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1994 to 2005 Grassroots Campaign to win

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the Accessibility for Ontarians with
Disabilities Act.

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David Lepofsky, chair, Accessibility for
Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.

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Delivered at the Osgoode Hall Law School.

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January 14th, 2014 as a Roy McMurtry
Clinical Fellow.

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Good afternoon, everybody, It's, it's
really a privilege and an honor to be able

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to speak to the introduction introductory
course

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at the York University critical
disabilities studies program.

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It's fabulous that you've chosen this as
your area of academic study.

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Let me try to offer you some ideas, that
may may help you think through challenging

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issues that face people with disabilities,
not just

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in the area of accessibility, but well
beyond.

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I have to indicate at the outset that I'm
speaking in my personal capacity, I'm not

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speaking on, on behalf of the the
government of the province of Ontario.

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About 20 years ago this November, 20
people,

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I was one of them, happened to end up in a
room together at Queen's park.

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Entering that room, we were angry, leaving
that room

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we were the birth of a brand new movement.

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It was a movement that fought tenaciously
with little or no money,

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Little or no experience but a lot of
energy for 10 years.

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And it resulted in the enactment of two
laws, The Ontarians with Disabilities Act,

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2001, and the later Accessibility for
Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005.

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When

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we started, We didn't have the slightest
idea what we

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were doing, what we wanted or how to get
it.

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And we had no realistic hope of success.

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I want to spend my time together with you
now, telling you the story.

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The unfolding narrative of how we got from
that room in

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two thou-, in nine-, pardon me, in 1994,
on the 29th of November,

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all the way up to May 2005, May 10th,

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2005, when we celebrated The achievement

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of a dream that we couldn't have believed
possible when we started.

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As I go through, I'm not going to spend a
lot of time on the

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detailed and more complicated policy
issues that we were dealing with.

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I'm only going to touch on those in other
lectures in the series that I'm I'm

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going to be delivering this month and that
I hope to get posted on YouTube together.

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I'll deal more with the details on public
policy.

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What I want to do with you today is to
talk about how

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we did it and what we learned as we went
along the way.

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I want you to know that as we learned.

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We came up with ideas and strategies,
which

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were not only successful then but which we
continue

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to use to this very day, in 2014,

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to try to get those two laws, effectively,
implemented.

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Before I start with that Blustery fall day
in November 1994 however.

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I got to take you back to the 1970s.

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Just for a couple of minutes.

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Back in the 1970s, people with
disabilities in the

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province of Ontario or across Canada, as
they do now

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Found that they were disproportionately

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unemployed or underemployed,
disproportionately poor,

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disproportionately underrepresented among
those who

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graduated from colleges or universities,

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disproportionately overrepresented among
those who collect social assistance.

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They were poor, they were weak, they were
dis-empowered.

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They faced barriers everywhere they went.

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When they tried to get a job, or an
education, or buy goods,

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or services, or just enjoy the things that
others take for granted in life.

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And in the 1970s they were not organized.

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There was no aggressive, publicly
recognized

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cross-disability advocacy movement to try
to get this changed.

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Moreover most folks with disabilities
Didn't even

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have advocacy or lobbying on their minds.

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Just getting by was enough of a challenge.

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We also didn't have the advantage of
things like email, the internet,

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fax machines, smartphones Twitter.

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Facebook, or other social media.

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We didn't even have.

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If, if you wanted to write a letter you

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had to type it on a thing called a
typewriter.

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And if you wanted to send it separately
addressed to different members of the

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legislature or parliament, you had to type
it over and over and over again.

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And by the way, if you made a mistake, you
are allowed

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to use this weird stuff called white out,
or just start from scratch.

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And then you put it in the mail and waited
a couple of days

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for it to arrive, and then waited days
more to see if anybody responded.

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Things were very, very, different.

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There were no telephone conference calls

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or video conferencing or Skyping for
meetings.

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You had to actually get in the same room.

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In the same city.

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At the same time.

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And folks with disabilities, across a
province like Ontario,

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most part didn't have the capacity to do
that.

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Costs a lot.

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Took time.

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And they were poor and disadvantaged,
disproportionately.

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Despite all of these hurdles, people with
disabilities fought two really

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important battles in the late 1970s and
the early 1980s that are

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the underpinnings Of the Disability Act
movement of the 90s and 2000s.

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I had the privilege of being a part of all
of that.

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One of many people that worked on what I'm
going to describe.

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What we learned in the 70s, helped

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dramatically influence what we did from
1994, onward.

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Back in the 70s, it was not illegal to
discriminate because of disability,

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we didn't have a charter of rights to set
our constitutional rights to equality.

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Our human rights codes, the laws that make
it illegal for

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public or private sector employers and
others not to to discriminate.

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They've banned discrimination on grounds
like religion age, race and sex.

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But not disability.

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It was only in the late 1970s that some
human

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rights codes in some provinces were
amended to include disability.

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But not Ontario.

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In 1976, the Ontario Human Rights

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Commission Recommended that the Ontario
Human Rights

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Code be amended to include a

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ban on discrimination based on physical
disability.

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Didn't even mention mental disability.

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But the Ontario government took a
leisurely three

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years to study that and related
recommendations without action.

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Things changed in late 1979 and events

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unfolded that changed the legal landscape
dramatically.

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Was there a groundswell of people

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with disabilities going to Queens Park
demanding

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that the human rights code be amended to
give them the right to equality?

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No there wasn't.

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Was there a ground swell to pressure, the

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federal government to come up with a new
constitution?

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That included equality for people with
disabilities.

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No it didn't, there wasn't.

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The issues actually arose it was

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government action That brought us
together.

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Two things happened in tandem.

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First, in the late 1979, the Ontario

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government, the minister of labor,
wonderful man, just

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died earlier this last year named darm-,

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Doctor Robert Elgie, came forward with a
proposal.

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A proposed bill.

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It was not an amendment to the Human
Rights Code.

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It was proposed to be a separate law
called the

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Handicapped Rights Act and it provided all
the rights that the

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Human Rights Code would provide, though,
to people with disabilities

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And it provided for the Human Rights
Commission to enforce it.

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But it didn't actually open up and amend
the Human Rights Code.

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The introduction of that bill triggered
the

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formation of a Human Rights Disability
Coalition.

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I eventually got involved in it later.

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Was one of many who took part in

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the kind of leadership committee for that,
coalition.

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Of interest, the thing that brought people
with disabilities together over that bill

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was not the fact that its provision of
anti-discrimination

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protection of people with disabilities Was
actually weaker than what the

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human rotes, rights codes gave women,
racialized communities, and so on.

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That wasn't the thing that got under
everybody's skin.

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Interestingly and, in retrospect,
ironically, what really got people angry.

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Was that disability didn't amend the human
rights code.

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It didn't put disability in the human
rights code

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it didn't make, put us in the mainstream
of

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human rights and instead it was going to
provide

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for people with disabilities through a
completely separate law.

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That was appalling.

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Fast forward 20 years and we became a

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movement fighting for exactly that, a
separate law.

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After action, which predated my personal
involvement in late '79.

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By the disability community.

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The, the Ontario government, then under
pre, conservative

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Premiere, William Davis and Labor Minister
Robert Elgee.

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With significant support from then
Attorney General,

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Roy McMurtry, after whom my fellowship is
named.

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The Ontario government decided to withdraw
that bill and to come forward, instead.

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With amendments to the human rights code
that

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would protect discrimin, against
discrimination based on disability.

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I can tell you from being personally
involved, it was a very

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exciting time because we got, we formed
our coalition formed a platform, sat

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down across the table from Dr.

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Robert Elgie, the labor minister,
negotiated clause

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by clause The amendments that ended up in
the Ontario Human Rights code.

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They were eventually passed in 1981, and
proclaimed in force in 1982.

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It was very exciting.

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One of the things we learned back then, is
that it's

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not enough to just talk about, please give
us human rights.

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The devil is in the details.

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>> And when I was just finished my law
studies.

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Hadn't even become a lawyer yet.

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One of the things I learned early on is,
if you wanna fight for legislative rights.

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You gotta get very much into the very

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minute details of how the legislation is
worded.

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Or else you could end up with a government
smiling saying they gave you what you

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wanted but finding out that it was far
weaker than what you thought you needed.

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At the same time as all of this was going
on,

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the successful battle to get disability in
the Ontario Human Rights code.

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In October, or in I, yeah I should say in
October of 1980 our

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then liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau
proposed

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amending our constitution and including it
in a charter of rights.

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The Charter of Rights would have an
equality provision, Section 15, that

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would ban discrimination on grounds like
race, religion, sex, age and so on.

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But it did not include disability.

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At the same time as we were fighting to
get into the Ontario Human Rights Code,

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a number of us got involved in trying to
get into the Charter of Rights as well.

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Time does not permit me in this lecture to
get into

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the details of that story, but I had the
privilege of

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being one of a number of people who got to
appear

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before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa
in the fall of 1980.

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Those hearings were the first televised
public hearings in the history of our

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parliament And my presentation on December
12, 1980, is now available on YouTube.

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Footnote, I had hair back then.

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Second footnote, don't remind me of that.

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Ultimately, through the pressure of people

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with disabilities around the country,
Without the

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benefit of email or faxes or social media
or any of that sort of

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thing the government was persuaded to
amend

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section 15 before it passed the charter of
rights to

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include protection against discrimination
based on physical or mental disability.

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Canada's was the first western
constitution to include

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an explicit guarantee of equality for
people with disabilities.

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It went into force in April the charter
went into force in

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April of 1982 though the equality
provision didn't kick in for three years.

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Yet another really exciting victory The
difference between the fight to get into

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Human Rights Code in Ontario, and the
fight to get in The Charter in Ottawa, was

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in Ontario the introduction of that
Handicap Rights

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Act triggered the formation of a coalition
of folks with disabilities.

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In the case of the Charter of Rights, no

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coalition formed, when [UNKNOWN] is
different individuals and different

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organization went to Ottawa to press the
case to

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amend the charter to include equality for
people with disabilities.

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By the way, in the entire 1980 to

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1982 debates over our Constitution The
only new right

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that was added to the charter of rights in

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that entire debate was equality for people
with disabilities.

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So where were we at in 1982?

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We were pretty excited.

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Won these two major battles, very much
against the odds.

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Great rights, they're on the books.

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We got what we wanted and what we needed.

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We were quite excited.

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Now let's fast forward to November of
1994.

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Why did twenty people go into a room at

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Queens Park wanting new disability rights
legislation.

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Hadn't we won enough?

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Well, what we had learned over the years
between 1982 and 1994 was the

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good rights on the books don't necessarily
translate into,

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to actual changes in the lives of people
with disabilities.

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In their communities.

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Around our province or our country.

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Many people.

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I was one of many.

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00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:42,430
Had been involved in writing articles,
giving speeches, doing training.

238
00:16:42,430 --> 00:16:48,950
Others not me were involved in arguing
important court cases.

239
00:16:48,950 --> 00:16:49,700
and so on.

240
00:16:51,190 --> 00:16:56,110
But what we've found, after, the twelve
years.

241
00:16:56,110 --> 00:16:58,320
Was that while we'd made some gains.

242
00:16:59,450 --> 00:17:06,470
We were still not anywhere near our goal,
of being full equals in society

243
00:17:07,490 --> 00:17:12,390
And as quickly as we won overcame some
barriers, new ones popped up.

244
00:17:14,890 --> 00:17:20,640
This led a small group of folks with
disabilities, not organized

245
00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:25,940
in any sort of comprehensive way, to
decide that we needed something new.

246
00:17:25,940 --> 00:17:28,280
We needed something more.

247
00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:32,060
Not that the rights we had were inadequate
as written,

248
00:17:33,430 --> 00:17:36,900
the charter and the human rights code were
well drafted.

249
00:17:36,900 --> 00:17:40,150
The problem wasn't that the courts weren't
effectively interpreting them.

250
00:17:40,150 --> 00:17:44,830
We had great court decisions explaining
what they meant that

251
00:17:44,830 --> 00:17:48,880
were very favorable to the needs of the
people with disability.

252
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:51,170
But what we found was that most

253
00:17:51,170 --> 00:17:54,240
government and private sector
organizations weren't obeying them.

254
00:17:56,090 --> 00:18:00,370
And to enforce your human rights, under
the human rights code,

255
00:18:00,370 --> 00:18:02,900
or under the charter of rights, you had to
litigate them.

256
00:18:02,900 --> 00:18:05,590
You had to get a lawyer and, and, and
fight them.

257
00:18:07,690 --> 00:18:10,980
Case of human rights at the human rights
tribunal,

258
00:18:10,980 --> 00:18:14,690
and in the case of the charter, by the
way,

259
00:18:14,690 --> 00:18:16,720
the human rights commission you didn't
necessarily need a lawyer,

260
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:19,510
but in case of charter you did
realistically, in court.

261
00:18:19,510 --> 00:18:21,880
And you had to fight one barrier at a
time,

262
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,060
and most people in with disabilities
couldn't take that on

263
00:18:26,070 --> 00:18:28,300
The other problem that we realized that we
had

264
00:18:28,300 --> 00:18:32,200
back in the fall of 1994 is that while the

265
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:35,910
charter and the human rights code were,
were good laws,

266
00:18:35,910 --> 00:18:39,170
they didn't actually tell organizations
what they had to do.

267
00:18:39,170 --> 00:18:41,150
They spoke in grand terms.

268
00:18:41,150 --> 00:18:44,330
Provide equality, don't discriminate, do
accommodate.

269
00:18:45,370 --> 00:18:46,990
But if you ran a restaurant.

270
00:18:48,380 --> 00:18:52,080
That didn't tell you you need to have a
braille menu.

271
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,330
Or if you had a store with one step to get
in.

272
00:18:54,330 --> 00:18:55,990
That didn't tell you, hey that one step

273
00:18:55,990 --> 00:18:58,580
that's a barrier that violates the human
rights code.

274
00:18:58,580 --> 00:19:02,120
We've faced all sorts of barriers, that
were agains the law

275
00:19:03,340 --> 00:19:06,220
But organizations that wanted to obey the
law didn't know what they

276
00:19:06,220 --> 00:19:11,150
had to do, and organizations that didn't
want to obey the law, didn't

277
00:19:11,150 --> 00:19:16,340
realistically have to face proceedings to
enforce them in most cases.

278
00:19:17,810 --> 00:19:19,770
Because of the extraordinary burden of
having

279
00:19:19,770 --> 00:19:21,810
all fight this barriers one at a time.

280
00:19:22,930 --> 00:19:27,280
So this, that's what motivated a small
number of

281
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:32,370
people in the fall of 1994 to want
something new.

282
00:19:33,700 --> 00:19:34,980
Want something better.

283
00:19:34,980 --> 00:19:40,690
A new law, not to replace the charter in
the Human Rights Code.

284
00:19:40,690 --> 00:19:42,890
And there are guarantees for people with
disabilities.

285
00:19:42,890 --> 00:19:47,250
But instead, a new law that would
effectively implement those

286
00:19:47,250 --> 00:19:51,620
rights, that would tell organizations what
they gotta do, and that

287
00:19:51,620 --> 00:19:55,210
would not require us to individually,
personally, fight one barrier

288
00:19:55,210 --> 00:19:58,180
at a time in court or before a human
rights tribune.

289
00:20:00,660 --> 00:20:01,820
Now, did.

290
00:20:03,690 --> 00:20:06,330
And when, while the small group of

291
00:20:06,330 --> 00:20:09,790
individuals were thinking about this in
the summer

292
00:20:09,790 --> 00:20:18,600
and fall of 1994, there was no organized
disability act movement to push for it.

293
00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:24,250
Moreover, if you had approached anybody,
you know, in the media They wouldn't

294
00:20:24,250 --> 00:20:27,960
have the slightest idea or if you talk
about leaders in the business community.

295
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,670
None of it would have any idea that there
was even a problem.

296
00:20:30,670 --> 00:20:33,060
Much less that some people were thinking
of a new solution.

297
00:20:35,820 --> 00:20:39,760
So what got the movement started what got
the organized movement started?

298
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,360
On November 29th 1994.

299
00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:44,009
Well it's an amazing story.

300
00:20:46,540 --> 00:20:48,700
A number of people had asked the Ontario
government

301
00:20:48,700 --> 00:20:51,160
of the day, it was a new Democratic
government

302
00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:56,440
under then new Democratic Premier, Bob
Ray, to bring

303
00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:58,770
in this new kind of law that we were
seeking.

304
00:20:58,770 --> 00:21:03,630
The name of the law we sought, we called
it the Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

305
00:21:03,630 --> 00:21:06,540
That name came from the fact that in 1990,
the US

306
00:21:06,540 --> 00:21:10,730
had passed the Americans with Disabilities
Act, so we borrowed the name.

307
00:21:12,550 --> 00:21:15,460
And Barbary wasn't prepared to introduce
that bill.

308
00:21:17,150 --> 00:21:20,860
He was a year away from an election, he
didn't want to take it on, whatever.

309
00:21:22,470 --> 00:21:27,540
So what happened is there happened to be A
deaf individual who was a member

310
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:33,460
of the Ontario Legislature named Gary
Myocowsky, and he was a new Democrat.

311
00:21:33,460 --> 00:21:35,110
He was not in cabinet, he was

312
00:21:35,110 --> 00:21:39,890
a back bencher, and Gary decided getting
feedback,

313
00:21:39,890 --> 00:21:44,250
by the way, Gary is the first deaf member
of any legislature in the Western world.

314
00:21:44,250 --> 00:21:45,810
It really made history.

315
00:21:45,810 --> 00:21:50,200
He decided to introduce his own private
members bill.

316
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:54,180
That's a proposed piece of legislation,
but not sponsored by the government.

317
00:21:55,390 --> 00:21:57,700
And he called it the Ontarians with
Disabilities Act.

318
00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:02,760
He introduced it early I think in the
spring or summer of 1994, and

319
00:22:04,970 --> 00:22:09,770
it was Not the organised disability
community that lead to the bill.

320
00:22:11,430 --> 00:22:17,740
It was rather the bill that triggered the
formation of a disability act coalition.

321
00:22:19,590 --> 00:22:26,020
Just like what happened in 1979, when the,
Bill Davis conservative government.

322
00:22:26,020 --> 00:22:29,380
Introduce proposed new disability act
legislation.

323
00:22:29,380 --> 00:22:32,550
That triggered the formation of a
coalition then.

324
00:22:32,550 --> 00:22:35,830
In 1994, the Malceski bill introduced or
triggered

325
00:22:35,830 --> 00:22:40,400
the formation of a coalition some 15 years
later.

326
00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:42,440
How did it happen?

327
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:47,250
I'm summarizing because of time
limitations.

328
00:22:47,250 --> 00:22:51,210
If you read the article, which I've had
published on the first eight years

329
00:22:51,210 --> 00:22:53,120
of our movement, in the National Journal

330
00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:56,953
of Constitution Law, you can get, more
details.

331
00:22:56,953 --> 00:23:01,710
But, in summary, what happened was, once
the

332
00:23:01,710 --> 00:23:04,614
bill got before the legislature, Gary
[UNKNOWN] '

333
00:23:04,614 --> 00:23:08,170
bill The government nest doesn't
necessarily bring it

334
00:23:08,170 --> 00:23:09,910
all the way forward for a final vote.

335
00:23:12,060 --> 00:23:15,690
So a number of us privately, pressured the
government

336
00:23:15,690 --> 00:23:19,220
to at least bring that bill on for public
hearings.

337
00:23:19,220 --> 00:23:22,240
Get it before a standing committee of the
legislature.

338
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,060
Let us come forward and make our case for
why we need the bill.

339
00:23:26,550 --> 00:23:29,100
Premier Bob Rae and his government decided
to do that.

340
00:23:29,100 --> 00:23:33,350
And the hearing started on November 29th,
1994.

341
00:23:33,350 --> 00:23:34,720
And they didn't start with us

342
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,000
making presentations, but instead they
started with

343
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:43,310
the cabinet minister in the Rae government
responsible for this area, Lindsay Emba.

344
00:23:43,310 --> 00:23:44,629
She got up and made a speech.

345
00:23:46,050 --> 00:23:50,520
And her speech didn't really talk about
Gary Makowski's Bill and

346
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,530
didn't really answer the claim of why we
need this legislation.

347
00:23:54,530 --> 00:23:56,030
It was just kind of fluff.

348
00:23:58,420 --> 00:24:00,740
All sorts of nice things about Gary
Makowski and

349
00:24:00,740 --> 00:24:02,270
what, what a great guy he is and of the

350
00:24:02,270 --> 00:24:05,640
usual what a great job the government's
doing or whatever

351
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,820
But no content on the subject that we were
there.

352
00:24:08,820 --> 00:24:10,090
And there were a number of people in the

353
00:24:10,090 --> 00:24:13,080
room, 20 of us from varies aspects of the
disability

354
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:15,810
community who heard that this, the
hearings were gonna begin,

355
00:24:15,810 --> 00:24:17,900
and we wanted to be there to see what
happened.

356
00:24:20,010 --> 00:24:23,410
So, our blood pressure was boiling, was
going up pretty fast.

357
00:24:24,900 --> 00:24:27,420
As the speech droned on, then the

358
00:24:27,420 --> 00:24:31,085
hearing's adjourned, and word got out
around the

359
00:24:31,085 --> 00:24:35,740
c-, room, around the, houses as we were
leaving the room, to come down the hall.

360
00:24:35,740 --> 00:24:38,670
I think Gary was the one who got this to
happen.

361
00:24:38,670 --> 00:24:40,490
But everybody said, like, Go down the
hall.

362
00:24:40,490 --> 00:24:42,219
There, people are meeting in Room
Whatever.

363
00:24:43,380 --> 00:24:44,150
At Queens Park.

364
00:24:44,150 --> 00:24:45,660
There was some empty committee room.

365
00:24:45,660 --> 00:24:46,440
We went in.

366
00:24:48,370 --> 00:24:53,570
And it was in that room, 20 of us, angry
at what we had just seen going

367
00:24:53,570 --> 00:24:57,830
on, before the legislative committee,
resolved ourselves to

368
00:24:57,830 --> 00:25:01,889
form a coalition to fight for a
Disabilities Act.

369
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,660
That's how it started, I had no idea
walking in

370
00:25:06,660 --> 00:25:11,000
that room that we would walk out with a
new coalition.

371
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,670
I had no idea that a month later, I would
become a co-chair and later, a chair of

372
00:25:14,670 --> 00:25:18,240
the coalition and it would gobble up a
substantial

373
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:20,600
part of the next 20 years of my volunteer
life.

374
00:25:22,580 --> 00:25:23,490
Delighted it has.

375
00:25:23,490 --> 00:25:25,950
It's been a wonderful experience.

376
00:25:25,950 --> 00:25:29,530
But sometimes, the most amazing events,
and the

377
00:25:29,530 --> 00:25:34,370
most amazing cascading series of events,
start with

378
00:25:34,370 --> 00:25:37,780
things that you can't imagine, or you
can't

379
00:25:37,780 --> 00:25:39,560
imagine where they will lead you, I should
say.

380
00:25:42,770 --> 00:25:50,240
How do we go from 20 people in a room to
two pieces of legislation ten years later.

381
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,470
Let me walk you through just a number in
summary from a

382
00:25:53,470 --> 00:25:58,070
number of the important steps, how we did
it and what happened.

383
00:25:58,070 --> 00:26:01,844
The first thing that we had to in early
1995.

384
00:26:03,230 --> 00:26:04,790
Is to formalize ourselves.

385
00:26:04,790 --> 00:26:05,830
Give ourselves a name.

386
00:26:05,830 --> 00:26:07,770
The Ontarians with Disabilities Act
Committee.

387
00:26:09,050 --> 00:26:11,740
Pick, we had first were three co-chairs
but

388
00:26:11,740 --> 00:26:15,160
eventually it boiled down to me after the

389
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,170
other two, who are good friends, decided
that

390
00:26:18,170 --> 00:26:20,530
they didn't want to carry on in that role.

391
00:26:20,530 --> 00:26:22,050
And we had to set out an agenda.

392
00:26:24,070 --> 00:26:24,690
What do we want?

393
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:31,810
Well, what we did in January of 20 of
1995, was to bring

394
00:26:31,810 --> 00:26:36,520
a bunch of people together in a room, and
we drafted a list of our principals.

395
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:37,379
There're eleven of them.

396
00:26:38,650 --> 00:26:40,690
And they were aimed at saying,

397
00:26:40,690 --> 00:26:42,860
essentially, what we want in the
legislation.

398
00:26:44,610 --> 00:26:47,950
We said they want the legislation to
achieve a barrier free Ontario.

399
00:26:49,350 --> 00:26:53,250
We said we want accessibility standards
passed to get us there, that we

400
00:26:53,250 --> 00:26:58,490
want effective enforcement, and that it's
gotta cover the public and private sector.

401
00:26:58,490 --> 00:27:01,440
Goods, services, employment, and so on.

402
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,200
And that it had to be meaningful and
effectively enforced.

403
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,550
And when we wrote those eleven principles,
we had a few

404
00:27:10,550 --> 00:27:15,400
guiding thoughts in mind which carried us
to this very day.

405
00:27:18,070 --> 00:27:22,720
The first is That we've gotta speak to all
people, regardless of their disability.

406
00:27:23,790 --> 00:27:26,790
We've gotta unite our community around
these principles.

407
00:27:26,790 --> 00:27:31,250
The second thing that we realized as we
were writing them is

408
00:27:31,250 --> 00:27:34,750
that they've gotta set out a clear vision
of where we wanna go.

409
00:27:36,150 --> 00:27:39,489
The third is we want them to appeal to
everyone.

410
00:27:40,970 --> 00:27:44,340
We wanna write them in a way so that
anybody reading them, whether people with

411
00:27:44,340 --> 00:27:47,890
disabilities, politicians, journalists,
whoever, that they would simply

412
00:27:47,890 --> 00:27:49,960
say, well, of course you should have that.

413
00:27:52,420 --> 00:27:56,620
So while ambitious, we didn't wanna be
controversial.

414
00:27:57,940 --> 00:28:00,599
We wanted to appeal to as many people as
we could.

