10 Years and Going Strong
Disability Studies at Ryerson:
1999 – 2009
The year is 1999. Around the world, Pokemon fever sweeps through and everyone seems to be listening to Regis ask, “Is that your final answer?” The world is shocked and horrified by the massacre at Columbine High School, and the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife in a plane crash.
In the world of disability, a 1999 poll finds that 73% of Canadians believe that Robert Latimer acted out of compassion when he killed his daughter Tracy and should receive a more lenient sentence. In this climate, the Supreme Court of Canada agrees to hear Latimer’s appeal. The Special Olympics celebratesthirty years in Canada and the Famous People Players istwenty-five years strong.
And in our little corner of the world, with twenty-five eager students, Ryerson’s School of Disability Studies is born, taking up a tiny office in Jorgensen Hall.Arts and culture is on the curriculum – one low-tech dance performance, no curtains, no lights, just two dancers, a music cassette and a couple of props – but the magic of disability arts is powerfully revealed. Students demand more!
The year 2000begins with a world cringing in expectation that “Y2K” will bring computer systems everywhere crashing down. The first season of Survivor takes over the summer airwaves and Tiger Woods dominates the world of golf. In what is viewed as a discovery sure to transform modern medicine, scientists map the human genome, the master blueprint of our bodies and minds. This discovery further advances the genetic testing debates.
Further in the world of disability, 2000 sees thetelevision program, Moving On, win the Media Human Rights Award. Geoffrey Reaume’s influential book, Remembrance of Patients Past is released to critical and academic acclaim. Also in the year 2000, the Disability and Ethics Initiative is created at the University of Alberta and Canadians win almost one hundred medals at the Summer Paralympics Games in Sydney,Australia.
At Ryerson, David Lepofsky, Chair of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee,delivers the Activist Lecture on the dynamic campaign of Ontarians with disabilities for an ODA. Disability Culture moves from the classroom to a public performance at the Eaton Auditorium – a very big step up.
The year is 2001. George Bush takes office andHarry Potter sweeps the box office. Stem cell research was big news until September 11th, when only one event occupied the minds of people everywhere.
In local disability-related news, the Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto is founded, The Supreme Court of Canada upholds Robert Latimer’s life sentence, with no chance of parole for ten years, and at the end of the year, we see the ODA – Ontarians with Disabilities Act –receive Royal Assent. Calgary’s Balancing Acts and Vancouver’s Kickstart Festival “up the ante” in the disability arts and culture game.
A special screening of the film, Liebe Perla, hosted by scholar Simi Linton, enables us to commemorate Holocaust Education Week in a significant way. Keith Norton, the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commissionstops by to tell us of their work and we hostAn Evening of Disability Culture, this time with video cameras rolling. DST students benefited from Mrs. Marion Chant’s generosity, as the first six MK Chant Disability Studies awards are distributed. The biggest news in 2001 comes from the Royal Bank, as they make an incredibly generous contribution towards the creation of the Ryerson-RBC Foundation Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education. The way it is paved for an ambitious agenda of academic and cultural work.
It’s2002 and the controversy over the 'War on Terror' and its search for weapons of mass destruction continues. The Catholic Church is shrouded in controversy, as a result of a stringof sex scandals, and corruption at energy-giant Enron leads to itsspectacular collapse. A Beautiful Mind wins best picture at the Academy Awards
In Sudbury, Ontario, Kimberly Rogers dies alone in her apartment while pregnant and under house arrest for welfare fraud. In December 2002, the verdict of the corner’s jury into her death recommends major reforms to Ontario's draconian welfare rules.
At Ryerson,the Disability Studies family is excited to move into our new home at the Sally Horsfall Eaton Centre and to welcome a new member, Dr. Kathryn Church, thanks again to RBC. We launch our first website, sharing video feeds of many of 2002’s special events including the lecture “Towards a Sociology of the Wheelchair”, poet Leroy Moore's presentation, “Race, Disability and Activist Culture” and Judy Rebick's activist lecture. Our own Catherine Frazee engages in a ‘Dialogue on Citizenship” with Michael Ignatieff. The first Malcolm Jeffreys Windsor Community Living Leadership Award and The Karen Tench Memorial Award in Community Inclusion and Advocacy are presented. On the cultural front, we are treated to an informal cabaret-style evening, dubbed the Culture Cauldron. We also laugh to the warm humour of West-Coast comedian David Roche – one of several ‘unexpected visitors’, and Art with Attitude gets its official name and attracts more audience than it can accommodate in the over-capacity Eaton Auditorium.
