Triple Vision

In this 65th episode the Triple Vision Team tackles the complicated issue of Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID. In 2021 Canada’s parliament revised its MAID legislation to allow for MAID in circumstances other than a death being foreseeable and imminent. As a result, MAID is now available to Canadians who have a "grievous and irremediable medical condition", which can include a serious and incurable illness, disease, or disability. This change has opened the doors to many ethical discussions about possible implications for the disability community. We invite Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai into a conversation about this. Mahadeo is well qualified on this topic as Chief Operating Officer of IDEA - STEM, an organization which focuses on accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health care. He is also an Adjunct professor in the School of Medicine ophthalmology at Queen’s University, as well as faculty in the Business Administration Technology program at Ontario Tech University, and in Inclusive Design at OCAD University."If we believe, in the disability community, that we have a right to oversight of our own bodies, then we have to acknowledge that if someone’s been given all of the information they need and this is a choice that they choose to make, we as a disability community can’t object. We can say, are we sure that there’s been appropriate levels of information provided. We can say, are we sure that there’s been appropriate consideration for all of the barriers and how those barriers exist and how those barriers play into lived experience. But ultimately, if we’re sure the person is making a choice, and its their choice to have made, we can argue with the outcome of the choice, because it might not be what we would choose, but we can’t necessarily argue with the fact that they have the choice."

To start 2026 the Triple Vision team speaks with Mike Morrice, the disability and Inclusion critic for the Green Party of Canada. Mike was the Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre between 2021 and 2025 when he pushed hard on behalf of Canadians with disabilities to ensure the Canada Disability Benefit would become a reality. In this month’s podcast he talks with us, a day before the federal budget dropped last November, about how disappointed he was with the eventual benefit, as well as the Liberal Government’s track record on disability, climate change, and commitment to alleviating poverty in Canada.“The fact is that it’s expensive to leave people in poverty. The health care costs, any number of different societal costs, are significantly higher wen society, or a country, chooses to leave people in poverty. That’s what’s being done, disproportionately, when it comes to the disability community. I think it’s an embarrassment that, in a country as wealthy as ours, that we are not doing better by the disability community, and economically. It disadvantages us as a country.”

In triple Vision’s 63rd episode we tackle the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion. President Trump’s second term has placed DEI under attack in the United States, and there are rumblings of discontent in Canada around the practice as well. To answer some of the questions around this, Karoline and Peter speak with Varsha Naik of the Regional Diversity Round Table (RDR). Located to the west of Toronto, RDR’s mandate is to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion amongst some of the largest organizations in the area. WE ask Varsha what is the continuing value of DEI in the face of cutbacks to immigration, as well as where is accessibility in this conversation?“We are creating a lack of acceptance. We are creating a polarization in our communities. We are creating communities where hate will fester. We will be looking at an eventual violent society and that’s not where we want to go.”Please join us for this exciting and stimulating episode of Triple Vision!

In this fourth and final episode for Disability History Month, the Triple Vision team talks with Ma-Nee Chacaby about her book "A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa Cree Elder". Co-written with Mary Louisa Plummer, the book won Canada Reads 2025 as the "one book to change the narrative". In this compelling podcast Ma-Nee talks about why she wrote the book, and the values which are important to her, including taking care of the land and the importance of telling your own story. She also talks about her long journey of discovery of who she is as a two-spirit person."I also wanted First Nations people to start writing their story. Lots of people in this planet – I’m not blaming anybody – but lots of people in this planet always say things about First Nations people, when they say things about the way we live our lives, and who we are. So I always say, you know you should write your story. Just tell the truth, what it was like when you were growing up".Don’t miss Ma-Nee telling it exactly the way it is, and when you need more, be sure to pick up her book!

