Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Human Rights
Issue 1 - Evidence - October 3, 2011
OTTAWA, Monday, October 3, 2011
The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights met this day at 4:05 p.m. to monitor issues relating to human rights and, inter alia, to review the machinery of government dealing with Canada's international and national human rights obligations. Topic: Federal programs supporting sports and recreational activities for children and youth with disabilities.
Senator Patrick Brazeau (Deputy Chair) in the Chair.
[Translation]
The Deputy Chair: I would first like to welcome all honourable senators and members of the public watching this meeting of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights. My name is Patrick Brazeau and I am the deputy chair of this committee.
The committee is completing a study of the federal government's policies and programs pertaining to persons with disabilities, and sport and recreational activities, with a particular emphasis on the needs of children and youth under 25 years old and on Canada's obligations under article 30(5) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
To date, it has been examining, among other things: getting children with disabilities engaged in sport and physically fitness, and staying active; promoting and maintaining a sport community of children and youth with disabilities; the infrastructure and investment at the local/community level to create an entry system for the national and international level of competitive paralympic sport; and the federal government's role in funding a national sport organization and projects that improve accessibility to community recreation centres and other infrastructure projects.
The federal government is working with the provinces in order to develop sport programs, and therefore we will hear today from representatives of four organizations: Ms. Darda Sales, Co-Chair of the Accessible Sport Council London and Area; Ms. Kim McDonald, Executive Director of the Paralympic Sports Association; Mr. Brian MacPherson, Director of Parasport Ontario; and Ms. Monique Lefebvre, Executive Director of AlterGo.
Before we start, I would like to introduce the senators present today: Senators Nancy Ruth from Ontario and Elizabeth Hubley from Prince Edward Island.
[English]
Ms. Sales, you have the floor.
Darda Sales, Co-Chair, Accessible Sport Council London and Area: First of all, I want to thank you very much for inviting us here today. The Accessible Sport Council London and Area is greatly honoured to come and give our two cents to this committee.
The Accessible Sport Council London and Area came together as a group of individuals from various sports who wanted to make a louder noise in our area about accessible sports and to help to develop more of a community feel, which would help us voice the concerns and considerations that we wanted our community to have. We were officially formed in January of 2010, with the support of ParaSport Ontario and their initiatives to develop accessible sport councils throughout Ontario. We are honoured to say we were the first official accessible sport council to be developed in Ontario and to launch.
The mission of the Accessible Sport Council London and Area is to promote and to facilitate accessible sport opportunities in London and surrounding areas. Our three main goals are to promote existing accessible sport and physical activity opportunities, to increase communication amongst the various accessible sport and physical activity groups, and to advocate for the development of accessible sport and physical activity programs and facilities.
We talked as a council and, in the brief we provided, we came up with four main areas in which the federal government might be able to address some of the local issues we have: increasing education and awareness of parasport opportunities; further emphasizing the development of resources to help children fully participate in their physical education courses; developing national standards for accessibility to recreation and leisure facilities; and to make more readily available accessible transportation for those wants to participate in their communities.
I became involved in the Accessible Sport Council because, having lived in London for 10 years and having been honoured to represent our country at two Paralympics, two World Championships and other international competitions — bringing home numerous medals, I am proud to say — I got very little attention from the local media. In fact, I was not mentioned in the media at all. Not that I needed or expected to be, but neither did Scott Moir or Tessa Virtue. Yet, they were plastered everywhere.
London has a long history of producing paralympians in the pool. In fact, in the pool alone, London has had 10 paralympians since 1988. We should be building on those successes. At the 2008 Olympic Games in China, swimming was the one sport willing to change its competition schedule to have the finals of the races take place during prime time in North America. Due to that, North Americans got the privilege of seeing Michael Phelps win 8 gold medals and make history.
From that time, children all across Canada became excited about swimming. I was privileged to be coaching with the London Aquatic Club, and we saw our enrolment double, to the point where we had a waiting list for the first time in many years.
If we were to consistently promote Paralympic sports to the same level as Olympic sports, and to demonstrate the success that our athletes are having around the world, we would be able to build our parasport enrolment, in the same manner, in multiple sports. If people do not know what is available to them, how are they ever going to get involved? It is quite difficult to find Paralympic sports on your own. I speak from experience. I grew up in Sarnia, a very small town. The only reason I knew that competitive swimming would be open to someone like me — I am a right-leg amputee — was because a recreation therapist at the local children's treatment centre asked me if I wanted to compete. Most children want to compete. If they do not want to compete, they at least want to participate. Again, if they do not know it is available, how will they ever get involved?
We are a small council, in a fairly small town in Ontario. However, we feel that with the support and legislation of the federal government all small towns can work together to make Canada the inclusively active and fit country we know it can be.
The Deputy Chair: Thank you for your presentation. We will hear from all the witnesses before getting to the questions.
Kim McDonald, Executive Director, Paralympic Sports Association: Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today. The Paralympic Sports Association is an Edmonton organization. Today I plan to share with you a bit about our organization and what we provide to the community, with particular emphasis on issues related to children and youth with disabilities. I will also refer to the topics of interest outlined in your invitation.
The Paralympic Sports Association is in its forty-sixth year of providing adapted sport and recreation opportunities for individuals with disabilities in Edmonton and surrounding area. We endeavour to increase acceptance and value of individual differences and abilities; promote independence and understanding; provide opportunities for physical challenge and personal achievement; and foster a sense of community and companionship within and between families to enhance overall quality of life with people with a disability. We have over 200 members that represent about 185 families.
With regard to getting children with disabilities engaged in sport and physical fitness and staying active, we agree that it is a priority in terms of health for children and youth and in terms of their families in the broader community. We perceive a major challenge to achieving this is centred around issues of opportunity and understanding. Children with disabilities often require specialized programming, which involves the use of specialized equipment, unique coaching and teaching knowledge to identify strengths and provide modification for individual needs and a climate of acceptance and challenge. Many children and youth who come to our organization do so because their sport and physical activity needs cannot be met in the broader community.
