English

Dignity For All, the campaign for a poverty-free Canada

29 July 2009

For immediate release

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) is pleased to announce that it has accepted an invitation to serve on the steering committee of Dignity For All, the campaign for a poverty-free Canada. “Poverty is a very real issue for Canadians with disabilities. Canadians with disabilities are almost twice as likely to live in poverty compared to other Canadians,” states Marie White, CCD Chairperson.

January 2009
31 Days and 16 Meetings Later

For lots of folks, January is a month for making resolutions. For CCD, January was a month for meetings.

Meeting #1 Disabling Poverty/Enabling Citizenship (January 6-7 in Winnipeg

Ramping Up to a Federal Election—For our kids, summer means no text books and homework for a few weeks. For our politicians, summer means doing the rounds of barbeques and various types of festivals, where they meet with the electorate. This summer will be especially busy for Canada’s politicians, as the pundits are predicting a fall election. If you encounter any of our Federal politicians this summer, discuss with them the issues that CCD would like to see addressed in party platforms for the next election.

Court of Appeal File No. CA035937

BOLD FEASIBILITIES: A NEW POLICY SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE FOR CANADIANS WITH DISABILITIES

SUBMISSION
TO
SENATE SUB-COMMITTEE ON CITIES
THE SENATE OF CANADA

BY

MICHAEL J. PRINCE
LANSDOWNE PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL POLICY
UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
mprince@uvic.ca

 22 June 2009

 OVERVIEW

30 June 2009: School’s out and the summer season officially begins! Before we all get too consumed by our summer activities, I have one piece of business for you to consider—the CCD Summer Report Card, which summarizes our accomplishments during the first six months of 2009. CCD has performed in an excellent manner in a number of critical areas: Membership Development, Promoting an Inclusive and Accessible Canada, Organizational Sustainability and Honouring Community Leaders.

CCD Summer Report Card

Membership Development

May was an extremely busy month for transferring knowledge about disability, increasing awareness about our issues, joining other communities and celebrating accomplishments. CCD’s volunteers and staff presented our message of full citizenship, inclusion, and access to a wide variety of audiences, ranging from the BC Court of Appeal, the Senate, and community advocates focused on poverty. Some CCD volunteers joined the decision-making structures of other organizations. Working on the inside of an organization is another way to affect change.

April 17 was Equality Day—the 24th anniversary of the coming into effect of Section 15, the Equality Rights Section, of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The other sections came into effect on 17 April 1982. Governments were given a grace period to bring offending legislation into line with the equality requirements of Section 15. Unfortunately, the legislative reforms put forward by the Federal Government did not result in substantive equality for persons with disabilities.

While I have not raised the National Action Plan with you in some months, I want to assure everyone in the CCD network that we continue to pursue the Plan’s objectives and that we are moving forward with planning for another End Exclusion event. First, I will share with you what CCD has been doing this month to advance various Plan recommendations and then I will bring you up-to-date on plans for the next End Exclusion function.

June 19, 2009

An Open Letter to Members of Parliament

RE: C-384 AN ACT TO AMEND THE CRIMINAL CODE (RIGHT TO DIE WITH DIGNITY) (FRANCINE LALONDE)