In this third podcast in Disability History Month, Triple vision contributors Vic Pereira and Diana Brent discuss the autobiography "Stars Come Out Within" by the much loved Canadian children’s author Jean Little. Little wrote over 50 books, many of them dealing with the topic of disability, writing about the topic long before writers began to treat kids with disabilities as their own persons, with their own agency. Born with a visual impairment herself in 1932 in Japan, Little struggled all of her life to fit in – caught between the worlds of the sighted while not quite fitting into the community of individuals with vision loss. Despite her struggles, however, she left behind a treasure trove of published works which include novels, picture books, poetry and short stories. Little identified with the 19th century poet, Emily Dickinson who wrote the poem which starts with, "We grow accustomed to the Dark" and contains the title of her book "Stars Come Out Within"."We do develop strategies, and we do learn what it is like to live as someone with partial vision or totally blind - as where someone who shows up for an event and puts on a blindfold they don’t know the strategies that we’ve developed or what we’ve learnt to do. She touched upon that, that she is going to learn how to do it so she realize that there are ways to do things. They might be slightly different. They might not be the same. I think she learnt that from her students."

In this second podcast for Disability History month, and Triple Vision’s 60th episode, host Hanna Leavitt speaks with Miguel Agayo of the Accessibility Hamilton Alliance about the book “The blind Mechanic”: The Amazing Story of Eric Davidson, Survivor of the 1917 Halifax Explosion”. Written by his daughter, Marilyn Davidson Elliott, the book is a biography of a pioneering Haligonian who defied all expectations to take up car mechanics.In 1917 Eric was two years old and playing in front of the window of his Halifax home when two ships collided leading to what at the time was the world’s largest non-nuclear explosion. Approximately 2,000 individuals were killed, and 9,000 injured. Eric was one of 37 people who lost his vision that day. He went on to attend the Halifax School for the Blind, but unconventional, he defied all expectations of him becoming a washing machine repair man and followed his father and brothers into the field of car mechanics. He worked as a mechanic in Halifax, Toronto and Ottawa and lead the way in breaking the stereotype of what blind Canadians are capable of. Join Hanna and Miguel as they discuss the historical context of the Halifax explosion and the extraordinary life of Eric Davidson in this month’s podcast."He continually took the engine apart, and put it back together again to create a mental map of what goes where. He also experimented by disconnecting a part, listening to the engine, feeling its vibration. … He would listen to find what made that noise, what made the vibration, what made that smell."

September is Disability History Month in the city of Hamilton. This September the Triple Vision team is collaborating with the Accessibility Hamilton Alliance and students from McMaster University to bring listeners a podcast per week focussing on disability history as told through books. In this first podcast Ruth Vallis talks about her book Love is Blind which details her life as one of the first eight students to be integrated into Toronto’s regular classrooms in 1969. She then goes on to talk about her education in England as a physio therapist and her working life at the top rehabilitation clinic in Toronto."maybe someone who could see could look around and see what is going on here, not for blind people. So that was very, very challenging. And it almost overcame me. I almost wanted to not live anymore. But suddenly I got a grip and things got better. By the time I graduated I could have stayed living in England."Triple Vision especially wants to thank Tim Nolan, director of the Accessibility Hamilton Alliance, and the students who helped out with preparing and editing these podcasts – Ava Antolic, Enya Lee and Amy Jun. Thank you very, very much! We literally could not have done this without you!

This is the second part of a two-part series where the Triple Vision team and members of its advisory committee sit down with Angela Bonfanti, the new CEO of CNIB to talk about where the organization is going. We get into the topics of the high unemployment rates of persons who are blind, deafblind, and partially sighted, and how the organization’s come to Work program is trying to address this. Angela also spends some time talking about the importance of integration, indicating that “We can do more together than apart”. Finally, she hints that CNIB is changing its approach to technology."At some point we were trying to create the technology, then buy the technology. I think those days are done for us. I think where we want to be right now is in the tech training and the tech testing area. I think that is going to remove many more barriers for the community that we serve."