For example, we began an adapted tae kwon do program for children and youth with disabilities in response to the desire of a young girl with cerebral palsy to engage actively in the sport rather than watch her older brothers take part in their tae kwon do every week. We have recently expanded to include a junior and intermediate division in this program as the need and want for it has been so significant. This program is among many others we run, such as adapted swimming, soccer, wheelchair floor hockey, sledge hockey, golf and roller intercross, which is a very new sport — only two years old. We have summer camps that provide children and youth with disabilities the opportunity to develop sports skills and be physically active.
However, despite the success we experience and the lives that are positively impacted through our programming, these opportunities remain inaccessible for many families because of cost, transportation, lack of facilities and lack of understanding and awareness across the community about the value of sport and physical activity for their children with disabilities and the opportunities available for them. These issues are further compounded by our ongoing struggle for financial support to provide these quality sport and physical activity opportunities.
With regard to promoting and maintaining a sporting community of children and youth with disabilities, we do so by creating a community within a community. Our community is comprised of children, youth, adults with disabilities, their families and allies, volunteers, university researchers and other disability and able-bodied focus sports organizations, such as the Canadian Paraplegic Association of Edmonton and Alberta, Edmonton and Alberta lacrosse and the YMCA.
In order to promote and maintain a sport community for children and youth with disability, we envision a collective of people who, first and foremost, experience disability, their families and the disability sport organization that supports them. This ensures that the needs and wants of the children and youth with disability are at the forefront. It also provides a sense of belonging to a community to be at the table. As author James Charlton said, "Nothing about us without us."
We see this on a regular basis, for example, in wheelchair floor hockey and sledge hockey, where teams celebrate their accomplishments and share in the joy of competitive sport and friendship. Out of these grassroots programs, Paralympians, such as Steve Arsenault and Matt Cook, have emerged. We suggest that a strong infrastructure and investment at the local community level can create a feeder system for the national and international levels of competitive Paralympic sports, as we have demonstrated through our organization. However, we also recognize that the emphasis on elite sport can create limitations for the everyday recreational athlete with a disability. While we have made contributions at the elite level, we are concerned that everyone has the opportunity to take part in sport at whatever level they are able. After all, this is a true spirit of article 30.5.
In considering the federal government's role in funding national sport organizations and projects that improve accessibility to community recreational centres and other infrastructure projects, we experience on a daily basis the need for sustainable funding and accessible architecture. The challenges we experience through our organization are often in the details: accessible structures are one hour away for those using disabled adult transportation; gymnasiums with wide doors might have bathrooms that are inaccessible; and a sport facility planned for accessibility falls short of expectations when funding runs out.
With regard to the point on how the federal government works with the provinces in developing sport programs, our suggestion is to go beyond the provincial connection to providing more support for locally based disability organizations who struggle to provide the best quality sport and physical activity experiences for children and youth with disabilities in their communities.
A solution to these issues could be partnership between provincial organizations and local disability groups to support each other in the goal of achieving meaningful sport and physical activity opportunities for all children.
In conclusion, I would like to share with you the following story. The PSA offers programs focused on reverse inclusion. This is where children and youth with and without disability have opportunities to compete with and against each other in the sport. We put local stand-up teams on sledges, add a referee and the favourite Canadian pastime is on — hockey. The dreams and desires of all children are the same — the opportunity to belong to a group, experience the thrill of playing a game and to play against their peers. Through sport, understanding has been developed. Thank you for your time.
The Deputy Chair: Thank you for your presentation, Ms. McDonald.
Mr. MacPherson, please proceed.
Brian MacPherson, Director, Parasport Ontario: I thank committee members for this opportunity to present today.
I submitted an opening statement in advance, so I will go through the highlights. I represent Parasport Ontario, which is a private registered charity and non-government organization that provides sport and recreation programs to Ontario citizens with a disability, and this includes Ontario Parasport Games, both winter and summer.
I would like to start by thanking the federal government for its leadership and support of sport for athletes with a disability. I do not offer that thanks lightly because there was a time not long ago when that support was not at an equitable level. I will give examples. As of the late mid-1990s, the federal government's financial support for sport for the disabled was about $1.2 million out of an annual $60-million budget for Sport Canada. That represented approximately 2 per cent. At that time, the Athlete Assistance Program, or carding program as we call it, had about 800 athletes in it, only six of whom were athletes with a disability. Most importantly, the small amount of money that the federal government directed toward sport for athletes with a disability was used for organizations that supported a segregated system; i.e. a national sport for disabled organizations.
Today, it is a much different story. Of the federal government's approximately $200-million annual budget for sport in this country, about $20 million or 10 per cent is directed to sports for athletes with a disability. It is a great improvement. Moreover, much of the money is directed toward able bodied national sport organizations with an integrated approach to athlete development at the national level. The carding program now has about 1,800 athletes in the program and over 200 of them are Paralympic athletes.
The federal government has come a long way in the last 15 years, not only on the financial front but also on the policy front. There is now a national policy for sport for athletes with a disability, and there is a long-term athlete development model — a pathway for development of athletes with a disability — that did not exist 10 years ago. I applaud them, but do not rest on your laurels because more is needed.
Unfortunately, the same picture cannot be painted for provincial governments. On average, provincial governments spend an inequitable 4 per cent of their annual sport budget for sport for the disabled. Therefore, it is not surprising to learn that out of the approximately 400,000 youth with disabilities, between 5 years and 24 years, only about 3 per cent participate in organized sport at any level — local, provincial, national. That is in comparison to about 36 per cent of able-bodied kids in this country.
