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OTTAWA -- The mood in the House of Commons last week was so frigid I half expected Olympic gold medallist Barbara Ann Scott would need to don her old figure skates to bring the Olympic torch into the chamber.
So it was with some surprise and satisfaction that I found out about NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Conservative MP and cabinet minister Steven Fletcher (pictured), joining forces to push Canada to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Wasylycia-Leis introduced a motion, and Fletcher seconded it, asking for Canada to ratify the convention as soon as all provinces and territories have agreed. They hope it occurs before the Paralympic Games begin in Vancouver on March 12.
The convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006 and signed by Canada in 2007, is an international agreement to ensure the rights of people with disabilities are promoted and protected. It includes specific actions countries can take.
An estimated 4.4 million Canadians live with disabilities.
Ratifying the convention would require Canada to take the practical steps needed to ensure all Canadians with disabilities are reasonably accommodated to live full and dignified lives.
Fletcher, the first quadriplegic to be elected to the House of Commons, is perhaps the perfect example of the accomplishments that can be made by someone with a severe disability, when the right accommodations are made to ensure he can do his job.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From Mia Rabson's column in the Winnipeg Free Press:
