Council of Canadians With Disabilities

By Mel Graham

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS WITH DISABILITIES

WHAT WE’RE MADE OF

BY MEL GRAHAM

We’ve long sought an excuse to make ABILITIES readers just a bit more conversant as to what the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) is really all about. Furthermore, since the re-vamping of our structure last spring, we have been especially keen to let those who might have an interest in joining the Council know if the collective they happen to be a part of has, or potentially could have, the means to qualify for membership. This edition seems as good a time for such pursuits as any. After all, January 3, 1994, marked the first day we started answering the office phone with "Council of Canadians with Disabilities" instead of that tired old acronym. You know the one...It sounded something like a kid’s rendition of an alien’s ray-gun...What was it now?

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities is composed of groups whose principle objective incorporates advocacy and whose majority membership encompasses people with disabilities. We have been around for some 17 years and, in our own reasonable but persistent way, have done our part to get the interests of people with disabilities into the legislative works at the national level; the "Equality" section of Canada’s 1982 Constitution remains our major claim to fame in this regard. We’re at our most visible at public hearings whose commissioners look into everything from license applications with the CRTC by radio reading services, to the failure to accommodate travellers with disabilities by the inter-city bus industry. We’ve even been to the Supreme Court of Canada on occasion, such as for the famous Sue Rodriguez case of May 1993.

However, most days find us circulating requested information about issues, preparing briefs and discussion papers, or operating as a first-stop consultation resource for the media, academe and many other sectors, both private and public. Let’s pretend for now that this deserves to pass for an explanation of what we do, and go on to make some points about structure.

Provincial cross-disability organizations (just one per province) have an automatic spot on the Council Board. Next: National, uni-disability, single-issue or -interest organizations have only one restriction -- beyond, of course, their requirement to be consumer-controlled and have advocacy as their principal objective -- they must have at least one less member on the Board than the first lot identified, their provincial peers. At the present time there are nine of the latter, consequently leaving eight spaces maximum to be filled by the "nationals."

CCD also allows for membership of any other groups, be they local or single disability, as long as they have 10 members, are consumer-controlled and are advocacy-oriented. These members do not automatically receive a seat on the National Council but are eligible to make nominations for two vacancies that exist on the Board. All member groups will have one ballot in the election of these two positions.

Take it from me, there’s a lot more to the Council of Canadians with Disabilities than I’ve been able to reveal in this brief introduction. If you wish more information, especially if your group might be interested in acquiring Council membership, please write to us.

And whatever the future likelihood of your getting plugged into the network, we’d be particularly pleased to add you to the list of "A Voice of Our Own" (formerly "Info COPOH") recipients, if you do not already get this quarterly newsletter. You’ll find it chock-full of the current affairs of CCD and our affiliates, plus a variety of other features of interest to Canadians with disabilities.

Through ABILITIES, we mean to continue our analysis of current issues and concerns and to call on government for legislative improvements, just as we have been doing since 1976 or thereabouts.

MEL GRAHAM
COUNCIL OF CANADIANS WITH DISABILITIES
926-294 PORTAGE AVENUE
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA R3C 0B9
TEL (204) 947-0303 FAX (204) 942-4625