We need your support! Please plan to attend an upcoming Special Event or Meeting:
What is wrong in BC for people with disabilities and what can be done to make it right.
Zosia Ettenberg and the Langley
Pos-Abilities Society Present
Civil Rights Now!
Saturday November 20
1:30 to 3:30 pm
Langley Senior Centre
20605—51B Ave, Langley
Civil Rights Now! is a not for profit, non-partisan, all volunteer society that thinks the way the government of BC delivers services to voters with disabilities strips them of their freedom and dignity. Because accessible housing, effective health care, community care, appropriate education and assistive technology is not a right for any Canadian, a voter with a disabilities’ freedom and dignity can be taken away from them at the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen.
What do BC voters with disabilities need?
- Law that gives the equality provisions of the Canadian Charter practical force and effect in their daily lives.
- Law that gives every BC voter with a disability truly-portable, sufficiently-funded, consumer-driven Individualized Funding.
- The ability to enforce the law by government funding of test cases involving the civil rights of BC voters with disabilities.
- Laws similar to the US 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Australia’s 1992 Disability Discrimination Act, the UK 1995 Disability Discrimination Act, the UK 1996 Direct Payments Act, the Republic of Ireland’s 1999 National Disability Authority Act, New Zealand’s 2000 Public Health and Disability Act, Ontario’s 2001 Ontarians with Disabilities Act, the Republic of Ireland’s 2005 Disability Act, Ontario’s 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and Australia’s 2006 Disability Act.
BC doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel; BC simply has to replicate the successes and not repeat the failures of other provinces and countries.
Since politicians only see the light when they feel the heat Civil Rights Now! is organizing a campaign to persuade the provincial Liberals and NDP to make a commitment that if they form government after the election in May 2013 they will enact such laws in BC by no later than May, 2015.
Please join Zosia Ettenberg and the rest of the Langley Pos-Abilities Society in discussing with Civil Rights Now! founder Paul Caune and Civil Right Now! Board members Jean Lewis, Bev Sharpe and David Marley what is wrong in BC for voters with disabilities and what we can do to make it right.
Who should attend?
- Voters with disabilities and their families
- Parents of children with disabilities
- Seniors and their families
- Interested members of the community
RSVP ASAP the Langley Pos-Abilities Society pos-abilities@telus.net
If you want more information about Civil Rights Now! contact Paul Caune at 604.928.1644 or Email Us or visit their website https://civilrightsnow.ca/ or their Facebook page Civil Rights Now! BC or click this link to a CTV report about the events that inspired the founding of Civil Rights Now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh-AGa3rB2c
Please forward this invitation to everybody in your network.
Civil Rights Now! is a non-partisan, all volunteer, not for profit society incorporated in 2009 to advocate for systemic reforms to protect the freedom of voters with disabilities.
Paul Caune, Founder and Executive Director of Civil Rights Now!
I was born with Muscular Dystrophy in 1968 and lived with my family in North Vancouver until I was 28 years old. I attended elementary and secondary school, as well as Capilano College, in North Vancouver. I had a very typical, suburban childhood and adolescence. I did not begin using a wheelchair until I was 26 years old. I became ventilator dependent 10 years later in 2004.
I moved into a group home in my community when I was 28 years old and lived there until I was forced to leave by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH). They refused to fund the minimal extra support needed by the group home for my care.
During this time, I was admitted to Lions Gate Hospital because I had pneumonia. While in hospital, I was advised by the group home that based upon the VCH’s decision to withhold funding which would provide for my necessary care, I could not return to the group home. Now, I was homeless….at the age of 37….a life-long North Vancouver resident.
My new home was a two-bed room in Lions Gate Hospital. I lived in the hospital on the tax payer’s dime for six months, only one of which was medically necessary. Most people can’t stay in hospital overnight after surgery! During this time I, along with my aging parents, searched desperately for affordable, accessible housing with necessary supports on the North Shore. It didn’t exist in 2005 and it still doesn’t exist today.
My parents contacted both North Vancouver MLAs, and their federal MP, none of whom were able to do anything to assist me.
After six months of searching for adequate accommodation in my community and finding none, the VCH informed me that I had to leave Lions Gate Hospital and move to the George Pearson Centre (GPC) in south-east Vancouver, far from my family and community. GPC is a 58 year old, 120 bed, nursing home. I didn’t then, and still don’t, need to live in a nursing home.
Initially, I refused consent to go to GPC. I was advised by VCH that I didn’t have a right to refuse consent to live in a nursing home. I was told that if I persisted to refuse consent I’d be charged with violating the Trespass Act. Then, my family doctor, who had been my physician since I was a baby, was told the VCH could have me committed under the Mental Health Act. He rushed to tell me this in a panic. I still refused to give consent. VCH’s next tactic was to have two RCMP officers enter my hospital room to intimidate me into consenting. To their credit, the next day the RCMP told the press that “this was not a police matter, that they would not touch [me].” VCH’s final tactic was to seek a court order authorizing use of force to remove me from Lions Gate Hospital and put me into GPC. They also sought an order that if I showed up at any other VCH facility, I would be forcibly removed and put into GPC.
Simultaneously VCH offered me a deal. They agreed that if I went to GPC, they would find me suitable accommodation back on the North Shore within two years. My family and I sought legal advice regarding my situation. $5,000 later, we were told that my legal position was weak. Because VCH’s intimidation tactics were getting increasingly aggressive, culminating in their most recent threat of a court order, I reluctantly agreed to go to GPC.
Was GPC as bad as I feared it would be? No. It was much worse. I was abused by some of its staff. When I made an official complaint about the most serious abuse, I was told by the person evaluating it that even if she believed me, she, “would do nothing.” The people responsible for the most serious abuse were never held accountable. Life in GPC was best summed up in the words of an elderly resident who said to me during my time there, “We can’t say what really goes on here, because if we do the staff will retaliate against us.”
After more than two years of unrelenting self-advocacy, I escaped from GPC into innovative social housing, though not located in my home community of North Vancouver.
These events happened to me but by no means are they unique in the province of BC. They inspired me to found Civil Rights Now!
In addition to being the Executive Director of Civil Rights Now! I am on the Boards of the BC Association of Individualized Technology and Supports for People with Disabilities (BCITS) and Medicare For Autism Now! I am also one of the founders of EQUALS BC and was recently (Sept 2010) selected for the City of Vancouver Council Disability Advisory Committee. Here’s a link to a video of CTV report about Paul and a link (no longer available) to a transcript to Civil Rights Now! interview with the Bill Good Show
Board of Civil Rights Now!
Jean Lewis
Jean is the mother of two, who since her youngest son was diagnosed with autism in 1996 became the co-founder and leading spokesperson for FEAT of BC (Families for Early Autism Treatment) an organization dedicated to obtaining science-based autism treatment within Canada’s healthcare system. Jean was the co-chair of the litigation steering committee for Auton, a Canadian landmark Charter disability case. She performed the same role in Hewko, litigation aimed at ensuring children with autism gain equal access to BC’s education system. In 2008, Jean co-founded Medicare for Autism Now, a non-partisan, national advocacy group focused on creating political will in support of necessary public policy change. Here’s a link to a video of a 2008 speech by Jean.
David Marley
David has spent his professional career as a trial lawyer, public policy advocate or senior political advisor at the both the federal and provincial government levels. Since 1972, he has performed leading roles in over a dozen political campaigns in BC or Ontario. In 2005, David designed a national political strategy for FEAT of BC and is a co-founder of Medicare for Autism Now. Here’s a link to a video of a 2008 speech by David.
Beverley Sharpe
Beverley is the mother of two, who works full-time with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Since her daughter was diagnosed with autism in 1998, she has advocated at all levels of government for both autism treatment funding and equal access for children with autism within the BC education system. Bev was a member of the litigation steering committee for both the Auton and Hewko cases. She is a long-time leading member, and currently a director, of FEAT of BC and has often spoken before parents and others at numerous events. Here’s a link to a video of a 2008 speech by Bev.