In a two-part series the Triple Vision team and guests sit down with CNIB’s newest Chief Executive Officer, Angela Bonfanti, to talk about what CNIB is, and where it is going. In August 2024 Bonfanti became the organizations’ first female leader. In this first of two podcasts the team brings in two members of its advisory committee, Marcia yale and Vic Pereira to help guide the discussion. We have a frank conversation with Angela starting with the TV podcast that was pulled down two years ago, and then we move on to other issues such as whether CNIB is an organization of the blind or for the blind, and what is the future of the Toronto hub."I think that the sentiment was that this was not the full story, that it did not give us an opportunity to give the audience the facts, and that there was a focus on the numbers alone during an exceptional year. We felt from what I remember, just that it was really unfair."

In our episode 56 the Triple Vision team turns its attention to an issue which it has been wanting to highlight for some time now, the increasing rates of guide dog refusals in Canada. On December 21, 2024 Jessica Rathwell tried to board a bus from Surrey BC to Kamloops to meet her family for Christmas. To her shock the bus driver refused to let her board because she said that Jessica had not given the bus company 48 hours notice, that the bus was full and they needed to block off 4 seats in advance to accommodate her. Jessica literally took a stand, refusing to move and holding up the bus for an hour in order to demand that her rights be respected. For that she has been banned from the bus company for life. Despite over fifty years of guide dog legislation and human rights jurisprudence, many Canadian guide dog handlers are saying that guide dog refusals are getting more numerous, rather than less. Through Jessica telling her story the Triple Vision team starts to unpack this deteriorating situation of guide dog access in Canada."The only reason I left was because she told me, calmly, that I should so I did. I went with them and they put me in the back of their car like a criminal. They didn’t cuff me, but they put me in the back, so I now know what the back of a cop car looks like."

This month the Triple vision team has fun with one of our favorite podcasts, Happy Hour! In this episode we set aside some of the thornier issues about living with blindness in Canada, and tell stories about the lighter side! With guests Kaye Leslie, Sylvia Jonas, Vic Perera, and Triple Vision members Charlie Ayotte, Karoline Bourdeau and Peter Field we relax over a beverage of choice and talk about guide dogs, guide dog schools, travel, trains, and the good, if somewhat misguided, intentions of strangers. Somewhere in the midst of all of this Charlie even talks about what its like to be in the middle of a terrorist attack! So join us in this fun and relaxing trip around the lighter side of blindness. So cheers to happy hour, and have one on us!

In this first podcast of 2025 the Triple Vision team speaks with Tim Nolan. Tim recently retired from a 31-year career at McMaster University in Hamilton, finishing up as Director of Student Accessibility Services. But Tim also dedicated over 22 years of his own time sitting on various iterations of the City of Hamilton’s advisory committee for persons with disabilities, including eight years as it’s Chair. In this episode Tim has a frank discussion with Karoline and Peter about how effective, or rather how ineffective, those committees have been. Municipal advisory committees are mandated under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and are becoming more common across the country as provinces enact there own legislation for persons with disabilities.“There’s no process in place to bring these committees together so that they can communicate and perhaps leverage off of one another to have a more robust approach to dealing with accessibility across the province – no continuity. The Government of Ontario seems unable to bring those communities together and fundamentally they seem unwilling to bring those communities together.”

In this second part of the Triple Vision team’s exploration of attitudes of the Christian church towards people who are blind, deafblind and partially sighted, Peter and Karoline talk to Danny Leung of the Joy Beyond Vision community. Danny is a pastor located north of Toronto. He connects Asian and non-Asian communities from Toronto to Vancouver. Offering a support network as well as programs and services, Joy Beyond Vision seeks to eliminate the stigma of what it means to be blind in the Asian community. "I just want to educate people, let people see another side of people with disabilities. And again, don’t look at my appearance, don’t look at my blindness, don’t look at me as somebody using a wheelchair. Just because they are using a wheelchair doesn’t mean that they are not capable. They are gifted in many ways."

