This has got to be, in my own humble opinion, one of the rudest, horrible thing that the Harper government has done recently.
The Harper government, in order to promote its dis/abilities initiatives, has been distributing a flier that contains fake Braille.
What I mean by fake is that the Braille letting isn’t raised off this sheet, making it undetectable and therefore unreadable by the blind – who would not even know that the Braille lettering what on the flier.
There are roughly 280,000 people in Canada who are visually impaired, who would never get the conservative good news that the party cares about them, along with supposedly other people who are dis/abled in Canada.
It would be the same was hosting a grand celebrating specifically for the dis/abled but omitted to include … well, let me see, a wheelchair ramp, descriptive audio or sign language, for example.
I note this because the flier was specifically geared towards the dis/abled community – or maybe, being cynical, was geared to Jean Publique, to make it look like the Tories have a heart and care about a community of people who are statistically speaking some of the poorest in Canada.
The flier is titled, “Supporting Jobs for All Canadians” and I assume that is what the fake Braille lettering below says also.
Jocelyne Nicolas, a public relations specialist in Winnipeg, is reported in the Toronto Star, as saying of the fake Braille, How very sensitive and supportive.”
I, on the other hand, feel this is neither senstivive nor supportive.
It actually highlights how much the government really cares about reaching out to the dis/abled community. Ridiculous!
“Our government has been determined to help remove barriers for those who are excluded from the workforce,” the flyer spouts “Our long-term prosperity depends on an inclusive workforce that utilizes the skills of all citizens.”
This is a huge inclusivity FAIL, shutting out a whole community from its supposed message of hope and reassurance.
The fliers have been reportedly sent out by new Heritage MP Shelly Glover in her Winnipeg riding of St. Boniface, MP Lawrence Toet in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood-Transcona, in the Peterborough riding of MP Dean Del Mastro, and in the Ottawa West-Nepean riding of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.
These MPs, and hopefully the manager of their PR department, will offer the dis/abled community an apology.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
