Interesting developments (and a bonus comic)…after the jump!
A few weeks ago, IrkedMagazine.com published a series of features about Metro Transit’s decision to stop offering free bus passes to Nova Scotians who are blind or have minimum sight. To be deliberately cheeky and hyperbolic (but also to express our bona fide outrage) we dubbed the debacle “Halifaxgate.”
After reading our coverage, Canadian icon Terry Kelly has agreed to weigh in. For those of you who don’t know Terry, please allow us to introduce just a few of his many accomplishments:
Our discussion on the implications of Halifax, Nova Scotia’s recent decision to stop providing free bus passes to blind people has lead to international conversation. Below are some of the responses we’ve received from the Halifax community and the global community. Respected and gifted people, with and without visual impairment, with and without disability, with and without agenda, have come together to express themselves on this highly complex issue. Scroll down to read opinions from Lee Stringer, Sara Miles, Jeff Moyer, Jackson Hunsicker, an editor from the BBC, and more…
If you’ve been following Irked this week, then you know that Dartmouth, Nova Scotia-based Dennis McCormack, founder and former editor of the Atlantic Braille Press, has been a tireless and vocal opponent of the Halifax Regional Municipality’s forthcoming bus pass policy change. Here are some samples from the myriad letters that Dennis has been writing to local newspapers, with additional clippings taken from an editorial Dennis wrote for the Chronicle-Herald titled “No winners in decision to cancel free transit passes” (published 2009-01-15):
The following terrific article, titled “Metro Transit nixes passes for blind,” appeared in the January 23-29, 2009 edition of The Halifax Commoner. It was written by Ryan Baker:
Dennis McCormack has used Metro Transit to get around Halifax Regional Municipality for more than 40 years, just like thousands of other Haligonians.
But McCormack is different from the people sitting around him on the bus. Nestled next to his bus pass is a plastic card from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
McCormack has a condition called albinism, leaving him with less than 10 percent visibility in his clear blue eyes.
For as long as he’s taken the bus, McCormack has used a courtesy pass from Metro Transit. Those free rides—for him and all visually impaired people—are coming to an end.
