WE MOVED TO

NJN Network.com

That’s easy!

Click on over and change your bookmarks when you get there.

Oh give me land, lots of land under starry skies above, don’t fence me in…

Click her to our new site

NJN Network.com

By Stephen Pate
PEI Disability Alert
January 19, 2009

January 19th is Martin Luther King Jr. day across the United States of America. Tomorrow, January 20th, 2009 the United States will inaugurate its first black president, Barack Obama, the son of Dr. King’s dream. In 1963 Dr. King said “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream and my dream is that all people of PEI will be free and fairly included in PEI society whether they have a disability or not. My dream is Dr. King’s dream, it is the dream that God gives us. Dr. King quoted from the bible, since he was a preacher, that all men shall be free, equal and accepted in society, including the disabled.

“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Barack Obama is the dream come true for Blacks but he is not stopping there. He wants to remove barriers for the disabled and has said so. Watch his speech. President-elect Obama repeated that promise today that all Americans will be included in society including the disabled.

That is the American Dream but it is not the reality on PEI. We live in a bigoted society where the disabled are merely tolerated, given charity, discriminated against and abused. The President of our great university, UPEI, is allowed to take away the rights of the disabled to accessible parking and only a few voices speak out. There are many good people at UPEI but they are afraid of the tyrant and bigot who is their president. Today’s UPEI Diversity Day is an exercise in hypocrisy when our own children with disabilities are discriminated against.

The governments, both Conservative and Liberal, can deny health services to seniors who are disabled. The government can deny jobs, services, benefits anything it wants simply because it has bought off the disability organizations into silence. They are loyal to their annual grants and not the disabled.

The government can create a climate of fear and reprisal just like the one created by the President of UPEI to keep good people from speaking out. Decent hearted Americans too lived in a climate of fear and reprisal until the law and the government showed them the way to tolerance.

We are in many ways like America decades ago. We have a law, a constitution that guarantees equality but some parts of our society don’t want to grant those rights freely. Those people are disability bigots, no less reprehensible than racial bigots or sexual bigots. Bigotry is our enemy for it robs us all of our capacity for humanity and the greatest command from Christ – to love one another. It’s time for PEI to grow up and grant everyone
freedom.

By Stephen Pate
PEI Disability Alert
January 1, 2009

Being a social advocate is not the easiest job. You are constantly prodding a reluctant government and society to change.

What keeps me going is the progress we have made in just a few years. Certainly the recent passing of Kay Reynolds and thinking about her life’s work spurs me onward. She and others who worked tirelessly for the benefit of others are examples to us even after they pass on.

We have made great progress even in the past two years. When I tried to get anyone interested in the $1 million cutback in disability support spending in 2006, there was nothing but a wall of indifference. Today people are discussing disabilities and other social issues regularly in the paper and in public. Yes the Liberal government has tried to deep-six disability reform but they will not succeed. Ghiz will be gone and we will have significant reform.

Two years ago, people tried to belittle my letters to the Guardian an Graphic about disabilities and seniors without wheelchairs. Today, those are recognized social problems. Poverty is moving from a charity case to a problem we can solve.

Government corruption is no longer a backroom story: it’s headlines and even story of the year with the PNP Immigrant Scam. The December 27, 2008 story in the Guardian Deal over Internet angers Liberal got the public talking with 57 comments that discussed underlying issues such as 1) the need for more open tenders, 2) political patronage and 3)corruption and deceit in the Ghiz government. It was a decent discussion of the social and governmental ills I have been writing about for two years.

I was encouraged by the level of discussion and the number of people who used their real names which rarely happened in the past. Islanders are getting fed up with the corruption of the Ghiz government and taking the leap to open and fearless criticism. Especially encouraging was I didn’t have to make a single comment to keep it moving along.

So despite the fact we don’t have seniors in the Disability Support Program, nor has the cutback been returned, nor has UPEI put accessible parking back on campus, we are making progress. We will solve these and other problems.

I take little credit for what is happening. Consider the 22,000 people on PEI with disabilities who live through their pain and challenges. Consider too the tireless caregivers, parents, spouses, friends and helpers who make their lives bearable. These people are saints.

Some people thank me for being an advocate with emails and one-on-one comments. Other people take it on themselves to tell me to bugger off.

On New Year’s Eve an old friend decided that Old Ang Syne need to come at 5 PM. According to him, he was already over the 0.8 reading.

First he showered me with faint praise for the good work I do then gave the example of the person I should be. Apparently someone had accomplished more in 10 short years than all the other social advocates on PEI and they had a NICE personality.

After supper he called back to continue the thread until my migraine was out of control. Such is life.

This I take with a grain of salt since I am a nice person and get along with more people than I can even remember. If I wasn’t social, my work would be impossible.

However, after someone who is abusing the poor, the disabled or the otherwise disenfranchised refuses to help, change or even acknowledge the problems at hand, well I do put them on my public exposure list. And that’s the way it works.

You know I have a disability which is characterized by fatigue so you might wonder how I get all the writing, research, videos and everything else done. Sharon Cameron, deputy minister of Social Services and Seniors asked me that question, perhaps hoping to discover my Achilles Heel.

Well, I’m not telling you will tell you a story!

At about the worst time in my life, in the middle of a family crisis and when walking had become next to impossible I said to my lawyer “I apologize for being so slow.”

He replied “You get more work done in a few hours a day than ten new associates all week. I could use you.”

That’s not a boast, just a promise to not quit until the work is done. If you would like to help, don’t hesitate. Volunteer to help someone today and any day.

Jesus said “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2

Everyone can be a worker for social justice and make PEI a truly beautiful home for all. This is not Stephen Pate’s cause: it’s belongs with all of us.

As we begin 2009, we will renew ourselves and work to accomplish good the task.

Happy New Year.

strong>December 15th,2008 episode

All the scandal and dirt on PEI

• Premier Ghiz selling the farm
• Minister Richard Brown turns his employees into crooks
• Who called the police – watch out Richard
• Can the Council of the Disabled write a paragraph?
• Wes Sheridan filing for bankruptcy
• Readers speak out on CBC and John Jeffery

and more…

Five and 1/2 Minutes - New episode – Dec 3 08

Ghiz takes his ball and goes home

UPEI back in the news

Mystery women on PEI

Media censorship

and more…

The rest of the story.

The law is the law.

Letter to the Editor – December 3, 2008

I am not renewing my disabled parking sticker with the PEI Council of the Disabled because I don’t have to. They didn’t earn the $10.

If more people don’t renew they will start paying attention to us and do what we need them to do. It’s a protest vote against their indifference to disabled parking.

PEI Council of the Disabled, don't earn $10

Did you ever hear the Council say people parking in blue zones should be towed away? Or there should be more blue zones. If it wasn’t for stores like Sobey’s, Superstore, Wal-Mart and Home Depot how many disabled spots would there be? The Council doesn’t care.

The PEI Council is not advocating on behalf of Islanders. We hear those stories from the disabled over and over.

The Council didn’t advocate to change the Canada Pension application process. They refused to advocate when Canada Revenue tried to take away the Disability Tax Credit. I worked on those projects with no help from the Council.

The Council refused to advocate with the Binns’ government when he DSP was cutback $1 million.
The final straw was the July 08 Guardian letter supporting the removal of accessible parking on UPEI. They said the maximum distance is 70 metres from the door to the curb when its 50. Then the executive director said whatever the UPEI committee decided was OK.

The law is what matters but to the Council anything you want to do with a disabled person is OK. They are spineless, afraid to speak out in case they lose government funding.

Only the City of Charlottetown and maybe Summerside have given the Council the right to issue permits. The Charlottetown by-law says we need a “permit as issued by the PEI Council of the Disabled or its equivalent.”

Well I’ve got a permit from the Council and I have a disability.

The PEI Highway Traffic Act says the “vehicle prominently displays a valid emblem approved by the Minister” That’s what I have. To make sure I emailed Graham Miner Registrar of Highway Safety. As long as you have a permit, that’s what you need.

I have a permit and it’s good as long as I’m disabled which will be until I die.

Stephen Pate
PEI Disability Alert
Charlottetown, PEI

PS – there’s a funny mistake – somehow I typed Montague in my address. Must have been a slip of the fingers thinking about the old days when I was in Kings County

UPEI Wade MacLauchlan, a challenge to debate disability access

Universities are supposed to be places of higher learning. At UPEI, the management seems to be bastion of right wing bigotry and minority discrimination. I know there are decent people out at UPEI but they are not in control.

So Wade, I challenge you to a public debate on the accessible parking issue at UPEI. To show you what a fair guy I am, I promise not to call you a liar, fascist or bigot at any time during the debate, plus or minus 24 hours.

The Question

Should UPEI provide accessible parking for people with disabilities or not? Should it be 150 meters from the building doors or less than 50 meters?

It’s always good to have a quantifiable question; otherwise the audience can’t determine the truth. The actual questions can be negotiated by teams of question negotiators.

Background

Prime facia, UPEI Board of Governors under the spell of the mesmerizer Wade MacLauchlan has been ignoring its responsibility to uphold the law, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the heritage of Christian charity from St. Dunstan’s by providing accessible parking as close as possible to the buildings. 

Rack my brain as I may, there is nothing that justifies taking away accessible parking for people with disabilities except bigotry and discrimination against the disabled. Who would admit to that today?

So here we are almost 6 months from the decision and act that removed the last accessible parking on campus.

What is the Board of Governors doing except stonewalling, a human rights disgrace for all to see. Note to Board – people all over North America have read this blog and wonder what your problem is. Me too.

Is the Board making steps to right the wrong?