In this Triple Vision episode the team returns to its historical roots to discuss the impact of the church towards persons with disabilities, and those with blindness in particular. Shortly after the industrial revolution, as families moved from the countryside to the cities, a culture of blind begging emerged, only to be compounded by a rise in Syphilis leading to an even greater prevalence of blindness within the population. While the church set out to make the lives of these blind individuals better, there was a cost. But in this episode we also try to update those costly attitudes by speaking with Judy Robinet of the charity A Life Worth Living. Judy is putting together a curriculum to ask church’s to be more welcoming, and more compliant, with the Accessibility to Ontarians with Disabilities Act. "A welcoming church develops friendships, not only on Sunday but throughout the week. For me an inclusive church listens and acts on expressed needs to ensure everyone has access to the resources and opportunities to participate."

In episode 51 the Triple vision talks transportation, specifically "floating" bus stops with guest host Richard Marion and First Vice President of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians Linda Bartram. "Floating" bus stops or "island" bus stops are bus stops which pedestrians must access by crossing an often-uncontrolled bike lane. While part of "active" transportation measures, they also pose obvious dangers to all kinds of pedestrians, especially individuals who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision. In this episode Linda talks with Karoline and Richard about the efforts made by the blind community in Victoria to ensure the safety of blind pedestrians while travelling across bike lanes to reach island bus stops. Their advocacy efforts eventually led to a decision of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, which, although it ruled in their favour, imposed a mitigation measure which was problematic, and has far-reaching implications. "the thing is we’re seeing a lot of multi-use pathways which we’re being expected to interact with, that is cyclists and other pathway users. Those are happening everywhere. This is an active transportation initiative for climate change, but while we’re not against active transportation initiatives, just don’t create a barrier when you’re doing it."

In this, our 50th episode, the Triple Vision team engages listeners in a fascinating discussion on aspects of Canadian identity that we don't always think about. We speak with Sheyfali Saujani who, at the time of our interview, was completing her PhD based on her Personal experiences with multiculturalism, her life as a racialized immigrant, and a former CBC journalist. She also happens to be an individual with partial vision. Sheyfali guides us through these various intersectionalities towards the question of what being Canadian means, both for her, and all of us. The issues that I faced often had to do with my race or the colour of my skin. People look at me, they see a person who is racialized as brown and they immediately think, 'oh, where are you from? Are you from India?' And then you get into this longer history because my family historically migrated from India to East Africa. We were then expelled from Africa in 1972 from the Ugandan dictator Idi amin, and found refuge in Canada.

In this weeks episode, Carolyn and Peter talk with Kelly MacDonald of AMI. They asked the question; In a world of increasing integration for people who are blind, death blind, and partially sided, is there still a need for specialized broadcasters such as AMI? In this entertaining podcast Kelly answers this question, while providing humourous anecdotes along the way about his broadcasting career. We may not necessarily be meeting the local brodcaster, radio 98 or what ever they are. That is, not really mentioning disability at all in their news cast. When we talk politics there is never the "well for the seniors or disability this is what Justin Trudeau's platform is for that". We don't hear it, and it is because it is not the hot key. Does AMI do more of that? We are more likely to find, we are more likely to interview the people who at least will talk to us that way, and walk out saying "that should hold them for a while, good".

Welcome to a special episode of TripleVision entitled Happy Hour 2024. In this hour the TripleVision team and community guests will share war stories and humourous encounters of what it is like to be a blind person navigating in a sighted world.

In episode 47 the Triple Vision team speaks with Sharlyn Ayotte, the Founder of T-Base Communications, now Allyant. We talk to her on the day of her retirement when she looks back on her long and pioneering career as an entrepreneur who pushed the boundaries on accessibility and universal design. As T-base the company was responsible for the Info touch system which delivered real time information to Canadians in multiple and alternative formats, as well as developed North America's first audio banking machine. I had learned some things during that whole process. I spent probably a good year on investigating how the Government of Canada made information available to citizens and constituents of the country on matters that were really important to us. Whether it was election information or it was health based or whatever it happened to be. Since we were depending so much on computer technology to help us through the process, and its all digital, why couldn't they just support digital for other formats such as digital audio, digital braille, digital large print and all of those things.