Proposed amendments to Bill C-81, the Accessible Canada Act

Good afternoon Ms. Hoffmann,

Thank you for your submission to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology regarding Bill C-81, An Act to ensure a barrier-free Canada. Your submission will be translated and distributed to committee members in both official languages. It will also be translated and converted into an accessible format, then made available to the public through the committees web page (link here).

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Warm regards,

Ericka Dupont Administrative Assistant | Adjointe administrative SENATE OF CANADA | SÉNAT DU CANADA Committees Directorate | Direction des comités Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology | Comité permanent des Affaires sociales, des sciences et de la technologie 40 Elgin Street, room 1052 | 40 rue Elgin, pièce 1052 t: 613-944-3440 SenCanada.ca

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Proposed amendments to Bill C-81
Date:	Mon, 22 Apr 2019 14:49:51 -0700
From:	Janis Hoffmann <iknowjanis@shaw.ca>
To:	soci@sen.parl.gc.ca
CC:	aodafeedback@gmail.com, hon.carla.qualtrough@canada.ca

The Senate's Standing Committee on Social Affairs,

I would like to support David Lepofsky’s proposed amendments to Bill C-81, the Accessible Canada Act to guarantee greater accessibility and opportunities for Canadians with disabilities. To ensure the use of public money distributed by the Government of Canada has a term of agreement that accessibility for the disabled is required, by law, to prevent the creation of more barriers.

A perfect example would be the $500 million granted in March 2017 and another $750-million granted in Sept. 2018, to the telecommunications to provide fixed and mobile wireless broadband Internet access in underserved areas. There are NO regulations in place for non-ionizing radiation or any non-industry funded peer reviewed studies proving the safety of the microwave radiation exposure emitting from wireless technology. Yet, this $68 Billion Dollar industry has been granted huge amounts of taxpayers’ money to saturate our environment, with no strings attached.

Health Canada under the Radiation Emitting Devices Act, governs the sale, lease, and importation of radiation emitting devices but does NOT have any regulations in place to protect the public from long-term exposure to the biological effects of the “non-thermal” levels of microwave radiation.  In 2013, in the Superior Court of Quebec, James McNamee, scientist for Health Canada, admitted that the Safety Code 6 guideline for microwave radiation emitting from wireless technology is based ONLY on thermal effects, heating of the skin.

On March 26-29, 2018, the National Toxicology Program (NTP), a 10-year study costing the US 25 million dollars, had eleven experts review the reports from the NTP's cell phone radiation studies and concluded that there is “Clear Evidence of Carcinogenic Activity” and the association of cancer in the heart and brain and cell phone radiation https://ehtrust.org/cell-phone-radiofrequency-radiation-study/

Soon after, the Ramazzini Institute also completed the world's largest animal study on cell tower radiation and confirmed the findings of the National Toxicology Program link to Cancer. This information accompanied with the over 26,000 peer reviewed studies by scientists and medical experts www.emf-portal.org/en is more than enough evidence for the precautionary principal to be applied in order to protect our children. https://ehtrust.org/worlds-largest-animal-study-on-cell-tower-radiation-confirms-cancer-link/

Ronald Melnick PhD, formerly the Senior NIH toxicologist who led the design of the NTP study on cell phone radiation now a Senior Science Advisor to Environmental Health Trust (EHT) stated, "All of the exposures used in the Ramazzini study were below the US FCC limits. These are permissible exposures according the FCC.  In other words, a person can legally be exposed to this level of radiation. Yet cancers occurred in these animals at these legally permitted levels. The Ramazzini findings are consistent with the NTP study demonstrating these effects are a reproducible finding."

"The evidence indicating wireless is carcinogenic has increased and can no longer be ignored," stated University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health Professor Emeritus Anthony B. Miller MD, Member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Canada and the UK, and Senior Medical Advisor to EHT who is also a long-term advisor to the World Health Organization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=bgGJeOVEdQs

My grandson who is now 14 years old, has a chronic health disability, EHS (electro hypersensitivity), a environmental disability recognized by the Canadian Human Right Commission.   With the accumulative and prolonged exposure to microwave radiation from wireless technology, he experiences severe headaches, accompanied with vomiting, extreme fatigue, insomnia and night terrors. Tyler like many others has been denied accommodation forcing them into a life of isolation.

As part of the school experience students have an opportunity to meet socially and form friendships with others who have common interests. Tyler has a fundamental right to participate and socialize with his peer group and have the opportunity to build life skills that include communication, cooperation, and teammanship. These foundational components help to form a person into their adulthood and extend long beyond school years. Because Tyler has been denied accommodation in the public schools he has yet to experience a sense of connectedness to his community that is so crucial for his academic and adult life.

He is constantly facing barriers and has been denied his right to move freely within the community. All means of transportation, accommodation, education, restaurants, hospitals, entertainment, etc have been saturated with wireless technology with no provisions put in place to accommodate approximately 3% of Canadians that have been diagnosed with this Environmental Sensitivity.

The term “environmental sensitivities” describes a variety of reactions to chemicals, electromagnetic radiation and other environmental factors at exposure levels commonly tolerated by many people. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B12B4w0bwyQ_cnhURFlXSGlOU2M

Canadians who have been diagnosed with Electro Hypersensitivity should be provided with reasonable accommodation, affording them inclusion and dignity while building their self- esteem and personal growth and not cast out of the community as an oddity.

The federal government must do their due diligence to ensure monies being granted for projects are not going to create barriers for the disabled in the future so Canada will truly become a Barrier-Free Society for All People with Disabilities.

Janis Hoffmann

Victoria BC V9B 6J3