Not a chance, they are complaining to the Guardian to stop printing our Letters to the Editor and places like Facebook to have the UPEI parking group removed. All in one week, done at night under the stealth of darkness.

Ohhhh scary scary. That should put and end to free speech.

Get out the brown shirts, burn the books, break the store windows it’s Kristallnacht on PEI.

All right Mr. Big Shot, I challenge you to a public debate over accessible parking at UPEI, at the Duffy amphitheatre.

Your dad Harry MacLauchlan wouldn’t need a debate to solve this issue. He’d be bold enough to talk it out, man to man. He was no coward.

I’ll give you the home ice advantage. You can line up all your best Vice Presidents and professors. It’ll be just you and me under regular debating rules, you get all the bench strength and seconds.

Wade it’s time for a showdown. You know you’re besmirching the name of UPEI throughout the world for no reason. I’d say that is dereliction of duty.

Think you can hold your own with me for 45 minutes in the ring. You’ve got 2 degrees and millions of dollars, staff everything.

I’m just a little guy in a wheelchair with Grade XI and a year at Dalhousie. You could probably debate me to a draw in 30 seconds, on the ropes in 60 seconds, down for the count in 2 minutes.

C’mon or are you afraid of the truth?

Council of Disabled plagiarizes UN statement on Day of Persons with Disabilities

By Stephen Pate

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

This is the day the politicians and other wind bags proclaim their support for persons with disabilities. The rest of the year they can ignore us.

Marcia Carroll, CEO PEI Council of the Disabled - plagiarist?

Marcia Carroll and the PEI Council of Persons with Disabilities trotted out a fancy opinion piece for the Guardian today which the paper dutifully printed.

The article is plagiarized from the United Nations press release. This is, I’m afraid, the norm for the low ethics of the Council who pretend to advocate on behalf of the disabled. Why low ethics? If you espouse a cause and get paid handsomely to advocate for the disabled, not doing so is unethical.

Ms Carroll should write her own original content but then the Council doesn’t know much about disabilities and says less.

Dare to Compare

UN Statement

Dignity and justice for all of us is the theme of this year’s International Day for Persons with Disabilities, as well as for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ms Carroll signed opinion

Dignity and justice for all of us is the theme of this year’s International Day for Persons with Disabilities.

What about the disabled on PEI

Carroll goes on to add some of her words to the UN press release and wax eloquent about disability rights all over the world. Meanwhile the Council cannot help students and staff at UPEI with their accessible parking. It is always easier to advocate in the abstract about people far away.

The Council cannot find the time to correct the error filled letter written in support of UPEI’s decision to remove accessible parking, Accessibility Committee made call.

UPEI and President Wade MacLauchlan have pointed to that letter over and over as an endorsement of removing accessible parking from the UPEI campus. The Council’s mistakes are not benign: they hurt the disabled who they are supposed to help.

Carroll says in the letter “Unfortunately not all designated parking spaces are within that 75-metre radius.” The city by-law clearly states the maximum distance is 50 meters. Carroll has been stalling for 5 months on publishing a correction, despite promises she would. I believe it is the Board of the Council who are unethical. Carroll tells me her hands are tied.

The Council’s commitment to disability advocacy is as phony as their signed, plagiarized press release.

How about stepping up to the plate with some real advocacy?

Plagiarism
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was one of the lead developers of the email message. You can blame them for spam.

They say “the UNC Honor Court defines plagiarism as “the deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise.”

Generally in the media, a reporter caught plagiarizing some else’s work is fired.

Intellectual dishonesty

Intellectual dishonesty is at the core of the Council of the Disabled. They want to maintain their $800,000 annual government supplied budget but they don’t want to help us any more than they have to.

I don’t think their worth $10 and I’m not renewing my permit this year.

We have long called for the Council to fulfill its role in PEI’s disability community but they have failed to do so. Islanders with disabilities don’t need rhetoric: we need the Council to do the work it claims as its job.

Thank you Marcia for illustrating how dishonest the Council of Persons with Disabilities has become.

If you’re going to teach a subject, is it a prerequsite that you have an affinity for the topic. I once met an 18th century English prof who hated the novels but needed the work. Guess that explained his/her bad case of personal self-loathing.

This week a religious studies professor at UPEI – you can look it up – demanded angrily to be taken off the mail list. We sure did that in a hurry. Perhaps they could call the wrath of God on us.

Not to worry though, this prof doesn’t believe in religious values.

When I asked very politely why a religious professor wouldn’t want to read about human rights and the needs of the weak and dispossed, here’s what I got for a reply:

     “You may inquire and I could reply …”

You will note my request was a polite “inquire” and the response was an enigmatic exercise in semantics. Maybe the prof teaches that topic too.

So I’m left with the quandry and it’s no small one: what does a religious studies professor teach if not Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist love and charity?

Perhaps I’ll take the course in logic in the 21st century next. This life is too confusing. I need more education.

Oh it’s rainy and wet outside. Anyone in a wheelchair or walking slow because they have a disability is going to get awful wet at UPEI.

Imagine some students have to go almost 200 yards in a manual wheelchair from the parking lots in the rain to their classes. I wonder why the law says he parking should be as close as possible to the door but not more than 50 meters? Could it be to help those poor souls out?

When you’re wheeling in a chair and its raining, you get awfully wet. The water and slop on the pavement travels up the wheel and soaks your arms and legs. The dirt gets into your face.

It feels like you’re walking on your hands in the puddles or slush. It’s miserable.

Students with disabilities will be wet when they get to class. Last year one of those students got pneumonia and had to drop out.  Oh too bad for her: the strong will survive.

Wade MacLaughlan's solution for the disabled?

Why just recently President MacLauchlan was heard to comment on the wisdom of the Eskimos. They used to push the old and disabled out on ice flows to drift away and die. So much easier that way. No need to put in disabled parking, door openers and elevators. All that bother gone.

President MacLaughlan is searching around for someone with a masters in the anthropology of sub-Arctic and Arctic aboriginals to teach a new course next semester, “Ethics and euthanasia.” Most of the Board of Governors has already signed up and the rest will take it or else. Wade has Maxwell’s hammer, figuratively of course.

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer ( may contain graphic cartoon images, definitely contains The Beatles)

This weeks episode is hot on the trail of the Liberals.

Some of the stories

Dave Carver’s romance with Minister Docherty
Bruce Howatt PEI’s top poker ace
Secret $200 million slush fund,
PEI’s new Price is Right,
It ain’t heavy: it’s a government cheque

Have you seen it?

Letters to the Editor
The Guardian

Front Page
UPEI reminds me of a stubborn teenager. You can talk to them, reason with them, and try to lay down the law. We all know how stubborn kids can be when they want to do the wrong thing. (Stephen Pate on the lack of accessible parking for the disabled at the University)

On July 4th, 2008 the Guardian (UPEI’s plan to remove designated parking) reported UPEI was removing the last three accessible parking spaces on the inner campus. Those spots are gone and UPEI adamantly insists it is right.

Accessible parking means the spot is less than 50 meters from the door of the building. That is the National Building Code standard and the City of Charlottetown by-law. (Ed: the City does not enforce this by-law consistently)

60% of the blue painted parking spaces at UPEI do not meet the national standard. At UPEI, the only accessible parking is at CARI, the Sports Centre, Murphy, AVC Small Animal Hospital and MacDougall.

This move has reversed three decades in the accommodation of people with disabilities at UPEI. President MacLauchlan stubbornly refuses to budge from that decision.

Do they understand at UPEI that walking is very difficult for the blind and the walking disabled?

The effect of this policy is that very few students with disabilities attend UPEI. While UPEI should have 150 students with disabilities, it has about 20. If you build a wall, they can’t get there.

PEI Disability Alert measured and counted each parking space twice. 60% of UPEI disabled parking is not accessible and that is a fact.

President MacLauchlan and the Board of Governors have been asked repeatedly by students, staff and PEI Disability Alert to provide accessible parking but they refuse. We’ve tried letters to the paper, email, criticism, satire, protests, and TV coverage. All have failed to move them.

UPEI reminds me of a stubborn teenager. You can talk to them, reason with them, and try to lay down the law. We all know how stubborn kids can be when they want to do the wrong thing.

Please put accessible parking back on UPEI campus. It’s for our children’s future. If the young people with disabilities cannot attend UPEI, how will they escape the grip of poverty?

In September 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law 1,100 pages of improvements to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Protection of the disabled in the US is even stronger now.

UPEI’s decision is unlikely to happen in the United States and should not be allowed to happen here.

November 7, 2008

The Guardian printed the story that follows, which is essentially public relations puffery on the part of the UPEI. We submitted a comment about 6 AM and re-submitted.

The Guardian chose not to print our comment.

All our comments are signed. This is the first time the Guardian refused to print our comments. We are amazed at their censorship. We assume we are too close to revealing the truth for the Guardian’s tastes.

And here is the rest of the story.
It’s a great photo op at UPEI, who recently took away disabled parking. That Myrtle Jenkins Smith is good on the public relations and mopping up patronage money. Yup, no money for the DSP, a dog slow report – like molasses uphill in winter – and lots of money for MJS.

Look – there’s Currie as a pretty face. He didn’t do a thing at UPEI. He just looks good standing tall with three paraplegics. I figured out this morning who Currie reminds me of – check This Week Has Five & a Half Minutes next week for the answer.

Oh and Brian Doucette who refused to say word one about the DSP $1 million cutback 2 years. He must have found his water wings.

And Paul Cudmore who the PEI Canadian Paraplegic told me in writing they haven’t seen in 10 years. Look out boys – he’s next to you. Paul is the champion of you can drive in chair, why park close at UPEI.

