Skip to main content

Dwarfism Awareness Day for Manitoba

With Samantha Rayburn-Trubyk after the resolution passed.
Samantha celebrating
Samantha and her family together with myself and Dougald Lamont, our new Manitoba Liberal Party leader.
Samantha with Cindy Lamoureux, Judy Klassen and myself. 
The reception

There are in Manitoba about 30 people with dwarfism.  They are often stigmatized and discriminated against because of their short stature.   Yet, in all respects, except for their short stature, they are like other Manitobans.   The run businesses and work in jobs around the province.  They get married.  They have children.   They participate in our community volunteering and helping others.  To draw awareness to their condition and to seek to remove stigmatization and discrimination, I sponsored a resolution on October 24th, to have a Dwarfism Awareness Day on October 25th.  The resolution passed unanimously, being supported by all MLAs. 

I want to thank Samantha Rayburn-Trubyk, the President of the Little People of Manitoba, for her help and her advocacy for people in her community.  Samantha, the human resources manager for Price Industries, is an energetic, engaging and passionate public speaker.   I got to know Samantha in relation to my work on Bill 200 to put physical size and weight under the Human Rights Code in Manitoba.  This summer I attended a barbeque organized by the Little People of Manitoba and was able to join them in their joy in getting together and in enabling their children, some with dwarfism, to play happily together. 

As I said, when I introduced the resolution in the legislature: We need to be able, as Patrick Falconer, of Barrier-Free Manitoba, and many others are working toward, to increase accessibility for all in Manitoba.  We are now moving to increase accessibility and to set new standards and rules to have greater accessibility throughout our province.   It is important that we include in our design of accessibility standards, access for those with dwarfism, and that we make sure that people with dwarfism are comfortable and able to live, play and work well in Manitoba wherever they are. 

The full text of the resolution I introduced is below:

WHEREAS October is Dwarfism Awareness Month in many countries of the world and is dedicated to increasing public knowledge, creating positive awareness, changing negative misconceptions and increasing opportunities for people born with dwarfism; and
WHEREAS today, various Little People organizations exist worldwide, including Little People of Manitoba (LPM) because of the parent organization Little People of America (LPA) formed in 1957 by people like actor Billy Barty and his commitment to inclusiveness and his dedication to our community; and
WHEREAS the first LPA meeting was monumental for a group of people who were severely mislabeled and misunderstood by society and the LPM is a non-profit, registered charity, dedicated to creating awareness about prominent issues and providing social support for people with dwarfism; and
WHEREAS it is the mission of LPM to create awareness and to educate the general public about dwarfism; to promote a positive image of people of short stature; to provide social, emotional and educational support to people of short stature and their families; to encourage life-long acquaintance­ship; and to enhance life opportunities for all little persons in Manitoba; and
WHEREAS in declaring October 25 as Dwarfism Awareness Day, LPM hopes to raise awareness that "People with dwarfism are no different than any other person. We may just need a well-placed stool."; and
WHEREAS established in Winnipeg in 1981, LPM is part of a worldwide network of Little People organizations with membership consisting of persons of short stature, as well as families and friends from different genders, ethnicities, socio-economic status and sexual orientations; and
WHEREAS approximately one in 40,000 people are born with dwarfism, eighty percent of them have average height parents and siblings who have a 50‑50 chance of passing the dwarfism gene on to their child; and
WHEREAS it does not generally affect cognitive abilities, there are over 200 distinct forms of dwarfism and skeletal dysplasia which affect bone growth resulting in a typical height range of 2'8" to 4'5"; and
WHEREAS in July 2009 the word "midget" was declared inappropriate and offensive and persons born with dwarfism prefer to be referred to by their own name, other acceptable terms are: having dwarfism, short stature, little person, LP, and the medical terminology use of dwarf.
      THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the provincial government be urged to increase opportunities and promote awareness for persons with dwarfism and dedicate October 25th annually as  Dwarfism Awareness Day.


Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 28, 2017 at 10:29 AM

    Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You’re one great person and Manitoba is lucky to have you!

    Samantha Rayburn-Trubyk

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dougald Lamont speaks at Meth Forum last night to present positive ideas to address the epidemic, while exposing the lack of action by the Pallister Conservatives

Last night at the Notre Dame Recreation Centre in St. Boniface, at an Election Forum on the Meth Crisis in Manitoba, Dougald Lamont spoke eloquently about the severity of the meth epidemic and described the Liberal plan to address it.  The Liberal Plan will make sure that there is a single province-wide phone number for people, or friends of people, who need help dealing with meth to call (as there is in Alberta) and that there will be rapid access to a seamless series of steps - stabilization, detoxification, treatment, extended supportive housing etc so that people with meth addiction can be helped well and effectively and so that they can rebuild their lives.  The Liberal meth plan will be helped by our approach to mental health (putting psychological therapies under medicare), and to poverty (providing better support).  It will also be helped by our vigorous efforts to help young people understand the problems with meth in our education system and to provide alternative positive
3 comments
Read more

Manitoba Liberal accomplishments

  Examples of Manitoba Liberal accomplishments in the last three years Ensured that 2,000 Manitoba fishers were able to earn a living in 2020   (To see the full story click on this link ). Introduced a bill that includes retired teachers on the Pension Investment Board which governs their pension investments. Introduced amendments to ensure school aged children are included in childcare and early childhood education plans moving forward. Called for improvements in the management of the COVID pandemic: ·          We called for attention to personal care homes even before there was a single case in a personal care home. ·            We called for a rapid response team to address outbreaks in personal care homes months before the PCs acted.  ·          We called for a science-based approach to preparing schools to   improve ventilation and humidity long before the PCs acted. Helped hundreds of individuals with issues during the pandemic including those on social assistance
Post a Comment
Read more

The Indigenous Science Conference in Winnipeg June 14-16

  June 14 to 16, I spent three days at the Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference.  It was very worthwhile.   Speaker after speaker talked of the benefits of using both western or mainstream science and Indigenous science.  There is much we can learn from both approaches.   With me above is Myrle Ballard, one of the principal organizers of the conference.  Myrle Ballard, from Lake St. Martin in Manitoba, worked closely with Roger Dube a professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, and many others to make this conference, the first of its kind, a success.  As Roger Dube, Mohawk and Abenaki, a physicist, commented "My feeling is that the fusion of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science methodology should rapidly lead the researchers to much more holistic solutions to problems."   Dr. Myrle Ballard was the first person from her community to get a PhD.  She is currently a professor at the University of Manitoba and the Director of Indigenous Science
Post a Comment
Read more