In this first episode in a new podcast series, the Triple Vision team tackles the difficult issue of eugenics. Eugenics as it was practiced in Second World War Germany is very well known, but in today’s podcast Triple Vision starts to peel back the layers of how eugenics was practiced in Canada from its very origins until today. You will hear stories from three blind and visually impaired women about their own experiences, where they were subjected to the practice of eugenics by the medical profession.

Then, we talk to Dr. Bonnie Lashewicz, of the University of Calgary, about the links between colonialism and eugenics. She will present you with some surprising examples of eugenics thinking of today.

“We went for genetic counselling, not really questioning what was really going on there. This counsellor told us, without ever taking any samples from us at all, that if we were to have a child, it would probably come out like 'The Elephant Man,' all distorted and disabled. As a result, we talked about it and decided not to have children. But when I look back on that now I think, 'Wow, they didn’t even take a sample or anything from us.' And based on no scientific evidence at all they told us not to have children. I think, 'How did I accept that so readily?' And It was just because it came from the medical profession. I didn’t recognize it as eugenics then, but that’s what it was.”

In this, our Valentine’s Day episode, the Triple Vision team takes a look at “puppy love” by tracing the history of guide dogs and issues related to public access and certification for our favourite furry workers.

Hanna and David talk to Steven Doucette, the Client Services Administrator of Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind, about guide dog history, and the history of this Canadian training facility.

Irene Lambert recounts her own story of arriving back in Montreal in 1969, to a less than warm reception, with her husband, two sons, and their two owner-trained retriever guide dogs.

Finally, Alan Conway of Guide Dog Users of Canada discusses the thorny issue of recent Canadian efforts to have guide dogs meet new standards when they are already certified under the International Guide Dog Federation.

“We were all gung-ho to join this new culture, however, we were often refused access to restaurants and to theatres, especially the Place des Arts. We looked into the Proof of Laws that allowed people access. We had carried these all around in the States with us and had never been denied except for the occasional taxi driver, but hear we were in Montreal facing all of these rejections.”

In the last podcast episode, The Opening Chapter, the Triple Vision team traced the history of library services for blind Canadians from the 19th century to 2014.

In this Next Chapter the team brings us up to date with interviews with representatives of the Centre for Equitable Library Access and the National Network for Equitable Library Services. David and Hanna explore how these public library systems are enhancing library access to Canadians with print disabilities. They also start asking key questions about why publishers themselves are not taking more of a leadership role in this area.

“In Canada, our public libraries are public service institutions. At their heart, they are meant to be inclusive and to provide equitable access to reading for all their users, including those with disabilities. I think that, historically, public libraries felt that that the services they were providing weren’t adequate and that they needed to be revisioned. This new approach is necessary to ensure a more equitable access to reading to those with print disabilities.”

In Canada, public libraries have been around in one form or another for about 200 years. On January 4, we celebrate the birthday of Louis Braille.

Born in 1809, Louis Braille invented his famous system of reading 400 years after the invention of the printing press. In this first episode on the evolution of library services, the Triple Vision team talks to CNIB archivist Jane Beaumont about the founding of the Free Library for the Blind. This service eventually became the Canadian National Institute for the Blind’s library until it evolved into the Centre for Equitable Library Access.

Joining Jane on this podcast is library user Albert Ruel, who talks about the variety of methods he uses to access his books. “I had done some research on audiobooks. It was fascinating to me to see that really this has just come full circle. We’ve come back to the way humankind was before the Gutenberg press. We are back to storytelling, the oral traditions. That’s part of our DNA that hasn’t evolved out of us yet.”

In this sixth episode of Triple Vision, we do something different. We invite six members of the community to talk about how they see the current blindness narrative in Canada. What is wrong with the current narrative, and what should it be? Who is controlling the current Canadian blindness story?

“The sad part is, we all look at the news as a news and information source, and it isn’t. It’s a drama. It’s a dramatic work and belongs in the arts. A lot of people go there for their information. Unfortunately if it bleeds, it leads. And when it comes to blindness, we don’t bleed so much, but my goodness the narrative is pity filled.”

Join us for this fascinating journey, exploring the dangers of the single narrative of the blindness story in Canada.

While people who are blind have used some sort of cane to navigate the world over the centuries, the white cane became a standard mobility device in the 1900s. But, in recent history, attitudes towards the white cane have shifted.

In this episode, David and Hanna take a world tour from Winnipeg to Zanzibar and the United States to explore the issues associated with white vs. coloured canes. Is it time for the white cane to have a make over?

“I have never had an issue using a cane other than white. The general public seems to understand that they are there for help. They offer their elbow, or they guide me to their vehicle, and they have never said, 'Why is your cane that colour?'”

Join us on this week’s Triple Vision podcast, where Doreen Demas talks with us about the impacts of colonialism on her life as a First Nations woman from Manitoba living with vision loss.

Doreen traces her life, from attending the residential school for the blind in Brantford, Ontario, to a regular school, to an Indigenous residential school in Brandon. She speaks openly about the duality of service provision she experienced from the CNIB as a First Nations person. Listen as she talks about her work at the United Nations and her optimistic hope for the future.

“My family always allowed me and my siblings free to go about our community. We were able to go and visit friends, we were able to play in the back of our house. We had trees and could climb them. We could pick berries. We could do whatever made us happy and that is what we did. But when I got to Brantford, I found out I could never do those things. Everything I did was pretty much dictated either by the house parents or the teachers and the structures we had there.”

In this episode, David and Hanna speak with Jim Sanders, former Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Jim traces the history of the institute from its founding to its need to change in the current digital era.

"Some of the strongest advocates in Canada have come out of the concern of CNIB, in the 70s and 80s and 90s, that they considered the organization as paternalistic and patronizing. These advocates, in fact, have had very positive influences on the CNIB opening up from what it was."

This week, Hanna Leavitt and David Best speak with Dr. Serge Durflinger, a professor of history at the University of Ottawa. Serge penned a book called, "Veterans With A Vision: Canada's War Blinded in Peace and War," about how First World War wounded were the first advocates in canada to establish reshaped the way Canadians and successive governments perceived war disability and, in particular, blindness.

In the first episode of Triple Vision, the team behind the Pandora Project introduces themselves and the goals of the Pandora Project. David Best, Hanna Leavitt, Charlie Ayotte, Peter Field and John Rae all speak to the motivations of the project and team members, alike.