bfcanada The worker bees who made it happen
I have waited and waited for someone to either acknowledge or to recognize a small group of tireless, committed, humble, and dedicated individuals who in my respectful opinion played a very important role in helping to convince the Government of the day to enact a long awaited and much overdue piece of legislation titled the Accessible Canada Act.
And as the 12th anniversary of the Landmark Victory whereby the Canadian Government was mandated to make its websites accessible to Canadians with disabilities approaches, it may be appropriate to gently remind Canada of the power of our communities.
President John F. Kennedy once said that victory has a thousand fathers but defeat has only one and in this case there are so many who would quickly lay claim to having helped to enact Bill C81.
I have no doubt that this is true but the real heroes are the worker bees who stood in the trenches and lobbied and lobbied until others started to take heed and until others realized that these worker bees in the trenches were not going to go away until the job was done!
These are the advocates who fought like bull dogs! They put themselves on the line for Canadians with disabilities! They had a vision and they followed it! They gave up hundreds of hours of their personal time in order to lobby and fight for not just to have the rights of Canadians with disabilities recognized, protected, and Legitimized, but they also fought to ensure that Canadian kids with disabilities could look forward to a brighter and better future than theirs.
These are the worker bees who endured relentless criticism from many quarters. Who stuck to their guns and who were never afraid to walk the walk!
These are the unsung heroes! The ones that most of Canada do not know about and maybe it is why they have not been given their due recognition and reward. So I as the founder and immediate past president of Barrier Free Canada – Canada sans Barrières will take the initiative to do so and to thank each and every individual mentioned here for having stood with me in those cold and damp trenches to make Bill C81 a reality.
To David Lepofsky; a true and relentless worrier! Thank you for having walked the walked and for having taught me so much! We could not have done it without you!
To the late Chris Stark! My mentor and who was always there to encourage and believe in me! I am so sorry that you were not with us when Bill C81 came into legislation!
And to Robin East, Anthony Tibbs, Albert Ruel, Leo Bissonnette, and Louise Gillis; you stood tall and never gave up!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Maybe some day you would all be justly recognized but for now I can only acknowledge you in this way and to wish the new president of BFC-CSB Penny LeClair and her board continuing safe travels.
Just my two cents for today.
Image = Illustration. Three celebratory banners with alternating rows of red and white drop downs showcasing maple leaves overlap across the top. In the bottom right corner are three Canadian flags waving in the wind. In the bottom left corner is the Barrier Free Canada / Sans Barriere Canada logo. Below the BFC / CSB logo are the words ‘Bill C-81 The Accessible Canada Act’. Confetti of all different colors rains down from above.
. To the right of the light blue maple leaf are the words, ‘Barrier Free Canada’ and ‘Sans Barriere Canada’. Welcome to Barrier Free Canada.
Image = bees clustered on a section of honeycomb
Image = A section of sidewalk on which someone has written in sidewalk chalk. It says, “Together we will change the world.”
To learn more about me as an award winning sight loss coach and advocate visit http://www.donnajodhan.com