Quite a crew. UPEI took 1 year to build a sports field – 7 years to build a wheelchair ramp. That’s progress.

Other reader comments follow the story.

KATHERINE HUNT
The Guardian

The 154-year-old Main Building on the UPEI campus is now more wheelchair-accessible as part of a seven-year implementation plan to make the campus more accessible to those with disabilities.

Newly constructed bathrooms with wider doors, lowered sinks, lowered mirrors, and lower urinals are some of many new changes about to happen around the campus.
Members of the Canadian Paraplegic Association, the UPEI accessibility committee and Health Minister Doug Currie were present at the official launch of the improvements Tuesday.

Health Minister Doug Currie, left, Charlene Stevenson and Brian Doucette, both of the Canadian Paraplegic Association P.E.I. division, and Paul Cudmore of the UPEI Accessibility Committee, were on hand Tuesday for the official launch of the newly improved Main Building that makes it easier for persons with disabilities to access the building and washrooms. Guardian photo

The university is making sure it notes everything it can do to change what needs to be changed, said Joanne McCabe, chair of the UPEI accessibility committee.
“It’s like a lens everything has to be looked at through to make sure everything is accessible,” said McCabe.

Three years ago, an audit was done of all the physical facilities on the grounds of the campus. As a result an implementation plan was devised with the goal of fixing the campus for accessibility in seven years.

It is funded by the CPA which will also go to other destinations in the near future for similar changes.

“We’re going to the (Queen Elizabeth) hospital in a couple of weeks,” said Myrtle Jenkins-Smith of the CPA.

Accessibility for those with disabilities is a major priority, said McCabe.
“It’s a very important part of any campus, and we’re focused on a variety of things.”

Changes to the Main Building include the work on the bathrooms, as well as widening all doors and upgrading elevators.

Work has also been done around the campus — flattening the sidewalks for a smoother surface and brightening the lighting for those who can’t see well. In the next four years more changes covering the classrooms, library, residences, labs and more will be made.

Wallace knows the story from Stratford, PEI writes:

Stephen Pate is getting to Currie and Jenkins-Smith. They’ve opted for the photo-op, with feel good story, as a way to deflect from the larger issue of the Disability Support Program. This is the key program for disabled people and their caregivers on PEI. The government was elected with promises to fix this broken program. To date Currie has cut $35,000 from the DSP budget and giver Jenkin-Smith, through one of her companies, $200,000 to review the DSP. A year an a half later the review drags on. Little is expected, from the Jenkins-Smith review. Will Currie remedy the dire situation faced by disabled Islanders, or the spouses and families that struggle to provide care?So far there is nothing but a cold shoulder and this kind of deflection from the relentless Pate. This media manipulation on the part of the Minister and his campaign worker, Smith-Jenkins, is hard to see as anything but cynical.Posted 07/11/2008 at 7:18 AM

An what is left out…? from PEI writes:

The story does not mention that the disabled parking spots that were taken away on campus have not been replaced, and yet utility, security and delivery vehicles continue to drive the paths of the university. Hypocrisy.
Posted 07/11/2008 at 10:35 AM

The photo-op in the Guardian today improve wheelchair accessibility at Main Building on UPEI campus has the government PR machine in full swing.

Despite the hoopla, students and staff with disabilities have accessible parking at less than 30% of the campus.

“Field Of Dreams” coined the phrase “If you build it they will come”. True but they also built a road to the field so people could get there.

The other parking is outside the legal boundaries for accessible parking and the lots are empty. People with disabilities are staying away from UPEI in droves. Perhaps that’s President MacLauchlan’s plan.

Social Services and Seniors Minister Currie, just another pretty face?, and Charlene Stevenson and Brian Doucette of PEI CPA and Paul Cudmore of PEI Accessibility Committee (Guardian Photo)

Eureka- we just figured out who Currie reminds us of – check out next weeks episode of This Hour Has Five and Half Minutes.

Ever trying to make the government look good for a fee, Myrtle Jenkins Smith, who is everywhere all at once, would like us to believe the PEI Canadian Paraplegic Association is coming to the rescue on a white horse. Far from it: they are a strange crew that only seek the advantage of their 100 plus members over the good of PEI’s 22,000 Islanders with disabilities.

So they are out at UPEI with Cudmore, which they deny except we can see them together in the picture, scheming to take away accessible parking. Maybe that’s why Cudmore looks so grim: he realizes he is being outted on the PEI CPA connection.

After months of denying that the Access-Ability Committee, PEI CPA and Myrtle Jenkins Smith are linked, they is the crew all in one place. Should have Photoshopped Cudmore out and left out Myrtle’s little blowhard quote from the press release. Ego always trips you up.

Mytle Jenkins Smith, Liberal Millionaires Club and spin doctor for Ghiz

PEI CPA and the Access-Ability committee took away the last three spots and with lies-a-plenty telling us it will be better. For PEI CPA better: they are all in wheelchairs.

PEI CPA told me they like to be a he-men and park as far from the door as they can. Well bully for the PEI CPA.

Lots of other people with disabilities need to park close to the door, that’s why they invented disabled parking, for the rest of us. Guess the world body that decided on less than 50 meters forgot to consult PEI CPA.

This is not a point of politics, religion, logic or argument. Disabled parking is by regulation less than 50 meters from the door. Only creepy organization make the disabled walk even the 50 meters.

UPEI is outside the boundaries of creepy. It’s discrimination plain and simple.

Ho hum, who cares? President Wade is rich, tall, handsome and talks with smooth tongue. The Minister looks so handsome, those people in the wheelchairs are smiling, well Charlene is smiling.

All is right with the disabled world on PEI. Go back to sleep dear reader.

Sleep,sleep until the letters to the Guardian start from the Myrtle Jenkins Smith PR machine. Sigh.

The new episode is up.

Highlights
Obama and Civil Rights

Headlines – Ghiz in China, Currie burns his way through Prince and Kings Counties

Take this job and shove it – please Minister Gail Shea

Pete from Peakes on millionaires

and more

Fun, sharp and the show to watch.

Send us your comments.

In 1965 a psych prof at Dalhousie said “You go to school for 12 years to open your mind and university for 4 years to close it.”

Now we’re not saying that’s always true but some of the dumbest people we know have three degrees.

Like UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan. Umpteen degrees but he can’t use a tape measure. Can’t step off 50 meters and see how far it gets him from the phoney blue parking spots at UPEI.

Can’t read the City by-law on disabled parking despite his fancy law degree at Yale. Maybe he was playing poker and gliding through like George Bush.

Even George W. Bush likes people with disabilities. He just signed into law 1,100 pages of improvements to the Americans with Disabilities Act this fall. His dad enacted the first ADA. Those Bushes may be rich but they seem to respect people with disabilities.

All Wade can do is take away disabled parking. And slow down the changes needed to make UPEI accessible. How come he can build a $12 million sport facility in one year but take 7 years to build some ramps and add accessible washrooms?

What a jerk.

Wade can’t show respect for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms despite the freedom he has to live his life and the good fortune to be rich on PEI.

He reminds us of those people at CBC who are also very well educated with double and triple degrees.  And they have a great position and money like Wade.

First the CBC brass lose the Hockey Night in Canada theme, the song we remember – market 101 big mistake. They let a senior citizen sell it to the competition.

Second they don’t beg Stompin Tom to use his song. I sent them a polite letter and they didn’t even have the manners to write back. Wade wrote me back but he lied in his letter.

Lest you think me a cretin, my favourite composers are Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan and Stompin Tom. I keep the Oxford Book of English verse on my night table and a rotating series of marketing, music and history books on the back of the toilet.

Too much education makes you stupid. Pride keeps you there.

Get off your high horse President Wade. You’re making a fool of yourself and UPEI.

People with disabilities are not black slaves circa 1880. We are going to get our rights and you’re going down in history as either George Wallace or Sheriff Bull Connor.

What an ignominious way to end your career over what pride and parking.

That’s what too much education does for you, makes you stupid. Well not all the time: Stephen Hawking is really smart intellectually and emotionally.

Go Stompin Tom. We know the best hockey song even if those three-degree guys don’t.

“This Hour Has Five & ½ Minutes” was the #8 news video on YouTube October 29, 2008

Comments from viewers were

“Smooth job, keep up the good work”
“Bravo”
“Ha ha! Awesome”
“It was great. I laughed and laughed”
“Take me off your mailing list”

New Promo

Catch “This Hour Has Five & ½ Minutes” and know the buzz.

This Hour Has Five & 1/2 Minutes - don’t miss them

Pilot episode

•  
  • Headlines – like never before
  • Premier Ghiz says don’t worry be happy
  • UPEI Priceless – remix
  • Pete from Peakes – commentary
  • Alanis Morissette – what’s going on behind the scenes

Not Just the News – the whole story

Oh yeah Canada. Would Chucky the beaver be allowed to attend UPEI? Not with crutches.

The other day I was eavesdropping outside the Registrar’s office, hiding behind a plant. It was a big plant and I’m a small beaver when squatting down. I was trying to learn what motivates the Board of Governors. I was also contemplating chewing the stem of the palm tree in front of me.

Inside the Governors were having a meeting.

I couldn’t hear much until they started singing. Was that O Canada? The tune sounded like it.

I rose patriotically to my feet, er flipper tail, from behind the palm tree, thus revealing my secret service position. The secretary stared nervously.

The double doors to the boredroom opened and I could hear it. Yes I could hear the singing loud and clear.

The tune was unmistakable, O’Canada. But the words were different.

“Oh UPEI we stand on guard for thee. Disabled parking shall nevahhhhhh be!”