What little financial support there is at the provincial government level for support for athletes with a disability, most of it is directed toward what we would still call a segregated system. This means there is not a clear pathway for those kids with disabilities to move up the athlete level to make it to national teams and, more importantly, to represent this country at international events.
We ask the provincial governments to look no further than the federal government for a model for how to improve their support for sport for athletes with a disability.
In the big picture, disability is a perceived state, and the vision of the Paralympic movement is make the perception of disability disappear and replace it with inclusion and equity, using Paralympic sport to build better lives, better societies, to bring hope and inspire peace.
When the Paralympic movement began in the 1940s, the average lifespan of a person in a wheelchair was about three years. Today persons in wheelchairs live a normal lifespan, on average.
Statistically speaking, there is about a 20 per cent chance that you will acquire a physically disability, temporarily or permanently, during your lifetime. Investing in sport for disabilities today may help you or someone you love tomorrow.
The Deputy Chair: Thank you, Mr. Macpherson.
[Translation]
Finally, we will hear from Ms. Monique Lefebvre, Executive Director of AlterGo. You have the floor, madam.
Monique Lefebvre, Executive Director, AlterGo: Hello, everyone. I am Monique Lefebvre, the Executive Director of AlterGo, a regional umbrella organization for 90 organizations, which is located in Montreal and is concerned with providing access to recreational activities for persons living with a disability. Thank you very much for having me here today to help advance human rights.
Since its creation in 1975, AlterGo has promoted the social inclusion of 250,000 persons living with a disability by eliminating barriers to recreation, sport and cultural activities.
In keeping with its mission, the guiding principle of AlterGo is to promote a dynamic and positive image of the disabled in the context of recreation.
In 1984, I founded Défi sportif, an annual sports event that brings together athletes with all types of disabilities, and where up and coming athletes mingle with elite athletes, a rare and unusual concept in the world of sport.
It is pertinent to mention that both my parents are disabled, and that they were very active in sport and recreation. The word "incapable" is not part of their vocabulary. My father played wheelchair basketball for 49 years and was a member of the first wheelchair basketball team which, at the time, was called the Wheelchair Wonders.
My parents are models in terms of leadership. When people look at them with pity, I am even more motivated to help change the mentality and to point out the opportunities for people with disabilities rather than their limitations. Through my work with Défi sportif, I have had the pleasure of being an observer at three Paralympic Games — the games in Alberta, Sydney and Athens. By being there, we learned better ways to organize major games.
For 29 years, the mission of Défi sportif has been to present, in partnership with other organizations, competitions aimed at developing school sports and high performance sport. It gives value to the success of disabled athletes and contributes to the spread of universal accessibility. This international event welcomes almost 4,000 up and coming and elite athletes from fifteen countries. The competitions are held at eight major sites in Montreal and present 13 sports in six days.
The annual budget for this event is $2.3 million, and 25 per cent is publicly funded.
We receive support from Sport Canada under a hosting program for international events, which means that the federal government funds the high performance sport but not development of up and coming athletes.
In 2010, Défi sportif generated economic spinoffs of $4 million as well as fostering the social engagement of 900 volunteers, with 50 per cent of them returning every year.
The Association des établissements de réadaptation en déficience physique du Québec and the 21 rehabilitation centres it represents have been officially collaborating on the development of adapted sport since 2003.
Since 1984, Défi sportif has transformed the lives of thousands of children with disabilities as well as the lives of the people who support them. It makes it possible for Quebec's disabled children and their families to experience success, to have opportunities and to enjoy an active life. They experience the joy of being active even though they are disabled. When children participate in sports, their walkers become a vehicle for participating in sport; a prosthesis becomes a tool to help them run faster.
At the Défi sportif, youth have the magical experience of pushing their limits, feeling proud, and recognizing their potential through their participation. In addition, their determination is inspirational and is the impetus for change in perceptions that are sometimes are overly demeaning.
For four days at the end of April, more than 2,200 children from 70 Quebec schools — both special and regular — come to Montreal to give their all in eight sports.
In addition to the Défi sportif volunteers, the athletes are accompanied by teachers, parents, helpers, coaches, supporters, and school staff, who all provide the support needed to experience this much awaited moment. For them, it is the highlight of a year of hard work and effort.
Like all children, they are involved in sport, socialize, participate in a competition that is in the news, and whose official spokesperson is a role model for them, the exceptional paralympic athlete, Chantal Petitclerc.
Défi sportif has succeeded over the years in attracting a good number of partners. We have not accomplished this alone. Together, we are eliminating as best we can the barriers that still exclude too many disabled young people from participating in physical education classes or extra-curricular sports.
Much more remains to be done. However, engagement in school sports by rehabilitation entities and sports federations is taking place. Last year, Défi sportif did not receive any government support for the participation in school sports of 2,200 young people.
To eliminate barriers to recreational activities, we work with other organizations on universal accessibility. People living with disabilities reveal the needs of society. If we are able to respond to their needs, we are helping the public at large.
Universal accessibility touches on all aspects of people's lives and is based on the respect for rights of all citizens. Based on inclusion, universal accessibility allows anyone, no matter the disability, to have the identical or similar, autonomous and simultaneous use of services that are available to the entire population.
There are four aspects to accessibility: access to programs and services such as transportation, recreation and employment; architectural or environmental access; access to communications; training and awareness.
Do children and youth under the age of 25 have programs enabling them to have an active and healthy lifestyle in Canada? We believe that they do not. However, the wording of article 30 of the UN Convention is very inspiring.
The vast majority are too often excluded from physical education classes, do not have access to a network of competitive school sports, and are not very active. To be physically active in the community, for example by learning a sport in a day camp program, requires a can-do attitude on the parents' part, unlimited determination, outstanding communications skills, and a fat wallet in order to ensure that everything comes together and that there is real access.