415
00:28:03,510 --> 00:28:08,200
And we were an unusual coalition from the
start, because in the past,

416
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:10,300
any disability advocacy groups in our

417
00:28:10,300 --> 00:28:13,070
community, almost, I shouldn't say any,
but

418
00:28:13,070 --> 00:28:19,410
most of them were united to speak for one
disability group or a cross-disability

419
00:28:19,410 --> 00:28:24,610
group or whatever, but they were broad
organizations That addressed all issues.

420
00:28:24,610 --> 00:28:27,970
We decided we would only deal with one
issue.

421
00:28:27,970 --> 00:28:29,840
And that is the fight for a Disability
Act.

422
00:28:32,420 --> 00:28:36,070
Now from formulating those 11 principles,
which by the way,

423
00:28:36,070 --> 00:28:40,210
still remain our guarding, guiding
principles almost 20 years later.

424
00:28:41,850 --> 00:28:43,710
What did we do next?

425
00:28:43,710 --> 00:28:47,660
Well we had to pull together at least a
base of operations in Toronto.

426
00:28:47,660 --> 00:28:50,890
We were very Toronto centered at this
point.

427
00:28:50,890 --> 00:28:55,210
We reached out to some of the main
disability service providers.

428
00:28:55,210 --> 00:28:58,240
we reached out to a small number of
individuals.

429
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,635
We just wanted a starting critical mass.

430
00:29:00,635 --> 00:29:02,280
[INAUDIBLE] To get start,

431
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:08,820
and we learned a lesson early on once we
got our 11 principles written.

432
00:29:09,860 --> 00:29:12,120
That is also guided us to this very day.

433
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:20,390
What we decided were two things, first, We
decided that we

434
00:29:20,390 --> 00:29:23,180
would open the work together with anybody
who agreed with our agenda.

435
00:29:23,180 --> 00:29:28,400
And if you didn't agree with our agenda,
we weren't going to fight with you.

436
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:30,620
So there are some folks with disabilities
and thought

437
00:29:30,620 --> 00:29:32,600
the idea of a disability act was a good
idea.

438
00:29:34,010 --> 00:29:35,660
We would join up with them.

439
00:29:35,660 --> 00:29:37,940
There are other people who thought it was
a bad idea.

440
00:29:37,940 --> 00:29:38,850
And we said fine.

441
00:29:38,850 --> 00:29:40,180
It's a democracy.

442
00:29:40,180 --> 00:29:42,000
You're entitled to believe what you want.

443
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:45,510
But, we're not gonna spend our time
arguing with you.

444
00:29:45,510 --> 00:29:46,640
We're happy to share our ideas.

445
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,690
We're happy to learn about your concerns.

446
00:29:48,690 --> 00:29:50,030
But, life's too short.

447
00:29:50,030 --> 00:29:52,750
We're just gonna keep [UNKNOWN] people who
agree with our message.

448
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:59,000
And that has worked to this day because
one of the things, think about it.

449
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:00,970
It's not possible to get every single

450
00:30:00,970 --> 00:30:02,910
person with a disability to agree on
anything.

451
00:30:04,540 --> 00:30:06,170
People have different views.

452
00:30:06,170 --> 00:30:09,390
So our goal was to come up with an agenda
that would appeal to

453
00:30:09,390 --> 00:30:12,200
enough people and get enough people on

454
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:16,090
board recognizing we would not get
everybody.

455
00:30:16,090 --> 00:30:20,120
Unanimity is not possible, harmony is.

456
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:22,120
And that's what we fought for from day
one.

457
00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:24,850
Or strove for.

458
00:30:24,850 --> 00:30:28,050
I said there were two organizing
principles from the outset.

459
00:30:28,050 --> 00:30:28,810
That was one.

460
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:35,940
The other organizing principle that it
carried us through was this: any advocacy

461
00:30:35,940 --> 00:30:41,680
community organizing effort is by
definition daunting if not overwhelming.

462
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:47,420
So we found that to keep things moving, we
would try from time to time to

463
00:30:47,420 --> 00:30:50,630
just set goals for the next couple of

464
00:30:50,630 --> 00:30:55,270
months, focus everybody on those goals,
get through them.

465
00:30:55,270 --> 00:30:58,679
And then when we're finished, sit down and
go, All right, what's next?

466
00:30:59,850 --> 00:31:01,700
Lets just get through the next couple of
months.

467
00:31:01,700 --> 00:31:03,200
Well in February

468
00:31:05,250 --> 00:31:08,280
of 1995, what was our major goal?

469
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:09,570
Well it was easy.

470
00:31:09,570 --> 00:31:12,510
Once we got people together, enough people
together, to at

471
00:31:12,510 --> 00:31:14,880
least have a critical mass to get started
by enough people.

472
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:19,789
I mean a couple dozen, a few dozen, and a
few disability agencies.

473
00:31:22,210 --> 00:31:25,080
Our next priority was set by external
circumstances.

474
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,540
There was gonna be an election that
spring.

475
00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:28,160
We all knew it.

476
00:31:29,410 --> 00:31:35,080
So our priority, was to raise the
disability act issue in

477
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,739
the election, and to try to get
commitments from the political parties.

478
00:31:40,500 --> 00:31:41,200
How did we do it?

479
00:31:42,380 --> 00:31:47,960
Well at the time the Bob Rae NDP
government was way behind in the polls.

480
00:31:49,570 --> 00:31:52,180
And the liberal party under leader then,
the then

481
00:31:52,180 --> 00:31:55,430
leader Lynn McLeod was way ahead in the
polls.

482
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,690
And the third party in that, in the
legislature,

483
00:31:59,690 --> 00:32:02,179
the conservatives under a new leader named
Mike Harris.

484
00:32:03,370 --> 00:32:04,720
Nobody was paying much attention to.

485
00:32:06,170 --> 00:32:09,530
So we decided to focus, even though we
were non-partisan, we focused

486
00:32:09,530 --> 00:32:12,760
our efforts on trying to get an election
commitment out of the liberals.

487
00:32:15,090 --> 00:32:17,900
And so, we negotiated with, some of

488
00:32:17,900 --> 00:32:21,520
Lid McCloud's senior policy people behind
closed doors.

489
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:23,400
And when the election, around the time the
election

490
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:26,420
was called that spring, Lynn McCloud wrote
us a letter.

491
00:32:26,420 --> 00:32:30,090
She was the first political leader to
write a letter to the Ontario's with

492
00:32:30,090 --> 00:32:32,600
Disabilities Act committee, promising that
if elected

493
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,710
she would pass an Ontario's with
Disabilities Act.

494
00:32:36,710 --> 00:32:40,900
And we didn't even say what it would
include, it hadn't gotten that far yet.

495
00:32:43,750 --> 00:32:44,790
What do you do with that?

496
00:32:44,790 --> 00:32:45,950
Well that was great breakthrough.

497
00:32:45,950 --> 00:32:47,000
But you don't stop there.

498
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:52,220
So we took her letter, and sent it on to
the two other folks running for premier;

499
00:32:52,220 --> 00:32:58,900
Mike Harris conservatives, and Bob Ray
NDP.

500
00:32:58,900 --> 00:33:01,680
Bob Ray would not make a commitment to us.

501
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:03,070
He doesn't making any commitments.

502
00:33:03,070 --> 00:33:05,170
It was the weirdest political campaign
I've ever seen.

503
00:33:06,220 --> 00:33:10,900
A lot of respect for Bob Ray, but how he
handled that one we never quite fathomed.

504
00:33:10,900 --> 00:33:17,100
But on the 24th of May 1995 in the middle
of this election campaign,

505
00:33:17,100 --> 00:33:19,200
we received a letter from Mike Harris,

506
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,320
writing as the leader of the
conservatives.

507
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:25,950
Also promising that, if elected, Mike
Caras's government would also pass a

508
00:33:25,950 --> 00:33:29,260
disabilities act and that they would work
with us to develop it.

509
00:33:31,390 --> 00:33:34,150
Mike Caras saw the liberals, no doubt, as

510
00:33:34,150 --> 00:33:37,620
their lead opponent, leading in the polls,
wanted

511
00:33:37,620 --> 00:33:41,719
to be more appealing, so tried to match
the promise that we got from the liberals.

512
00:33:43,470 --> 00:33:45,080
Well, the rest of that election is
history.

513
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:50,960
The liberals plummeted, Mike Harris won
the majority of government, and we went

514
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:57,130
into the next phase of our activity
starting in June of 1995,

515
00:33:57,130 --> 00:34:03,300
election over, with this election
commitment in hand from the new Premier.

516
00:34:04,340 --> 00:34:07,680
But before I get to that, I wanna just
tell you just one little story about what

517
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:09,420
went on in the election, because it's a
really

518
00:34:09,420 --> 00:34:12,670
good illustration of how we did what we
did.

519
00:34:13,700 --> 00:34:16,670
And this repeats itself over the decade
over and over, and over again.

520
00:34:18,250 --> 00:34:23,850
During the election campaign in 1995,
nobody, but nobody had ever heard of us.

521
00:34:23,850 --> 00:34:25,590
Most people with disabilities, most

522
00:34:25,590 --> 00:34:28,580
disability organizations, most
politicians, all

523
00:34:28,580 --> 00:34:33,510
journalists, no idea about the
Disabilities Act, what the issues

524
00:34:33,510 --> 00:34:36,570
were, and during an election, if you try
to raise

525
00:34:36,570 --> 00:34:40,200
an issue, the people don't know about,
good luck getting coverage.

526
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,260
So we decided we wanted to do something

527
00:34:42,260 --> 00:34:44,069
to get some media attention during that
election.

528
00:34:46,230 --> 00:34:49,280
One of my colleagues, sitting around the
table one day, this was when

529
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:52,540
we had a working group of about eight or
nine people, nothing more.

530
00:34:52,540 --> 00:34:54,280
There are more people in this room right

531
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,300
now than we had doing our political
strategy.

532
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:02,650
One of my colleagues, wonderful fellow,
said, Why don't we

533
00:35:02,650 --> 00:35:05,540
go to an all candidates debate and raise
these issues?

534
00:35:05,540 --> 00:35:09,120
All responses media don't cover all
candidates debates.

535
00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:11,590
So the same individual spoke and said

536
00:35:11,590 --> 00:35:13,940
what if it's an accessible all candidates
debate.

537
00:35:15,700 --> 00:35:16,680
Brilliant idea.

538
00:35:17,710 --> 00:35:19,830
So we had a couple of our colleagues start
phoning

539
00:35:19,830 --> 00:35:22,910
around to every single all candidates
debate was being advertised.

540
00:35:22,910 --> 00:35:25,630
Find out where it was and ask if it was
wheelchair accessible.

541
00:35:25,630 --> 00:35:28,215
If it was, we were pissed.

542
00:35:28,215 --> 00:35:32,180
[LAUGH]
We can't go there.

543
00:35:32,180 --> 00:35:33,680
We can't make our point.

544
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:40,360
Finally, bingo, we found one of the school
down in the beaches that was inaccessible.

545
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,160
So once we heard that I said, well we
better make

546
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:45,670
sure really isn't accessible before we
make a stink about this.

547
00:35:45,670 --> 00:35:48,890
So we had somebody drive by and go in and
yes, absolutely, there

548
00:35:48,890 --> 00:35:52,280
are stairs, there is no way to get in
there without going up stairs.

549
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,720
So we arranged for folks to go there, and
we gave

550
00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:57,477
word to the media that we're gonna go
there to that All-Canada

551
00:35:57,477 --> 00:35:59,220
Seb-, De-, All-Canada Debate that night

552
00:35:59,220 --> 00:36:01,280
with folks with wheelchairs, in
wheelchairs,

553
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:05,170
and others, to raise an issue about the
inaccessibility of their event.

554
00:36:05,170 --> 00:36:07,940
What a great way to show why you need new
accessibility laws.

555
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:10,770
In fact, we said we wanted to complain

556
00:36:10,770 --> 00:36:12,840
about inaccessible schools but we can't go
to

557
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,105
your inaccessible school where you're
holding the all

558
00:36:15,105 --> 00:36:18,230
candidates' debate to complain about it
because it's inaccessible.

559
00:36:20,750 --> 00:36:24,709
And, the media loves photographs, they
love pictures, so off we go to this event.

560
00:36:25,810 --> 00:36:29,370
Well, one of the things we learned early
on is that as well,

561
00:36:29,370 --> 00:36:34,360
is that things never unfold as you plan,
and sometimes they unfold way better.

562
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:38,480
We get to this event, and we are outside.

563
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:40,120
There's about a dozen of us, of I think,

564
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:41,970
I don't know, four or five people in
wheelchairs, a

565
00:36:41,970 --> 00:36:44,430
few people who could walk, I don't even
remember all

566
00:36:44,430 --> 00:36:47,260
of But we were a small group and we're
outside.

567
00:36:47,260 --> 00:36:53,400
Everybody else is streaming in and we
couldn't get I shouldn't mention

568
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:57,030
these but the initials are 680 dues to
come to cover it.

569
00:36:57,030 --> 00:36:59,470
So I filmed the story in and they put me
on the air.

570
00:36:59,470 --> 00:37:01,990
You know I'm standing in front of this
suburban school house.

571
00:37:01,990 --> 00:37:04,290
There are people with disabilities they
can't get in they put it on

572
00:37:04,290 --> 00:37:08,370
the air You can't get the reporters to
come to you, become the reporter.

573
00:37:11,460 --> 00:37:14,920
So, that alone would be a great story but
it gets better.

574
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,840
One member of our group without consulting
with any of us, I don't even remember who

575
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:20,410
it was, went inside, this was someone who

576
00:37:20,410 --> 00:37:23,150
could walk, went upstairs to the all
candidates debate.

577
00:37:23,150 --> 00:37:24,460
And shamed the politicians.

578
00:37:24,460 --> 00:37:25,400
What are you doing up here?

579
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,540
There are people with disabilities that
can't, can't come in.

580
00:37:27,540 --> 00:37:29,410
Why don't you come downstairs?

581
00:37:29,410 --> 00:37:31,490
So the politicians came down.

582
00:37:31,490 --> 00:37:32,650
TV cameras are running.

583
00:37:32,650 --> 00:37:34,040
And they talked to us outside.

584
00:37:35,340 --> 00:37:37,060
Out comes my cell phone.

585
00:37:37,060 --> 00:37:40,930
Back on 680 News: Breaking developments.

586
00:37:40,930 --> 00:37:41,980
They put it on the air!

587
00:37:43,650 --> 00:37:47,240
After the politicians, entirely
embarrassed Finished high to

588
00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:49,390
us, they said they gotta go back in.

589
00:37:49,390 --> 00:37:51,985
Somebody from my group, again, none of
this was rehearsed.

590
00:37:51,985 --> 00:37:53,190
>> [LAUGH]

591
00:37:53,190 --> 00:37:55,740
>> Said, You can't go back in and leave
us out here!

592
00:37:55,740 --> 00:37:59,030
Meanwhile, while the, while we were
talking out front,

593
00:37:59,030 --> 00:38:02,100
some of the individuals at the All
Canada's Debate

594
00:38:02,100 --> 00:38:04,940
upstairs got bored waiting, so they came
downstairs to

595
00:38:04,940 --> 00:38:08,320
outside the building Where we were st,
standing or sitting.

596
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:13,420
Then the organizers ran in and started
bringing out chairs.

597
00:38:14,460 --> 00:38:16,870
And next thing you know the rest of the
all candidates debate

598
00:38:16,870 --> 00:38:20,556
was held outside on the sidewalk in front
of the inaccessible school.

599
00:38:20,556 --> 00:38:23,430
So what does [UNKNOWN] do?

600
00:38:23,430 --> 00:38:25,110
Out comes the cell phone.

601
00:38:25,110 --> 00:38:26,749
More late breaking developments.

602
00:38:28,010 --> 00:38:34,230
We were on radio, we were on TV, and we
were in the newspapers the next day.

603
00:38:34,230 --> 00:38:38,050
There was maybe 12 of us, on an issue

604
00:38:38,050 --> 00:38:42,020
fighting for a disability act that nobody
knew anything about.

605
00:38:42,020 --> 00:38:47,599
This was a huge lesson about the ability
to make a difference.

606
00:38:49,830 --> 00:38:52,170
And to make it up as you go along.

607
00:38:52,170 --> 00:38:52,670
So,

608
00:38:54,750 --> 00:38:55,380
what do you do?

609
00:38:55,380 --> 00:39:00,240
The election is over we got this letter in
hand from Mike Harris, promising us a

610
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:03,470
disabilities act and Premier Harris said
he would

611
00:39:03,470 --> 00:39:05,980
keep all his promises or he would resign.

612
00:39:05,980 --> 00:39:09,630
So we had to get to work.

613
00:39:09,630 --> 00:39:11,790
And we're nonpartisan, we'll, we'll work
with anyone.

614
00:39:11,790 --> 00:39:15,440
But people understandably were skeptical
of whether he would keep this

615
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:17,370
commitment, because his government was
committed

616
00:39:17,370 --> 00:39:19,970
to an, to deregulating business, and

617
00:39:19,970 --> 00:39:22,060
they didn't think it'd be, too readily,
too willing to a

618
00:39:22,060 --> 00:39:26,785
pass a law that would add any obligations
or requirements on business.

619
00:39:26,785 --> 00:39:30,720
[NOISE] So we tried to organize, tried to
get meetings with the

620
00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:35,330
cabinet minister responsible for this area
or with the premier, nobody would

621
00:39:35,330 --> 00:39:40,560
meet us so new strategy kicks in in early
1996,

622
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:45,900
we decided to go to Queens Park to bring
people with disabilites with us.

623
00:39:45,900 --> 00:39:48,710
And to get an opposition member of the
legislature to

624
00:39:48,710 --> 00:39:53,560
introduce a resolution to be voted on in
the legislature.

625
00:39:54,820 --> 00:39:58,010
Now, resolutions in the legislature are
not legally binding, nobody has

626
00:39:58,010 --> 00:40:01,180
to do anything, but it became a great
focus for activity.

627
00:40:01,180 --> 00:40:05,370
This is yet another illustration of our
early strategy that's become our "always"

628
00:40:05,370 --> 00:40:11,370
strategy of Focus people on a narrow range
of activities within our

629
00:40:11,370 --> 00:40:15,250
community so that they can all try to work
together rather than

630
00:40:15,250 --> 00:40:16,950
getting sidetracked and divided into a

631
00:40:16,950 --> 00:40:18,920
million different things that all peter
out.

632
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:22,890
So, what do you put in this resolution?

633
00:40:22,890 --> 00:40:26,200
Well, one idea was why don't we put in a
condemnation of

634
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:28,160
the government whereas Mike Harris
promised

635
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:29,850
he would pass a disabilities act, whereas

636
00:40:29,850 --> 00:40:32,470
he promised he would work with us And
whereas he's refused to

637
00:40:32,470 --> 00:40:33,700
meet us and whereas they haven't

638
00:40:33,700 --> 00:40:35,930
done anything, therefore we condemn the
government.

639
00:40:35,930 --> 00:40:39,390
Well you put in a resolution like that,
the government's gonna defeat it.

640
00:40:39,390 --> 00:40:40,120
So what's the point?

641
00:40:41,900 --> 00:40:45,670
So one suggestion that was given to us
from within our group was, why don't you

642
00:40:45,670 --> 00:40:48,870
pass a reso, write, draft a resolution,
that

643
00:40:48,870 --> 00:40:51,289
the Mike Harris Government itself can't
vote against?

644
00:40:53,810 --> 00:40:55,350
And that's what we did.

645
00:40:55,350 --> 00:40:59,280
The resolution in effect said, whereas the
government, I'm paraphrasing,

646
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:03,710
Mike Harris' government promised a, a
Disabilities Act, therefore this

647
00:41:03,710 --> 00:41:07,190
House resolves that the government should
pass a Disabilities Act

648
00:41:07,190 --> 00:41:09,340
and should work with the disability
community to develop it.

649
00:41:10,740 --> 00:41:13,030
So the government was put in a bit of a
pickle.

650
00:41:13,030 --> 00:41:14,890
If they vote against it what they're
really doing

651
00:41:14,890 --> 00:41:17,310
is saying, yes, we should break our own
promise.

652
00:41:17,310 --> 00:41:20,150
But this was a Premier who said he would
keep all his promises or resign.

653
00:41:22,550 --> 00:41:26,210
The strategy worked, because we got to
Queens Park and folks with

654
00:41:26,210 --> 00:41:30,499
disabilities came to knock on doors and
try to get this resolution passed.

655
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:36,140
The opposition, obviously, the liberals
and new democrats, obviously voted for it.

656
00:41:36,140 --> 00:41:42,080
The PCs spoke against it, but voted for
it, and it passed unanimously.

657
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:45,860
After that, the cabinet minister
responsible had to meet us.

658
00:41:45,860 --> 00:41:46,890
The, she couldn't not.

659
00:41:46,890 --> 00:41:50,770
The House had just unanimously resolved
they should work with us on this.

660
00:41:50,770 --> 00:41:51,270
This.

661
00:41:52,890 --> 00:41:55,620
But there was no real action, so what did
we do?

662
00:41:55,620 --> 00:41:59,880
What was our next priority after this
resolution passed?

663
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:02,150
Well we decided we would work on one
thing.

664
00:42:02,150 --> 00:42:04,740
And we decided counter intuitively we
would not work on

665
00:42:04,740 --> 00:42:07,520
another thing that you probably think we
should work on.

666
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:13,530
What we decided not to work on is what we
want In the details of a disabilities act.

667
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:17,450
Why shouldn't we work on that early on?

668
00:42:17,450 --> 00:42:19,460
Because we didn't have a government at the
table that

669
00:42:19,460 --> 00:42:22,620
was ready to roll up its sleeves and
really talk policy.

670
00:42:22,620 --> 00:42:24,300
So, we figured for us to spend our

671
00:42:24,300 --> 00:42:27,610
time debating policy over, how should you
define disability

672
00:42:27,610 --> 00:42:30,080
and which enforcement procedure should you
use, and, and

673
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,030
what should be in The Act and so on.

674
00:42:32,030 --> 00:42:35,040
It'll eat, gobble up our time, probably
divide people

675
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:38,990
within the community, and meanwhile we'll
be no further ahead.

676
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:44,440
We decided no, we're gonna set that one
aside until there's time, we reach a time

677
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,200
when the government was ready to really
talk

678
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:50,540
to us about the contents of a disabilities
act.

679
00:42:50,540 --> 00:42:54,530
So instead of the thing we decide not to
work on, the

680
00:42:54,530 --> 00:42:58,080
thing we did decide to work on was
organizing people with disabilities.

681
00:42:59,490 --> 00:43:02,330
When we started out, we were just Toronto
based.

682
00:43:02,330 --> 00:43:04,390
So we decided to go community to
community.

683
00:43:04,390 --> 00:43:06,780
It was all volunteer efforts or voluntary

684
00:43:06,780 --> 00:43:09,440
agencies supporting it and to organize
people.

685
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:10,130
How did we do it?

686
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:15,830
Put simply here's how it worked, you go to
a community, you find out who

687
00:43:15,830 --> 00:43:19,550
are the well respected, major individuals
with folks

688
00:43:19,550 --> 00:43:22,640
with disabilities or organizations with
good roots there.

689
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:23,960
Ask them if they'll pull an event

690
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:25,130
together, you don't ask them if they're
gonna

691
00:43:25,130 --> 00:43:28,450
head up some new committee or whatever no,
everybody will say, No, I'm too busy.

692
00:43:28,450 --> 00:43:30,830
So Look, all I want you to do is Can you
pull an event together?

693
00:43:30,830 --> 00:43:34,740
We'll come in and we'll give the speeches
and so on.

694
00:43:34,740 --> 00:43:37,790
And variably, somebody is prepared to do
it, and they did.

695
00:43:38,940 --> 00:43:40,920
And then, when you get to the event, the

696
00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:46,120
event really took part, took had three
parts to it.

697
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:47,680
We did this in about 20 or

698
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,920
more communities around the country,
around the province.

699
00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:51,590
And they are great fun.

700
00:43:51,590 --> 00:43:53,490
The first thing you do is have a, a
welcome

701
00:43:53,490 --> 00:43:56,770
speech explaining the history, what we're
here for and so on.

702
00:43:56,770 --> 00:43:59,040
Why we need a disabilities act, what the
government promised,

703
00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:01,550
what the, why they're not talking to us,
and so on.

704
00:44:01,550 --> 00:44:03,960
And that usually got people pretty
motivated.

705
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:07,480
But then, the core of the meeting was the
second part.

706
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:10,560
We played a game called, 'What's My
Barrier', wasn't really a game.

707
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:12,720
We had everybody sit at tables, around
tables.

708
00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:15,830
We had everybody go around and talk, go
around the table and talk about barriers.

709
00:44:15,830 --> 00:44:17,680
What barriers do you face, or what

710
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:20,680
barriers do people with disabilities you
know face?

711
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:22,410
Let's, and we had people keep a list,

712
00:44:22,410 --> 00:44:25,419
and we compiled this huge inventory of
barriers.

713
00:44:27,330 --> 00:44:29,900
And, got ideas on what could be done about
it.

714
00:44:29,900 --> 00:44:31,640
What should be done to fix them.

715
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:36,050
By doing this, we got people thinking in
terms of barriers.

716
00:44:36,050 --> 00:44:39,510
And this was a hugely important strategy
for us.

717
00:44:39,510 --> 00:44:42,890
See, up until the ODA movement came along
and the Disability Act movement came

718
00:44:42,890 --> 00:44:45,320
along, people usually talked in terms
within

719
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,359
the disability community, in terms of
discrimination.

720
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:50,850
And these barriers we face, whether it
steps to

721
00:44:50,850 --> 00:44:53,470
get into a bus, or a lack of sign language

722
00:44:53,470 --> 00:44:56,840
interpretation at a hospital, or no
braille on your elevator

723
00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,925
buttons, those are a [UNKNOWN] of the
human rights code.

724
00:45:00,925 --> 00:45:03,505
They are discriminatory in legal terms.

725
00:45:03,505 --> 00:45:07,550
However, the term discrimination tends to
alienate some people.

