tracis journal september 25, 2009
Hi everyone!
We are in our new office! Finally! Who would have thought constructing new offices would have been so difficult and time consuming? Gilbert Brunette, IL Canada staff member with Katie Paialunga, the Executive Director of the Ottawa Independent Living Centre, slugged away all summer dealing with construction issues for both offices. It seemed like an ongoing battle for them and the contractor to obtain our final occupancy permit. We owe a great deal of thanks to the two of them for dedicating their summer overseeing this project.
I had the good fortune of coming back near the end of August when most of the problems had already been ironed out.
We are now on the 4th floor (suite 402) of the Trillium Building at 214 Montreal Road in Ottawa. We have approximately 4,000 square feet between the Ottawa IL Centre and IL Canada.
The Ottawa Centre designed a very funky consumer room on the first where many of the consumer activities will take place. It is a beautiful room with modern lighting, fresh paint and new custom made cupboards. Many skills development activities and peer groups will meet in this room uninterrupted by staff working all around them.
IL Canada and the Ottawa IL Centre have a shared kitchen, board room and reception area on the fourth floor. Below you will see some pictures of our new office. We still need paint touch ups, cupboard doors and much more so I will only give you a few photos. Soon you will see pictures of every office and meeting area.
IL Canada/Ottawa IL Centre will have an official open house for the community once we have unpacked and have the office ready to receive visitors. In other words – when all the junk is put away!
Annual General Meeting – The planning of the AGM 2009 is now underway. IL Canada’s Annual General Meeting will take place at the Sheraton Hotel downtown Toronto from Oct. 22 -24. During this time, the national Board of Directors will meet and conduct business as usual.
IL Canada is also hosting a “Food for Thought” Healthy Eating/Lifestyles Community Action Train-the-trainer event over the weekend. In addition, the Ontario Network of Independent Living Centres will meet on October 21st for an all day Direct Funding meeting.
The actual IL Canada Annual General Meeting will take place on Friday, October 23, 2009. We are fortunate to have received confirmation from Catherine Frazee as one of our keynote speakers. You can find her bio at the bottom of this page.
We plan on inviting our corporate partners and friends of IL to the meeting and reception afterwards.
Below is a very brief preliminary schedule:
Here are the preliminary travel details:
Ontario Network of Independent Living Centres meeting on Direct Funding
- meeting 9am – 5pm, Wed. Oct. 21st
- reception at Parliament Building (Queen’s Park)
IL Canada Board Travel Day - Thursday, October 22nd (early morning departures required)
- Board meeting 3:00 - 9:00 pm with a break for dinner between 5:00 – 6:30 pm, Thurs. Oct. 22nd
- delegates can take a tour of the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto via subway
Executive Directors – forum and train-the-trainer event
- Meeting 9am – 5pm, Thurs. Oct. 22nd
IL Canada Board, Executive Directors, and other voting delegates
- meeting 9am – 12:30pm
- AGM registration 2:30 pm, Fri. Oct 23rd
- AGM 3 – 5pm
- possible reception
Separate meetings for IL Canada Board and IL Centres’ delegates
-continue on Saturday, Oct. 24
-dinner together at restaurant
Political Scene – Naturally, there is less going on in the summer for all levels of government. I have noticed over the past few years that there tends to more calls for proposals during the summer months these days. There were three calls that we responded to. I guess we should be thankful that there was at least some movement regarding program funding and projects. As many of us are well aware, the funding has dwindled in certain areas over the past couple of years.
I hope many of you took the time to complete the UN Convention survey consultation. The deadline was the end of July.
Unfortunately, the euthanasia debate has reared its ugly head lately because every few years a private members bill gets announced and someone tries to push it through. On May 13, 2009 Francine Lalonde MP (BQ - La Pointe-de-l’Île) introduced Bill C-384: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (right to die with dignity).Previously, Lalonde introduced Bill C-562 (June 2008) and Bill C-407 (June 2005). Bill C-384 is identical to Bill C-562 while Bill C-407 was very similar. Lalonde’s husband Guy Lemarche is the Communications Director of the euthanasia lobby group - l’Association québécoise pour le droit de mourir dans la dignité (AQDMD). Bill C-384 would amend subsections 222(7) and subsection 241(2) of the Criminal Code. Euthanasia is a deliberate act undertaken by one individual with the intention of ending the life of another individual to relieve that person’s suffering, where the act is the cause of death. (Of Life and Death - 1995)
For some fast facts about “euthanasia” and the concerns from the national community of persons with disabilities please visit the Council of Canadians with Disabilities at:
http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/humanrights/deathmaking/euthanasia/fastfactsbillc384
