Advocacy in Thunder Bay

By Marcia Yale, AEBC President

A few weeks ago, I travelled to Thunder Bay to meet with a group of partners interested in rebuilding the disability movement in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario.

Background

The entire Thunder Bay project was the brainchild of our National Director, Pat Seed. She lives there and felt that advocacy had not resumed after the pandemic. She knew of two organizations in the city, Community Services for Independence North West (CSINW), and The Handicapped Action Group Incorporated (HAGI), whose members had lost the focus on advocacy, and she felt AEBC could help. There was also the fact that Citizens with Disabilities Ontario, CWDO, would be celebrating their 20th Annual General Meeting in May, and she believed that the advocacy restart and the AGM could be combined, so that members from the three organizations, plus AEBC, could learn from each other. To this end, she began encouraging me to be a part of the event. Originally, it was thought that Linda Bartram would present the self-advocacy guide presentation she originally gave on April 5, but in the end timing didn’t work out, so I agreed to take that on.

Pat also believed that all the organizations could benefit from a presentation on and a chance to sign up to the Accessibility Exchange, and she approached Doris Rajan and the New Society Institute (NSI) (formerly IRIS Institute), who had presented to AEBC this past February, with the suggestion that they come to Thunder Bay to speak with CSINW and Hagi. Doris agreed that they would hold two in-person sessions on May 14, and, with all these plans in the works, I prepared to take a trip north—via a detour south to Toronto! In fact, getting to Toronto from my home in Huntsville took longer than the trip to Thunder Bay!

The Event: May 12-16, 2025

The wind was high, so landing required a tour around the city. Considering the better than average treatment I had received at Pearson Airport, this was just what I needed, a bit of excitement! What’s a trip without excitement, anyway? I even had a welcome party—Pat and her friend, Maria. I didn’t have to worry about a taxi!

Off we went to the superior Inn and Conference centre, my home for the next few days. When we got there, Kirsten Doyle, the President of CWDO joined us in the lobby, and I suggested that Maria join the three of us for dinner, once I had checked in and fed my guide dog, Nottingham. And that’s when the fun began! The first room they wanted to give me was too far from the elevator—I don’t really like to have to travel far when I have to take Nottingham out. The front desk clerk then gave me keys to a room she promised was close to the elevator, and Kirsten offered to come up with me to find it and keep me company while I got settled. However, when we got to the room, there were already people in it! I was so glad that I had not come up alone! Back to the front desk we went, and the manager resolved the situation quickly and quietly. I dropped off my things, fed the dog, and we finally headed for a wonderful dinner.

It was wonderful getting to know Kirsten, and to finally meet Pat in person, after knowing her for several years via telephone and online. We talked about many things that night, including the upcoming meetings. Maria just took it all in, telling us afterwards how much she enjoyed people watching!

Tuesday was a relaxing day, with everyone doing their own thing, with the exception of breakfast, which Kirsten and I shared. I learned that I had managed to sleep through a fire alarm—not a good thing, even though it had been a false alarm.

In the afternoon, Doris Rajan, Bianca Okine, and Erick Nettel, from the New Society Institute arrived and dinner plans were finalized. Kirsten, Pat, and I joined them at the Keg, where we spent a relaxing couple of hours getting to know each other. I asked how IRIS had morphed into the NSI, and Doris explained how they had been part of Inclusion Canada and had sought to research more than just intellectual disabilities. They broke away and changed their name to the New Society Institute, “…a non-profit research, social development, and design organization that supports systemically marginalized people and communities to create systems and structures that work for them. Our work focuses on bringing the voices that have been pushed to the edges to the centre, to achieve equality and inclusion.”

Did I mention it was 28 degrees Celsius on Tuesday?

Wednesday saw all the plans come together. We all met for breakfast and people from HAGI and CSINW started to join us. We had a visit from Doug Diaczuk of the Chronicle-Journal. He interviewed Pat and Erick, and produced an excellent article in the May 16 online edition. We also had a visit from Rylee Cohen with Thunder Bay television, and the TBNewswatch video coverage can be viewed on YouTube.

In all, we were a group of about twenty when Pat started the meeting. She introduced everyone and I gave my first presentation on advocacy, drawn from the April 5 self-advocacy guide presentation originally given by Linda. There were some excellent questions regarding the current lack of services for people with autism who are over the age of twenty-one, and the lack of adequate accessible housing.

Bianca, Erick and Doris then gave a presentation on the Accessibility Exchange, and they assisted any of us who wanted to sign up, approving accounts so we could move past the need for an onboarding session. I signed myself as well as AEBC up that day.

Most of the morning participants stayed for lunch, and we had hoped there would be another group session in the early afternoon. However, only two new people joined us so Erick gave them individual attention.

By about 4:00 p.m., after an hour of picture-taking, more people joined us, including Dave Shannon, president of CSINW. I was asked to give my advocacy presentation a second time, and I was able to make it more concise.

After dinner, Citizens with Disabilities Ontario held their 20th Annual General Meeting, with Pat as their keynote speaker. Kirsten ran the meeting with true efficiency and, even with a third advocacy presentation (this one short and to the point), she was able to complete all the business in an hour and a half. One of their new Board members is a university student, which should bode well for them in the near future.

Kirsten and I had part of Thursday free in Thunder Bay, so we visited Pat at her home, and met her Husband Bob, and their Golden Retriever Neechi. Nottingham and Neechi are both about the same colour, and they got along great from the start! Neechi happily let Nottingham play with her toys, and in fact, gave him one to take home.

After a snack of cheese cake, it was time to end our visit to Thunder Bay and return home.

After all the planning and worrying, it was incredible how fast the days flew by. I believe it was, however, a great boost to advocacy in the Thunder bay area and I look forward to future work with all the organizations involved.