Hi Everyone

We are doing this last push to invite you all to sign up for this exciting free on-line training through ARCH Disability Law Centre. The course is 4 hours one Saturday a month for four months starting last Sat in March. The National Coalition is one of the partners in developing the training with ARCH. The purpose is to develop advocacy skills and a strong knowledge about how implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can and will impact you locally. Its also about developing relationships and building a network of people to work with. There are video links below this email that will explain more.  
 
What does that mean to you in your day to day and why is it important for you to consider taking this course?

1) Our Human Rights in Canada are based on us, the individual. Not a charity, not a business, not an agency, just us, the individual, we have standing in Human Rights law. 
2) As a result, everything that is being decided on our behalf by Governments Local, Provincial and Federal, including funding to organizations that provide services on our behalf, fundraise on our behalf and sit at the decision making tables, impact us the individual, every day. 
3) Nothing about us, without us, gets lost in translation when those that are invited to sit at the decision making tables are not us. They usually have no constituency in which to get advice and direction from and make sweeping decisions about us without us.    
3) How involved do we want to be in making decisions that impact ourselves and each other on a daily basis? What knowledge do we need and how do we get it?  Why spend 16 hours of my life over 4 months to take this course? 
4) One example of why this is important, is when a simple process of developing training methods and standards for PTS Dogs for Veterans, was highjacked. 
5) From early 2015 to April of 2017, two years of secret meetings and development by many unelected, non representative groups of people with no connection to us, developed standards that if adopted by the Federal Government, would have taken away our individual rights to choose and decide where we go to get our dogs and create a mandatory National Registry.    
6) This National Registry of us under a certification model included people we don’t know inspecting our homes, going through our financials and taking our dogs away from us to test them. Then they would decide if they would certify our dogs and they would be allowed to work with us in Canada. Thinking back it is as ridiculous sounding as it was almost three years ago. But it happened and the Federal Government funded it. This was the misplaced thinking of people at the decision table secretly deciding what was best for us. .
7) That is when our Coalition began. We said no and through all of your hard fought advocacy, shut it all down by March 2018. 
8) Unfortunately the almost half a million dollars that was spent, failed to produce any training methods and standards for PTS dogs for Veterans. That is what happens when people sit at tables without being responsible back to the people whom decisions impact and move their own agenda’s.    
9) This is brewing to start up again, standards accreditation and certification Federally. The same people who started working on that standards fiasco mess since 2009 and almost pulled it off in 2017, are still committed to having it happen and we are constantly responding to their push to do it all over again.
10) why take this training? Because we need more of us to have the knowledge, capacity and skills to continue to protect our hard earned rights and push back when decisions are being made that are eroding them. The more understanding each of us have, we can catch the game way ahead of 2 years of development and stop it before it starts. That is why many of us worked with ARCH to develop this training and to continue with more.    

As people who have already gone through round one of the standards debacle, I encourage you all to consider learning and preparing for no doubt another round that is coming our way in the next year, not to mention the provincial issues we are already dealing with. Understanding the legal protections of our Rights in the Convention will allow us, individually and together to articulate why these types of ideas are backwards thinking and do not promote a rights based one. We need to be able to argue from a position of strength and knowledge and we all deserve to have that knowledge. 

Thanks everyone. The videos and further information are next with the information in French following.

Yvonne Peters 
Heather Walkus,
National Coalition of People who use Guide and Service Dogs in Canada 
email: info@hooh.ca 
Phone: 250-499-0780     

Hands Off Our Harnesses, Hands Off Our Hounds   H.O.O.H

From: ARCH Staff 1 <archsta1@lao.on.ca>

Hi Heather!
I hope you are doing well.
 
As promised, I’m writing to let you know that we have the course dates confirmed.
 
OP Lab for OP Champions
·        March 28, 12-4 PM (EST)
·        April 25, 12-4 PM (EST)
·        May 30, 12-4 PM (EST)
·        June 27, 12-4 PM (EST)
 
OP Lab for Legal Experts
·        April 21, 2-4 PM (EST)
·        May 19, 2-4 PM (EST)
·        June 16, 2-4 PM (EST)
 
Joint Meeting for OP Champions and OP Legal Experts
·        September 15, 1-2 PM (EST)
 
We will be accepting applications until Friday, February 14, 2020, at 5:00 PM (EST). The information has been updated in our website:www.archdisabilitylaw.ca/initiatives/advancing-the-un-crpd/op-lab
 
Please share this as widely as possible, and as always let me know if you have any questions.
 
Thank you and have a great day,
 
Mariana Versiani
Communications and Outreach Coordinator
OP Lab Project Coordinator
 
416-482-8255, extension 2221
 
http://www.archdisabilitylaw.ca
 
Facebook @ARCHDisabilityLawCentre
Twitter @ARCHDisability
 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
 

As a reminder, here’s the promotional information for the project:
 
1.   All information about ARCH’s initiative on the CRPD, and the OP Lab: https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/initiatives/advancing-the-un-crpd/op-lab/
 
2.   People who want to participate in the OP Lab will need to submit anapplication here: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5281955/OP-LAB-Application-Form
 
3.   See attached a one-pager about the OP Lab, in English and in French.
 
4.   Primer video about the CRPD, the Optional Protocol and the OP Lab: www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwozUKpvREOrGGzpMHTXCw
 
5.   Factsheet about the CRPD and the Optional Protocol:https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/resource/factsheet-the-crpd-and-the-optional-protocol/
 
6.   ARCH Alert article about the OP Lab: https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/resources/arch-alerts/
 
All of these were shared through ARCH’s social media:
·        Facebook@ARCHdisabilityLawCentre
·        Twitter @archdisabilitylaw
·        OP LAB activities, including networking, will be encouraged on social media through #OPlab.
 
Here are the links in French:
·        Website/application form:https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/fr/la-mise-en-oeuvre-de-la-cdph-des-nations-unies/op-lab-apprendre-partager-agir/
·        Youtube video primer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQSU5WwWZdU&t=12s
·        Factsheet:https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/fr/resource/fiche-dinformation-la-cdph-et-le-protocole-facultatif/
·        ARCH Alert article:https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/arch_alert/arch-alert-volume-20-issue-4/#lancement-op-lab
 
Thank you again,
 
Mariana Versiani
Communications and Outreach Coordinator
OP Lab Project Coordinator
 
416-482-8255, extension 2221
 
http://www.archdisabilitylaw.ca
 
Facebook @ARCHDisabilityLawCentre
Twitter @ARCHDisability
 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
 
Demain nous lancerons l’OP Lab: apprendre, partager, agir!, dans le cadre des célébrations de la Journée internationale des personnes handicapées.
 
Aidez-nous à promouvoir ce projet dans vos réseaux et médias sociaux!
 
Le lancement comprendra :
·        un courriel que nous enverrons demain avec des informations sur l’OP Lab
·        une vidéo sur la CDPH, le Protocole facultatif et l’OP Lab dans la chaîne YouTube d’ARCH :www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwozUKpvREOrGGzpMHTXCw
·        un article sur l’OP Lab dans l’ARCH Alerte du 3 décembre : https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/resources/arch-alerts/
·        une Fiche d’information sur la CDPH et le Protocole facultatif :https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/fr/resource/fiche-dinformation-la-cdph-et-le-protocole-facultatif/
 
Ceux-ci seront tous partagés demain via les médias sociaux d’ARCH :
·        Facebook @ARCHdisabilityLawCentre
·        Twitter @archdisabilitylaw
 
Toutes les activités d’OP Lab, notamment le réseautage, seront encouragées sur les médias sociaux à travers#OPlab.
 
Les personnes souhaitant participer à l’OP LAB doivent s’inscrire et nous souhaitons encourager autant de personnes que possible à s’inscrire. Vous trouverez le lien vers le formulaire d’inscription sur le site Web d’ARCH: www.archdisabilitylaw.ca/fr  
 
Cordialement,
 
 
Mariana Versiani
Communications and Outreach Coordinator
 
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1. ARCH Disability Law Centre
http://www.archdisabilitylaw.ca
 
55 University Avenue, 15th floor
Toronto, ON, M5J 2H7
 
Tel:   416-482-8255 or 1-866-482-2724 (extension 2221)
TTY: 416-482-1254 or 1-866-482-2728
Fax:  416-482-2981 or 1-866-881-2723
 
Facebook @ARCHDisabilityLawCentre
Twitter @ARCHDisability
 
ARCH’s office is physically accessible.  ARCH is a scent-free environment. We try our best to keep our office and events free of scents and fragrances.  These may cause health problems for staff and visitors. We ask for your cooperation by not wearing perfumes, aftershave, lotions or any other scented products when visiting us.
 
The information contained in this email may be legally privileged and confidential.  If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying or distribution of this material is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this email in error, please immediately destroy this message and kindly notify our office. 
 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
 

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