SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — World Down Syndrome Day

Honourable senators, I am truly honoured to address you for the first time as a new senator. Today, March 21, is World Down Syndrome Day, and Quebec Intellectual Disability Week runs until March 23.

I’d like to thank the Progressive Senate Group for graciously offering me this opportunity to make a statement. I would also like to thank all of the community organizations, especially l’Arche L’Étoile, where I volunteered for several years. Lastly, I want to pay tribute to all people with intellectual disabilities.

Everyone I have met has something invaluable and unique. It is a treasure for a community. They certainly taught me every day to be a better person. Thanks to all these great people, I am what I am today, and I have the duty to say thank you to them.

This day and this week are an opportunity to give greater voice to people with intellectual disabilities and their loved ones, and to recognize the work of community organizations, such as APICO, the Association pour l’integration communautaire de l’Outaouais. Indeed, this is something we can do all year long.

We have with us today APICO’s executive director, Stéphane Viau, along with assistant director Alain Lamarche, integration officer Marie-Laurence Viau and APICO clients Marc Cyr and Lydia Pelletier.

In addition to promoting and facilitating social and community integration, APICO provides practical assistance tailored to the holistic needs of people with intellectual disabilities and their biological, foster or rehabilitative care family. The organization strives to help the general public recognize people with intellectual disabilities as equal citizens who have rights. APICO facilitates integration and participation in social and community life.

Honourable senators, today is World Down Syndrome Day, so on this special day, let us join together to learn more about people with intellectual disabilities and welcome them in our communities.

These people have unique talents and differences in how they communicate, relate to others and see the world. I invite us to take action to remain open to differences. We all have actions to take.

Today and every day of the year, let us salute the people who live with these differences and their families, along with the care providers and many community organizations that work with them. Thank you.