In Quebec, 20 per cent of families have a disabled child. Approximately 100,000 families have a child with a mild handicap; another 45,000 families have a child with a severe handicap.
We already know that the financial situation of such families is very difficult. Do parents know about the services provided by day camps to disabled youngsters? Is the sports program designed to take into account the needs of these children? Will the children be entitled to an assistant to help with their physical or social participation? Will these children have access to transportation for a group outing? Will children with intellectual disabilities have access to communication in simple language? Will they have access to the equipment or buildings? Will staff and the other children be sensitive and open to differences? To have access to and to enjoy positive sports experiences, all four aspects must be part of the universal accessibility chain.
You will easily guess that one or two are often missing. Just take the example of the witness who was unable to appear before your committee because there was no room on the plane for his wheelchair. It is completely unjustifiable. After having gone to all the effort to participate as a Canadian citizen, he must go home accepting that his rights have been violated. This requires strength of character. Situations where the accessibility chain is broken are all too common. We need our society to create environments without barriers. We are working on adapting buildings and avoiding the construction of barriers. We must innovate, reflect, and develop new ways of doing things. We are convinced that there is much the federal government can do.
The Deputy Chair: Thank you very much Ms. Lefebvre for your presentation and for appearing before our committee today.
[English]
We will now turn to questions, starting with Senator Nancy Ruth.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Your presentations always make us pause. What can I say?
As a result of what you said about media coverage, Ms. Sales, I wanted to generally ask: Do girls with disability face different challenges than the boys in your programs at all levels, national, provincial or municipal? That is a question for all of you. If so, what are the differences?
Ms. Sales: From my own personal experience, I can say that I do not feel there is necessarily a gender struggle that I have personally experienced. Perhaps other people have other experiences from that. It is a matter just of accessibility for everyone in our community. It is not necessarily boys versus girls in any way that I have experienced.
Mr. MacPherson: I would add that, at the Paralympic Games level, it is quite equitable. About 50 per cent of the participants at the games are female. That was not necessarily the case 20 years ago, but they have come a long way in adding more events and more sports for female athletes with a disability. They did that in order to promote women and girls with disabilities to participate in sport, even at the local level.
Senator Nancy Ruth: Are you saying there was an intentional program to make this happen?
Mr. MacPherson: Absolutely, yes.
Senator Nancy Ruth: When did this start?
Mr. MacPherson: It started in the late 1980s.
Senator Nancy Ruth: And in Quebec?
[Translation]
Ms. Lefebvre: I am more familiar with participation in Défi sportif, where 68 per cent of participants are boys and 32 per cent are girls. We are satisfied but we would like it to be 50/50. In general, more boys than girls participate in sports programs, unfortunately.
[English]
Senator Nancy Ruth: Ms. Sales, when you said you got less media coverage, do you have an evaluation of why that happened? Has it happened to other women athletes, in particular?
Ms. Sales: I do not see it as a gender issue. I see it definitely more as a parasport struggle everywhere. In London, where my experience comes from, we struggle for local coverage as it is. Our local newspapers tend to cover more of the international or national sports opportunities. I think that is a shame. We need to be highlighting what is happening in our community so that people in our community can then participate.
Our smaller papers in London actually are partnering with the accessible sport council to provide us with a space in the newspaper whenever we need it to highlight different accessible sporting opportunities that are happening, whether it is big tournaments coming to London or people going out to tournaments. They are willing to give us that space. That is something we worked hard to develop over the last year of the council. We are hoping that continues, because we need people to know what is out there. The more coverage we can get in the newspaper, the more we can hype up for parasports, the more people will know what is available and will participate.
Ms. McDonald: I would like to commend the Paralympics in Vancouver. The coverage for that was amazing. It was the first time ever sledge hockey was covered live. Our athletes at home could not believe it. That increased the number of people coming into our programs after the Paralympics.
However, as Ms. Sales says, the local coverage is not there. They do not come out to support the sport; they come out because they think it is a disabled sport. It is a sport, and these kids and athletes are pleased and proud to show off their sport. They work hard. They have the same emotions as any athlete out there, and we need that understanding out there to this world. They are athletes and they work hard.
Ms. Sales: I want to add to what Ms. McDonald is saying. I do not know very many athletes with a disability that want to be known as an athlete with a disability. They want to be known as athletes. That is what we are. We participate in sports that maybe are different than others, but they are still sports. There are so many sports in the world. We need to get rid of the mentality that it is a disabled activity. It is an activity for a certain part of the population, just like any other sport. Just like some people play basketball and some play baseball, some people play sledge hockey and some do not.
Senator Nancy Ruth: This is a question around funding. I heard two statistics. One was that $1.2 million, that is, 2 per cent of Sport Canada money, goes to your groups. Ms. Lefebvre said that 20 per cent of families in Quebec have a disabled child. However, 20 per cent and 2 per cent do not match. How can we move that figure up? What kinds of struggles have you had both provincially and federally to move the funding towards more a reality of the people involved in your sports and so on?
Mr. MacPherson: I mentioned the $1.2 million figure from the mid-1990s out of a $60 million annual budget at Sport Canada. To emphasize, today it is a much different story. Sport Canada has risen to a $200 million a year budget, ballpark. About $20 million, or 10 per cent, is now dollars earmarked for sport and athletes with a disability. They have come a long way. One could call it an equitable share given the population and taxpayers in this country. About 15 per cent of taxpayers in this country live with a disability. It depends on your point of view, but my point is that the federal government has come a long way in its financial support, but not so at the provincial government level, not by a long shoot.
Ms. McDonald: At the local level, as we are the only local organization from Edmonton, we do not get national funding, but we get local City of Edmonton funding, which makes it that much harder to put our programs on at a cheaper cost. Our sledge hockey is $180 for the year, which does not cover the ice time. As everyone knows, ice time is expensive. We try to keep it low to allow the adults on AISH, Secured Income for the Severely Handicapped, to be able to participate in the programs and to get them active.
