Kim Haynes
Persons with Disabilities Rep
Prairie Region Council November 2015
National Human Rights Committee Meeting
2-3 November 2015
NHRC had a very busy & productive meeting in Ottawa. Listed below are a few highlights and if you would like the full 5 page report please feel free to email me at kimpsac@gmail.com I will be very happy to forward it to you.
On Monday each HR working group work together with their counterparts across our great country. The Priorities of 2016-2018 were discussed. And as this is a living document some were changed.
PSAC Duty to Accommodate Booklet is getting old we are going to review the document & make suggestions & additions for change. Any assistance with this project would be greatly appreciated. So please if something is missing or unclear or due to the current demographics please contact me.
As this working group is made up of new & old members, we all felt that our roles & responsibilities were not distinctive. So we are going to be reviewing what we feel should be our Terms of References also adding in training that would be benifical. Again if any member wishes to add any input on what they feel should be our responsibility or duties please contact me.
Building a Network: The Prairie region is large – and therefore it is intimidating so I need your assistance to get a network of people. Opinions count I need yours to be an efficient representative. As a representative for Person with Disabilities I need your input so that I can assist in the most effective manner.
Mental Health is a really big issue & was discussed in many different forms over the weekend. Soon we, PSAC will have training for Stewards on this very important illness. And we as a small form had the privilege of listening to Guest speaker Denis St. Jean of the JLP about Mental Health National Standards.
Statement for the PWD is another project that we need to work on. It was decided that we would start with the last paragraph from our last statement. It reads as…..
“The PSAC encourages all members, including members with disabilities to not only celebrate the many contributions of persons with disabilities but also to support and raise awareness of the struggles and challenges still facing them today.”
We then plan to list the challenges and way to overcome these challenges. Again any suggestions &/or comments would be helpful and of course make this “Statement” truly ours.
Schedule teleconference dates are the 3rd week of each month being March, June & September, and shortly after I plan to send out updates to the Region.
During the Open Forum will all the members of the National Human Right Committee some of the Resolutions were talked about – but nothing that I felt was to too serious, however my notes are available to all.
Other concerning issues where:
- Duty to accommodate for persons with disabilities
- Bully attitude
- Parking issues
- Accommodations were sometimes not centralized
- Childcare (great video) Did you know that Sweden, Iceland, Denmark & Finland are the top four countries for childcare & Canada is in the Bottom. We should find out what & how they are being so successful & use them as a mode.
- Mental Health issues – again I cannot wait for the training package.
The Next cycle was talked about and the big take aways were:
- Inquiry for the missing aboriginal women
- Childcare
- Long census forms
- Mental health
- Transgender Rights
- Removing the ugly Conservatives “Bills”
Your voice also counts so please email with any issues you want me to forward to the group.