Uncategorised - Speaking Up BC

Participating in the Duty to Accommodate

If you are someone who is asking for accommodations for yourself at work or your child in school, we also have obligations under the Code to follow. If we do not follow this, than our human rights complaints can be dismissed.

Rennie v. BC Ambulance Service, 2025 BCHRT 104

[29] Further, Mr. Rennie obtained a medical letter dated April 13, 2015, from a psychologist. There is no evidence that this letter was provided to BC Ambulance prior to the present complaint proceeding.

[30] In these circumstances, I am persuaded that BC Ambulance is reasonably certain to prove at a hearing that Mr. Rennie failed to participate in his accommodation process by not communicating with BC Ambulance, and its obligation to accommodate came to an end. Therefore, Mr. Rennie’s complaint has no reasonable prospect of succeeding.

This complaint was dismissed.

We have to participate. This falls under the “Duty to co-operate in good faith”

Both parties are expected to do this. Both sides need to communicate.

If the school is ignoring you, keep all those emails that you didn’t get a response to. Those will also be important.

And…

If the school is communicating with you. You can’t ignore them either.

To read about the expectations and responsibilities of the duty to accommodate process read here

Some parents feel that the communication they receive from the school is meant to poke them or bait them. I highly suggest you read 5 Rules on How to be Untouchable. Also keep in mind the communication between the parties needs to be in good faith, so if you feel there is anything sneaky going on, always keep the emails.

The point of the communication and co-operation needs to be focused about figuring out which accommodations work and which ones don’t. Accommodations don’t need to be ideal or perfect, just “reasonable” enough to provide the person with “a ramp”.

So, provide documentation. Communicate in good faith. And one more extension from this topic for parents in education is the Duty to Facilitate. Very similar to this case, but for parents. Failure to facilitate a school decision can lead to your human rights complaint being dismissed.

Knowledge is power.

Know your rights and responsibilities under the Duty to Accommodate.

It’s a two-way street.

National Accessibility Week

May 25th – 31st

This week is National Accessibility Week, which makes me want to highlight the Accessible Canada Act.

Let’s break this down by asking

What?

So what?

Now what?

Let’s begin.

What is this? Well, it is law that is made by the Canadian Government. This is the federal law. There are other Accessible Acts that are provincial. But since this week is National Accessible Week, I am going to start off with the federal Accessible Canada Act.

The goal is to help people with disabilities expereince more equity when accessing services from the government.

The federal act applies to federal government services and larger big private companies like Air Canada, or banks. Smaller businesses or provincial government businesses are under the Provincial Assessibilty Acts, like schools or community centers.

So what? You can file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commissioner (which is federal). This is different from a Human Rights Complaint.

In December of 2024, The CHRC wrote an Accessibility Plan Progress Report

Accessibility Legislation was only assented in 2019. So we are still in the infancy of all of this. I mean, really….. this only came to be in 2019. I guess better late than never.

Now what? We need to use this!! Providing feedback to companies about their services and what barriers we are experiencing is an important way to advocate for changes which will help other people in the future. This is another way to use law to help us in our advocacy efforts and make our country more accessible.

Accessibility reports are expected to be published for the public to reach and feedback on accessibility should part of websites.

Most of us though will probably be providing feedback on a provincial level.

That is the Accessible BC Act.

Here is the plain language summary of the Accessible BC Act. LOTS of great information in here that is easy to digest. It talks about fines, and what will happen if organizations or services don’t do anything. How it will be regulated, etc. This info is also available in ASL.

So, woohoo!

Cheers, to another avenue, so we can be annoying to other people who don’t want to change! And maybe some who do…

Society is starting to be bend a little.

Every step matters. It all builds. Little by little. We need all of it.

AND

Each School District has an accessibility committee who reports to the Board of Education. They should all have a plan on how to address accessibility issues.

The more visible we are and the more we become part of the education, inclusion becomes more real.

#NationalAccessibilityWeek

TRB’s Annual Report is OUT!

Bookmark this!

I emailed the Ministry of Education and Child care on April 6th, 2025 and asked them when the 2023-2024 annual report will be released. They responded the next day and told me it will be posted on April 17th, 2025.

This is very late!

Most annual reports are posted in the early fall-late fall of last year.

Anyhoo, I got busy and I forgot to check. But I checked today and it is finally posted!

I have it posted on my annual reports page.