[Translation]
Ms. Lefebvre: There is a link between media coverage and the funding we receive from provincial and municipal governments. There is no denying the fact that parasports do not yet attract huge crowds. In the case of Défi sportif, in recent years we attracted 1,200 people to wheelchair basketball or fencing finals. And that is quite the feat after 29 years of Défis sportifs. When we approach our elected officials and stand up for issues in order to obtain more provincial funding, we are told that it depends on the public's interests, that the public is not behind us, that the event will not be given a lot of media coverage. So why would they give us money? We spoke earlier about mass media, and how it portrays wheelchair athletes and para athletes. We have to generate interest, show that there is potential and move the issue forward. But can we say that the public is interested?
I would say that the public is still not comfortable with the disabled. Not everyone is at the point where they would sit down and say, "I am going to watch a wheelchair sport. I will see the sport, not the handicap." Many of you may know people with disabilities. You see them as persons first, and not as disabled persons. However, for most people the handicap is in the forefront. There is still a great deal of work to be done in terms of awareness and having people sit and watch para sports.
Provincial governments, Quebec's among others, often provide funding on the basis of the visibility of the sport. Who raises the profile of a sport? Elite athletes. If we examine provincial funding over the past ten years, support to elite athletes is one of the programs that has been boosted. This includes everything needed to support best practices and better living conditions. However, no money is available to recruit the children who will compete in future. I have been told, for example, "Ms. Lefebvre, there are no programs for this clientele and you do not fit the criteria." We have to open up these avenues in order to take our place. That is what I would say to you.
[English]
Senator Hubley: I want to come back to Ms. Lefebvre's last comment that we must open up those avenues so that everyone will participate.
The question I would like to ask will have something to do with how you promote your activities and how the services get out to the people who need them, in particular, children and youth. I think about kids who go to school. Most children do not even think twice about the fact that they will be playing sports and doing this and that. For a disabled child, that option may not be as open to them. The opportunity may not seem as accessible to them.
In our teacher training, do you know if there is training that addresses dealing with children who may have disabilities within the classroom and then, as importantly, within the recreational programs of that school? Do you know of any programs we might look at?
Ms. McDonald: We have the Sledges in Schools program. We take them anywhere in Edmonton to anyone who asks us to come. We take the sleds out; they rent the ice; we get the able-bodied world into the sled. We show them that this is a great sport.
It is not mandated in the city that they have to have a disabled sport, but it should be in the schools so that we can reach every child out there, disability or not. It is a way of showcasing that this is a sport for people with disabilities or able-bodied people. We have lots of able-bodied people playing sports in our program.
We have to get into the schools and tell the teachers that they have to put some disabled sport in their programming just to showcase it. That will reach the kids that we cannot reach.
In the rural areas in Alberta, I have heard over and over again that they do not have enough people, so these kids are sitting at home doing nothing. They are on the computer for how many hours a day. However, in Saskatchewan, the small town teams rally around the kid with the disability. I think there are three sledge hockey teams out of Saskatchewan — one disabled child; the rest able-bodied. It is a sport for everyone, like basketball, on their point system.
That is how we as a local organization try to get the knowledge out there.
Mr. MacPherson: From the Parasport Ontario point of view, we have what we call first contact outreach programs specifically targeting kids with disabilities. We conduct essentially one-day clinics introducing them to a number of sports. We do it primarily through the disability community; for example, rehab centres, physiotherapists and physio centres, and not so much through the school system as they put up barriers to our being able to offer these types of outreach clinics to this targeted group.
Senator Hubley: What would those barriers be?
Mr. MacPherson: Time, in terms of schools open from 9:00 until 3:30. Anything that is done after school or in the evenings is not in their interest to help coordinate. We do it on our own, but not through them.
Sometimes liability, from the point of view of accessing their facilities during school hours and getting all the other services involved as well to keep these facilities open for us to use. Those are a couple of barriers.
On the positive side, the more we get into the schools, the more the able-bodied kids get to see what is going on with people with disabilities, their peers with disabilities, and it breaks down that mental barrier about who is different and why. If you get that at a younger age, that helps longer term.
Ms. Sales: One of the initiatives that the Accessible Sport Council London and Area has taken on is that the city of London is now putting on car-free days where they shut down the main street in downtown London. We have been able to work with the organizing committee. One time we brought in the Ready, Willing and Able Program through Parasport Ontario to bring it out onto the street. We had roller sledge hockey, boccia, wheelchair curling and wheelchair basketball. It was for people in this festival to come and try out the sport.
It was great. We had the most activity on the streets. Everyone wanted to see what was happening because it was active and fun, and that is what everyone likes to do. That is one issue we have taken on.
We are trying hard to get into as many community events and fairs as we can to put out there that these sports are available in our town, these things are happening. On our website we try to list any competitions that are coming to our town so that people know what is happening and they can come out. That is another way we are using our community newspapers.
Back to the school part of your question, in my other life I am a recreation therapist, and in that job one of my main jobs was to go into schools to help the teachers to adapt their education programs to fit the child in the classroom, or to introduce the other children in the classroom to activities that this child could participate in. There are recreation therapists available at children's treatment centres across the country. That is definitely one area that I feel teachers need to be more aware of the resources that are out there that they could tap into. Teachers do not have to be left on their own to flounder or to be always putting pressure on the parents to find out what is happening. There are other resources; we just need to help the teachers to know where to tap into them.
[Translation]
Ms. Lefebvre: As for whether or not physical education teachers are trained to deal with disabled children, I would say that it is a vicious circle because these children have very little access to physical education classes. Unless they are given access, teachers will continue to lack training. In Quebec, physical education teachers with three years of university education have taken a 45-hour course on adapted physical activity. This course covers all types of disabilities. I would say that these teachers are quite well-equipped to send a disabled child straight to the library. That is quite shocking in 2011. For all manner of reasons, there is no access to physical education classes.
