Disabled MLA faces ‘significant barriers’ at legislature, Canadian icon Hansen says

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This article was published 15/03/2017 (3216 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s Man in Motion slowed down long enough Wednesday to visit Manitoba’s legislative chamber.

And Rick Hansen, perhaps the best-known disability-rights advocate in the country, was not impressed by what he saw — the myriad obstacles Steven Fletcher faces on a daily basis as the MLA for Assiniboia.

Fletcher, 44, has been paralyzed below the neck since colliding with a moose while driving on a northern Manitoba highway in 1996.

“I didn’t have to look too far to see that Steven faces some significant barriers,” said former Paralympics marathoner Hansen, who pushed his wheelchair more than 40,000 kilometres in 34 countries between 1985 and 1987, raising awareness of accessibility issues and collecting $26 million for spinal cord research and rehabilitation.

While some accommodations have been made at the legislature, Fletcher argued last summer that his privilege as a parliamentarian was breached by the lack of accessibility, and challenged his government to rectify the situation. House Speaker Myrna Driedger ruled against his complaint in October.

Fletcher, who requires constant care from an aide, works from a desk in a corner of the back row in the chamber.

“He’s pretty confined to that spot,” Hansen said, adding Fletcher can’t reach the floor of the chamber, can’t confer with staff at the clerk’s table, can’t sit in the front benches if he becomes a cabinet minister, and can’t serve as Speaker.

Worse, Hansen said, is the situation in Fletcher’s office.

Using a much smaller wheelchair than Fletcher’s motorized chair, Hansen demonstrated the difficulty he had squeezing into the office’s washroom and closing the door behind him. The door should opens to the outside, but does not.

And Hansen — who became a paraplegic at the age of 15 when he was thrown out of a pickup truck and has the use of his arms — had difficulty getting the push-button door opener to work.

Fletcher, becoming emotional, said there isn’t enough room to close the bathroom door once he’s inside.

“No. I can’t even open the door. How many times did Rick have to hit the button?” he said. “It’s amazing in 2017 that this could even happen.”

Hansen and Fletcher two have known each other for more than 20 years; Hansen was among the first people to visit Fletcher after his life-changing car crash.

Hansen, 59, said the Nova Scotia legislature’s Speaker is in a wheelchair, accommodated successfully at no loss to the heritage structure of the chamber.

“They’ve modified the chamber with great dignity,” he said. “He’s in a chair — you see the ability.”

One positive alteration is the Legislative Building’s front entrance, one of few in Canada disabled people can access, Hansen said, offering praise for former premier Gary Doer, who had the ramp installed.

“All you have to do is look at the front of this awesome building,” said Hansen. “I was honoured to see this elegant ramp, made with the same stone. It doesn’t even look like a ramp.”

Hansen is in Winnipeg to speak Thursday night at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on what kind of country Canadians want to build going beyond our 150th anniversary July 1.

“We need to get smarter, all of us,” he said. “We need to get to a place where we’re completely accessible by 2050.”

Building codes are simply sets of minimum standards, he said. Hansen is campaigning for anyone involved in designing accessibility to have professional training and accreditation.

“The way in which a door opens is critical,” he said. “If you have a large chair, you can’t close the door. These sorts of things are happening all across Canada, inadvertently.”

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca