Now Julian is trying to entrench this with a private member’s bill to institute a Canadians With Disabilities Act. The bill is patterned on the Americans With Disabilities Act, which passed in 1990 and aimed to reduce barriers to employment, transportation, public services, and telecommunications.

If he is reelected on January 23, the MP will consult with stakeholder groups on his proposed bill, which he said will promote and enable accessibility to services for Canadians with disabilities. This area, he added, “has been neglected for decades”.

Julian—former executive director of the Vancouver-based Western Institute for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing—began drafting the bill a year ago. The NDP election platform commits to the introduction of this legislation “at the earliest opportunity”.

But not all disability advocacy groups are in favour of Julian’s plan. Margaret Birrell, chief executive director of the BC Coalition of People With Disabilities, told the Georgia Straight that she lauds Julian’s relentless desire for positive change but added that he has failed to convince the BCCPD board of his drafted bill’s merits.

“The BCCPD does not support the proposed Canadians With Disabilities Act, as we believe it would harm existing Charter rights,” Birrell said. Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms already guarantees equality under the law for Canadians with disabilities.

Julian said stakeholder groups “haven’t seen the final draft” of the bill. “That’s what we’ve addressed in the final draft—make sure it doesn’t derogate in any way from existing rights,” he said. “But we’re not seeing accessibility, and that’s really the issue. That’s a federal jurisdiction. The BC Coalition of People With Disabilities raised those concerns; I met with the board of directors and I intend to meet with them again on the final draft. The other groups that we’ve consulted with across the country have been strongly in favour.”

Jack Styan, executive director and external-relations director of the Vancouver-based Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network, who knows of Julian’s draft private member’s bill, said PLAN has been busy working over the past couple of years to implement an extensive Registered Disability Savings Plan.

“We would support Julian’s idea in principle,” Styan explained. “We would want to make sure there are some enforcement teeth in terms of accessibility.”

In 2004, Julian won a slim majority in his NDP–friendly riding, gaining 14,061 votes in a three-way split against Liberal challenger Mary Pynenburg and Conservative Mike Redmond. Julian and Pynenburg square off again this time.

“This area is the centre of the deaf community of B.C.,” Julian said. “We have two deaf schools down the street: B.C. [Provincial] School for the Deaf and Victory Hill [Residential Program]. When I go canvassing, I’m often using American Sign Language.…My signing is by no means good…but I can get my message across.”

Julian estimated that about half the homeless and 40 percent of those who have to utilize food banks to make ends meet each month are people with disabilities. This includes individuals who are “culturally” deaf (raised using American Sign Language), deafened (lost hearing later in life), hard of hearing, deaf and blind, sight-impaired, and physically restricted in accessing services, housing, and, importantly, employment.

“When you hire somebody with disabilities, you get a very loyal employee,” Julian said. “Study after study has proven that a person with disabilities is going to remain much longer in a position, eliminating that turnover, if they’re hired and if the disability supports are in place. The problem is, the disability supports aren’t in place. Often that means the difference between success and failure for getting and retaining that job.”

“That [American legislation] is not perfect by any means, but they are still significantly ahead of Canada,” Julian said. “I think it is to our shame that we have not moved to put similar legislation in place, both federally and provincially.”

By Matthew Burrows
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=15420