Are people aware of the programs available to people with disabilities? We are working with the City of Montreal on universal accessibility and access to communications. In terms of the latter, we have developed a concept known as "inclusive tools." When a service provider, such as a city, publishes a directory of programs it offers, together with the list of organizations, it always forgets to indicate the programs that are open and accessible to persons with disabilities. Are the locations accessible? The person living with the disability must always call to find out. They must always do the research to find out whether the activity is accessible. Even when they do call, they may not always obtain all the information. Thus, we have to raise the level of awareness among service providers to make their premises accessible, and then we must inform the public. One day, an elected official said to me: "Ms. Lefebvre, if we write it, they will come." Is that not the goal? That is what is needed. It shows, once again, that there are still barriers. We must encourage people to indicate that they offer services.
[English]
Senator Hubley: Two outstanding Canadians, Terry Fox and Rick Hansen, showed all Canadians the possibilities. How has that impacted your work? Is there an excitement? Rick Hansen is having his anniversary tour. What I have seen from both the able-bodied and disable-bodied is that they are all excited, but they are excited about an individual who has achieved something very great for all Canadians. Does that flow through the community of people who are challenged?
Mr. MacPherson: I would say not directly. Certainly Rick Hansen and Terry Fox and their achievements are notable and laudable, but they were not done on the field of play or in a sport setting. Terry Fox went across the country, and Rick Hansen went around the world. People do not connect that to sport for people with disabilities or recreational programs for people with disability. Although they have helped out on the awareness side, it has not translated into the participation side whatsoever.
[Translation]
Ms. Lefebvre: We talked about Rick Hansen and Terry Fox. In Quebec, we have Chantal Petitclerc. What we definitely see is that people are receptive, that they are impressed. Chantal has told us: "Now, we have taken a step forward. Before, I would be asked why I was involved in a sport when I had a disability. Today, I only hear about my performance, the time of my race. Public opinion has changed."
What people do not see are the needs of other persons with disabilities. Chantal is a paraplegic. She has the use of her arms, she speaks very well, she communicates her needs, her transfers are easy. The needs of someone with a severe disability, for example someone who is a quadriplegic and who wants to play wheelchair rugby, are much greater. And the public is not aware of these needs. What are the needs of a quadriplegic who wants to swim and needs an assistant? People who have not experienced this cannot imagine what it entails.
Yes, they have provided positive images of the disabled. However, there are many different images. Chantal is one model; but there are many other models, other types of needs, and they are not as visible and are less understood. People will say that the disabled can manage on their own, but they also need help.
[English]
Senator Zimmer: I had my pocket picked by Senator Nancy Ruth. She stole my question. I will come at the other end of the culvert on this. Funding is very important. Mr. MacPherson, as you know, I set up a Paralympic foundation, and we did those two fundraisers at the Magna golf course with the Stronach family where we raised $200,000 in the first year and I forget how much the next year. Funding is important.
Ms. Sales, you said it well: They are not disabled athletes, they are athletes. When you hear them speak at an event like that, they inspire you because they smile and they are happy. They are proud of what they have done. Truly, they are our heroes.
However, I want to get to the part of funding with not just the federal government but with all levels of government. With the federal government, are there conditions attached to your funding? Is a follow-up review conducted by the government to this funding? Is long-term and/or stable funding available? If it is not, what impact does this have on your organization and what type of funding would you like to see made available?
Those are four questions wrapped up in one, but they all lead to each other. I want to go back to that because, although the infrastructure and all that is extremely important, it boils down in the end to whether or not you have the funding at all levels, federal, provincial, civic. The other avenue is that there are so many other charitable causes out there, and you have to do your own fundraising. Each one of you can take a crack at it, but tell us what we can do to help you get more money.
Mr. MacPherson: I will start. As I mentioned in my opening statement, from a federal government point of view and Sport Canada as the department, it is equitable funding between able-bodied sports and sports for athletes with a disability — "equitable" if you believe that about 10 or 15 per cent of the available dollars should be directed towards sport and athletes with a disability. That occurs right now at the national level. All of this money goes primarily to national team programs. If you are an athlete with a disability moving up the system, you are succeeding in spite of no system. Once you get to the national level, support opens up, from coaching to training to competition support. Everything is there. It is at an equitable level. If you talk to any of these Paralympic athletes today, particularly those who remember the older days, they would tell you that the support today at the national level is great.
Where the system breaks down is below the federal level, at the provincial governments and local governments. They just do not put enough funding resources towards recreational and sport activities for people with disabilities. It is not only not enough, but what they do put in is inequitable if you take it with the perspective of the overall population of taxpayers that live with a disability. On the provincial level, about 4 per cent of their annual budget directed to sport gets earmarked for sport for people with disabilities. I profess that should be in the neighbourhood of 20 per cent. Without any more additional funding at the provincial level toward sport, or new funding, you could take the existing money and redistribute it in a more equitable way.
I had another point at the provincial level, but I will think about it.
Ms. McDonald: The able-bodied national organization is getting money from the federal government. They do disabled sports, and that money goes to the high-end athletes, but it does not cover the ones that cannot ever make it to the Paralympics or any of those higher end sports. They are forgotten. Those are the people that we need. This is the community all these high-end athletes come out of. It is a community we need to support that, in the long-term, grows to enable us to have these high-end athletes. We cannot forget about the recreational athlete.
Locally, we get no funding, as I said before. We are in need of equipment, facilities and staff payment, too.