726
00:45:07,550 --> 00:45:11,040
Or at, you know, get people get their
backs up and so on.

727
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:12,830
So we decided, why don't we just talk
about barriers.

728
00:45:12,830 --> 00:45:14,620
Cause like, who's in favor of barriers?

729
00:45:14,620 --> 00:45:15,480
Nobody likes them.

730
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:16,290
Businesses think.

731
00:45:16,290 --> 00:45:17,970
If you go to a business and you got
barriers

732
00:45:17,970 --> 00:45:21,480
to customers spending money, oh no, I
don't want those.

733
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:23,070
Let's get rid of them.

734
00:45:23,070 --> 00:45:25,450
I want customers spending money on me.

735
00:45:25,450 --> 00:45:26,760
In my store, and so on.

736
00:45:28,100 --> 00:45:31,230
So the game, the activity, what's my
barrier, got

737
00:45:31,230 --> 00:45:35,830
people thinking in terms of barriers as
touching their lives.

738
00:45:35,830 --> 00:45:41,200
The other reason it worked really well is
because in the past, folks with

739
00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:44,490
disabilities had tended, not always, but
quite

740
00:45:44,490 --> 00:45:48,020
often, to focus on their own disability.

741
00:45:48,020 --> 00:45:52,900
So you'd have deaf folks advocating for
more sign language, or

742
00:45:52,900 --> 00:45:57,990
blind people advocating for more Braille,
or whatever it may be.

743
00:45:59,140 --> 00:46:01,620
And governments love that, cuz then they
can say, well, we'd love to

744
00:46:01,620 --> 00:46:05,070
give you more sign language, but those
blind people have demanded more Braille.

745
00:46:05,070 --> 00:46:06,420
And they play you off against each other.

746
00:46:07,750 --> 00:46:11,530
But by defining our strategy in terms of
barriers, by

747
00:46:11,530 --> 00:46:13,750
having people sitting around the table
talking about what, what's

748
00:46:13,750 --> 00:46:16,980
my barrier, what do I face, we got people
thinking

749
00:46:16,980 --> 00:46:20,540
that what they were all facing was the
same thing, barriers.

750
00:46:20,540 --> 00:46:22,650
Whether it's lack of sign language
interpretation in

751
00:46:22,650 --> 00:46:24,389
a hospital, or steps to get into a bus

752
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:29,410
Or whatever it may be, they're all
barriers.

753
00:46:29,410 --> 00:46:32,630
It became the common language that united
us.

754
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:38,500
And it's what prevented the government
from dividing us.

755
00:46:38,500 --> 00:46:40,370
And as our movement grew, what we found

756
00:46:40,370 --> 00:46:42,580
was that we were talking about each
other's barriers.

757
00:46:42,580 --> 00:46:46,520
So you might have a deaf person before a
standing committee at Queens

758
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:51,740
Park talking about why it's wrong to have
steps to get into a bus.

759
00:46:51,740 --> 00:46:54,230
Or a blind person who can handle spoken
language

760
00:46:54,230 --> 00:46:57,300
just fine, talking about the need for sign
language.

761
00:46:57,300 --> 00:47:02,310
It was a form of cross-disability unity or
harmony.

762
00:47:02,310 --> 00:47:03,710
To talk in terms of barriers.

763
00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:07,890
The third thing we did at these events,
after you got

764
00:47:07,890 --> 00:47:10,350
the people interested in the topic, you
talk about what's my barrier?

765
00:47:10,350 --> 00:47:14,850
You get up at the end, and I or whoever's
leading it, we would get up and say, Okay.

766
00:47:14,850 --> 00:47:18,190
Would you like to join, I propose that we
form a, a,

767
00:47:18,190 --> 00:47:21,625
a, regional group for the [INAUDIBLE] with
disabilities act in your community.

768
00:47:21,625 --> 00:47:23,220
All in favor Is always unanimous.

769
00:47:23,220 --> 00:47:25,460
And then we'd say, anybody wanna help us
organize?

770
00:47:25,460 --> 00:47:28,280
We're not gonna have elections.

771
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:30,640
We're not gonna have big, formal
structured bureaucracy.

772
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,720
Anybody interested in helping organize,
sign up.

773
00:47:34,150 --> 00:47:34,980
And people signed up.

774
00:47:36,740 --> 00:47:41,640
And then to finish the process, we always
wanted the AODA committee, wanted to have

775
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:45,200
a couple of people that they could use as
their point people in each community.

776
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,570
Now if you give them a fancy title,

777
00:47:47,570 --> 00:47:51,840
president, chairperson, leader,
everybody's gonna compete for it.

778
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,800
So we decided to come up with the
un-title, we called

779
00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:58,595
them regional contact, sounds like
something on top of a battery.

780
00:47:58,595 --> 00:48:03,470
[LAUGH] And we had absolutely no political
strife

781
00:48:03,470 --> 00:48:06,410
in any community Why is he the regional
contact?

782
00:48:06,410 --> 00:48:07,710
Why am I not the regional contact?

783
00:48:07,710 --> 00:48:10,340
It's sometimes, you know, two people,
sometimes somebody else

784
00:48:10,340 --> 00:48:12,020
would come along, say, miffed, I wanna be
one!

785
00:48:12,020 --> 00:48:13,778
Why isn't there, okay, fine, we'll have
three.

786
00:48:13,778 --> 00:48:17,860
>> [LAUGH]
>> Who cares?

787
00:48:17,860 --> 00:48:19,200
Three of you?

788
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,500
That means more people to handle the work.

789
00:48:21,500 --> 00:48:22,180
And it worked!

790
00:48:23,330 --> 00:48:26,470
And we left each community to kind of do
their own grass roots organizing.

791
00:48:26,470 --> 00:48:30,580
And we would liaise with these regional
contacts, and so on.

792
00:48:30,580 --> 00:48:32,570
And we went community after community.

793
00:48:32,570 --> 00:48:34,440
And the movement just grew.

794
00:48:35,820 --> 00:48:37,200
It was really exciting to see.

795
00:48:39,590 --> 00:48:40,410
The next.

796
00:48:40,410 --> 00:48:44,660
Okay, so that's, that's 1990 6, 1997.

797
00:48:44,660 --> 00:48:47,940
Let me now race through the next years.

798
00:48:47,940 --> 00:48:50,610
Because everything I've just said is the
groundwork.

799
00:48:54,287 --> 00:48:59,115
The problem of course at this 19, as 1997
rolls around is, how do you reach out

800
00:48:59,115 --> 00:49:01,563
to people, and how do you communicate with

801
00:49:01,563 --> 00:49:05,330
people, especially if you don't have any,
any budget?

802
00:49:05,330 --> 00:49:06,940
You've got all these people who, what they
have

803
00:49:06,940 --> 00:49:08,960
in common is, they agree with our 11
principles.

804
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:10,650
They've formed these regional groups.

805
00:49:10,650 --> 00:49:13,290
You need to be able to communicate with
them.

806
00:49:13,290 --> 00:49:19,320
Well, thankfully what was now starting to
blossom was email and the internet.

807
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:26,270
And starting, really in '98, we started
harnessing that power dramatically

808
00:49:26,270 --> 00:49:31,460
and have been using it to this day as our
way to reach out.

809
00:49:31,460 --> 00:49:36,840
Footnote, or pause for a moment, shameless
promotion right now.

810
00:49:38,250 --> 00:49:42,700
If you don't get our email updates and
would like to, we'd like to sign you up.

811
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:46,910
Jeff, if you could, Jeffery if you could
pass around a list.

812
00:49:46,910 --> 00:49:51,350
We're passing around a list, just print,
don't write, print your email address.

813
00:49:51,350 --> 00:49:54,180
If somebody's watching this on YouTube,
you want to get

814
00:49:54,180 --> 00:49:55,790
our updates, updates, just send

815
00:49:55,790 --> 00:50:04,010
an email request to aodafeedback@gmail.com
aodafeedback@gmail.com.

816
00:50:04,010 --> 00:50:07,570
Passing around the list is how we've
compiled more and

817
00:50:07,570 --> 00:50:12,100
more and more supporters, what I couldn't
say back then But

818
00:50:12,100 --> 00:50:14,790
I can say to you right now, before this
commercial

819
00:50:14,790 --> 00:50:17,880
break is over, that you can also follow us
on Twitter.

820
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:19,482
Alas, there was no Twitter back then.

821
00:50:19,482 --> 00:50:26,038
@DavidLepofsky, D-A-V-I-D L-E-P-O-F-S-K-Y.

822
00:50:26,038 --> 00:50:28,138
Or @AODAalliance.

823
00:50:28,138 --> 00:50:31,026
That's our new coalition.

824
00:50:32,150 --> 00:50:35,670
Same tweets from both, I encourage you to
follow us.

825
00:50:37,090 --> 00:50:38,715
I don't hear any smart phones coming out.

826
00:50:38,715 --> 00:50:39,700
>> [LAUGH]

827
00:50:39,700 --> 00:50:42,320
>> I encourage you to follow us, and to
retweet our tweets.

828
00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:46,490
If you're on Facebook, we have a fan page.

829
00:50:46,490 --> 00:50:51,950
Please like and retweet, and share, pardon
me, and share our, our page.

830
00:50:51,950 --> 00:50:56,170
It's called Accessibility for Ontarians
with Disabilities Act Alliance.

831
00:50:58,390 --> 00:51:02,820
And our tweets go out not only on Twitter
but on our Facebook page.

832
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:06,020
If only we had that 20 years ago.

833
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:09,610
End of commercial.

834
00:51:10,670 --> 00:51:13,185
Back to our regularly scheduled program.

835
00:51:13,185 --> 00:51:19,680
[LAUGH] So, it's 1997, 1998 we started
harnessing the power of the internet.

836
00:51:19,680 --> 00:51:23,170
We created a website to start posting
information and started sending

837
00:51:23,170 --> 00:51:25,600
out Ontarian's With Disabilities Act
committee

838
00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:28,530
updates to start spreading the news.

839
00:51:28,530 --> 00:51:31,790
That activity, which was brand new then,

840
00:51:31,790 --> 00:51:34,730
Has become a bedrock for our activity
today.

841
00:51:34,730 --> 00:51:39,520
And I will tell you, happily, that the
website of the Ontarians with Disabilities

842
00:51:39,520 --> 00:51:45,050
Act committee, even though that coalition
wound up in 2005 when

843
00:51:45,050 --> 00:51:50,180
the legislation was passed, we've
preserved the website online.

844
00:51:52,070 --> 00:51:54,600
As a legacy of all our work.

845
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:58,340
So if you go to ODAcommittee.net, you can

846
00:51:58,340 --> 00:52:02,920
read all our updates, starting back in
1998.

847
00:52:02,920 --> 00:52:05,080
So

848
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:08,050
what's next?

849
00:52:08,050 --> 00:52:08,640
1997 rolls around.

850
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:10,460
You've been doing the community
organizing.

851
00:52:11,470 --> 00:52:15,900
You got this resolution passed in 1996
what's the next phase?

852
00:52:15,900 --> 00:52:20,300
Well in the summer of 1997 we started

853
00:52:20,300 --> 00:52:24,200
getting a glimmer of indication from the
Ontario

854
00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:27,050
government that they might be ready to
talk

855
00:52:27,050 --> 00:52:30,360
to us about the contents of the
disabilities act.

856
00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:31,120
Just a glimmer.

857
00:52:32,830 --> 00:52:34,020
They said they might hold it.

858
00:52:34,020 --> 00:52:38,690
They, they started talking about holding a
public consultation and so on.

859
00:52:38,690 --> 00:52:42,540
That triggered for us our next priority
over the next year.

860
00:52:43,570 --> 00:52:46,910
We needed at that point to say, okay.

861
00:52:46,910 --> 00:52:51,239
Time for us to take off the em, to end the
embargo on talking policy.

862
00:52:52,250 --> 00:52:55,070
We've got to start developing concrete
proposals

863
00:52:57,190 --> 00:53:00,750
and so we launched a year long strategy.

864
00:53:00,750 --> 00:53:03,620
I don't have time in this lecture to get
into the contents

865
00:53:03,620 --> 00:53:06,890
of the policy but let me tell you how we
reached out.

866
00:53:06,890 --> 00:53:09,990
We continue holding these public forums
and

867
00:53:09,990 --> 00:53:12,830
engaging in this what's my barrier
activity.

868
00:53:12,830 --> 00:53:15,890
And we compiled all those barriers into a
major list.

869
00:53:17,010 --> 00:53:21,190
We then circulated a goals paper where we
asked people what their

870
00:53:21,190 --> 00:53:25,490
goals were for a disabilities act and
started gathering ideas from people.

871
00:53:26,620 --> 00:53:29,700
And eventually, this culminated in our

872
00:53:29,700 --> 00:53:33,570
preparing a blueprint for the disabilities
act.

873
00:53:33,570 --> 00:53:36,390
Which we made public in 1998.

874
00:53:36,390 --> 00:53:36,890
It

875
00:53:39,530 --> 00:53:45,270
explained in general terms what we wanted
based on our 11 principles.

876
00:53:45,270 --> 00:53:46,980
It made the case for it.

