Blog Articles About Advocacy

The Arthritis Foundation: Changing the Future of Arthritis

The festivities continue over at MyRACentral. Today, I posted an interview with Dr. Patience White, VP of Public Health with The Arthritis Foundation about the services and programs and how we can get involved in advocacy and fundraising: “Arthritis is Unacceptable. That’s quite a statement, isn’t it? It’s the philosophy guiding The Arthritis Foundation’s efforts…

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Stress Bunny & Loving It: Arthritis Awareness Month

First, a note: If you live in Canada, today’s election is a nailbiter. If you can vote, please take the time to do so. If you don’t, it’s a vote for Harper and dude’s gotta go… And now for the post: On Friday, Laurie called me a “stress bunny.” She’s entirely right, but there is…

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Sugar Beach News

Interesting things have happened and I feel compelled to share. For those of you who haven’t read the original post, as small recap. A wonderful recreational area called Sugar Beach opened last summer in my neck of the woods and about three weeks ago, I went to check it out. Only to discover that there…

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Sensitive to the D-Word: A Disability Discrimination Test

Updated March 5, 2021 When you mention the D-word (discrimination) in connection with people with disabilities you get the funniest reactions. People sort of wince, they cringe, they even get angry and question your conclusions. It’s as if they have accepted the concept of discrimination against other groups, such as racial minorities, women and aboriginal…

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The Path to Sugar Beach

Settle in folks, this one’s a bit long…. We have a large amount of waterfront here in Toronto, nestled as we are along the shores of Lake Ontario. For a very long time, there’s been talk of revitalizing the waterfront and not too long ago, the three levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal) got…

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A Loss of Trust

When people with disabilities are abused, it is most often done by those who provide their care. Not a pleasant thing to complicate, is it? We like to believe that caregiving is a sort of sacred profession, one that requires altruism and compassion, is seen almost as a vocation. The thought that those who are…

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Identity Crisis

When I write for HealthCentral, I am called an Expert. I like the title – who wouldn’t? It’s nice being an expert, especially if it’s with a capital E. It appeals to my latent megalomania and that’s never a bad thing. Well, some people might think I’m enough of a know-it-all already, but they clearly…

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Before and After and Before

Two pieces of information before I get going. First, the contest to win one of two 2011 The Seated View calendars is open until 6 PM EST on Sunday. And second, if you live in the Toronto and vicinity area, there’s a really interesting public forum on Thursday, November 25 called The Most Exciting Time…

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Old Game, New Name

I’ve been percolating this one for a while, trying to wrap my head around an idea, how to present it in a way it makes sense. Whether I’m quite there yet remains to be seen, but here goes… It all started with a conversation I had a while back with Dave over at Rolling around…

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I Love the Smell of Progress in the Morning

About six weeks ago, I had a wee rant – well, it wasn’t that wee, actually. As rents go, it was a pretty good one. I’d arrived at my local grocery store to find it significantly altered in the name of theft prevention, alterations which erected a number of barriers to accessibility. There was a…

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Blocked

I don’t normally do this. I may hold forth about access and barriers to accessibility, but I don’t normally take on specific individuals or businesses in my neighborhood (except for Buskerfest because they deserve it). However, one of the big grocery stores in my neighborhood has recently done their best to demonstrate that they don’t…

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Leadership

What makes a leader? There’s passion and determination and the ability to inspire similar passion in others. A belief in doing what’s right and the willingness to do that, even though it isn’t popular – the recent healthcare debate in the US is one example. I saw another example somewhere within the past week about…

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