Annual Reports

You can also find the direct link here

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/…/ctr_annual_rpt_2023-2024.pdf

The stats are interesting

33 consent resolutions out of 243

The examples of complaints are also super interesting

Here are some examples I have pulled from the report

Yelling at students

Humiliation

Demeaning comments

Embarrassing students

Angry outbursts

Breach of school rules

Failure to follow critical incident protocols

False reporting of student marks

Failure to attend to student medical emergencies

Under the influence of alcohol or drugs at school

Breach of student confidentiality

Physical harm – student

Physical violence of any nature toward student

Failure to supervise students

Losing track of students

Fails to accommodate different learning styles

Boundary violation – sexual

Overt sexual advances

Grooming behaviour

Inappropriately communicating with students on social media

Disclosing private student information on social media

Failure to follow Individual Education Plans

Failure to create an inclusive learning environment

Regulatory bodies play an important role in building public trust. These quality of these systems plays an important role in keeping our children safe at school.

We should always have our on what is happening at the Teacher’s Regulation Branch (Professional Conduct Unit)

Policy – “Soft Policing”

Policy is known as “soft policing”.

Policy is not law.

It is literally a group of people coming together and making stuff up. Sometimes policy is based on evidence, and sometimes it is not.

School districts have a lot of policies. I highly recommend you go to your school district site and find the policies and the administrative procedures. They may not be located in the same area. Some district websites are easy to navigate, others not so much. It’s worth the hunt. Policy will likely become part of your advocacy at some point.

A huge role for the Board of Education in your district is to create, review and revise policy as needed.

When they update or add a policy, they will, or should, be posting it publicly for public feedback. This will not be an announcement that gets emailed to you. It will take parents/guardians to be alert to these kinds of things being posted on the district website and to follow what is happening in board meetings.

Many districts have an online option for attending board meetings. Which I really like. You can multitask while you have it on in the background. Or if you are finding a part particularly boring, you can turn off the volume. Sometimes board meetings are interesting AF. Drama ensues. Showing up in person can also be informative. See who talks to whom, and you can feel the energy in the room that you can’t do over video. There are opportunities to have conversations with the trustees during break or after the meeting that can be helpful.

I HIGHLY suggest you get to know your district’s school trustees. These are the people who are creating these policies, bylaws, approving budgets, making section 11 decisions, and overseeing the superintendent and secretary-treasurer. The board appoints these people to their positions.

If there is a policy that you would like to bring to the board for consideration, you can certainly email them and discuss this with them. Their role is to listen to you. You can suggest amendments to the current policy, and next time they review their polices, you never know, your suggestions might make it in.

By reading up on policy, you may realize there may also be avenues for you to resolve your issues that you didn’t know were an option. For example, the whistleblowing policy. That is for everyone, not just staff. If you have someone in a position of power who is lying to you or being unethical, this is an option for you to consider in reporting it. Especially if you feel that the issues are not being addressed by the district staff. The whistleblowing complaints are reported to the board.

When there isn’t any transparency and people feel untouchable, it can lead to a lot of funky-monkey business in school districts. It is shameful when the system tries to cover it up. I hate to say this to you, especially if you are a new parent to advocacy. Please don’t be naive. This isn’t care-a-lot, and people in education are not sugarplum fairies. Staff have a fiduciary duty to their employers. Some of these people are wolves in sheep’s clothing. As you advocate and navigate the system, you’ll be learning who is who. Some people are genuinely the kindest and most caring people you will ever meet. The others…will become clear.

Something to keep an eye out for…as policy is not law and can be discriminatory.

Get to know your board, their policies, and administrative procedures. If you want to make changes, email away.

Petition – To Premier Eby – Invest in Schools Now

(ID: text: Storm Warning: BC Public Education Crisis Rally BC Families for Public Education. Picture of dark clouds over a school building with the outline of children and adults holding hands in front of the school. Lighting coming from the clouds down to the people)

Sign the Petition

https://chng.it/b7NDsP8rXn

News Articles

Surrey students plan march to push for B.C. school funding

Students rally against closure of White Rock learning centre

Kamloops-Thompson DPAC holding rally to push for more school district funding

Surrey parents and students rally for education funding

Students, parents protest Surrey school district’s band class cuts

Students rally to save South Surrey White Rock Learning Centre – You Tube

Vancouver School Board trustee faces backlash after post referring to parents concerns as ‘spam’

The government is under budget constraints?? Doesn’t add up.