The resounding ending sent a chill down my spine and made my tale tingle.

Wow, they are so patriotic in an wrong headed way. I beat it the heck out of there before they all came out and thrashed me with canes, chairs or whatever they could find.

This week two UPEI Governors told me with irritation not to tell them anymore facts about people who can’t walk or can’t see. They don’t want to hear, see, or learn about them anymore.

In a polite way, I was told to go fly a kite. As long as they abuse students and staff with disabilities they will hear about it.

As Leonard Cohen says, I’m your man.

October 21, 2008
The Journal Pioneer
Editor,

I am writing in regard to Stephen Pate’s letter, “Return disable parking to UPEI” about UPEI taking out the disabled parking spaces to make them into parking places for truckers.

I agree with Stephen’s letter that they should put them back in.

The disabled people are much more important than the truckers. The disabled shouldn’t have so far to go to get where they need to be.

I write this in hope that they put the disabled parking places back where they once were.

Nicole Clements,
O’Leary

50,000 views on YouTube strong.

October 16th, 2008

Thursday we passed our 50,000th viewer on YouTube.

The Disability Alert story has been seen by 9 million readers and viewers.

That doesn’t even touch the secondary sites that re-publish the videos and articles.

Those are both phenomenal achievements measured only in your interest and enjoyment. Thank you very much for your support for returning again and again to these pages.

Thanks to Michael LeClair and Trish Clarkin who help so much with the videos and many other things. Thanks to all the volunteers and those unnammed and unsung heros, to the media who cover our stories and to my family for putting up with me writing so much.

I do this to help those who cannot help themselves due to life’s little gift of disability and for no other reason or gain.

There is so much more to do and we’ll have fun doing it.

I am humbled and encouraged by your support. Thanks again.

Note: counts refer to story counts, clicks, and views not unique viewers and readers since many people return to our sites.

UPEI President Wade MacLaughlan, is he a god walking among men

We believe it is unconscionable to take away accessible parking at UPEI.

There is a need for more than 100 accessible parking spaces on the inner campus at UPEI and they removed the last three spaces in September.

We ask President Wade MacLauchlan: what right do you have under Canadian law and the United Nations Charter on disabilities to take away accessible parking at UPEI? Can you defy the National Building Code which is adopted on PEI?

His response was – the Council of Persons with Disabilities said it was OK. The Council denies it.

Who does he think he is? Is he a god, does he just walk on the planet among men like Greek gods of old?

We know of no major institution that is taking away accessible parking except here on UPEI.

What’s his rationale for doing this? We believe MacLauchlan is just exercising his power as a powerful man on PEI to abuse people with disabilities.

Is he aware of the Charter of Rights and freedoms that protect the disabled the same as gays, people of given races and religions, people of different gender?

As president of a major institution of higher learning it is his responsibility to uphold those rights.

The lesson President MacLauchlan is teaching the students of UPEI is not respect for human rights. The lesson is you can bully weak people and get away with it.

UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan, let them walk 200 meters?

At Future Shop today I ran into a member of the UPEI accessibility committee who proceeded to berated me for attacking UPEI’s disability policies. A quad himself, he has a power wheel chair and parking distances greater than 50 meters are not an issue.

I asked him if he had verified the distances from the blue and non-accessible parking we published and he hadn’t. Asked why, he told me the National Building Code and the City of Charlottetown By-Laws did not apply to UPEI.

I questioned the reasoning behind that statement and he replied that if people couldn’t walk 200 meters, they should get a wheelchair.

That’s a pretty callous remark to make about another person’s adaptation to disability but it does explain the stubborn attitude of the Access-Ability Committee at UPEI and President Wade MacLauchlan.

However, it doesn’t help blind students at all since they would be in worse shape in a power wheelchair. If you can’t see you don’t want to go faster.

The UPEI attitude is a modern version of Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake” statement when told about the starvation of the French people.

So there we have it. People with disabilities should adapt to UPEI and UPEI can stubbornly refuse to follow National Building Code standards, city by-laws, Human Rights and Charter of Rights and Freedom laws and precedents.

That’s what it is to be rich and powerful: you are above the law. President MacLauchlan feels rich and powerful. Does he have the support of the Board of Governors in breaking laws, building codes, accommodation precedents and standards? There are reasonable people on the Board of Governors. Are they speaking out or has MacLauchlan mesmerized everyone?

Incidentally the cost adaptation to wheelchair use for a walking or semi-ambulatory person with a disability is in the range of $50,000 to $100,000 for changes to vehicles, homes, and equipment. I’ll detail those costs in a later article.

Is the University of PEI willing to provide students and employees with that financial assistance in lieu of meeting building code standards of 50 meters to the parking spot?

Somehow, MacLauchlan’s and UPEI’s pride has entered the picture. King Solomon said “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18.

As I left the store, I could see my friend wheeling his chair across the Future Store parking lot, his wife in tow, to the Canadian Tire Store parking lot. He told me he likes to park as far from the entrance as possible, sort of an Olympic athlete of quadriplegics. Amazing.

Gardens of brass, plaques to founders ring campus excluding disabled? (CBC Photo)

UPEI has dedicated the golden quadrangle to gardens of brass. Widely spaced plaques to its founders ring the area. To make sure no one gets close to building doors, traffic barricades have been erected.

Parking pilons keep disabled off campus, easy in - easy out (LeClair photo)

Isn’t that nice: they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to honor the founders. The students can meander about the golden quadrangle dreaming of days gone by.

Wait, isn’t UPEI about educating people? Or is it a shrine? It’s not supposed to be.

While millions are spent on cosmetics, hundreds of students are denied access to an education because UPEI won’t obey the law and human rights standards for disability access. Another hundred employees face pain or early retirement.

President MacLauchlan has his priorities in place. Honor the past and thou shalt get many donations. His Lordship has secret but wise ways.

President MacLauchlan speaks to empty seats on Founder's Day, more donations? (LeClair photo)

Not much accessible parking at UPEI

Thirteen of UPEI’s buildings are inaccessible to people with disabilities whereas only 5 buildings are accessible, that is 72% are inaccessible. That is primarily because only 38% of the parking spaces are accessible.

Only 15 of the blue painted parking spaces are actually accessible under building codes adopted by Charlottetown and part of the National Building Code. There are 40 blue spaces with a wheelchair sign. That is 38% of the blue parking is legally accessible.

The standard is the parking should be as close as possible to the door but no further than 50 meters. The furthest parking to building distance is 170 meters. The Charlottetown By-Law contains this rule at section is section 4.43.

Last week someone misinformed the Board of Governors that UPEI had 50% more accessible spaces than the law required. That statement, in light of the facts politely put, is disingenuous. Since we have been providing President MacLauchlan with the proper information since June, the buck must stop on his desk.

In terms of first time access, students with a disability can access Chi-Wan, MacDougall, the Small Animal Hospital, CARI, and the Classroom Centre from legally accessible parking. All other UPEI buildings are inaccessible.

Access between buildings is not much better. For example, a student entering MacDougall through the accessible entrance would have to travel over 150 meters to access Kelly or Duffy which are “as the crow flies” only a few meters away. MacDougall, like many buildings at UPEI, has a single accessible entrance. This is not only an accessibility problem; it creates a fire hazard for students who would have to cross the whole building despite being near an inaccessible exit.

Parenthetically, note that polite requests for the distance information were made to Greg Clayton and Paul Cudmore of the Access-Ability committee in July when the story broke in the Guardian. Neither of them would help. Mr. Cudmore began a disinformation and slur campaign that is unbecoming of a major university. President MacLauchlan was dismissive and said “Notwithstanding attempts to help you to understand the changes to disability parking arrangements at UPEI you continue to misrepresent the situation.” That was of course another disingenuous statement.

It’s not complicated. Maximum 50 meters is the law. One would think an enlightened university would want to err on the side of the angels. After all, people with disabilities don’t need to be abused.

September 24th, 2008
The Journal Pioneer & The Eastern Graphic
Editor,

When politicians and community leaders make a mistake, it’s best to admit it and fix the problem as quickly as possible. Remember Richard Nixon who lost the presidency of the United States through lies and cover-up.

On Sept. 8, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Jack Layton both told the networks they would not appear on the TV debates if Green Party leader Elizabeth May was present.

Within 24 hours 80,000 people signed a petition against it. Facebook had a ‘Support Elizabeth’ group within a day. The media reported it all over the country.

Two days later the leader of our country said he made a mistake and Elizabeth May would be in the debate. Jack Layton followed him. The issue is dead since they both acted quickly.

During the summer the University of Fraser Valley which is about half the size of UPEI removed three disabled parking spots. They were made into parking for trucks.

When the students came back in September, they found the parking was much further away. They complained to the administration and the university put the disabled parking back where it was. The story ends with good news for all.

In September the University of P.E.I. did the same thing: removed three disabled parking spots and put them farther away. Trucks are now parking where wheelchairs once were.

The story has been in the Journal Pioneer, Guardian, Eastern Graphic, on CBC and CTV as far away as Edmonton. I’ve written 30 letters to the editor and stories on the web. We have 400 members on Facebook and 1.3 million people have seen the story.

What will it take for UPEI and Wade MacLauchlan to admit the mistake and return the disabled parking? If Stephen Harper can admit he made a mistake, surely Wade MacLauchlan can.

Stephen Pate
P.E.I. Disability Alert
Charlottetown

Ed – please note the first paragraph was omitted by the editor of the Eastern Graphic.

Signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. President George H.W. Bush (center) is flanked by Evan Kemp, Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (left) and Justin Dart, Chairman, President

By Stephen Pate

<em>While Canada prides itself on being champion of human rights, the United States under Presidents George H Bush and George W Bush has done more to advance disability human rights. Canada continues to harass the weak and disabled with a system from which other groups such as the gays have broken free.</em>

When President George Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1991, Jean Chrétien said Canadians didn’t need the ADA in Canada. He was wrong. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was not enough to protect gays and it’s not enough to protect Canadians with disabilities.

The cost of pursuing legal challenges to the Supreme Court is too daunting for people with disabilities who tend to be poor and unorganized. The organizations that support the disabled prosecute a few high profile cases but for the main have not advanced the human rights of the disabled. Gays have been better served by their organizations.

On PEI our Human Rights code is so weak that employers, private and public agencies abuse Islanders with disabilities every day with impunity. The PEI Human Rights Commission is underfunded and cases take five years to determine which is about the same as court.

President Wade MacLauchlan, UPEI, not a champion of human rights

How does UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan take away disabled parking on the UPEI campus and get away with it. He’s above the law, an example of a lawyer gone to the dark side. Law is all about power not justice and MacLauchlan knows that well.

Except for PEI Disability Alert, no one is calling for the return of accessible parking at UPEI. Why not? There is a conspiracy of silence. Despite funding UPEI, Premier Robert Ghiz doesn’t rock the boat. We wrote him asking for his assistance. Silence.

Premier Robert Ghiz, silence on UPEI disability abuses

We wrote Mayor Clifford Lee since the City of Charlottetown controls parking within the City. Silence.

So far none of the disability non-government agencies have been willing to stand up to Wade MacLauchlan. Are they bought off by government dollars and no longer representing the disabled? The silence is deafening.

Charlottetown Mayor, Clifford Lee, silence on UPEI disability human rights abuses

The Guardian, CTV, Journal Pioneer, Easter Graphic and West Prince Graphic have reported the story. The CBC is pretending the problem doesn’t exist. They only want happy-talk stories on disabilities. Oh look there’s another cripple cycling across Canada for some cause. Give that full air play. A real need on PEI – oh too hot to handle.

17 years later, the US Congress and Senate are about to pass the Americans With Disabilities Amendment Act. It’s 1,000 pages of new rules to tighten up how Americans with disabilities are treated. George Bush Jr. is going to sign the bill into law. Isn’t that ironic? George Bush Jr. is a champion of disability rights yet despised by many Canadians.

"By reducing barriers and changing perceptions, the ADA has increased participation in community life and given greater hope to millions of Americans." President George Bush

What have we got in PEI? A lame-duck Premier who doesn’t give a hoot for the disabled. Ghiz fronts a money-grabbing Liberal Party that leaves Islanders in need out in the cold.

His imperial majesty Wade MacLauchlan is at UPEI abusing as many disabled people as he can.

Boy do we need a Canadians with Disabilities Act; however the greedy and the perverse won’t let it happen. They have other plans.

Jesus said “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

By Stephen Pate

Since I was quoted on camera by CTV using the word “cripple”, some have questioned the political correctness of that statement.  It is perfectly acceptable for a person with a disability to use the term “cripple” in the proper context.

In the CTV clip, I said “Cobblestones or cripples?

They don’t want cripples. They want cobblestones.” The statement does not denigrate people living with disabilities.  It does create a memorable soundbite using alliteration and a pithy contrast between landscaping aesthetics and the accommodation needs of persons living with disabilities. The phrase is good communication for TV where sound bites are preferred. CTV could have edited it out since they had lots of tape to use. CTV knew it was both politically correct in the context and good TV.

I am still trying to figure where in my brain it came from since it just came out. 

Cripple is not the same as the n word, a violent, racist word used against black people. The word although so political incorrect that white people cannot use it without criticism is widely used by blacks in humour and music. In rap songs it sometimes signifies the degraded place that blacks feel they occupy. It’s their word.

Which is the first argument for the use of cripple. It’s our word to use as we see fit.  Usually the disabled use it to poke fun at themselves or to shock. If you Google cripple, you’ll find hundreds of non-pejorative references mainly from the disabled community.

Cripple is still in use in the English language. Our car was crippled. The horse is crippled. He’s an emotional cripple. It can be a nasty pejorative when used against a person with a disability, such as “You’re just a cripple.” However, that was not the context. I was using cripple as an expressive word that created a memorable encapsulation of the problem at UPEI – what’s more important people or landscaping.

At worst the word might be colorful.

So don’t call me a cripple but I can use the word when I see fit. Ah, life is so complex.

It’s interesting that the loudest critic of this CTV spot is a quadriplegic who supports the removal of accessible parking. Instead of trying to help people with disabilities, there is a concerted campaign to shore up UPEI’s human rights abuses. Speaking of hypocrites in his day, Jesus said “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” Matthew 23: 24. Pick pick pick on the little things but let the big abuses just slide down.

As a postscript, when I got Polio we were called crippled and handicapped. I got help from the Crippled Children’s Society. People said things like “It’s too bad you are crippled.” I feel comfortable inside this body. If someone else doesn’t feel comfortable with the remark, they shouldn’t use it. For the love of God, let’s not get out the speech police.

If the University of Fraser Valley can correct itself why not UPEI. Recently UFV took away accessible parking spots near a building and put them further away.
Story Ostensibly for service vehicle parking.

This story is almost a carbon copy of taking the last parking spots from UPEI campus.

When shown the problem, UFV put the accessible spots back.

Let’s hope UPEI does the same although they seem resistant to that idea so far.

Abbotsford Mission Times
Marcia Downham, The Times
Published: Friday, September 12, 2008

Brandon Langhjelm was looking forward to starting his summer school semester, but when he arrived and headed for his usual parking spot he became confused and found himself in a life-threatening situation.

Langhjelm, 27, a history student at the University of the Fraser Valley, was born with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, which is a severe connective tissue disease that affects every cell in his body. Due to Langhjelm’s disability, his body is extremely frail, and having to walk long distances could put his life in jeopardy.

University of the Fraser Valley student Brandon Langhjelm, who was born with Loeys-Dietz syndrome and requires a wheelchair to move around, was shocked to discover the handicapped parking spots near Building B were moved to allow service vehicles. The Abbotsford school will replace the handicapped spots next week and relocate parking for service vehicles elsewhere.

Since he started at UFV in 2004, Langhjelm has enjoyed easy access to Building B from the four handicap parking spaces located directly beside the building’s main door and elevator, which is close to the school’s disability services where he picks up his electric wheelchair.
But, in July, when Langhjelm returned to school he found the parking spots had been changed.

The area was allocated for UFV service delivery vehicles only, and the handicap parking had been moved across the street, around 170 feet away from Building B’s main entrance,” said Langhjelm.

“I felt so discouraged and what upset me the most was these spots had been moved without any consultation – I was given absolutely no notice and I don’t think any other disabled student heard about it either,” said Langhjelm.

“From the day he showed up on campus, he has been forced to cross a busy campus road and walk a much greater distance, which has put a significant strain on his body and overall health,” said Langhjelm’s mother Carol, who is upset, and has been lobbying to have the parking spots put back to their original spots.

“It is just so disheartening to know they would move those spaces so arbitrarily without warning,” she said.

While investigating the matter, Carol said she discovered a classroom beside the former handicap parking had been converted to the Facilities Department [control centre for all the construction activities] which used to be located in Building A.

She said she couldn’t believe the school’s building projects had taken priority over disabled students parking.

The spots were moved because some disabled students, especially those with wheelchairs, filed complaints about the possibility of not being able to get out of their cars due to large trucks loading and unloading in that area, said Tim Segger, UFV vice-president of administration.

“The area has always been used as a service area, and the matter of safety was discussed, therefore the Occupational Health and Safety Committee decided to move the spots,” he said.

“The intent was not to throw the disabled students out, it was only to ensure their safety.”

In terms of consulting and giving notices to the disabled students about the relocation of the parking spots, he said, “It would have been a good idea. It probably could have been handled a lot better in that regard.”

In retrospect, Segger said the school plans on replacing three disabled parking spots back in the Building B area next week, and will relocate parking elsewhere for the service vehicles.

For its 1,500-plus student population, UFV is required by code to have 15 disabled parking spots, said Segger.

UFV currently has 17, but by next week it will have a total of 19, he added

The only way that President Wade MacLauchlan could get away with civil rights and human rights abuses is if the PEI Provincial Government is inept, corrupt or both.

Here’s a peek at how they spend their time downtown.

UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan has innovative final solution to disabled parking crisis.

President Wade MacLauchlan, UPEI, no legal memory

Accommodation for workers and student at UPEI would be different for each disability and each person. It’s bad logic for UPEI to argue that all spaces had to accessible and fair.

Fairness is not a concept in accommodation. What’s fair for someone with a van and electric wheelchair is not fair for someone who has a walking disability.

The accommodation, as determined by disability law and practice, is on the part of the University of PEI not the person with the disability. President Wade MacLauchlan is saying, in effect, if you spend $100,000 for a power wheelchair, wheelchair adapted van and home renovations to accommodate the chair you are accommodated.

Oops he forgot the blind, they can’t use a chair.

So while Canadian Tire, Superstore, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, the Cinema, Zeller’s and Holland College can provide accessible parking that is less than 15 meters from the door, UPEI has decided to remove the last three accessible spots and make accessible parking 70 to 300 meters away.

Accessible Parking, old style

It’s specious and false reasoning befitting only a cheap lawyer in court. MacLauchlan knows full well UPEI is required to accommodate the person with the disability and not vice versa.