The year is 2003. Paul Martin becomes the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, and the Terminator is elected governor of California. Ten million people are blanketed by darkness in the Northeast Blackout and SARS rocks the world, not sparing the city of Toronto.
Locally, psychiatric survivors, the heritage community and people at CAMH – theCanadian Association for Mental Health – save the east wall built by psychiatric patients of the Provincial “Lunatic Asylum”, thereby preserving an important piece of psychiatric survivor history. Henry Enns book on Canadians working in disability rights at home and abroad is published posthumously.
A landmark year for Ryerson’s School of Disability Studies, in 2003 we welcome our first graduating class! To commemorate this auspicious occasion, filmmaker Bonnie Sherr Klein receives an honourary doctorate and delivers the convocation address. Art with Attitude, having outgrown its previous digs, moves to a new home at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.The second Culture Cauldron connects disability activists with the wider social justice movement by participating in “The Toronto Social Forum”. Paul Young, Past President of People First of Canada and the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, is featured during our annual activist lecture. For the first time, students receive the Civitan International Foundation of Canada Citizenship Awards, and the Harry E. Foster Foundation funds not only a scholarship, but our conference room as well, demonstrating a widespread commitment to our school’s growth and development.
In 2004, Martha Stewart decides that prison isn’t such a “good thing”. Ray Charles and Christopher Reeves die, and more than 200,000 people perished in the South Asian tsunami
The year 2004 also seesNewfoundland and Labrador’s two large-scale institutions for people with intellectual disabilities close, while the death of Randy Mogridge, a resident of Oakland’s Regional Centre, draws further attention to the problems of institutionalization in Ontario. The Canadian Disability Studies Association holds its first annual meeting at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
At Ryerson, 2004 sees the unveiling of our new poster, entitled Vision, Passion, Action, featuring the work of artist Rebecca Beayni, as well as the launch ofLights, Camera, Attitude!, a DVD sampler from memorable Art with Attitude performances. We host a special event in the Skylight room at the Carlu to unveil these new additions. A group of graduates, affectionately called The Group of Seven, begin discussions about creating a new alumni association. Later in the year, RADS – Ryerson Alumni of Disabilities Studies – officially launches with a wine and cheese reception to welcome new members into our esteemed group.
The year is 2005 and the summer begins with reports of terrorist bombs that rock London’s subway stations, killing fifty-twoand wounding hundreds; soon after, over 2000 die in Hurricane Katrina, the costliest hurricane in US history. Our Canadian parliament approves same sex marriage and the legal battle over the life and eventual death of Terri Schiavo plays out in the media, gripping people across the continent.
On June 13, 2005, the AODA – Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act – officially becomes law. Autism is in the news, as parents win their battle demanding that the provincial government provide IBI funding. DAWN – the Disabled Women’s Network – celebrates its 20th anniversary. AndCWDO – Citizens with Disabilities in Ontario – incorporates as a non-profit, dedicated to promoting the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of persons with disabilities.
Ryerson University welcomes its new president, Sheldon Levy. In Disability Studies, we play host to our first everWriters Reading Disability event, featuring Kenny Fries and Persimmon Blackbridge, as well as a panel presentation by three activist mothers, titled The Lady on My Street. Paul Longmore delivers his brilliant lecture The Hand that Feeds: Charity Telethons and Disabled Activism, by video feed live from San Francisco State University and RADS organizes a chili supper prior to the event. 2005 also saw three student winners in the Scotiabank Essay Contest. Art with Attitude is going strong and becoming a much-anticipated blockbuster at Ryerson and in the wider community. Buddies is filled to capacity.
It’s2006and Conservative Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister, while former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death after being found guilty of crimes against humanity. Internet powerhouse Google buys Youtube for 1.65 billion dollars and in Turin, Italy, Canada wins 13 medals at the Paralympics winter games.
Statistics Canada reports in 2006 that 4.4 million Canadians have a disability -- a figure that represents over 14% of the population. Ontario'sPassport Initiative is launched, to provide individualized community participation support for adults with intellectual disabilities. After releasing several non-fiction books about her experiences in the Survivor Movement, prominent Torontonian Pat Capponi, publishes her first novel, Last Stop Sunnyside.