“According to that 2021 data, BC allocates just 3 percent of its GPP to K-12 education, while Manitoba allocates 4.9 percent, Nova Scotia 4.4 percent, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island 4.2 percent, Quebec 4.1 percent, New Brunswick 4 percent, Ontario 3.8 percent and Alberta 3.3 percent. This smaller percentage means BC school boards have less funding available for student support and to provide up-to-date, adequate and safe school buildings.”

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/increased-public-funding-for-private-schools-is-dividing-us-and-needs-to-stop/

Our province is the LOWEST.

How are other provinces able to fund schools more than BC? PEI is at 4. 2% and BC is just 3%.

Explain that!

The kids who are going to feel the effects of the budget constraints the most are the most vulnerable kids.

I do not understand how the people in government, who are making these budget decisions, sleep at night.

Please sign the petition! A HUGE thank you to the organizers. Let’s spread this far and wide!

Parents are not going to sit back and tolerate this.

We are voters!!

Well, a message to the other government parties. You want to kick these people out? Make funding public schools your election commitment. Be nervous NDP! Want to keep your seats? FUND SCHOOLS!!

The Flaw of Inclusion

There is one part of “inclusion” that worries me.

You can be in a room with 100 people and feel utterly alone.

Depending on the type of disability you have, you may not meet someone with the same disability as you until you are an adult.

Just because you are in the same room with a bunch of people, doesn’t mean you feel like you belong there. That you are accepted. Hell…it doesn’t even mean you’ll be tolerated.

Growing up with other people who don’t have anything in common with you, at the core, and experience life differently… is bizarre. It’s like watching a movie.

People with rare diseases will travel halfway around the world just to be in the same space as someone else so they can talk about everything they are experiencing and have someone say the words “me too!”.

There is a reason humans have such a strong desire to be around other people who mirror similar elements to themselves. We feel seen. Understood. Real.

Inclusion as a concept is great. Fully support it.

However….

This is one flaw that I really don’t like.

The one good thing about grouping people with similar characteristics together is that they get to meet other people just like them, and those friendships and bonds are stronger than anything else.

Kids in gifted programs will report that they finally meet other kids who are just like them, and they feel “normal” for the first time. Educate Deaf children together and we have the learning of American Sign Language, Deaf culture and a community. At stuttering conferences, many report that meeting other people who stutter is soul-saving.

Inclusion spreads people out, and those bonds are not connecting. Under the concept of inclusion, how are we going to meet each other?

If you are neurodivergent, ask yourself… how many of your friends are also neurodivergent?

I can tell you, I already know the answer. Your closest friends, you will say, all of them are neurodivergent. And I bet you, as an adult, meeting other people just like you and talking about your experiences has been part of your healing process and becoming comfortable in your skin.

If kids are spread out like a dropped clump of marbles in the education system, rolling out in all directions, how are they going to meet and have friendships with other kids that they can see themselves in? They won’t.

That makes my heart sink.

So, how can we have both?

How can we connect kids with each other and still give them an inclusive education?

CLUBS!?

What else can we do?

Some districts are closing their gifted programs. Are there other ways we can bring gifted kids together?

We need to figure out something. People with disabilities shouldn’t have to wait until they are adults to meet other people who are just like them. That is incredibly isolating.

The first time I met someone who stuttered, I realized we had more in common than the friends I grew up with. And my friends were the same gender as me, the same age, had the same teachers, grew up in the same neighbourhood. Yet, this person who I just met 5 min ago who stuttered, who was not my gender, not in my generation, from another country, we could say “me too” for the first time.

People who don’t have disabilities or who are neurotypical don’t realize this part. Just how important it is. You all get to see yourselves in another human being every time you leave your home and enter society.

A lot of us connect over the internet, Zoom into support groups, and gather at conferences.

In order for inclusion not to have its dark side, we need to figure out how to still connect kids and not just have them all spread out like a dropped clump of marbles.

“Life Begins at the Edge of Your Comfort Zone”

– Neale Donald Walsch

I forget what book I was reading, and this was years ago, but they used the term failing forward. If I ever find it, I’ll come back and update this blog.

As long as you are moving forward and pushing past your comfort zones and embracing new experiences, as a human being you will “fail” or make mistakes at some point. We are all human. We may not get exactly what we want, but that isn’t the point. We often get more than what we would get if we did nothing. Keep going. You will learn. You will be able to accomplish and experience way more in life if you embrace the concept of failing forward.

Nothing is really a failure… is it? As long as you reflect, learn, recalibrate, and move forward with that new information, it certainly isn’t a failure in my mind. This is how we get really really good, at what we do.

What are we doing?

