In Conversation with Sam Sullivan

By Raymond D. Cohen

RAYMOND COHEN: Mr. Mayor, you are generally known to friends and colleagues as “Sam.” How would His Worship prefer to be addressed at this point?

SAM SULLIVAN: How would His Worship prefer to be addressed?! I consider “Your Worship” and “Mr. Mayor” pretty pretentious. However, the senior staff insist on that for respecting the office. When I am with friends or in personal situations, I’m Sam. Are you interviewing the mayor or are you interviewing Sam right now?

RC: I think I’m trying to catch both of you.

SS: Okay. So, it’s Mayor Sam then!

RC: As the first quadriplegic mayor in this country, if not the world, do you think that your disability was an issue during the election or that voters thought it irrelevant?

SS: When you’re in the battleground that I have been in, it’s hardball, and you basically use whatever you have to your advantage. At least that’s how it was in the campaign. Being the mayor is a lot different than becoming the mayor. We wondered, “Is being in a wheelchair an advantage electorally or is it a disadvantage?” We concluded that, for some people, it was definitely a disadvantage. And for other people, it’s an advantage. For those who considered it a disadvantage, the issue is the image of a mayor. And the mayor has to at least look healthy.

I had to be very conscious, more conscious than any able-bodied person, that people were looking with a very critical eye: Is this guy healthy enough, is he going to live through the next term, you know? Those were the kind of comments I was getting. I had to work hard to make sure that I would gain the confidence of the voters and be more than healthy.

RC: So, you had to downplay the medical side of disability and encourage voters to see you as a capable, healthy person; basically you had to transcend the stigma of disability.

SS: Yes, exactly. On the other hand, the fact that I have a disability and can relate to issues of marginalization seemed to bring some sense of confidence that I wasn’t a stereotypical slash-and-burn right-winger.

RC: Right. You certainly weren’t faking the knowledge.

SS: Exactly. The fact that I could say, for example, that I lived in social housing for years and I benefited from it was very helpful. I, in fact, benefited from many aspects of the social welfare system and I am glad it was available for me. I’ll work my darndest to make sure that it’s available for others.

RC: Since you were elected in November of last year, one of your most exciting and perhaps most demanding challenges must be getting ready for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Vancouver is already a very accommodating and accessible city. What other service and structural changes are on the way?

SS: There’s a lot of work we need to do. When I was in Italy for the 2006 Games in March, I spoke with the city mayor and staff there. They commented on how having the Paralympics made it much easier for them to advocate for and implement policies supportive of people with disabilities. In Vancouver, I’ve already used the Paralympics as a way of ensuring greater accessibility. I’m very pleased that by the time the world arrives, we will have achieved 100 percent accessibility in our transit and its infrastructure. There are still some buses that aren’t accessible, but by next year we’ll have 100 percent accessibility on the buses. There was one Skytrain station that I worked very hard at making accessible, and it will be by 2010. Also, the new transit line from the airport will be 100 percent accessible. We also added 25 extra wheelchair-accessible cabs to our existing fleet of 80 in the region.

RC: As you are aware, Legacy 2010 has a vision for access and inclusivity. Can you comment on this?

SS: As part of wanting to maximize the positive impact of the Olympics/Paralympics, we established a vision for access and inclusivity for 2010. We published a document, “Measuring Up,” which gives cities an opportunity to rate themselves in these regards. The initiative goes beyond simply physical access. It actually addresses inclusivity issues.

RC: Do you have any thoughts about how the milestones of inclusion and accessibility, once achieved, might be maintained beyond 2010?

SS: It’s always seemed important to me to have a designated body monitor our progress. And I’ve always found that the disability issues committee in Vancouver has been very useful for that. The maintenance, moving forward, may consist of consumers and maybe municipalities monitoring their own initiatives in safeguarding and building upon the Legacy. I think such a mechanism needs to be long-lasting in order to ensure that we’re staying on track.

RC: In the spirit of inclusion, let’s talk about the Games. The notion of Paralympic events being combined with Olympic events has been debated for years. Do you have any thoughts on this issue?