Ms. Sales: I definitely can speak from experience. To make it to the international level is very difficult financially. Many individuals with disabilities have greater expenses day to day than the general population. There needs to be maybe more specifically earmarked money for recreation sports, specifically for individuals with disability to help encourage them to get out. For you to get active, it depends on your family and how much they support the idea of recreation and how important that is to them for them to then do their budgets and make the money available when you are looking at all these extra payments you have when you have a child with a disability. It is hard to prioritize sometimes. Many athletes have got lost along the way and never made it to the international level because they did not have the finances to get there. It really is sad to see how many individuals with a disability are not active simply due to finances.
What a lot of people do not understand is that, for some accessible sports, there is specialized equipment that you need. If you want to play wheelchair basketball, you need a wheelchair basketball chair. If you want to play sledge hockey, you need a sledge. It is not quite as simple as grabbing a ball and away you go. If there was maybe a specific program for funding for equipment, that would help in so many ways for families to then get their children involved.
[Translation]
Ms. Lefebvre: It is a really good question and one that I am keen to answer. With regard to high-level funding, I would say that there has been a marked improvement. Has the war been won? No. Viviane Forest is a Quebecer who won many medals in recent Winter Paralympic Games. She had to sell her house and is $70,000 in debt. Had she received as much money for her gold medal as able-bodied athletes do, she would still own her home. I do not believe that we have won the battle to provide full access for athletes with a disability.
Let us look at Sport Canada's international sport support program, through which we obtain funding. We must apply for this funding every year. If we wish to organize our events for three years, is it possible to obtain a three-year agreement, see what can be done and develop a program? We have been asking for this for a number of years, but it is not possible with current practices because international events are supposed to be one-offs and our event takes place every year. We are considered a Canadian gem, but when the time comes to negotiate grants, it is always difficult.
I do not know if accountability has almost become a serious illness. However, for the event we just delivered we welcomed a good number of persons with disabilities, we had media coverage, we provided all the services and, after the event, we were asked to provide a monthly cash flow statement.
Some administrative processes are beyond me. We are a non-profit organization that has to organize and manage resources, work with volunteers, look for funding, deal with fundraisers. I know that Senator Zimmer is an expert fundraiser. You surely know that it is not an easy task. Then, at the end of it all, there is a salaried employee in a government office asking us to provide all kinds of paperwork. Let me say that our tolerance is tested when we see all the paperwork that we are required to provide. They look at the figures, but I would say that they do not look at the work we do. I sometimes wish the officials would come to see our work. Perhaps the administrative matters would be simpler. We also need more resources to better accommodate international events and a long-term approach for elite sport.
With regard to physical fitness, I think that everyone here knows that if you are active, your health will improve. If all of society realizes this, then why has the $12 million to $14 million budget of previous years for physical fitness dropped to less than $1 million? Such things pop into my mind and are difficult to understand. I am taking this opportunity to tell you that Défi sportif, and all our member associations, help persons with disabilities to be active. Could we get some support? Not just financial support, but moral support. Could you talk to the provinces and tell them that parasport is important. They have not figured it out yet. We must repeat it, raise awareness, and preach. We also need financial resources to get the disabled moving because they have additional needs to be met.
[English]
Senator Zimmer: One suggestion might be to do a three-year program where you can lock that down so that every year you do not have to go back through the same administrative process, which takes away time from doing other things. Secondly, it has always bothered me that out there somewhere in a field, on the ice or wherever are some young persons who are excellent at what they do but, because of financing and the situation with their families, they cannot proceed and they lose the love of their life. That has always bothered me.
Mr. MacPherson and I have worked together on other projects. We would appreciated any information you can continue to give us on how this committee can help you to be able to do that, starting with a three-year program.
If I may speak for the chair and the committee, we would be delighted to do so because, as I said, meeting these people, listening to them, seeing Chantal describe her race while she is in the chair, brings you to tears. Truly, they are our heroes.
Senator Ataullahjan: Thank you for your presentation. The one thing that struck me when you were talking is that there seems to be more awareness of people with disabilities, but the attitudes have remained the same. You said that people come to watch the games, but they do not come to see the sport but rather to see the athletes with disabilities. I do not know if you can answer. Is there anything that we as a committee can do to raise awareness about the immense courage and hard work that goes into the sports so that people will come to watch and enjoy the sport and not just because athletes with disabilities are playing? I do not know if anyone can answer that or if there is an answer even.
Mr. MacPherson: In my experience in trying to increase awareness of a particular subject area, the primary tool is through the media and media relations. Although we have come a little way with respect to broadcasting Paralympic Games on Canadian TV, in between games it is virtually non-existent in terms of televising world and national championships, unlike able-bodied sports where those things are put on TV.
One of the highest priorities would be to get CBC to do more in terms of broadcasting sport for athletes with a disability at the national and international levels. If you increase visibility through mass media, you increase the awareness of the public at large.
Ms. McDonald: When the NHL was on strike we had our first sledge hockey tournament. We had every single media out there because they had nothing else to cover. We were just amazed. We did not have enough food, because we never thought the media would show up, because they never do show up. That is the best coverage we have had locally, and until there is another strike we may not get such coverage again. The media needs to promote us as athletes, not as disabled athletes.
Ms. Sales: As much as we need more coverage in the media, we also need the mentality outside the media in our country in general that it is not a pity story. Whenever you watch the Paralympics on TV or read in the newspaper about an event for athletes with disabilities, the focus is on the disability. It is: Look what they have overcome. Look at all the challenges. They are such great people. That is all true, but they are athletes; they are just there to compete.
If we were to have the same write-up on a Paralympic event as on an Olympic event where the focus is on the times, the abilities, the accomplishments of that day, that would also help a lot. Let us get rid of the pity story. We do not want the pity; we want to be recognized simply for the athletic achievements we have achieved that day.
Senator Ataullahjan: That is what I want to know. The media can pick up stories and play them, and sometimes stories that have no business being in papers or on TV are on and the media plays up to that hype. Why can we not get them excited to come out to see people with disabilities who are playing sports and playing well?
