Honourable senators, I rise today as we begin the month of June to celebrate Deafblind Awareness Month.

In 2015, the Senate of Canada unanimously passed a motion to designate June as Deafblind Awareness Month.

I wish, once again, to acknowledge and thank our colleague, the Honourable Jim Munson, and former colleagues, the Honourable Joan Fraser and the Honourable Asha Seth, for their supportive roles in ensuring the unanimous passage of the motion to recognize the deafblind community. I also want to commend the Honourable Vim Kochhar, our former colleague and visionary, who is a true champion of Canada’s deafblind community.

June is also the birth month of Helen Keller, the iconic role model and leader of the deafblind community the world over. At the young age of 19 months, Helen developed an illness that left her deaf and blind. By the age of seven, she had more than 60 home signs to communicate with her family and could distinguish people by the vibration of their footsteps.

She learned to “hear” people through speech by reading their lips with her hands. She also became proficient at using Braille and reading sign language with her hands. She learned that by placing her fingertips on a resonant tabletop she could experience music played close by. Nothing was impossible for her, regardless of the many obstacles and challenges she faced every day. At the age of 24, she became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

She believed that:

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

She paved the way for many individuals in the deafblind community to better understand their own lives, bring awareness to this important cause and fight for changes and forward social progress.

In 2001, The Canadian Helen Keller Centre, founded by the Honourable Vim Kochhar, opened its doors to provide deafblind Canadians with training opportunities and services and to raise public awareness about the needs of people who live with deafblindness.

Throughout June, Canadians will recognize the resiliency and strength that deafblind individuals face every day and celebrate their great achievements. This month is extremely important not only for honouring them, but also their families and all individuals who work closely with them. These interveners are incredibly inspiring unto their own, being the eyes and voice of the deaf-blind individuals they support.

Hellen Keller once said:

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

Honourable Senators, please join me in commemorating June as Deafblind Awareness Month and reaffirm our commitment as articulated in the 2015 motion to ensure that all deafblind Canadians have equal access to the benefits and opportunities that our great country affords us.