SS: I want to support our Paralympic athletes in the way that would best encourage and recognize them. I do agree that more integration is better. Certainly I hope that we will do something innovative in 2010 to move us closer to that. But I also recognize that there are going to be downsides to just accepting integration as a mantra without really understanding what the unintended consequences can be. For instance, when I helped develop the disabled sailing program, I came to understand that the infrastructure and the specialized knowledge that you need to support a program that will be truly inclusive of all people with disabilities – it just won’t happen in a fully integrated context. We strove for reverse integration. We created an environment where people with very significant disabilities could learn to sail and develop their skills and then we invited able-bodied people to join our program.

There was an issue where we were going to redesign a major street in Vancouver. I moved an amendment that the street should go past the stadium where the opening ceremonies of the Paralympics would take place to ensure wheelchair accessibility. As a result of my stating that case, it passed and we have had really good ideas come forward about how to make the area much more wheelchair- and disability-friendly in general.

RC: You’ve contributed much to people with disabilities in Canada in terms of programs and initiatives you’ve set up – The Tetra Society of North America, the Disabled Sailing Association, BCMOS, to name a few. In spite of this, you have remained a bit of an enigma, quietly going about the business of changing lives. As mayor, you’ve become more of a public figure. How has this changed your life? Do you still have time for the outdoors, music and sailing?

SS: Well, the truth is that becoming mayor has completely consumed my life. It’s quite remarkable right now. I mean, I can’t go into any public place without most people recognizing me. Probably the biggest issue for me is the lack of time for reading and study. It really is depressing to look at shelves full of books I haven’t read, you know, to imagine what wonderful things are inside them. I’ve found that learning languages is a way that I can stretch my brain in a useful way, both politically and personally. Recently I gave a speech in Punjabi and it was very well received in the Indian community. I also consider my facility in Cantonese as very critical to my election. They say that learning a language is the ultimate respect you can show to a community.

RC: What about family life?

SS: The campaign was wonderful. Lynn and I were inseparable throughout, and it really helped us appreciate each other more. I feel very lucky to have her. I must say, though, it certainly can be a little stressful on a relationship, you know, basically being married to the city. I mean, I attended a public meeting this morning at 9:30, and went straight through to 9:30 at night with no breaks. By 8 the next morning, I had to be out at a more distant group to have a transit meeting. And then I went straight through without a break till 9:30 p.m. and then I phoned you and so I guess I’m still working while Lynn’s making a beautiful dinner and I’m not appreciating it. But that’s okay.

RC: Now I feel guilty.

SS: Yeah, you should feel guilty! (chuckles) But you know, Lynn and I do go to events together and fortunately she enjoys these, which surprised us both. Maybe this is partially because we have such a remarkable and diverse community in Vancouver.

RC: Well, that’s a good lead-in to my next question. As mayor, you have duties and responsibilities related to all the citizens of your city, but what about the disability agenda? You know, we’ve talked in the past about the importance of the contributing citizen, full economic participation, and addressing issues of marginalization and isolation. Do you have a vision for people with disabilities?

SS: My day mostly consists of issues like infrastructure and crime and safety and a lot of things where it’s not evident that disability issues are front and centre. I’ve found that the fact that I am the mayor and I have a significant disability does influence the way people treat disability issues. But I’m also conscious that my first duty is to all of the citizens.

RC: What is interesting to me is how disability is a cross-cutting issue. So, when you talk about crime, drugs and all those kinds of issues, it strikes me that marginalized people, and people with disabilities in particular, are generally more affected than those in the mainstream.

SS: Yes, but that said, the one area where I can say that my experience as a person with a disability has dramatically affected my approach is drug addiction.

RC: Do you mean drug addiction as a disability or do you mean people with disabilities having drug abuse problems?

SS: Drug addiction as a disability. I contrast the attitude toward people with drug addiction disabilities to those with physical disabilities. And there was a time, a number of years ago, when physical disability was a moral issue. And, in fact, there are societies today in parts of the world where physical disability is still seen as a moral issue – as something that you deserve.