[Translation]
Ms. Lefebvre: Défi sportif has an agreement with RDS, which is the French equivalent of TSN. We have been asked about our ratings. If we want the Réseau des Sports to cover the event, we have to ensure that we have good ratings. And to do that, we have to be spectacular. If you were to say that you are giving us $1 million dollars, that we have to prepare an advertising campaign, get some stars and put on a big show for sport that would get things going. But we are competing against well-oiled machines. The Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the other professional sports organizations with which we compete on these networks have excellent recognition and a promotional machine that we do not have. These same resources, these same means must be used to become more interesting, to sell better, and we need resources.
That is also the case with the media, but I think that it is a package. Because the best sales people, those who can change the perceptions, are the people with disabilities. The more disabled people we find in communities, the more they will be playing sports, and the more they will change the image that people have of them. When you see a young person playing a sport, you walk by and watch.
I believe that there are a number of measures that can be implemented. The resources have to be placed in the provinces. There is a campaign for the Paralympic Games, but that event is not often held in Canada. We will no longer have that. How can we maintain the interest of the Canadian government, when there will not be another Paralympic Games for a long time, unless Toronto bids on the games? We have to maintain this interest all the time and I believe that because we have a recurring event, one that takes place year after year, and because we speak to the media, we are visible and we are present. We try to make that investment, but our means are truly small compared to what it would take to have a long-term impact and achieve change.
[English]
Ms. McDonald: I will bring us back to the grassroots level. A national campaign ad about disabled sports could show the positive aspects, for example that disabled sports are right across Canada. We can reach the grassroots athlete with those kinds of ads. The kid at home playing on a computer could see an ad of a wheelchair basketball player or a sledge hockey player flying across the ice. If we build at the grassroots level, we will find the athletes that will be missing from the next Paralympic Games.
Ms. Sales: People love champions, and we have so many amazing Paralympic champions. Swimmers brought home medals consistently at the last three Paralympics, when we were in the top ten. In 2000, we won in the pool, but no one knew about it. We are all about medals; that is what the Olympics are about. People always say that the swimmers do not bring home medals and wonder what is going on. They need to look to the Paralympic side, where the athletes bring home the gold. We could hype that and put the emphasis on the fact that we all want to be winners. Paralympians were doing that. Why not add more promotion and excitement around that?
Senator Nancy Ruth: There is tension between putting the money where the families and kids are locally and then moving them up to the stars. How do you see handling all that? My personal inclination is to stay with the kids in the towns and villages. It is a tension in all your speeches.
Ms. McDonald: We utilize a lot of knowledge base. For example, we have the YMCA coaches. Hockey Alberta receives a lot of money for sledge hockey but that money does not filter down to us. We see one or two events. I can see working with sport organizers, such as for swimming, and using their knowledge. We have knowledge of the disabled and they have the swimming knowledge. We could come together as a group to ensure that the athlete learns and is well cared for.
Mr. MacPherson: I am trying to think how to put this. They both go hand in hand. You cannot have high performance athletes unless you introduce them to the sport at the grassroots level; and you will not get many kids at the grassroots level without the winners. In the cycle of things, if your resources are finite, where do you put them? At this time with finite resources, the national or high performance level is working not bad compared to years ago. There is never enough for high performance sport, but it has gotten a lot in the last 10 years.
We do not see our feeder system at the local and provincial levels. Anything that can be done to put pressure to bear on those two levels to do more for the grassroots level would be a great investment over time.
Ms. Sales: There is an education for the grassroots level. You do not need to be an expert in a disability to be able to coach a child who has a disability. You need to be an expert in your sport and be willing to learn what needs to be done. If we were able to open the minds of more grassroots organizations and coaches to the fact that it is not such a great big challenge and that it is something you can tackle and if we had the support for the coaches in the way of training or funds to send them on courses, it would open more doors. Perhaps more organizations would be able to open their doors. We would not need special funding and special programs if we were able to educate more of the general population on the ease with which you can bring children with disabilities into the programs. People would see what an asset they can be and organizations would grow as they added a new level to their programming.
The Deputy Chair: Are there other questions? Seeing none, on behalf of the committee, I thank the witnesses for being with us this afternoon and contributing to this important study. Certainly, as the father of a young child with a disability, I am starting to understand some of the barriers and challenges in terms of access to opportunities and the challenge of raising the level of awareness amongst the media and Canadians with respect to what is available and what needs to be done. I hope that this will be only a small portion of a start to raising the level of awareness in Canada.
I believe a draft budget has been circulated. I am sure you have all had the chance to look at that. This is something that was discussed during the last Parliament.
Are there any questions with respect to the draft budget that you have before you?
Senator Zimmer: No. Will you be needing a motion?
The Deputy Chair: If there are no questions, I will be needing a motion to adopt the budget.
Senator Andreychuk: I am presuming that the budget is as we discussed. It seems a bit higher, but I think that is taking into account what other committees are doing and putting inside travel budgets, et cetera.
Daniel Charbonneau, Clerk of the Committee: Yes, it is a bit higher because of inflation. Air fares have gone up and this also takes into account some of the service fees that we now have to pay, such as passports and visas. That is the amount of the increase.
Senator Andreychuk: Actually, the fares to Africa are now almost fire sale, as long as you do not go on school breaks when students are going to Europe and coming back. We can probably get a better deal in some cases to Africa than you can to Europe. We should look into those if we are really going.
Mr. Charbonneau: This will go to the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration. Once we get the okay from them, we can actually start buying tickets.
The Deputy Chair: Next on the agenda, we have to go in camera for the consideration of the draft report on sexual exploitation, along with others housekeeping items.
Is it agreed that we now go into camera?
(The committee continued in camera.)