We are advocating for our children. Learning how to navigate the system and not lose ourselves in the process.

There is a cooking show my family and I were recently watching. The person really liked the quote, “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone”. I like that quote too.

In my early years, I spent a lot of time working with seniors. I loved working with that age group. I could put people in two categories. There were people who were miserable and people who were at satisfied. The people who were miserable never stopped talking about all the things that people did to them. They blamed everyone for the horrible life they felt they had. Then there were the people at peace. These people would often talk about how they helped people. I will always remember, there was a teacher, and she would talk about her students and how they had come back later to find her and tell her how much of an impact she had made on them.

One thing that is common in both groups is that people often talk about regret. I don’t want to look back at my life and feel regret. Wishing I took the leap, but didn’t.

I have zero problems with falling flat on my face.

I don’t want to just fail forward. I want to do it while running.

Anyone who sticks their neck out for other people, to have other people see what they are doing, is a risk taker. Taking on leadership roles puts you in the ring. People will have their opinions about you. Some people will agree with you. Some people won’t. Cool either way.

We do the best we can. It doesn’t mean we will necessarily achieve our goal, but we will have tried. We can look our kids and tell them, I tried. I did everything I could do.

Right now, our education is already in a crisis and based on what school districts are telling us at budget meetings, the budget cus are going to intensify in the coming years.

Maybe all of our advocacy efforts wont achieve exactly what we are hoping for, or maybe we will move the needle. Regardless, we do our best, and we let it go. We know we tried, and we fail forward and keep on trying.

This work isn’t easy. We need to help each other. Show your support for the brave people who are taking up leadership roles and willing to take the risk of failing forward. I am watching many people step up for their community.

Attend a rally. Email your MLA.

Make this a part of your story that you tell years later.

At least you will know what happened when you gave it your best. You won’t look back in life and wonder….what if?

“Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch

Gears in Motion – Systemic Change

There have been so many people advocating for change within the education system. I have been witnessing a lot of the “gears” moving.

Understanding Systemic Change

PACs are coming forward and holding rallies, and they are hosting budget information nights with tons of parents showing up. Also advocating for their right to be heard.

Organizations are making headway on the path to an equitable education through investigations or guidance manuals. It’s really quite a time to be paying attention to what is happening. Teacher associations are speaking up.

All eyes are on education!!

Social media has certainly been active. More people and organizations are blogging about budgets and EA cuts.

Here is one thing that is absolutely true.

All of these people and groups that are advocating and leading teams. They are getting really really good at what they are doing. They are expanding their comfort zones and becoming seasoned to be in the ring. They are becoming skilled at speech making, networking, organizing. They are like a fine wine. Just getting better and better, building on skills they already had.

You can’t put the squeezed toothpaste back into the tube.

They will be mentoring and inspiring people they aren’t even realizing, and more people will be following in their footsteps and feel braver to stand up because they are witnessing and having advocacy modelled to them. The connections they create are not just going to melt away come the summer.

The advocacy is just going to grow. More people will join the movement. It is going to get very very loud. The media is paying attention, as they should be.

Decisions about education are a reflection of who society cares about, and who they don’t.

The government is going to need to respond to people or risk losing the trust in its voters. They ran on an election promise of EAs in every classroom from K to grade 3. I hope they just don’t pull all the ones from high schools and just move them to the elementary schools and say, ta-da! Meanwhile, high schools will be falling apart.

Parents are collectively and individually becoming excellent advocates! This is an advocacy education train that is not going to stop. Full steam ahead!

ID: Text – Your enemies will open doors for you that they won’t even know that they’re opening…By the time they figure it out, they won’t have the power to close them.

More Blogs! More Lived Experience!

Hello Everyone!

I am adding 2 more blogs to my parent blog list.

I love it when people write and share themselves with all of us. There is so much to relate to and learn about.

End Collective Punishment in Schools.

This is an excellent blog about the Appeals Process in Schools.

“You retell the story, often to someone hearing it for the first time—someone who cannot possibly hold the full weight of months of frustration, confusion, and cumulative impact. You must sound nice, since they might judge you, but you’re furious by then. Heart broken for what your child has suffered. They listen, they nod, and then they reiterate policy. Like you’ve never heard about policy:-(

It seems like less of a pursuit of resolution than an institutional ritual. Performative. Lip service.“

2. The Canary Collective

This is written by a teacher advocating for change in the system!!