It is somewhat idiotic that I am writing articles on law for President Wade MacLauchlan the former Dean of Law at the University of New Brunswick with a Masters in Law from Yale. MacLauchlan either knows this and is stalling or is suffering dementia. Lawyers know this stuff. Let’s press onward.

In the United States, accomodation is defined in the Americans With Disabilities Act. In Canada, we have a body of common law and practice that flows from our >Charter of Rights and Freedoms which says

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination … based on …mental or physical disability.

In Canada we developed the concept of accommodation, that is to make the accommodations needed for the person with disability. We see examples of accommodation everywhere: blue parking signs, accessible bathrooms in schools and public places, the school board has special transportation for children with disabilities. Few would argue against accommodation today.

In the workplace, Service Canada as an example describes quoting,

Accommodation refers to the removal of workplace barriers that can negatively affect an individual or a particular group within Canadian society. It provides individual adjustments in the workplace that responds to the needs of a specific employee or job applicant. Needs that must be accommodated result from such factors as disability (physical or psychological),…

There is some backlash to workplace accommodation. There are cases across Canada and the United States where the employer has decided to defy the law and convention. I guess we have that with UPEI and MacLauchlan.

Timing is everything. And quitting is the ultimate act of timing, knowing when to leave. Should you go when people still love you or should you go when my best before date is past and there’s a smell in the fridge.

In March 2008, His Lordship Wade of Stanhope told the Bored of Governors he was checking out the retirement homes in the Bahamas. His first idea was his best because now he’s up to his butt in wheelchairs with no way out.

His Lordship has had ten years of glory at UPEI. He quelled the Muslim uprising over cartoons. He beat up the students at the cadre with “It’s my property” and I’ll cry if I want to.

Lord Wade MacLauchlan of Stanhope

He beat up the professors’ union proving once more that a scrapper from Stanhope is worth more than 300 book-types. Lords like to lord it over their subjects.

He convinced a whole lot of rich and guilty business types to donate millions to have their names on square campus buildings.

His Lordship also wants to stay long enough to check out the toned and muscular young bodies at the Canada Games 2009.

And his Lordship is trying to beat up on me with his munchkin surrogate at the Access-Ability committee.

Too bad he didn’t quit there. However, his Lordship knew real glory was in his grasp not just minor glory, the Order of Canada! So he threatened the Bored with a weak resignation. qu

Enthralled by his Lordship, the Bored begged him to stay. With that move, His Lordship achieved ultimate power by calling their bluff. No department head would question his word. AVC rumblings about his imperiousness would be put to rest. Yes, there are intelligent people at UPEI who don’t like his Lordship and they’re not all vets.

His Lordship is a bigot. Not about his own prejudices and pecadillios but about those among us who are disabled, who look and talk differently. Megalomaniacs often project their own self-hatred and inadequacy onto society’s weakest. His Lordship has embarked on a campaign to get rid of the disabled on campus, perhaps PEI’s version of the final solution.

Whiff, whiff. His best before date is long overdue.

Postscript -I know there are those who will say “I love him. He’s grand.” Well if you love him, take him with you because a man with that little respect for human rights deserves to be somewhere, just not the head of a university.

Woman in power chair, not everyone uses one, Auto Adapt photo

People with disabilities are not all alike and the accommodation they need to go to work or school is different. Ryan’s comment on the story You Really Hit A Nerve makes good points. Thanks for your comment Ryan.

Ryan is a student at UPEI living in residence. He is a paraplegic and uses a power chair. For Ryan and others in the PEI-Canadian Paraplegic Association, walking long distances are not a problem. They have an electric wheelchair.

Ryan wrties “Although some disabled students are going to have to work more now- because they have to wheel a bit longer to get where they are going.”

That’s the crux of the problem. Ryan is making the assumption other people with disabilities are in a wheelchair. But they are not.

The same view was expressed to us over and over by UPEI management and their Access-Ability committee. “It can’t be that bad to wheel a few more meters.”  But again they are quadriplegics or paraplegics and using wheelchairs. Why isn’t everyone using a wheelchair? they ask.

I’ve had this discussion with them over and over and wondered: are they stupid or just putting me on?

There are different types of disability and different degrees. A wheelchair solution doesn’t help the blind or many other disability types.

Blind women walking, National Federation of the Blind photo

The majority of people with a walking disability do not use a wheelchair. They are not members of the PEI-Canadian Paraplegic Association. They definitely have trouble walking but use canes, walkers or just walk with difficulty.

I had polio at 3 and always had walking problems like falling, slowness, pain and fatigue. I toughed it out for 45 years because wheelchairs are a big pain to use. I also wanted to look like everyone else. People in wheelchairs get patted on the head – it happens all the time. Who wants to be looked down upon. It’s hard enough getting respect and having self-respect.

Another reader Freda writes in Wade MacLauchlan Doctor of Pain

“It’s better for people to walk as much as they can (if they can) and want to. Prevents osteoporosis, better for the heart, etc. And it is hugely expensive to get the van, scooter, etc, and not covered by insurance unless you’re at a certain level of disability–and even then, often not.”

Sometimes we look through only our own eyes, seeing the world through our lenses. This can be especially so when life has dealt the severe disability card. I have been as guilty of that one as the rest. We need to look at each person’s situation and find an accommodation that helps them to be able to work, to go to school, entertainment, church – be a part of the whole community.

There is resistance to accommodation from some parts of society and UPEI is a typical example. The worship of the youthful body is pretty much the main focus of President Wade MacLauchlan. He spent $12 million on building accommodation for sports and some piddling amount on the disabled. Quite a hero. Didn’t they give him that tin star called the Order of Canada?

In response to the UPEI name hi-jacking story, a friend wrote: “You must have really hit a nerve Stephen”

Of course I hit a nerve. The powerful oligarchy at UPEI in the person of his Lordship Wade MacLauchlan does not like to be humiliated on TV across the country. The CTV story last week was just too much. It showed MacLauchlan to be the autocratic liar he is. (If liar is too strong, please substitute “person who makes disingenuous statements.”)

In the news clip, alongside official lies from Lord Wade’s underlings is Rebecca stating clearly that the campus is not accessible. What you don’t see is Anne Matheson struggling to walk off-camera.

It is flat out not accessible to make people with disabilities walk farther.

So now the gloves come off. Lord Wade summons Paul Cudmore his munchkin.  Sunday the munchkin launches a hi-jack site using the name of Disability Alert. It’s not only a violation of our Trade Mark but it’s against international internet law. Lord Wade is a lawyer: he knows law is about power not right.

Then he puts the munchkin Cudmore to write a nasty letter full of half truths and lies to the Guardian. And the “truth” about how wonderful UPEI accessible parking is.

Sing along with Lord Wade

“Walking is good for you,
Good for you,
Good for you.
If it hurts boo hoo hoo.
Walking is good for you.”

For the love of God MacLauchlan, is it going to hurt that much to give people the disabled parking they need? Are you really that stubborn?

Have a nice weekend but don’t tell Lord Wade your good name. He might try to steal it.

Wade MacLauchlan, President of UPEI wanted for property theft along with abuse of the disabled?

UPEI’s attempt to exlude the disabled from the inner-campus took a new all time low as it may have consorted with Paul Cudmore to hijack Disability Alert’s website.

This week Cudmore, a member of the Access-Ability Committee at UPEI and confidante of President Wade MacLauchlin, set up a mirror website called “Disability Alert”. At this site, he purports to set the record straight. Mostly he engages in preaching like an Uncle Tom about how wonderful UPEI is. The record speaks volumes in the opposite.

UPEI and committee member Paul Cudmore have resorted to cybersquatting and name hi-jacking in the battle to keep people with disabilities off the inner-campus. The David and Goliath story of Disability Alert’s campaign to restore disabled parking has taken a low road.

Cybersquatting is registering or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else’s trademark. Usually immature people and criminals are cybersquatting. It doesn’t speak much for the ethics or morals at UPEI.

The Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act was enacted to stop this unethical and illegal activity.

What’s all the fuss about? UPEI removed disabled parking on the inner-campus last Friday. This created a hardship for students, faculty and staff with disabilities. Parking near is always better than further away. CTV carried the story which was seen as far as Alberta. Earlier coverage was on CBC Radio and the Guardian.

Cudmore, an out-spoken supporter of UPEI and critic of Disability Alert, has recently established a website called “Disability Alert”. This is the exact name used by PEI Disability Alert for its sites on Blogger and WordPress. It is not legal to appropriate someone else’s name. For instance one could not set up a site called CBC.com even though CBC.ca is the actual site.

Disability Alert sites have been in used for almost two years with over 500 posts on disability and disability advocacy issues. Disability Alert has a Flikr account and over 50 videos posted on YouTube.

Disability Alert is well known on PEI and around the world. A check of Google turned up more than 200 references.

Disability Alert respects UPEI’s and Cudmore’s rights to free speech in making its case. However, theft of intellectual property is an inappropriate response from UPEI.

Would UPEI rename it website McGill University or Yale University to gain some prestige and a few more students?

We call on UPEI and Cudmore to take the cybersquatting site down, get their own name and to discuss the issue not resort to unethical behavior. Illegal and unethical behavior is not likely to advance their cause.

Wade MacLauchlan, PHd

UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan decided to remove parking for disabled people. “Let them walk further” he was heard to say.

On the first day of the no-disabled parking regime, one employee experienced pain walking home and required medication.

She expects the pain to become unbearable by Thursday as it did in the past when the parking wasn’t available outside her building.

Dr. of Pain is a new hero at UPEI. Picking on the little people who can’t fight back.

There’s a human rights and civil rights record to be proud of.

