The Human Rights Committee discuss issues and plan events relating to PSAC’s Indigenous, Persons With Disabilities, LGBTQ2+ and Racially Visible caucus members. Check out these minutes for current actions and events!
Edmonton Human Rights Committee Minutes
27 JUL 21 @1745
In attendance:
STEVE SUKHBIR CHAIR
CHARMAINE NELSON TREASURER
MILDRED NCUBE CO CHAIR
CARM CHAN PSAC REP
EMILY ARCHER UTE 30025
ERIN ALEXANDER UNE 30015
Regrets:
Guests: (Via Telecon)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. Call to Order
2. Approval of the Agenda: PASSED
3. Review and approval of the previous meeting’s agenda
- The last minutes dated 27APR2021 was passed by all present.
4. Reports:
- Financial reports to stand as presented as per bank statement due to Covid.
- $2178.26 remains unchanged
5. Previous business:
6. New business:
- Pride Month celebrations to be passed on via Facebook link.
- Brain storm for Charmaine Nelson on starting a local HRC (component driven and Term of Reference to be forwarded by RO)
- Equity conference registration reminder.
- Presentation of Resolution by Tim Hubick to garner support
- Accessibility Passport and presentation by Emily Archer (see under)
7: Actions:
8: Round Robin:
- Erin asked for advice/input on her grievance
9: Next meeting date, time and location:
- The next meeting will be set for September
10: OTHER:
- From the NHRC,
- As you may know the federal government launched on June 4 a consultation process on how to improve the lives of Canadians with disabilities. All people with disabilities are encouraged to participate in the consultations that will support the development of the Disability Inclusion Action Plan.
- The Disability Inclusion Action Plan will focus on:
- reducing poverty among Canadians with disabilities
- getting more persons with disabilities into good quality jobs
- helping meet the Accessible Canada Act goal of a barrier-free Canada by 2040
- making it easier for persons with disabilities to access federal programs and services
- fostering a culture of inclusion
We encourage you to participate and share this information so that as many people with disabilities can participate. The consultations will close on August 31st.
If you wish to participate in this consultation, it can be found here:
https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/accessible-canada/consultation-disability-inclusion-action-plan.html
In Solidarity,
11: Adjournment
- The meeting was adjourned at 1915
Presented By Emily Archer:
As a person who is blind, for the first time in 11 years in the Public Service, I’ve experienced a new era where the Public Service includes the lived experiences of people with disabilities in their policies, research and testing. This has never happened before. In the past, the Public Service designed technology and establish policies without consulting with people with disabilities. I’ve participated in a large number of sessions from April 2021 to July 2021, providing feedback in the Public Service and Canada Revenue Agency from testing Public Service Forms with ZoomText Screen Reader/Magnifier, websites, providing feedback on Recruitment Strategies for people with disabilities to the Carleton Research Study in the Public Service. This was an interesting project called CAREER TRANSITIONS AND ACCESSIBLITY IN THE FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE – READ INITIATIVE at Carleton University (Research, Education, Accessibility and Design). The results will be released in the Fall 2021.
The project explores the barriers to accessibility that employees with disabilities experience in their career transitions within the FPS in order to identify targeted actions and interventions to enhance accessibility.
The project also explores the experiences of persons with disabilities who are applying to enter the FPS, the experiences of those who have left employment with FPS, and the experiences of FPS managers around accessibility practices to gain a holistic view of barriers and facilitators throughout the entire employment lifecycle.
This project provides an opportunity to persons with disabilities to share their employment journey and have their voices heard through a survey, in-depth interviews and focus groups. In this way, they will help to inform the development of standards to improve accessibility, not only in the FPS, but in other workplaces too.
This research will produce a critical map for targeted action and interventions that can build on and further support the Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada and the development of relevant employment standards under the Accessible Canada Act.