Then we moved into the medical model, where physical disability was considered a medical issue. Then, a number of decades ago, a few people started saying, “I’m not sick, I’m disabled. Sickness is a short-term problem you fix, disability is a long-term problem you manage.” This requires that people be given the tools and supports to help manage their long-term issues and learn techniques to live full and productive lives. Unfortunately, drug addiction is one of the few disabilities that are considered a moral issue. Some people have moved past that and call it a medical issue, i.e., a short-term problem. I think it will be more productive for us to accept that, for many people with drug addictions, this is a disability that’s a long-term problem you manage. And I think if we could just get to that point, we would overcome all the terrible social dysfunction around drug addiction.

This is still a long way from what a lot of people want to talk about. In fact, I’m the only one that I know – I mean, I’m talking to people who are on the cutting edge of drug addiction issues and they’ve never heard this. It’s never been put in this kind of framework. And a lot of people are very violently opposed to this analysis. But it is something that comes to you when you consider questions like, when is it appropriate to have hired people with guns chasing people with disabilities – for whatever reasons. When framed that way, the status quo is very offensive. But, if you frame it as police officers pursuing morally depraved people – junkies – that, of course, is considered much more acceptable.

RC: So, in your view, people who are drug dependent share in the issues faced by many people with physical disabilities: issues around lack of being contributing citizens, lack of full economic participation, marginalization and isolation.

SS: It’s really tough because people with drug additions are so stigmatized and many of them are convinced that society is right in portraying them in this villainous way. I think that many physically disabled people bought into that in years past and some still do today. They often feel that it’s an issue of a lack of faith or a lack of moral strength.

Some of the biggest opponents of this analysis are people with physical disabilities themselves. Many people have worked so hard to de-stigmatize their own disability; they don’t want to have it re-stigmatized by having any kind of association with drug addiction.

RC: As you know, the disability community itself is very fragmented. Young people with disabilities often don’t want to be associated with senior citizens. Then there’s the rift between people with physical disabilities and people with intellectual disabilities. And on it goes. So, I think what you’re talking about, what you’re describing, is really fair game.

At one time, late last year, there was a bit of a hullabaloo about the fact that you were under police scrutiny for funding an illegal drug purchase in Vancouver. Does your view of drug addiction as a disability tie in with that event?

SS: I was at that point trying to understand the issue. I was starting to become convinced that I was dealing with not a moral issue but a disability issue, and starting to see people with drug addictions as fellow disabled people. And I considered it my duty to do whatever I could to support them. It was mostly futile. I certainly wasn’t going to change the world singlehandedly. But, by seeing these people as human beings who were being abused by a system of morality that was the same as the one that caused me so much grief in my own life...there is always this undercurrent in our society that you’re disabled because you deserve it or that you’re morally weak or deficient in some way.

The other area where disability has really affected my vision of community is in the issue of neighborhood gentrification. Right now, our ideal model of a healthy lifestyle involves living in an automobile-dependent suburb. And many people with disabilities, for whom driving a car isn’t an option, are even more handicapped in such a community.

The reality is that we have this environmental imperative to stop sprawling and destroying both our local and our global environment. We have the chance to create communities that are non-automobile dependent, which are perfect for people with disabilities and healthier for everybody. I think the interests of people with physical disabilities are well served by allying with environmentalists and people who are supportive of higher-density communities; not just higher density, but complete communities, where all services and amenities can be accessed without automobiles.

RC: This final question may be a little unfair, given the short time that you’ve been mayor, but I want to be the first to ask it. Serving in the mayor’s office of the City of Vancouver has been almost a prerequisite for becoming premier of B.C. What do you think? Can you envision this for yourself down the road?

SS: One year ago, I would have never imagined being the mayor of the city. I embarked on an exploration at that time to find a mayor for Vancouver. I interviewed more than a dozen people. All of my interviews resulted in the people turning the interview back on me. Well, what about you? And I would say, no, I don’t think of myself as mayoral material. I’m committed to the city and I love the city and I’m pleased to serve it in any way I can. But, it was quite a process for me to get to the point where I actually believed that I would be the best choice.

RC: And here you are.

SS: Yeah. So stranger things have happened to me. I don’t always plan out my life. Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

Raymond Cohen is the publisher/editor-in-chief of Abilities.