All the right wing bigots will be rallying around President Wade MacLauchlan. They have found their leader.

American Civil Rights leaders: (top left) W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King

Summary

Discrimination against people with disabilities at the University of PEI is similar to the exclusion of blacks at US colleges prior to the Civil Rights Act. The discrimination is physical exclusion by the removal of a necessary physical accommodation, despite common practice. Statistics show a demand of 150 parking places whereas the University is removing the last 3. The exclusion is contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. UPEI risks public exposure as Jim Crow university.

Article
The removal of disabled parking at the University of PEI is more onerous that it appears. In many ways it resembles the attempts of universities to exclude black people from getting an education prior to the US Civil Rights Act of 1964.

State governments and universities throughout the south had created a series of rules and regulations that excluded blacks from enrolling for over 100 years. They defended these barriers with lots of high sounding words and logical arguments. Only President Kennedy’s resolve to break down discrimination with the Act and enforce it with the National Guard opened the doors of university to blacks.

The Human Rights concepts of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are a logical progression in law from that era. The Charter of Rights and freedoms identifies people with physical and mental disabilities as protected from discrimination along with women, gays, people of another race, etc. We can’t even comprehend a policy at UPEI that discriminated against women yet the discrimination against the disabled is seen as logical and fair by management.

Crisis at UPEI

We are at a crisis on PEI because students with disabilities are being blocked from entering or staying at UPEI. Employees who cannot cope physically with the new rules will lose their jobs.

The University is in denial over the magnitude, presenting this as nothing but three people. Statistics Canada says that up to 150 employees at UPEI have disabilities and 160 students. In Main Building alone 7 staff persons need disabled parking, while the only 3 spots are being removed.

When I was a part time student at UPEI, maintenance gave me a pass and said park anywhere. They admitted more parking was needed. They also said it was being added.

Why accommodation for the disabled

Focusing on physical disabilities, people who have a walking disability or are blind need to park close to the building. Without belabouring the point, accommodation means putting them close to the building. Every step counts when you are disabled and trying to avoid an injury from falling. That is an accepted concept we see with disabled parking  everywhere. For example at Wal-Mart or at the new Jean Canfield Building on University Avenue. No one is putting disabled parking 70 to 100 meters away from entrances. That would create a barrier for the disabled person.

If someone who is blind or cannot walk is pushed away, they simple cannot get to the destination. If you want to discriminate against the disabled, put the disabled parking far enough away. That sounds perverse and no right thinking person would do that.

UPEI’s position

The administration uses words and logic to imply it’s simply an effort to be fair. All students and employees will have equal access to disabled parking.

That is true, all disabled parking is now equally far away from the buildings the disabled need to enter.

The purpose of disabled parking is to put people near where they need to go. The concept is accommodation. People with disabilities need accommodation to give them access to the university and society. We should expect the well-educated people at UPEI to understand the words and concepts of accommodation towards minority groups.

Discrimination at UPEI

The disabled parking policies at UPEI are clearly meant to exclude the disabled from the campus. I’m not a psychologist so won’t speculate why. It is illegal and immoral. It’s been going on at UPEI for decades.

When I was going there, some buildings were accessible and some weren’t. Most washrooms weren’t. While I was on campus with CTV we met Rebecca Wilchynski who tried to enroll last year. Confined to a wheelchair, she encountered locked doors at the top of wheelchair ramps, locked accessible washrooms and a host of other problems.

Two brothers with vision problems are finding attending UPEI very difficult to impossible.

A musical prodigy with a learning disability cannot graduate after five years of emotional abuse about his disability and no help. He went to Ontario and quickly get his degree.

These anecdotal stories are backed by statistics. We have been told repeatedly by management and the Access-Ability Committee that these problems don’t exist. They are in denial.

UPEI management aren’t concerned enough to do what it takes to make the campus accessible. This move is part of their 5 year plan according to Greg Clayton, Facilities Manager. What will the next year bring?

UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan is a well educated person, with three degrees. He is highly respected in the community have recently received the Order of Canada.  As a lawyer and the former Dean of Law at University of New Brunswick he should understand the law. However, sometimes lawyers learn too much about manipulation through power. I am hoping he we see this issue in context and turn UPEI against discrimination.

Postcript – In the early 60’s, my social conscience was awakened by the plight of the American blacks. I became a civil rights activist and that experience has taught me two major lessons: God wants us to help our fellow man without reward or compensation and little people can win big battles against authority when the cause is right. We shall overcome at UPEI. MacLauchlan won’t want to be portrayed as Bull Connor the man who used dogs and hoses on children going to school.

Folk songwriter Woody Guthrie said “Some will rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen”

CTV News coverage of UPEI removing disabled parking from the inner campus.

Reports say the story was carried from Atlantic Canada to Alberta.

Wade MacLauchlan, President UPEI

Dear Wade MacLauchlan, President of UPEI

This is a black day in the history of UPEI, PEI and disability rights.

If you are truly removing the disabled parking on the inner campus then UPEI has the distinction of being the only reference I can find of this regressive behavior.

Your mission is, quoting your website:

The University of Prince Edward Island … exists to encourage and assist people to acquire the skills, knowledge, and understanding necessary for critical and creative thinking, and thus prepare them to contribute to their own betterment and that of society through the development of their full potential. UPEI prides itself of being a placer of higher education.

Is this what you want to teach your students: it’s ok to abuse and discriminate against people with disabilities? Accommodation of minorities under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is for losers. Big corporations can break the law with impunity if they pick on the weak. Human Rights are something you have to put up with.

Of the seven enumerated groups under the Charter, disability is one. Which other group will UPEI management attack next, gays? Or seniors? Or persons of a different race?

Abuse of persons with disabilities is usually based on ignorance, cowardice or greed.

Is the management of UPEI ignorant? I think not: you all have lots of education.

Is there cowardice involved? Would you like to beat up on a cripple today?

Are you so greedy that common sense and decent human rights values are being thrown away?

Be assured that we will continue to advocate, wherever and whenever, that UPEI adopt modern policies related to persons with disabilities until this stain is removed.

Please write back and “say it ain’t so.”

Thank you,

Stephen Pate
PEI Disability Alert

Last week at Brennan’s for the pizza, a woman at the next table asked me “Where did all the disabled parking go at UPEI?”

Removed by Wade MacLauchlan. MacLauchlan’s  compassion and understanding knows no bounds except for helping those with disabilities get to their destination.

“I was there on Wednesday night to hear my granddaughter sing at the Steele Recital Hall. I had to walk a mile if I walked a foot,” she added. Ricemusic was a fund raiser for the people of Burma or officially the Union of Myanmar.  

Tara MacLean, headliner at Ricemusic Festival, UPEI

“Do you know my granddaughter?” she asked

“I’m almost blind and can’t see at night. I wanted to see her sing at the Ricemusic fundraiser. I went with a friend but we both had a devil of a time walking all that way from the parking lot. Are those people crazy?”

The grandmother of a headline singer at the Ricemusic Festival The Guardian struggled to make it from the parking lot to the concert hall. In the dark, she found the long walk difficult along the paths at UPEI. She is almost blind and has a walking disability.

Both the grandmother and her friend that brought her felt at risk.

I hated to tell her that UPEI has decided to remove all inner-campus disabled parking in a move to beautify the campus.

Note to UPEI President MacLauchlan: you forgot that not everyone has an electric wheelchair to zip around in.

Many people with a walking disability are still walking but they can’t walk far and are at risk of falling. The blind can walk but not long distances. Night vision is usually much worse than daytime vision.

Catherine MacLellan, headliner at Ricemusic Festival, UPEI

There is irony here that the fundraiser was showing compassion and kindness to people 12,000 miles away whereas UPEI has little compassion for the disabled in its midst. It’s easier to love a stanger you can’t see than the neighbor next door.

Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake.” MacLauchlan says “Let them walk.” Guess that would make him the Lord, the last person I knew who could make the lame walk.

Parking near where you need to go is always better.

Sam Walton, founder Wal-Mart If Sam Walton visited the Charlottetown Wal-Mart and saw the paint was gone from the disabled parking, he would have fixed it right away. When Wade MacLauchlan, President of UPEI, sees blue paint on parking spots for people with disabilities, he wants the paint removed.Wade MacLauchlan, President UPEI

      Sam Walton the founder of Wal-Mart was a hands-on manager. He liked to visit the each store every month to check the books and inspect the stores for cleanliness. The maintenance crew would follow him fixing the problems. If the disabled parking spots needed painting, they got painted.

Walton speaking to Wal-Mart store staff

     Compared with Wal-Mart, UPEI is un-caring. UPEI had some disability parking that was helping employees and students. They could have had more. MacLauchlan is taking away the disabled parking that is close to the buildings. UPEI set up a phony Access-Ability Committee with the intent of moving the disabled off the inner campus. MacLauchlan has hands on management but the wrong kind. Wade

MacLauchlan in photoshoot for the Guardian with a person in a wheelchair - the secret plan to remove disabled parking was made soon after this shot.

     MacLauchlan is now pursuing his legacy at UPEI with the Main Quadrant project and Canada Games 2009. The Main Quadrant will make the inner campus quaint and pretty, like something out of Disney World. Canada Games will be a high profile project which MacLauchlan can preside over.

     Another difference is the Americans with Disabilities Act which stipulates what accessible features buildings should have if they are open to the public. That’s why you’ll notice all the US retail and restaurant chains have the best accessible parking. They have it in their policy manuals.

     Wal-Mart also learned through a series of expensive lawsuits that discrimination could cost it money.

      It’s too bad Wal-Mart didn’t run a university close by. People with disabilities could get an education. Wade MacLauchlan and his management at UPEI just don’t get it on the disability issues.