877
00:53:46,980 --> 00:53:53,230
And attached to it was an appendix Living
in a Province Full of Barriers, which

878
00:53:53,230 --> 00:53:57,060
actually summarized or synthesized All the
barriers

879
00:53:57,060 --> 00:53:59,960
we'd been hearing about at these public
forums.

880
00:53:59,960 --> 00:54:04,780
We did this so that our community could
look to this blueprint and see that it

881
00:54:04,780 --> 00:54:11,140
reflected the very input we'd been
receiving over the past three years.

882
00:54:11,140 --> 00:54:13,600
Moreover, while we had an, had not been
having

883
00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:16,706
a major policy discussion within the
community before this.

884
00:54:16,706 --> 00:54:23,240
We did float ideas and our blueprint

885
00:54:23,240 --> 00:54:26,050
reflected those ideas as they developed
over time.

886
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:33,370
Some of the input we got came from cross
disability community forums.

887
00:54:33,370 --> 00:54:35,960
Some were sent in by individual
organizations.

888
00:54:37,420 --> 00:54:42,100
Pardon me and some, one fabulous
initiative was undertaken by Gary Makowsky

889
00:54:42,100 --> 00:54:46,910
now no longer in the legislature, working
for the Canadian Hearing Society.

890
00:54:46,910 --> 00:54:52,180
And Chris Konopik who was then President
of the Ontario Association of the Deaf.

891
00:54:52,180 --> 00:54:55,180
They held a bunch of, a series of public
forums around the province.

892
00:54:55,180 --> 00:54:58,570
For the deaf community and sent in very
specific proposals from

893
00:54:58,570 --> 00:55:00,390
their community's perspective, which were
very

894
00:55:00,390 --> 00:55:02,710
helpful as we developed our blueprint.

895
00:55:04,210 --> 00:55:08,470
So we made our blueprint public in the
spring of 1998 so that the

896
00:55:08,470 --> 00:55:12,730
government had some idea of where we were
coming from, and as we put it,

897
00:55:12,730 --> 00:55:16,590
since the government wouldn't give us
ideas of what they thought should be done,

898
00:55:16,590 --> 00:55:20,200
We thought we'd put out a, our blueprint
as a discussion paper ahead of them.

899
00:55:23,260 --> 00:55:28,120
So, that was an enormous amount of effort
by a lot of people to pull that together.

900
00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:30,780
And it's still up on the ODA committee
website, you can read it.

901
00:55:33,350 --> 00:55:41,760
Along comes the summer Of 1998, and that
starts the next phase in our activity.

902
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:45,730
And, as with many other phases in

903
00:55:45,730 --> 00:55:49,250
our activity, external events define them
for us.

904
00:55:50,330 --> 00:55:56,230
In the Summer of 1998, the Ontario
government, 3 years after taking office

905
00:55:56,230 --> 00:55:59,830
under Mike Harris, Finally decided to
announce

906
00:55:59,830 --> 00:56:02,860
a public consultation on a disabilities
act.

907
00:56:03,990 --> 00:56:07,120
They didn't do so by a news conference,
they did so by posting

908
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:13,180
a discussion paper on the internet to low
profile it as much as possible.

909
00:56:13,180 --> 00:56:15,250
We were ready.

910
00:56:15,250 --> 00:56:17,850
We immediately leapt on their
announcement.

911
00:56:17,850 --> 00:56:20,180
And went public with it and rallied

912
00:56:20,180 --> 00:56:22,980
to organized people who dispel this take
part.

913
00:56:22,980 --> 00:56:25,900
We had a couple of major concerns about
their consultation.

914
00:56:25,900 --> 00:56:32,290
Their discussion paper actually rather
than being a basis for discussion

915
00:56:32,290 --> 00:56:36,850
tried to foreclose discussion on a number
of important, important points.

916
00:56:36,850 --> 00:56:39,190
It decided that any provisions in the

917
00:56:39,190 --> 00:56:42,400
act regarding employment would be
voluntary, not mandatory.

918
00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:44,660
There'd be no new enforcement agency.

919
00:56:44,660 --> 00:56:48,940
So went public, criticizing that.

920
00:56:48,940 --> 00:56:51,650
You don't have a consultation to find out
what should be put in

921
00:56:51,650 --> 00:56:54,820
a law by first announcing what you refuse
to put in the law.

922
00:56:56,750 --> 00:56:59,000
The second problem with their consultation
was that it

923
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:02,560
was, it was closed and it was invitation
only.

924
00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:04,040
They weren't going to hold public
meetings.

925
00:57:04,040 --> 00:57:06,090
They were going to have private
consultations

926
00:57:06,090 --> 00:57:08,280
with the minister or other government
officials

927
00:57:08,280 --> 00:57:11,910
would invite who they wanted to hear from
into a room behind closed doors.

928
00:57:11,910 --> 00:57:13,970
We thought that wasn't good enough.

929
00:57:13,970 --> 00:57:15,620
So what did we do?

930
00:57:15,620 --> 00:57:16,990
We swung into action again.

931
00:57:18,470 --> 00:57:22,110
We said that if the government wouldn't
hold public hearings, we would.

932
00:57:23,580 --> 00:57:28,260
So on August 4th of 1998, we used two,

933
00:57:28,260 --> 00:57:30,870
two or three committee rooms at the
legislature to

934
00:57:30,870 --> 00:57:32,840
invite people with disabilities to come in
and say

935
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:34,800
what they think should be in a
disabilities act.

936
00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:38,790
And we invited all three political parties
to send members

937
00:57:38,790 --> 00:57:43,050
of the legislature to sit in and
participate in these hearings.

938
00:57:43,050 --> 00:57:45,760
In other words, we called the hearings.

939
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:47,830
And we held them in the very rooms

940
00:57:47,830 --> 00:57:50,570
at Queens Park where the government
usually holds hearings.

941
00:57:51,810 --> 00:57:55,170
Well, the opposition NDP and liberals were
prepared to send

942
00:57:55,170 --> 00:57:59,320
MPPs obviously be there, obviously because
they're in the opposition.

943
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:03,510
They agreed with us, and they also, had,
it had tactical advantage for them.

944
00:58:03,510 --> 00:58:07,420
But even, I think, one conservative MPP
came,

945
00:58:07,420 --> 00:58:10,440
at least one, and if you were at Queens

946
00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:12,570
Park that night, you would have seen what

947
00:58:12,570 --> 00:58:16,910
looked and sounded and tasted like public
legislative hearings.

948
00:58:16,910 --> 00:58:20,730
Only legislature didn't call them, the
government didn't call them, we did.

949
00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:25,070
We also used every avenue we could to

950
00:58:25,070 --> 00:58:26,930
encourage people to pitch their position
to the

951
00:58:26,930 --> 00:58:30,430
government and to propose what was, to
support

952
00:58:30,430 --> 00:58:33,880
our blueprint that we had release earlier
that year.

953
00:58:35,790 --> 00:58:36,850
So what does the government do?

954
00:58:36,850 --> 00:58:39,600
Or what, what do we do when that
consultation is all over?

955
00:58:40,770 --> 00:58:42,920
We knew the government was gonna come
forward with a Bill.

956
00:58:43,920 --> 00:58:45,750
We were worried it wasn't gonna be very
good.

957
00:58:47,070 --> 00:58:50,750
And so we decided to preempt it and to get

958
00:58:50,750 --> 00:58:55,560
ahead of the game, by coming forward with
another Legislative resolution.

959
00:58:57,310 --> 00:59:00,580
The person who introduced this one was a
liberal

960
00:59:00,580 --> 00:59:05,720
back bencher opposition member from
Windsor named Dwight Duncan.

961
00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:09,380
He was later to become Ontario's finance
minister

962
00:59:09,380 --> 00:59:11,819
and a strong supporter of the Disabilities
Act movement.

963
00:59:14,510 --> 00:59:16,750
He came to us offering to do something.

964
00:59:16,750 --> 00:59:17,840
We asked for a resolution.

965
00:59:17,840 --> 00:59:20,720
He said what should be in it, we said our
eleven principles.

966
00:59:21,960 --> 00:59:25,350
We'd already gotten a resolution passed in
1996 saying

967
00:59:25,350 --> 00:59:29,350
hey government, will you pass the dis, a
disabilities act.

968
00:59:29,350 --> 00:59:30,620
Now we were going further.

969
00:59:30,620 --> 00:59:32,120
We were saying hey government would you
pass

970
00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:35,761
a disabilities act Did, it fulfills these
principles.

971
00:59:37,205 --> 00:59:42,102
Then he went to work again, lobbying one
member of the legislature at a

972
00:59:42,102 --> 00:59:47,900
time, and encouraging individuals to do
the same across the province.

973
00:59:47,900 --> 00:59:55,700
October 29, 1998 was a decisive day in our
In our campaign for accessibility.

974
00:59:55,700 --> 01:00:01,140
Because on October 29th, 1998, Dwight
Duncan formally introduced his resolution.

975
01:00:02,510 --> 01:00:05,490
The liberals and NDP supported it.

976
01:00:05,490 --> 01:00:10,560
People with disabilities were on the watch
the, the debate and to go door to

977
01:00:10,560 --> 01:00:14,400
door to campaign even in the building to
get NDPs to show up and vote.

978
01:00:16,510 --> 01:00:20,860
The, again, the [INAUDIBLE] conservatives
spoke

979
01:00:20,860 --> 01:00:23,990
against it but unanimously voted for it.

980
01:00:23,990 --> 01:00:28,590
That resolution passed unanimously.

981
01:00:28,590 --> 01:00:29,710
To this day,

982
01:00:31,720 --> 01:00:37,380
how many years later over fifteen years
later, to this day That resolution is

983
01:00:37,380 --> 01:00:40,830
treated as the yardstick for measuring
success

984
01:00:40,830 --> 01:00:44,770
or progress under disability legislation
in Ontario.

985
01:00:47,310 --> 01:00:49,680
It was an amazingly exciting day.

986
01:00:50,850 --> 01:00:54,469
But we learned another very important
lesson that day.

987
01:00:56,010 --> 01:00:58,390
And it's a surprising one, perhaps, for
some of you.

988
01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:03,580
Right after that resolution passed we went
to the

989
01:01:03,580 --> 01:01:06,870
Queens Park Media Studio to hold a news
conference.

990
01:01:06,870 --> 01:01:09,680
And speaking at that news conference, I
had the privilege

991
01:01:09,680 --> 01:01:12,960
of speaking as chair of the Ontarians with
Disabilities Act Committee.

992
01:01:14,910 --> 01:01:19,220
But sitting beside me was a gentleman
named Dalton McGuinty.

993
01:01:20,350 --> 01:01:23,300
The newly elected leader of the liberal
party.

994
01:01:23,300 --> 01:01:26,750
And he said that if he is elected premier,
his

995
01:01:26,750 --> 01:01:29,840
government will pass a law that will
fulfill this resolution.

996
01:01:30,990 --> 01:01:32,419
We got it on videotape.

997
01:01:33,710 --> 01:01:39,670
It was a huge step forward for us, but
what was amazing

998
01:01:39,670 --> 01:01:45,540
was not one single news outlet covered any
of it, none.

999
01:01:45,540 --> 01:01:47,740
There was no coverage of the resolution.

1000
01:01:47,740 --> 01:01:49,560
There was no coverage of the debate.

1001
01:01:49,560 --> 01:01:52,280
There was no coverage of the vote, and
there was no coverage

1002
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:58,100
of Pre, Dalton McGinty's Than opposition
leader Dolt McGinty's promise to us.

1003
01:01:59,130 --> 01:02:04,150
And yet this was the most decisive moment,
in years of advocacy.

1004
01:02:05,650 --> 01:02:07,010
What was the lesson we learned?

1005
01:02:08,330 --> 01:02:13,770
We learned that sometimes, the media just
missed the most important stories.

1006
01:02:13,770 --> 01:02:16,330
And just don't get upset about it.

1007
01:02:16,330 --> 01:02:16,960
Carry on.

1008
01:02:18,020 --> 01:02:25,810
It's very easy to get all riled up,
agitated, frustrated and hopeless when a

1009
01:02:25,810 --> 01:02:28,280
major breakthrough happens or a major
issue

1010
01:02:28,280 --> 01:02:30,860
comes forward and you don't get media
coverage.

1011
01:02:30,860 --> 01:02:33,720
But we learned then And I've learned over
and over

1012
01:02:33,720 --> 01:02:36,860
again, that there are times we get tons of
media coverage

1013
01:02:36,860 --> 01:02:39,470
when we least expect it, and there are
times when we

1014
01:02:39,470 --> 01:02:42,990
think we should get tons of it, and we get
none.

1015
01:02:42,990 --> 01:02:43,990
Just carry on.

1016
01:02:46,560 --> 01:02:51,399
That, that has carried us, again, for the
past 15 years.

1017
01:02:52,980 --> 01:02:54,780
Because as I said, you look back on one of

1018
01:02:54,780 --> 01:02:58,730
the most important dates, and we got no
coverage at all.

1019
01:02:58,730 --> 01:03:04,180
And yet that victory that day still
continues to serve us very well.

1020
01:03:05,810 --> 01:03:07,230
Well, what did the government do about it?

1021
01:03:09,310 --> 01:03:13,250
Government asked voted for the resolution.

1022
01:03:13,250 --> 01:03:18,190
But, about three weeks later, on November
23rd 1998.

1023
01:03:18,190 --> 01:03:18,690
The

1024
01:03:21,890 --> 01:03:26,500
government brought forward its first
disabilities act that

1025
01:03:26,500 --> 01:03:30,090
it proposed, the Ontarians with
Disabilities Act 1998.

1026
01:03:30,090 --> 01:03:34,010
It was a complete.

1027
01:03:34,010 --> 01:03:35,390
Disgrace.

1028
01:03:35,390 --> 01:03:38,560
It was only three pages long, including
the preamble.

1029
01:03:39,840 --> 01:03:44,410
It did not require a single barrier to be
removed anywhere, ever.

1030
01:03:44,410 --> 01:03:45,080
It was a joke.

1031
01:03:48,100 --> 01:03:52,050
The opposition, and by the way, we didn't
get any heads up it was coming.

1032
01:03:52,050 --> 01:03:56,230
The opposition in DP and liberals Blasted
the government over it.

1033
01:03:56,230 --> 01:03:58,060
The media slammed it.

1034
01:03:58,060 --> 01:04:01,320
The newspapers ran editorials against it.

1035
01:04:01,320 --> 01:04:02,850
We got a ton of attention on it.

1036
01:04:02,850 --> 01:04:04,630
If you go to our, the ODA Committee

1037
01:04:04,630 --> 01:04:07,360
website from back then, you'll see,
there's just a

1038
01:04:07,360 --> 01:04:10,160
ton of media attention at this, as being

1039
01:04:10,160 --> 01:04:12,240
a slap in the face to people with
disabilities.

1040
01:04:12,240 --> 01:04:17,590
17 days after it was introduced, as a
result of our opposition

1041
01:04:17,590 --> 01:04:20,880
to this bill, the government let it simply
die in the order paper.

1042
01:04:23,490 --> 01:04:24,750
So let me turn to 1999.

1043
01:04:24,750 --> 01:04:28,360
You're gonna wonder how in the next ten

1044
01:04:28,360 --> 01:04:33,180
minutes I'm gonna get you from 1999 to
2005.

1045
01:04:33,180 --> 01:04:36,130
But I'm gonna do it.

1046
01:04:36,130 --> 01:04:37,160
1999 rolls around.

1047
01:04:38,670 --> 01:04:43,168
We just continue doing our city by city
lobbying and organizing.

1048
01:04:43,168 --> 01:04:48,520
The government still came forward with

1049
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:54,680
no goals, so in, in November of 1999, a
year after the date.

1050
01:04:54,680 --> 01:04:57,830
When the government introduced its first
bill we got the opposition to introduce

1051
01:04:57,830 --> 01:05:00,930
a third resolution calling for the
disabilities

1052
01:05:00,930 --> 01:05:04,250
act to be passed within two years.

1053
01:05:04,250 --> 01:05:07,630
Yet again something the government
couldn't say no to.

1054
01:05:11,090 --> 01:05:14,700
And that, leg, that resolution passed
unanimously.

1055
01:05:14,700 --> 01:05:18,760
Earlier that year, 1999, the I'm a little

1056
01:05:18,760 --> 01:05:21,990
out of sequence, there was a provincial
election.

1057
01:05:21,990 --> 01:05:25,720
We went into, this was our second
provincial election in raising our issues.

1058
01:05:25,720 --> 01:05:28,700
The first, 1995, we were tiny.

1059
01:05:28,700 --> 01:05:30,200
This time we were much more organized.

1060
01:05:30,200 --> 01:05:32,945
And we went out raising disability issues.

1061
01:05:32,945 --> 01:05:36,990
Non-partisan, we don't tell people who to
vote for, or who to vote against, but

1062
01:05:36,990 --> 01:05:41,100
we simply talk about the records of the
parties and the commitment of the parties.

1063
01:05:41,100 --> 01:05:45,090
Both opposition parties promised the
Disabilities Act in the

1064
01:05:45,090 --> 01:05:49,470
1999 election that complies with our, our,
our 11 principles.

1065
01:05:49,470 --> 01:05:50,970
The Conservatives promised nothing.

1066
01:05:50,970 --> 01:05:54,250
And the Conservatives won another
majority.

1067
01:05:55,550 --> 01:05:57,470
One of the things we learned in that
election,

1068
01:05:59,030 --> 01:06:01,910
was a lesson that's carried us forward
dramatically as well.

1069
01:06:01,910 --> 01:06:08,520
Or a significant lesson that we has
informed our work later on.

1070
01:06:08,520 --> 01:06:10,430
Believe it or not, one of the hardest
times to

1071
01:06:10,430 --> 01:06:15,180
raise a provincial political issue, is
during a provincial election.

1072
01:06:15,180 --> 01:06:17,400
You would think it should be the easiest

1073
01:06:17,400 --> 01:06:21,140
time, but it isn't, because the media and
the

1074
01:06:21,140 --> 01:06:24,040
parties are all focused on the party
leaders

1075
01:06:24,040 --> 01:06:26,970
and their platforms and who's ahead and
who's behind.

1076
01:06:26,970 --> 01:06:28,540
You come along with an issue that they're

1077
01:06:28,540 --> 01:06:31,860
not raising it's very hard to get
attention.

1078
01:06:31,860 --> 01:06:33,150
We did our best.

1079
01:06:33,150 --> 01:06:35,290
But we learn not to be frustrated if you
don't

1080
01:06:35,290 --> 01:06:37,790
get a ton of attention and a ton of
coverage.

1081
01:06:37,790 --> 01:06:42,060
We decided to carry on our activities door
to door at our grass roots.

1082
01:06:43,160 --> 01:06:45,950
The government got reelected and as I said
a couple of minutes ago.

1083
01:06:45,950 --> 01:06:47,670
Sorry I was a little out of sequence.

1084
01:06:47,670 --> 01:06:50,970
November 1999 we got the opportunity to

1085
01:06:50,970 --> 01:06:54,810
introduce and unanimously got passed the
resolution said.

1086
01:06:54,810 --> 01:06:58,180
Disability's Act to be passed within two
years.

1087
01:06:59,650 --> 01:07:00,880
We then started

1088
01:07:03,130 --> 01:07:03,860
to count down.

1089
01:07:03,860 --> 01:07:09,570
2000 rolls around, government shows no
sign of doing anything.

1090
01:07:09,570 --> 01:07:13,400
So, at our suggestion, the Opposition
Liberals, again we'll work

1091
01:07:13,400 --> 01:07:16,510
with any party, but the liberals took up
this idea Decided

1092
01:07:16,510 --> 01:07:19,910
to hold their own shadow public hearings
and they traveled to

1093
01:07:19,910 --> 01:07:24,010
I think 15 cities around the province
holding public forums themselves.

1094
01:07:25,040 --> 01:07:28,240
Reiterating our and expanding upon our
message.

1095
01:07:28,240 --> 01:07:30,510
This kept the momentum going.

1096
01:07:30,510 --> 01:07:35,670
The fall of 2000 the government the
opposition liberals leaked to the media.

1097
01:07:35,670 --> 01:07:37,660
They didn't get this from us.

1098
01:07:37,660 --> 01:07:39,880
They leaked to the media that the
government

1099
01:07:39,880 --> 01:07:42,020
planned another Disabilities Act that
sounded like it was

1100
01:07:42,020 --> 01:07:44,360
only going to be slightly better than the
three

1101
01:07:44,360 --> 01:07:48,130
page disgrace that was offered to us in
1998.

1102
01:07:48,130 --> 01:07:52,840
The media gave that front page coverage.

1103
01:07:52,840 --> 01:07:56,340
We went into action, saying don't give us
another weak bill.

1104
01:07:56,340 --> 01:07:58,480
And the government backed down.

1105
01:07:58,480 --> 01:08:06,860
2001 rolls around and we get our, one,
two, three, fourth cabinet

1106
01:08:06,860 --> 01:08:11,300
minister on this file for the Mike Harris
government, a gentleman named Cam Jackson.

1107
01:08:11,300 --> 01:08:14,010
And Cam Jackson was the first minister who

1108
01:08:14,010 --> 01:08:16,950
seemed to be ready to take this file
seriously.

1109
01:08:18,100 --> 01:08:19,420
He went out and talked to folks

1110
01:08:19,420 --> 01:08:23,480
with disabilities in 2001 in various
communities.

1111
01:08:23,480 --> 01:08:27,660
And he put together a bill that he
introduced on the 5th of November, 2001.

1112
01:08:27,660 --> 01:08:32,310
That bill was to be passed by the end of

1113
01:08:32,310 --> 01:08:36,130
the year and was called the Ontarians with
Disabilities Act 2001.

1114
01:08:36,130 --> 01:08:38,559
It's still the law of the province of
Ontario.

1115
01:08:41,400 --> 01:08:44,060
That law was inadequate.

1116
01:08:44,060 --> 01:08:47,530
it didn't meet, even remotely meet all our
needs.

1117
01:08:47,530 --> 01:08:50,280
But it was to play an important role.

1118
01:08:50,280 --> 01:08:52,480
Let me tell you first what we did that

1119
01:08:52,480 --> 01:08:56,399
fall to mount our campaign, and what the
law contained.

1120
01:08:59,190 --> 01:09:02,120
What we did, we realized, once we realized
we had a bill

1121
01:09:02,120 --> 01:09:04,200
that was gonna be really coming, and that
we were gonna have to

1122
01:09:04,200 --> 01:09:09,300
be face to face with it in the
legislature, going through the

1123
01:09:09,300 --> 01:09:11,980
three votes, they're called three readings

1124
01:09:11,980 --> 01:09:15,780
in the legislature, and possibly public
hearings.

1125
01:09:15,780 --> 01:09:20,100
The first thing we realized Is that we
needed to

1126
01:09:20,100 --> 01:09:24,300
educate our community on how a bill gets
through the legislature.

1127
01:09:24,300 --> 01:09:26,320
Most people don't know this.

1128
01:09:26,320 --> 01:09:31,420
So we released a short guide, step by
step, to explain

1129
01:09:31,420 --> 01:09:34,170
what's first reading, what's second
reading, what's a private members bill.

1130
01:09:34,170 --> 01:09:37,720
What are amendments, what are hearings,
what's clause by clause debate, and so on.

1131
01:09:39,230 --> 01:09:40,760
And the second thing we did is, before

1132
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:43,590
the bill was introduced, is we released
check list.

1133
01:09:43,590 --> 01:09:45,050
Here's what to look for in the bill.

1134
01:09:47,740 --> 01:09:49,530
If it meets these requirements, it's good.

1135
01:09:49,530 --> 01:09:50,720
If it doesn't, it's not.

1136
01:09:51,800 --> 01:09:54,240
So, the two tools we gave our community.

1137
01:09:54,240 --> 01:09:57,920
And now we're using e-mail and the
internet to spread

1138
01:09:57,920 --> 01:10:01,700
the word cuz it's 2001 And reaching a lot
of people.

1139
01:10:03,670 --> 01:10:07,550
Would equip them to understand, both, how
the process works and what to look for.

1140
01:10:09,370 --> 01:10:12,750
November 5th, the government introduces a
bill, and that

1141
01:10:12,750 --> 01:10:17,340
bill was run through the legislature in a
mere sixweeks.

1142
01:10:17,340 --> 01:10:19,324
First reading, second reasing, reading.

1143
01:10:19,324 --> 01:10:25,150
Public hearings, third reading,
unbelievably fast.

1144
01:10:25,150 --> 01:10:26,450
We had to be ready.

1145
01:10:26,450 --> 01:10:29,880
It was an amazingly trying time.

1146
01:10:31,230 --> 01:10:34,950
What we did was we analyzed the bill,
released our concern about

1147
01:10:34,950 --> 01:10:41,080
it, which were many, proposed amendments,
and released a brief So that our

1148
01:10:41,080 --> 01:10:45,900
community could learn what our concerns
were and could go and raise

1149
01:10:45,900 --> 01:10:50,080
them if they agreed with them before the
standing committee of the legislature.

1150
01:10:50,080 --> 01:10:52,590
So, what did the bills say and what were
our concerns.

1151
01:10:52,590 --> 01:10:55,362
The bills said that any organization in
the

1152
01:10:55,362 --> 01:10:57,210
public sector, meaning the

1153
01:10:57,210 --> 01:11:01,990
provincial government, municipalities,
colleges, universities.

1154
01:11:01,990 --> 01:11:07,650
School boards, public transit, hospitals.

1155
01:11:07,650 --> 01:11:12,415
Every year they would have to make an
accessibility plan and make it public.

1156
01:11:15,413 --> 01:11:18,955
And it also said that any city with 10,000
people

1157
01:11:18,955 --> 01:11:23,270
or more have to have a disability
accessibility advisory comity.

1158
01:11:24,710 --> 01:11:26,410
So, what's our problem with it?

1159
01:11:26,410 --> 01:11:29,550
Well, for one thing, this bill would not

1160
01:11:29,550 --> 01:11:33,182
require a single barrier to be removed
ever.

1161
01:11:33,182 --> 01:11:36,490
Nothing, ever.

1162
01:11:36,490 --> 01:11:39,010
And, the second problem was, that it only

1163
01:11:39,010 --> 01:11:41,590
applied to the public sector, not the
private sector.