“I am an educator, an advocate, and a witness to a system in urgent need of change. The Canary Collective is not about any one person. It is about the movement we must build together, a revolution grounded in truth, hope, and justice. It is a space where marginalized voices can speak freely, where silence is broken, and where a different future is imagined. Like the canaries once sent into coal mines to warn against toxic air, we raise our voices to reveal danger, name what is harmful, protect what is precious, and call for transformation before more harm is done. Together, we can reshape education into a system rooted in acceptance, belonging, and care. I believe that future is possible if we are brave enough to challenge discrimination, to dismantle exclusion, and to refuse the comfort of silence. This is a place for those who are ready to stop whispering and start building. Welcome to the Canary Collective.”

You will find these blogs listed on my Parent/Guardian blogs page

A big thank you to the creators for sharing themselves with us.

Facebook Post – On BCEdAccess Blog

Hello Everyone,

It’s time to get loud.

I have a volunteer role outside of my Speaking UP BC blogging and PATH. I am the Chair of BCEdAccess Society. I have been a part of the Facebook group for years. I am sharing a blog I wrote through my role and volunteer work with BCEdAccess. This is the first time I am sharing a blog through my own personal Facebook page. I hummed and hawed over whether this was a good idea or not. To blend the two of them. But I have decided to do it anyways, as the content of the blog, I really want to share.

The purpose of sharing this blog as much as I can is to provide a seed of thought and spark a conversation. A questioning and analysis of how this education system is functioning. Seeing whether you agree with what I wrote or not, is not my purpose. Whatever your view is on the funding issues our school districts are facing, please find people in your life and start a conversation about your thoughts. I’d love it even more if one of those people were your local MLA.

I haven’t really talked about it publicly but I was an EA in the school system for years. I did my training and student placements in hearing and Deaf schools in Ontario, worked in Montreal, and then again here in BC. I know what working education is really like. So, I see the education system from a staffs perspective and I understand it from a parents perspective. I have friends who are teachers and EAs. When I was working in schools and had discussions with staff, there were things that were happening and we wanted to speak out about it and talk to parents. We were crossing our fingers that parents were going to rally together and fight the school. Teachers and EAs cannot speak out about their working conditions publicly or even students learning conditions. The closest they come to being able to do that is when they are on strike. Other than that, they are forced to keep quiet or they will lose their jobs. Even then, there was a legal decision centred around teachers posting flyers educating parents about the educational losses that were happening. Teachers were identifying the harms that the cuts would have on student learning with the statements “Our Children’s Education is Threatened” and this went to a hearing to analyze their freedom of expression issues. Their employers wanted them to shut up. I will link the case below.

People who work in the education system need to be very careful what they say publicly. Even what kind of content they “like” on social media. There is even policy behind this. So on social media, teachers and EAs need to be silent or risk their employment. We are dealing with educators leaving their jobs at exceptionally high numbers. Districts are reporting issues with high absenteeism. Districts are so desperate for adults they are hiring people who have not been trained as teachers or EAs.

The blog from BCEdAccess was posted yesterday, on a holiday, when many people would have plans or be enjoying the long weekend. In less than 12 hours, this blog became the second most viewed blog on our website, close to reaching the numbers of our most viewed blog which took days to reach that number of views. On my personal Speaking Up BC my stats jumped to numbers as if I had posted the blog on my own site. The number of new viewers skyrocketed and what people were mostly viewing was my blog “Why can’t we just sue the government?”, which I will link below.

A lot of stuff is shared in secret. People are sharing my blog amongst their colleagues, friends and family and they are just not sharing this publicly. I want parents to know, that just because you don’t see school staff or trustees in the media ripping the government to pieces doesn’t mean they aren’t advocating behind closed doors. They may have duct tape over their mouths publicly, but I don’t.

We all want a better education system. Budget cuts and the chronic underfunding impacts every single person and worst of all, it impacts our children, which builds the foundation for the rest of their life.

I don’t need people to comment publicly on my work. The feedback I get on whether I have planted a seed of thought, I get through website statistics. I know the ones that have stirred conversation. This blog is one of them. And the work week hasn’t even started yet.

However you view and feel the impacts of the chronic underfunding and the cuts that are coming this year, please talk about it with other people. And if one of them is your MLA, thank you!

Here is the blog posted on the BCEdAccess website

https://bcedaccess.com/…/scarcity-in-education-harmful…

Here is the hearing decision BCTF and the BC Public School Employers

https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcla/doc/2004/2004canlii94306/2004canlii94306.html

Here are my blogs

Why Can’t we Just Sue the Government

Budget time

Category: Uncategorised