Vancouver Sun columnist Miro Cernetig reacts to the decision by CTV not to broadcast the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games across Canada. The Canadian television network subsequently reversed itself and broadcast the ceremonies, but only in British Columbia.

Cernetig urges network executives to “rectify their unfortunate slight of the world’s Paralympians” by broadcasting the closing ceremony. Excerpts follow:

If the job is to shoot yourself in the foot, look hard-hearted and show you don’t quite get the true spirit of the Olympics, CTV’s bean-counters take the gold.

… We don’t put the Olympic cauldron on half-burn for Paralympians.

Nobody is pretending the Paralympics is a TV mega-event on the scale of the Olympics. There are no celebrity Paralympians raking in the millions or pro athletes dipping their toes into amateur sport to go for the gold.

But when it comes to stories of human tenacity, athleticism and sheer grit, most of us agree the Paralympians deserved — even for a half-hour of prime time — the national spotlight as they marched into BC Place.

Some video coverage of the Paralympic Games can be found at Paralympic Sport TV here.

(Reuters photo of the opening ceremony from the Vancouver Sun)

Writing in the Vancouver Sun, Jeff Lee says the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games, which kicked off this weekend in Vancouver, is “an event that organizers say should help change the way people view others who are missing limbs or eyesight or have bodies that don’t function the way theirs do.”

More than 60,000 people gathered Friday for the event’s opening ceremony, hailing 1,300 competitors and officials who came from 44 countries to compete in the Games.

“As a sport event, the Paralympic Games are about extraordinary athletes who are exceptionally talented at their chosen sport,” said Carla Qualtrough, president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee. “As a movement, the Paralympic movement is about changing perceptions, dispelling myths and challenging assumptions.”

Editorial: Keep your Olympic spirit alive with the Paralympic Games — Vancouver Sun.

Full coverage here

From CBC News:

Canada has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Speaking at the UN in New York, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the action underscores the Canadian government’s commitment to “promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and enabling their full participation in society.”

Advocates say the ratification will require provincial governments to make changes, like requiring schools to provide inclusive education for all students. They say some Canadian students with disabilities are still being restricted to segregated school sites.

Canada is host to this year’s winter Paralympic Games.

See also: Who will fund accessibility compliance?

From the Los Angeles Times, AP/Wall Street Journal:

A special federal court ruled Friday that the vaccine additive thimerosal does not cause autism. The ruling, which came in three separate cases, follows a parallel ruling in 2009 that autism is not caused by the combination of thimerosal with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Experts said the rulings would likely be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, as the earlier ruling has been.

More than 5,300 parents have filed claims seeking damages because they believe vaccines caused autism in their children. The court, a branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, expressed sympathy for the families but concluded that they had failed to prove their case.

From the [UK] Telegraph:

An independent UK media regulator has rejected a request for sanctions against a leading television channel for using the word “retard” in a reality show, saying the comment was covered by European human rights protections of free speech.

The complaint was brought by the mother of two children with disabilities, after Vinnie Jones used the term on Channel 4 to describe Davina McCall, the host of a Big Brother offshoot program.

In explaining its decision, the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) said the term was not directed at anyone with disabilities, and had been used light-heartedly on a reality show whose viewers “expect a certain level of outspoken banter.” Ofcom also said its own research showed that not all viewers find the word “retard” offensive, and “many do not see this as an issue.”

The decision met with criticism from the disability charity Mencap. “As someone with a learning disability, I was disgusted and hurt to hear the word ‘retard’ used on Big Brother,” said Mencap spokesman Lloyd Page. “We will never change people’s attitudes if this sort of thing carries on. I hope Ofcom will realize why we want this to stop.”

Related posts here.

CNN interviews athlete and actress Aimee Mullins, a double amputee who has set world records using prosthetic devices. An excerpt:

[Mullins] believes that people are not born disabled. “It’s society that disables an individual by not investing in enough creativity to allow for someone to show us the quality that makes them rare and valuable and capable.”

The interview links to video of a speech Mullins gave before a medical audience last year in San Diego, in which she underscored the negative connotations of the term “disabled.” In the CNN interview, Mullins was asked about the significance of language in defining possibilities for people with disabilities. Her response:

It’s not so much the word itself. The idea of being politically correct is not the goal here. It’s how we use the word very casually as a label to try to encompass somebody’s value to our community and the worth of their contribution to our community. That’s what we need to get right.

From the New York Times:

A federal judge has ordered the state of New York to move some 4,300 people with mental illness out of warehouse-like institutions that keep them segregated from society.

The order by Judge Nicholas Garaufis follows his decision last fall that the state was illegally discriminating against people with mental illness by holding them in privately-run “adult homes” that were just as restrictive as the state-run institutions they were intended to replace.

Judge Garaufis ordered the state to develop at least 1,500 units of supportive housing a year for the next three years. The state had argued that supportive housing would be unacceptably expensive. Commenting on the proposal submitted by the state, the judge wrote, “The court is disappointed and, frankly, incredulous that defendants sincerely believed this proposal would suffice.”

Earlier posts here and here and here.

See also: The 2002 series of articles by Clifford J. Levy of the New York Times that described scenes of misery, squalor and exploitation in the adult homes.