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Head of "game-changing" organization speaks to Richmond disability group

When Paul-Claude Bérubé spoke, everyone in the room at Richmond Centre for Disability’s (RCD) Lansdowne Centre office listened.

When Paul-Claude Bérubé spoke, everyone in the room at Richmond Centre for Disability’s (RCD) Lansdowne Centre office listened.

After all, Bérubé is at the head of a new federal organization which is being touted as a “game-changer” when it comes to everyday challenges faced across Canada by people with disabilities.

Bérubé, the chair of the Canadian Accessibility Standards Development Organization (CASDO), a departmental corporation responsible for developing and revising accessibility standards for federally regulated organizations.

But that’s just words.

When Bérubé presented Monday morning to RCD’s board and some members, he promised to turn words into action as soon as possible during his tenure.

“It’s usually the likes of doctors, architects and other professionals that decree what’s good for us,” said Bérubé, a former lawyer, when referring to the design and delivery of services.

“But at 16 different places in the (recently passed) Accessible Canada Act, it states that we will be counselled for our opinions.

“Now, it’s the people with disabilities who are the experts. Nine of the 10 (CASDO) directors have a disability. We have a plan. We have a vision.

“It’s the first federal institution led by people with disabilities. Our research will inform the next generation of accessibility standards.”

Bérubé was joined Monday morning by the head of an equally new and potentially impactful entity, in the context of bettering the lives of people with disabilities.

Kasari Govender, B.C.’s first independent Human Rights Commissioner, started her five-year term in September 3, with a mandate to promote and protect human rights.

Govender told the RCD group that her office will be reporting directly to the legislature, “not to any minister.”

“The (human rights) tribunal deals with individual complaints; the clinic helps people make complaints and respond to them,” she said.

“But there’s no mechanism to prevent discrimination in the first place. The structure (of society) is what leads to discrimination and racism. We aim to change the structure.”

RCD’s co-chair, Vince Miele, said the presentations were “good for our board and consumers to hear.”

Miele said that the creation of CASDO and the B.C. human rights commission is “definitely a game-changer.

“It’s always been other people that have said they’re going to do this and going to do that.

“What they’re doing now is leading by example and hopefully the province and the cities will follow suit.”

Miele said, ultimately, what he’d like to see is “not just accessibility” but more “inclusivity.”

“It shouldn’t just be about getting into a building and having a special table to sit at.”

The federal government’s introduction of the Accessible Canada Act is intended to send a “clear message to Canadians that persons with disabilities will no longer be treated as an afterthought: that systems will be designed inclusively from the start. It is our systems, our policies, our practices and our laws that need to be fixed, not our people.”