People take the rear

I saw Myrtle Jenkins Smith working inside the building for this event. Perhaps she had another contract to sort out disability issues during Old Home Week.

We ought to have and Islanders with Disabilities Act to protect us from the abuse at the Charlottetown Driving Park, at the University of PEI, and everywhere else.SP

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editor:

I was just wondering if anyone could tell us who had the brainy idea to put a cow barn at the front door of the Civic Centre during Old Home Week?

We ought to have and Islanders with Disabilities Act to protect us from the abuse at the Charlottetown Driving Park, at the University of PEI, and everywhere else. SP

Yes, I know the owners thought it was great for their animals, but it was not so good for handicapped people who were trying to get into the Civic Centre for one of the concerts.

Civic Centre: disability entrance taken by livestock

We had to walk down Kensington Road to the gate, get our tickets for the concert, then walk through the grounds of the exhibition to the race track, then around to the back door of the Civic Centre through all the crowds and over all the wires.

Now I don’t have a problem walking that far but my wife does and I think that someone dropped the ball on this affair. Imagine, cows at the front door, people at the back, hardly sounds right to me.

Wayne Hughes, Pleasant Grove

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

August 25, 2008
Editor:

(This letter was printed essentially the same in the Journal Pioneer, West Prince Graphic and Eastern Graphic)

Arguments have been put forward that the decision to remove accessible parking from the UPEI campus is an improvement in accessibility.

UPEI disabled parking spots to be removed in September 2008

Simple logic tells us that reasoning is wrong. Forcing people with a disability to walk further is not better for them: it’s worse.

There is a Sesame Street lesson on near and far where Grover stands close to the camera and calls it near. Then he walks away from the camera and calls it far. The near and far concept is easy to understand.

We have disabled parking because people with disabilities have a hard time walking very far so the parking is near. That logic is wherever there is disabled parking, parking is near the place people need to go.

At shopping malls wouldn’t it look strange if the disabled parking was at the far end of the parking lot? Of course, we logically expect to see it near the door.

So why is UPEI trying to rewrite logic and common sense by pushing the disabled further away? Why did president Wade MacLauchlan and his executive team decide to remove accessible parking?

The project to remove accessible parking is called Main Quadrangle Revitalization Project. The details are on UPEI’s main webpage. Main quadrangle, in my opinion, is a beautification project that will create a Disneyworld-ideal campus look.

People with disabilities are not part of the culture of youth that pervades UPEI as it gets ready for the Canada Games 2009. We don’t look neat and pretty and photogenic.

Delivery vehicles and trucks can park anywhere on UPEI campus, even in disabled parking zones.

The new main quadrangle will look like one of those ideal movies about Americana. There is no place in that vision for people parking their cars because they have a disability. They are being pushed out. There is still enough room for trucks and vans to come and park as they please.

People with disabilities are expected to walk further to make the campus more beautiful.

Stephen Pate,
P.E.I. Disability Alert,
Charlottetown

The Journal Pioneer
August 21, 2008
Editor,

Arguments have been put forward that the decision to remove accessible parking from the UPEI campus is an improvement in accessibility.

Simple logic tells us that reasoning is wrong. Forcing people with a disability to walk farther is not better for them, it’s worse.

Grover understands near and far

There is a Sesame Street lesson on near and far where Grover stands close to the camera and calls it near. Then he walks away from the camera and calls it far. The near and far concept is easy to understand.

We have disabled parking because people with disabilities have a hard time walking very far so the parking is near.

That logic is, wherever there is disabled parking, parking is near the place people need to go. At shopping malls wouldn’t it look strange if the disabled parking was in the far end of the parking lot? Of course we logically expect to see it near the door.

So why is UPEI trying to rewrite logic and common sense by pushing the disabled farther away? Why did President Wade MacLauchlan and his executive team decide to remove accessible parking?

The project to remove accessible parking is called Main Quadrangle Revitalization Project. The details are on UPEI’s main web page. Main Quadrangle, in my opinion, is a beautification project that will create a Disneyworld-ideal campus look.

People with disabilities are not part of the culture of youth that pervades UPEI as it gets ready for the Canada Games 2009. We don’t look neat and pretty and photogenic.

The new Main Quadrangle will look like one of those ideal movies about Americana. There is no place in that vision for people parking their cars because they have a disability. They are being pushed out. There is still enough room for trucks and vans to come and park as they please.

People with disabilities are expected to walk farther to make the campus more beautiful.

Stephen Pate,
PEI Disability Alert,
Charlottetown

To understand the problems of the disabled on PEI one must look at the underlying relationships of the people who feed off the disability industry.

These people are often in positions of trust and power. They make the public appearance of being there for people with disabilities. When their power and prestige is threatened, however they fight back.

Myrtle Jenkins Smith - often the mastermind behind lack of progress on disabilities

This summer the issue of accessible parking came up at UPEI. This seems like a simple issue. However, the PEI Canadian Paraplegic Association has a member on the UPEI Access-Ability committee and they are blocking progress. There is more.

Exactly why is hard to determine except the CPA member appears to have succumbed to the charm of UPEI upper management. He’s one of them now. One of the high level organizers for the Canada Games 2009 is Myrtle Jenkins Smith, also executive director of PEI CPA. The plot thickens.

One of the main reasons UPEI wants to get rid of people with disabilities is to beautify the University for the Canada Games. So we lose parking at UPEI for a Myrtle Jenkins Smith project and she has her minions at the PEI-CPA defend it. That’s corruption.

Tony Dolan, one of the CPA directors, is also a director of the PEI Council of the Disabled. Instead of supporting accessible parking, the Council makes a weak statement that UPEI trumpets as endorsement. Dolan once was one of PEI’s great disability advocates. Why he has become an Uncle Tom is beyond me. People change I guess.

Disability Alert has been advocating re-instating the accessible parking re-instated. In response the PEI-CPA starts a letter writing campaign to the Guardian to discredit me. Since PEI-CPA, UPEI, Canada Games and Jenkins Smith see themselves as powerful, expect more in the weeks to come.

The purpose of their letters is to get us off the issue and into some kind of letter to the editor war.

It gets even more sinister when we see the Executive Director of the PEI-CPA Jenkins Smith was a high-level campaign worker for Minister of Health Doug Currie. As a reward, she is given the $100,000 consulting contract on the Disability Services Review committee. Her main job is to see the reforms are not embarrassing to the Liberals.

Jenkins Smith’s desire to discredit me is strong since I am peeling back the layers of the onion on her convoluted relationships, most of which serve her bank account and not PEI’s disabled community.

You would think these people were just trying to help people with disabilities. They say money sex and power are the big motivators in life.

Letters to the Editor
Eastern Graphic

West Prince Graphic

Arguments have been put forward that the decision to remove accessible parking from the UPEI campus is an improvement in accessibility.

Simple logic tells us that reasoning is wrong. Forcing people with a disability to walk further is not better for them: it’s worse.

There is a Sesame Street lesson on near and far where Grover stands close to the camera and calls it near. Then he walks away from the camera and calls it far. The near and far concept is easy to understand.

We have disabled parking because people with disabilities have a hard time walking very far so the parking is near.

That logic is wherever there is disabled parking: parking is near the place people need to go. At shopping malls wouldn’t it look strange if the disabled parking was in far end of the parking lot? Of course, we logically expect to see it near the door.

So why is UPEI trying to re-write logic and common sense by pushing the disabled further away? Why did President Wade MacLauchlan and his executive team decide to remove accessible parking?

The project to remove accessible parking is called Main Quadrangle Revitalization Project. The details are on UPEI’s main web page. Main Quadrangle, in my opinion, is a beautification project that will create a Disney World ideal campus look.

People with disabilities are not part of the culture of youth that pervades UPEI as it gets ready for the Canada Games 2009. We don’t look neat and pretty and photogenic.

The new Main Quadrangle will look like one of those ideal movies about Americana. There is no place in that vision for people parking their cars because they have a disability. They are being pushed out. There is still enough room for trucks and vans to come and park as they please.

People with disabilities are expected to walk further to make the campus more beautiful.

Stephen Pate
PEI Disability Alert
Charlottetown

By Stephen Pate

The opinions expressed in Paul Cudmore’s letter in the Guardian are not true. They are one-sided and lack balance.

Cudmore holds that UPEI is a beacon of accessibility and disability tolerance while the rest of PEI is a wasteland. That is simply not true.

There are places on PEI that are accessible and others that aren’t. In some ways UPEI is accessible but the new parking rules are not accessible.

However, forcing people with a walking disability to walk further is not better for them: it’s worse.

Why does the Cudmore defend UPEI? Probably because he has become invested in the “group think” of UPEI and its Access-Able Committee. He believes they can do no wrong.

Is this because Cudmore is a power wheelchair user and cannot empathize with those who still walk? Perhaps, but I think the reasons may also include the need to conform his thinking to the Access-Able Committee.

There is no democracy in groups. Group psychology always favors the group thinking over individual thinking. The examples are range from the followers of Jim Jones who committed murder to avoid disappointing the group to the social groups that exclude those with non-conforming opinions.

People who express deviant views from the group will suffer sanctions and if they persist ejection from the group. Most committees are run along those lines: say your piece but vote with everyone else.

See Department of Educational Research Florida State University Cohesiveness II of Group Processes for a detailed discussion of how groups cooerce members to accept the group beliefs.

The decision to exclude accessible parking did not come from the Access-Able Committee but from Gary Bradshaw VP of Finance and perhaps from Wade MacLaughlan, the president. We need to learn what their motivation is.