the opportunities and abilities committee, made up of other disability agencies focused on employment for persons with disabilities. He is also a co-chair of a national graduate advisory committee, and the Canadian national representative for the guide dog organization that is based in California.
He is also a representative for his union for national human rights and race relations equity in the workplace for employees. He is also a member of the Kamloops Fish and Game Association. There is not a more active outdoor person that I know of with a disability than Mr. Todd Harding, who goes fishing, skiing, and canoeing. There isn't a sport or outdoor recreation event that he won't at least try.
À (1015)
To conclude, first and foremost, persons with disabilities are persons first and differ only in personalities and abilities. Now more than ever, persons with disabilities must reclaim their rightful place in today's society. Persons with disabilities, when given the opportunity for meaningful employment and equal payment for the job done, can provide a positive benefit to employers. Persons with disabilities can also be seen as an asset to their employers and the community, by offering their unique perspectives to customers and clients. To quote Mr. Robert Eichvald, a national employer liaison for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in Toronto, “by hiring from a diverse population, you serve a diverse population”.
I conclude that Mr. Todd Harding, in his capacity as a program officer for HRDC, is a prime example of a person with a disability, being a person first and successful at his job. He demonstrates a positive attitude and offers quality service and high commitment to his clients, whether they are people with or without disabilities. It is clear and evident to me that Mr. Todd Harding is a confident, competent, respected, and knowledgeable person, as a program officer in his community.
On barriers to employment and the unemployment trap, which I spoke about earlier, most working-age Canadians with disabilities are not employed and face serious disadvantages in the labour market. Canadians with any type of disability face serious work-related barriers. An obvious barrier to employment is that most work places are architecturally inaccessible to those with physical disabilities. Other barriers arise from attitudes and stereotypes on the part of many employers, who tend to judge people with disabilities on the basis of their limitations rather than on their abilities or their potential, and therefore are often reluctant to hire them.
For large numbers of people with disabilities, factors associated with success in employment are often not in place. These include: access to quality education; access to appropriate training; use of private or community transportation; inclusive workplaces and hiring practices; adequate wages; job security; availability of personal supports; effective employment counselling; and coverage for disability-related costs.
À (1020)
Fran Cutler, the chair of the national board of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, said in April 2002:
| The information technology revolution allows blind and vision-impaired people to do any job in the information society, but public attitudes have not yet entirely caught up. |
In other words, we have been gaining new technology to enable people who are blind or visually impaired, but again, attitude is a barrier we face.
À (1025)
The Chair: Maybe if you want to stop there, we can see if any of the committee members have questions. Would that be all right?
Mr. Vernon Short: Yes, certainly.
The Chair: Mr. Elley.
Mr. Reed Elley (Nanaimo—Cowichan, Canadian Alliance): I don't have what I would call specific questions relating to your research and your report, Vern, but I want to commend you on it. I believe it's certainly a valuable contribution to the literature and the studies we need to have continually done to help us put into practice good policies and good programs to help disabled people across Canada.
I have one small question. I noticed during your report you used Stats Canada statistics on income levels from 1991. Are there any more recent figures from Stats Canada on income levels?
Mr. Vernon Short: Begging the committee's pardon, I could not find further updated information on income levels, other than when Stats Canada and the Canadian Council on Social Development.... I have been getting updated disability information, and have provided the committee with copies of updated information as well. So updated information has come out during the past year, and as I've provided the clerk with additional information, you will have access to that.
Mr. Reed Elley: I think we're all very aware that the statistics you have provided are certainly indicative of the kinds of income levels disabled persons have across the country. They're very sobering statistics that make us realize that our society, which is so affluent and purports to be so benevolent, particularly in certain areas, has not been able to provide a better level of income for our Canadians with disabilities.
I hope recent studies will show that we have done better than that, but my sense is we probably haven't. I think disabled persons across Canada are constantly fighting this whole issue of poverty, which of course puts them at a huge disadvantage socially and economically across the country.
I appreciate very much how you've approached this. It's certainly important to know that there are people like Todd Harding out there who have been successful at overcoming major issues in their lives, particularly a man of his abilities who has been placed in a job where he can be helpful to others. That in itself is an encouragement, so thank you very much.
À (1030)
The Chair: Madeleine.
[Translation]
Ms. Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral: Mr. Short, thank you very much for being with us today. The thing that struck me in your presentation, when you spoke about your own personal experience and inferred it was similar for others, is the huge barrier faced by disabled persons in terms of the reception they get from others. Having spent a great part of my career in the health sector, I can fully appreciate what you are saying.
Just like you, I am fully convinced that we are all disabled persons in the making and that with the aging of the population, disability will become the norm. Those who remain in great shape until they die will be the exception. In light of this reality, what do you think one of the best ways would be to heighten awareness in a developed country such as ours, and at what point should this awareness start?
[English]
Mr. Vernon Short: I feel there must be an ongoing process or program put in place to help heighten the awareness and the sensitivity issues that surround the disabled community. Over the last two years I have developed a sensitivity awareness program that I take into companies and schools. I provide a program based on politically correct terminology, for example. Believe it or not, these days I still hear able-bodied persons referring to people who may have cerebral palsy as being retarded, or retards, which I find very offensive, as I'm sure you do too.
So we must make it a practice to find programs that can be offered to large companies, schools, and smaller businesses, in order to open up the flower, if you will, of the new attitude. If we change your attitude, one person at a time perhaps, then we have accomplished something.
À (1035)
The Chair: I just have one little question. Whether it's Todd or yourself, in the work you do is there a difference between people born with disabilities and people who acquire disabilities, in terms of motivation, attitude, expectations of themselves, depression that comes with it, or those kinds of things? Do you think a different approach is required for those two different groups?
Mr. Vernon Short: Based on my experience, the obstacles and barriers I've encountered due to my disability have made me certainly more aware of the general attitude of the whole of the population. In answer to your question, a certain people with disabilities feel strongly that they must try that much harder to prove to the general population that they are capable, that they have a driven passion, and that they have as much a right to society as everyone else.
The Chair: I think you've added a lot to our conversation just with the TABs definition--temporarily able bodies. I wonder what that is in French. Help me out back there...
[Translation]
temporarily able bodies.
[English]
So people like us are temporarily able-bodied because some day it will happen to all of us. I think it's an interesting approach, in terms of a more inclusive world, rather than them versus us. We're all going to be them one day. I think it's very helpful.
I remember one witness who pointed out how much money we'd save if everybody was blind and we didn't have to turn lights on. Somebody else explained how cheap it was to hire somebody in a wheelchair because these chairs here are $200 each, and those people brought their own chairs. By switching it around to an attitude of inclusion rather than working so hard to try to make people included--
Mr. Vernon Short: It's interesting you've brought that up. My good friend Jeff and I went to the Museum of Civilization yesterday in Hull, which is great. It's spectacular. We came upon this boat with people, a raven, and different animals in it. It was created by Bill Reid, the aboriginal artist from British Columbia. It shows that we are all in the same boat and we're all going in the same direction.
So my question to the committee is, why not have us all go in the same direction in close proximity--people with disabilities and people without disabilities?
À (1040)
The Chair: I think that's an excellent way of concluding, in terms of us all being in the same boat and making room for one another, which has always been the Canadian way.
I thank you so much for coming. I hope you've enjoyed the little bit of time you've spent here. You'll get your tour of the Hill now and then lunch. Hopefully we'll see you at question period in the Speaker's gallery.
So thank you very much for coming, Vern.
We will now go on to our exciting work of looking at the applications for next year. We will do that in camera.