1164
01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:50,500
It didn't address barriers in stores, Or
in a doctor's office or a lawyer's office.

1165
01:11:50,500 --> 01:11:54,410
All sorts of important things, places we
might want to go.

1166
01:11:54,410 --> 01:11:57,000
But which are not in a public sector.

1167
01:11:58,170 --> 01:12:02,410
It did provide for accessibility plans
made by an organization like

1168
01:12:02,410 --> 01:12:05,520
this university, but it didn't require
them to be any good.

1169
01:12:05,520 --> 01:12:06,020
They

1170
01:12:07,830 --> 01:12:11,420
can have an accessibility plan that was
three sentences long.

1171
01:12:11,420 --> 01:12:15,170
We have a curb out front, we'll put in a
piece of wood on it.

1172
01:12:15,170 --> 01:12:16,050
Done.

1173
01:12:16,050 --> 01:12:16,860
You obey the law.

1174
01:12:17,930 --> 01:12:22,590
Moreover, the law didn't pro, require an
organization that has an

1175
01:12:22,590 --> 01:12:28,150
accessibility plan, to actually fulfill
what they put in their accessibility plan.

1176
01:12:28,150 --> 01:12:28,650
Ever.

1177
01:12:30,650 --> 01:12:32,960
It was great that it provided for each

1178
01:12:32,960 --> 01:12:35,018
municipality with 10,000 people or more to
have a

1179
01:12:35,018 --> 01:12:40,260
disability-accessibility advisory
committee but it didn't require the

1180
01:12:40,260 --> 01:12:42,670
municipality to ever listen to a word they
say.

1181
01:12:43,970 --> 01:12:46,860
Or if they disagree with them, or their
advice,

1182
01:12:46,860 --> 01:12:50,940
to ever give them reasons For not
following their recommendations.

1183
01:12:50,940 --> 01:12:54,770
So, he said, this is just way too weak.

1184
01:12:54,770 --> 01:12:59,006
So we put forward proposals to make
accessibility plans stronger.

1185
01:12:59,006 --> 01:12:59,580
To make them mandatory.

1186
01:12:59,580 --> 01:13:06,450
To make them enforceable and to extend
this beyond the public sector.

1187
01:13:06,450 --> 01:13:08,520
To provide for enforcement.

1188
01:13:08,520 --> 01:13:09,110
And so on.

1189
01:13:10,430 --> 01:13:12,870
The bill had other requirements, it
allowed the government

1190
01:13:12,870 --> 01:13:17,430
to create, create accessibility standards,
to detail what organizations

1191
01:13:17,430 --> 01:13:20,240
need to do, but it didn't require the
government

1192
01:13:20,240 --> 01:13:23,210
ever to make an accessibility standard
under that power.

1193
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:27,760
So what happened?

1194
01:13:27,760 --> 01:13:31,810
It was fabulous experience at one way and
a frustrating one, in another way.

1195
01:13:33,950 --> 01:13:36,640
The fabulous part was, the individuals

1196
01:13:36,640 --> 01:13:38,570
with disabilities, or disability
organizations from

1197
01:13:38,570 --> 01:13:42,350
around this province came forward and made
presentations at these public hearings.

1198
01:13:42,350 --> 01:13:43,860
The presentations were fabulous.

1199
01:13:43,860 --> 01:13:46,696
They're up on the ODA Committe website and
you can read them.

1200
01:13:46,696 --> 01:13:48,502
They're great.

1201
01:13:48,502 --> 01:13:54,070
They read, studied our proposals, borrowed
some of them, rejected others,

1202
01:13:54,070 --> 01:14:00,220
came up with their own, and offered rich,
diverse, and good ideas.

1203
01:14:00,220 --> 01:14:01,330
That's the good news.

1204
01:14:01,330 --> 01:14:03,710
The frustrating news is that the
government

1205
01:14:03,710 --> 01:14:05,319
didn't listen to virtually a word we said.

1206
01:14:06,720 --> 01:14:08,850
And ultimately, they made a few tinkering
amendments.

1207
01:14:08,850 --> 01:14:10,410
And then they rammed the bill through.

1208
01:14:11,540 --> 01:14:15,460
Last law that was passed under Mike
Harris's leadership, before he stepped

1209
01:14:15,460 --> 01:14:22,080
down as premier, was the Ontarians with
Disabilities Act, 2001.

1210
01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:25,890
Let me take you from 2001 to 2005.

1211
01:14:25,890 --> 01:14:26,550
In literally

1212
01:14:29,250 --> 01:14:30,550
three minutes.

1213
01:14:30,550 --> 01:14:32,030
From 2001 to 2003 we pressed the

1214
01:14:32,030 --> 01:14:34,750
government to effectively implement their
weak bill.

1215
01:14:34,750 --> 01:14:37,220
And they did very little.

1216
01:14:37,220 --> 01:14:40,960
2003 there was a new provincial election.

1217
01:14:41,970 --> 01:14:45,540
We urged all the parties to commit To a

1218
01:14:45,540 --> 01:14:49,690
stronger disabilities act that complied
with our 11 principles.

1219
01:14:49,690 --> 01:14:54,140
The NDP agreed, the liberals agreed, the
conservatives did not.

1220
01:14:54,140 --> 01:14:59,010
And in October of 2003, Dalton McGuinty
was elected Ontario's liberal Premier.

1221
01:15:01,470 --> 01:15:08,850
From 2003 to 2005, We didn't have to
engage in the kind of grass-roots advocacy

1222
01:15:08,850 --> 01:15:13,640
that I've been talking about for the past
hour to work with the [UNKNOWN] liberals.

1223
01:15:13,640 --> 01:15:16,050
Because when they took power, they made it

1224
01:15:16,050 --> 01:15:19,000
clear from the beginning that they meant
business.

1225
01:15:20,830 --> 01:15:25,165
And they assigned a new minister new, a
minister to handle the family Marie

1226
01:15:25,165 --> 01:15:31,510
Butriani. Who sat down and got active very
quickly on this issue.

1227
01:15:31,510 --> 01:15:34,510
She held public consultations around the
province,

1228
01:15:34,510 --> 01:15:36,740
with people with disabilities, with
business and others.

1229
01:15:38,090 --> 01:15:40,150
She came forward with a bill within a
year,

1230
01:15:40,150 --> 01:15:45,370
2004, while not everything we wanted, was
a substantial improvement.

1231
01:15:47,200 --> 01:15:49,820
She held meetings with the community and
her staff

1232
01:15:49,820 --> 01:15:51,830
did, to hear what their concerns were
about the bill.

1233
01:15:52,850 --> 01:15:56,590
They had televised public hearings around
the Province on the bill.

1234
01:15:56,590 --> 01:15:59,490
We came forward with proposals for how to
strengthened it.

1235
01:15:59,490 --> 01:16:04,730
While not all of our proposals were taken
by far, a number were, and the bill was

1236
01:16:04,730 --> 01:16:10,410
passed in 2005 May 10th of 2005.

1237
01:16:10,410 --> 01:16:14,220
In a nutshell, the bill was as substantial

1238
01:16:14,220 --> 01:16:18,460
improvement over the Ontarians with
Disabilities Act 2001.

1239
01:16:18,460 --> 01:16:22,390
It applied to the public and private
sectors,

1240
01:16:22,390 --> 01:16:26,840
it requires Ontario to become fully
accessible by 2025.

1241
01:16:26,840 --> 01:16:34,680
It requires the government to create and
act, and enforce accessibility standards.

1242
01:16:34,680 --> 01:16:38,050
Indeed, all the accessibility standards
needed to get to the goal of

1243
01:16:38,050 --> 01:16:43,370
full accessibility, by 2025, and it has a
series of powers for enforcement.

1244
01:16:44,760 --> 01:16:47,960
The day it passed Two miracles happened.

1245
01:16:47,960 --> 01:16:51,430
On the floor of the legislature, all three
parties voted

1246
01:16:51,430 --> 01:16:55,150
for it and all three applauded it with a
standing ovation.

1247
01:16:55,150 --> 01:16:57,690
That does not happen in Queen's Park very
often.

1248
01:16:57,690 --> 01:17:02,770
And second, right after it passed, in the
Queen's Park media studio, speaking in

1249
01:17:02,770 --> 01:17:04,620
support of the bill at a press

1250
01:17:04,620 --> 01:17:08,950
conference For the government, Dr.
Butriani, no surprise.

1251
01:17:08,950 --> 01:17:12,780
For the disability perspective, me for the
Disabilities Act

1252
01:17:12,780 --> 01:17:16,010
Committee and a representative of the
Retail Council of

1253
01:17:16,010 --> 01:17:21,600
Canada, To have Liberal, Conservative and
NDP, disability community

1254
01:17:21,600 --> 01:17:25,109
and business voices united at the same
time and place.

1255
01:17:26,160 --> 01:17:28,080
Was quite an accomplishment and was
something

1256
01:17:28,080 --> 01:17:31,540
that those of us a decade earlier, the

1257
01:17:31,540 --> 01:17:35,530
20 of us in that room that I talked about
earlier, would not have foreseen.

1258
01:17:37,950 --> 01:17:41,170
Let me conclude by telling you about a
fortune cookie.

1259
01:17:42,400 --> 01:17:46,350
Wanna summarize everything I've said, I've
told you about Leading

1260
01:17:46,350 --> 01:17:51,080
up to the enactment of this legislation
with a fortune cookie.

1261
01:17:51,080 --> 01:17:54,680
The day, May 10, the day the law was going
to pass.

1262
01:17:54,680 --> 01:17:56,610
And we knew it was going to pass that day.

1263
01:17:56,610 --> 01:18:01,220
I went to lunch with a friend and we went
to a Chinese restaurant.

1264
01:18:01,220 --> 01:18:03,480
They brought us fortune cookies at the
end.

1265
01:18:03,480 --> 01:18:05,340
I regret the fortune was not in Braille.

1266
01:18:05,340 --> 01:18:09,920
I would need a fortune cake, not a fortune
cookie, to fit a Braille fortune in it.

1267
01:18:09,920 --> 01:18:12,220
But I opened the cookie, ate it quickly,
and

1268
01:18:12,220 --> 01:18:14,900
passed the fortune over to a friend of
mine.

1269
01:18:14,900 --> 01:18:20,030
The words on that fortune summarized the
ten years' advocacy

1270
01:18:20,030 --> 01:18:22,689
by the Disability Committee that I've had
the privilege of serving.

1271
01:18:23,970 --> 01:18:26,590
Those ten years of work summarized in the

1272
01:18:26,590 --> 01:18:28,540
words on that fortune, which were simply
this.

1273
01:18:29,620 --> 01:18:33,850
Every great accomplishment is, at first,
impossible.

1274
01:18:35,000 --> 01:18:41,069
What we set out to do back in November of
1994 was by any measure impossible.

1275
01:18:42,810 --> 01:18:44,580
But with the efforts of individuals

1276
01:18:44,580 --> 01:18:48,420
from around the province, liberals,
conservatives, NDP,

1277
01:18:48,420 --> 01:18:52,880
young and old, men and women, every kind
of disability or no disability.

1278
01:18:52,880 --> 01:18:57,740
We were able to accomplish the passage of
this legislation.

1279
01:18:57,740 --> 01:19:00,600
Now, it's for later lectures for me to
talk about

1280
01:19:00,600 --> 01:19:03,140
that I'll be doing in Osgood, Holland,
which you're invited.

1281
01:19:03,140 --> 01:19:05,120
Talk about what's happened since 2005.

1282
01:19:05,120 --> 01:19:09,300
Why we're disappointed that we aren't
further ahead, and

1283
01:19:09,300 --> 01:19:11,230
what we're trying to do to make it better.

1284
01:19:11,230 --> 01:19:14,440
To learn more about our activities, you
can

1285
01:19:14,440 --> 01:19:18,020
visit the website of the the, Ontarians
with Disabilities

1286
01:19:18,020 --> 01:19:19,610
Act Committee would up, in the Summer of

1287
01:19:19,610 --> 01:19:22,590
2005, cuz it existed to get these laws
passed.

1288
01:19:24,390 --> 01:19:27,520
A new coalition took over its function,

1289
01:19:27,520 --> 01:19:30,150
called the Accessibility for Ontarians
with Disabilities Act.

1290
01:19:30,150 --> 01:19:32,330
The law that was passed in 2005.

1291
01:19:32,330 --> 01:19:34,500
Liberals call it the Accessibility for
Ontarians with

1292
01:19:34,500 --> 01:19:38,620
Disabilities, Accessibility for Ontarians
with Disabilities Act or AODA.

1293
01:19:40,170 --> 01:19:43,990
The new coalition that took over became
known as the AODA Alliance.

1294
01:19:43,990 --> 01:19:49,998
To learn more about it, you can email at
AODAfeedback@gmail.com,

1295
01:19:49,998 --> 01:19:54,200
or visit www.AODAalliance.org.

1296
01:19:54,200 --> 01:19:56,840
But I, I conclude with the words of that

1297
01:19:56,840 --> 01:20:01,160
fortune cookie, every great accomplishment
is, at first, impossible.

1298
01:20:01,160 --> 01:20:02,350
Thank you very much.