It’s 2006 and enrollment in our program has grown by 80% over the last five years. There are currently eleven different research studies in the works at the RBC Foundation Institute. RBC makes the unprecedented decision to extend funding to the Institute for an additional 3 years – a total commitment of 1.2 million dollars. Kathryn Church receives an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Faculty of Community Services, and for the first time, our annual awards night is enriched by the Bill and Lucille Owen Award in Public Policy. RADS hosts a screening of Shameless: The Art of Disability, publishes the first edition of its graduates' newsletter, and launches the immediately successfulAsk gRADS group on Blackboard.Art with Attitude overflows Buddies in Bad Times, requiring live video feed into the adjoining Tallulah’s lounge.
The year is 2007 and as people line up to get their hands on an iPhone, rapper 50 Cent’s Candy Shop is the most downloaded ringtone. Moving beyond his hard-fought presidential loss to George Bush in 2000, Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy about global warming.On another activist note, the Support the Monks’ Protest in Burma Facebook group generates worldwide support, giving rise to the concept of netivism.
Locally, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities win an important VIA Rail case at the Supreme Court, Canada signs the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and David Onley is named Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. The Ontario Human Rights Commission rules that movie theatres must move towards the provision of Rear Window Captioning. AMC complies, by installing RWC at over 170 theatres throughout the province that same year. The CRTC moves that all major networks must provide at least four hours of descriptive video per week.
2007 marks an incredibly active year for us at Ryerson.Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember, which opened as part of the Abilities Arts Festival at the Columbus Centre, is an obvious highlight. With pieces created by current students, alumni, and community activists, the exhibit is the first of its kind in Canada. In our second installment of Writers Reading Disability, students and faculty welcome Harriet McBryde Johnson, reading from her memoir, Too Late to Die Young.The inaugural Jake Edelson Award in CommunityOrganizingis presented and the JW Connell Curricular Innovation Award is bestowed upon our faculty as a result of their groundbreaking work. Rights on Reel, our own disability film fest, is held at the Eaton Centre andRADS hosts a large-scale Alumni Symposium, welcoming graduates back to campus.
It’s 2008 and controversy surrounds the Beijing Summer Olympics but American swimmer Michael Phelps emerges as the clear star of the games. Economic hardships dominate the minds of Americansbut BarackObama surges into the White House on a wave of optimism and needed audacity.. Oh, and then there are the pirates …yes, pirates are in the news in 2008.
Canada Post adopts mental health as its chosen cause. They release a stamp to raise awareness and then respond to outcries from the community, changing their design to a more respectful one. All proceeds go towards mental health research and patient support. The Canadian Association for Community Living celebrates its 50th anniversary and Melanie Panitch’s book, Disability, Mothers and Organization: Accidental Activists, is released.
Out from Under is launched at the Royal Ontario Museum and achieves critical acclaim, winning the City of Toronto Access Award. A number of related lectures are also presented in conjunction with the exhibit. Beyond the ROM, our faculty receives the Ryerson University 2008 Students' Choice Award, for receiving the highest faculty course evaluations in the 2007-08 academic year.All of this and we still find time to be entertained by a Crip Cabaret, present the Beverley Antle and Catherine Frazee Award in Activism and Social Justice, and RADS hosts our inaugural satellite event for our grads in the Ottawa area.
Which brings us up to 2009 and this evening’s celebration. Celebration – now that word brings back memories. We were discouraged from using the word in our publicity for “An evening of disability culture” aka “Art with Attitude” in 2001.
Folks didn’t understand what was to be celebrated about disability. But they came, they saw, and they suddenly got what it was we were up to here at the School of Disability Studies.
By gosh, we were out to change the world!! And we’re still doing it – 10 years in and still going strong!
Script produced by Tracy Beck
Video produced by Terry Poirier
Project Team:
Jennifer Paterson
Sandra Phillips
Esther Ignagni
Melanie Panitch
Amira Mahamud
Aiden Crump
Patricia Seeley
Catherine Frazee
10 Years and Going Strong premièred at Art with Attitude on July 15, 2009.
Readers wereDavis Mirza, Heather Willis, Laura Arndt andZoie Smith
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