Triple Vision

In a two-part series the Triple Vision team and guests sit down with CNIB’s newest Chief Executive Officer, Angela Bonfanti, to talk about what CNIB is, and where it is going. In August 2024 Bonfanti became the organizations’ first female leader. In this first of two podcasts the team brings in two members of its advisory committee, Marcia yale and Vic Pereira to help guide the discussion. We have a frank conversation with Angela starting with the TV podcast that was pulled down two years ago, and then we move on to other issues such as whether CNIB is an organization of the blind or for the blind, and what is the future of the Toronto hub. "I think that the sentiment was that this was not the full story, that it did not give us an opportunity to give the audience the facts, and that there was a focus on the numbers alone during an exceptional year. We felt from what I remember, just that it was really unfair."

In our episode 56 the Triple Vision team turns its attention to an issue which it has been wanting to highlight for some time now, the increasing rates of guide dog refusals in Canada. On December 21, 2024 Jessica Rathwell tried to board a bus from Surrey BC to Kamloops to meet her family for Christmas. To her shock the bus driver refused to let her board because she said that Jessica had not given the bus company 48 hours notice, that the bus was full and they needed to block off 4 seats in advance to accommodate her. Jessica literally took a stand, refusing to move and holding up the bus for an hour in order to demand that her rights be respected. For that she has been banned from the bus company for life. Despite over fifty years of guide dog legislation and human rights jurisprudence, many Canadian guide dog handlers are saying that guide dog refusals are getting more numerous, rather than less. Through Jessica telling her story the Triple Vision team starts to unpack this deteriorating situation of guide dog access in Canada. "The only reason I left was because she told me, calmly, that I should so I did. I went with them and they put me in the back of their car like a criminal. They didn’t cuff me, but they put me in the back, so I now know what the back of a cop car looks like."

This month the Triple vision team has fun with one of our favorite podcasts, Happy Hour! In this episode we set aside some of the thornier issues about living with blindness in Canada, and tell stories about the lighter side! With guests Kaye Leslie, Sylvia Jonas, Vic Perera, and Triple Vision members Charlie Ayotte, Karoline Bourdeau and Peter Field we relax over a beverage of choice and talk about guide dogs, guide dog schools, travel, trains, and the good, if somewhat misguided, intentions of strangers. Somewhere in the midst of all of this Charlie even talks about what its like to be in the middle of a terrorist attack! So join us in this fun and relaxing trip around the lighter side of blindness. So cheers to happy hour, and have one on us!

In this first podcast of 2025 the Triple Vision team speaks with Tim Nolan. Tim recently retired from a 31-year career at McMaster University in Hamilton, finishing up as Director of Student Accessibility Services. But Tim also dedicated over 22 years of his own time sitting on various iterations of the City of Hamilton’s advisory committee for persons with disabilities, including eight years as it’s Chair. In this episode Tim has a frank discussion with Karoline and Peter about how effective, or rather how ineffective, those committees have been. Municipal advisory committees are mandated under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and are becoming more common across the country as provinces enact there own legislation for persons with disabilities. “There’s no process in place to bring these committees together so that they can communicate and perhaps leverage off of one another to have a more robust approach to dealing with accessibility across the province – no continuity. The Government of Ontario seems unable to bring those communities together and fundamentally they seem unwilling to bring those communities together.”

In this second part of the Triple Vision team’s exploration of attitudes of the Christian church towards people who are blind, deafblind and partially sighted, Peter and Karoline talk to Danny Leung of the Joy Beyond Vision community. Danny is a pastor located north of Toronto. He connects Asian and non-Asian communities from Toronto to Vancouver. Offering a support network as well as programs and services, Joy Beyond Vision seeks to eliminate the stigma of what it means to be blind in the Asian community. "I just want to educate people, let people see another side of people with disabilities. And again, don’t look at my appearance, don’t look at my blindness, don’t look at me as somebody using a wheelchair. Just because they are using a wheelchair doesn’t mean that they are not capable. They are gifted in many ways."