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NUPGE celebrates by honouring long-time activist John Rae - December 2004Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians / L'Alliance pour l',galit, des Personnes Aveugles du Canada (AEBC) - Press Releases
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NUPGE celebrates by honouring long-time activist John Rae
December 2004
Ottawa - December 3 has been recognized by the United Nations as the International Day of Disabled Persons (IDDP).IDDP aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.This year the National Union is celebrating IDDP by thanking and honouring one of its own activists.John Rae has dedicated more than three decades of his life to the disability rights movement and many other human rights struggles.He is also a long-time member and activist with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE)."John Rae has shown how the principle of full participation can be put into practice and how it can contribute to the development of inclusive societies," says NUPGE president James Clancy After 25 years of service with the Ontario government, working in the fields of human rights and employment equity, John Rae will be retiring on Jan. 31, 2005. 'Always determined' "There are few people in our movement who have demonstrated a stronger commitment and passion to human rights and social justice than John Rae," says NUPGE National President James Clancy.
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"I have known John since the early eighties when we were both activists with OPSEU/NUPGE," Clancy says.
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"John has always been a determined activist and he has accomplished a lot for his community.And without a doubt, John has made our union and the Canadian labour movement more aware of equality issues and more inclusive," added Clancy.
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Blind since the age of five, John began his human rights activism nearly three decades ago.He was very much influenced by the disability rights movement, which has its genesis from the militant student movement out of Berkley University in California in the early 1970s."It was around that time that I began to reject the traditional attitudes society had of people with disabilities like me," Rae says."I simply refused to be cast into a medical model based on the assumption that I had to be 'taken care of'.And I definitely was not prepared to have my life controlled by charity.This only leads to greater segregation of people with disabilities from most aspects of society."Charity agencies John has fought long and hard against charity agencies, like the CNIB and the Jerry Lewis Kids Labour Day TV Marathon, which have helped promote the charity ethic for persons with disabilities."Sure these organizations mean well, and I must admit they have come a long way over the years.But it has to be understood that I, as a person with a disability, am my own best spokesperson - not the CNIB or any other charity," he says."I also strongly believe that the costs of accommodating disabilities should not be born by the individual, his or her family, or by charity.It must remain a collective cost of our society.""I think those notions have helped me make the logical connection between my commitment to the public sector and my work within the trade union and disability rights movements."John has represented NUPGE on the CLC Disability Rights Working Group for the last six years.He has also been a member of NUPGE's Equality Committee on Human rights and International Solidarity (ECHRIS).OPSEU activist Within OPSEU, John has served on his own Local executive and has been a long standing member of OPSEU's Disability Rights Caucus and its Provincial Human Rights Committee.He also represents OPSEU at the Ontario Federation of Labour Persons with Disabilities Committee.In 1999, John was honoured with OPSEU's Human Rights Award.John's human rights work within NUPGE and OPSEU only scratches the surface of his life long dedication to human rights.He has served in an executive capacity with 21 different national, provincial and municipal organizations since 1975.A few of his accomplishment follow: * In the mid-1970s John helped form one of the first disability rights organization in Canada, the Blind Organization of Ontario for Self-help Tactics (BOOST) and served as President of BOOST from 1977 to 1980; * In 1979 and 1980, John co-chaired the Coalition on Human Rights for the Handicapped, which was a driving force behind achieving the first legislative human rights protection for persons with disabilities in Ontario; * From 1978 until 1981, John was a member of the Mayor's Task Force on the Disabled and Elderly for the City of Toronto; * He was Executive Board Member of the first national disability rights organization, Canadian Coalition of Provincial Organizations of the Handicapped (COPOH) during the 1970s and 1980s.Currently he is a National Council member of COPOH's successor organization, the Canadians with Disabilities Council (CDC); * He was a founding member and served as President from 1985 until 1988 of the Canadian Legal Advocacy Information and Research Association of the Disabled (CLAIR); and * John is currently the National President of the National Federation of the Blind: Advocates for Equality (NFB:AE), a position he has held since August 2002.Duty to accommodate Reflecting on his union activism over the years, John believes the union movement has become more inclusive and accommodating to persons with disabilities."When I began speaking out on disability rights within the trade union movement, I was in a fairly lonely place," he says.
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Perfect occasion Clancy says the UN International Day of Disabled Persons is the perfect occasion to "thank and honour John Rae."
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"On behalf of all 337,000 members of the National Union, we thank John for his work with OPSEU, the National Union and the labour movement in general.We truly hope that John enjoys his retirement and that he knows he will always be a part of the National Union."NUPGE
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