I think a cultural change and a cognitive change go hand in hand. It's very hard to sit in a classroom, for example, and teach these things abstractly. You have to live them.
For example, for the project I referenced on creating programs and technology for people with disabilities by people with disabilities, we hired a gentleman with a visual impairment to run that program. He was actually legally blind. We've also hired people with mental health issues in our school. Quite frankly, the biggest obstacle sometimes is HR departments or unions with their rules. As much as they want to support who they represent, sometimes they don't want others to get the job without going through the proper process. There are a lot of barriers.
Culturally, I think we're almost there. I think Canadians are really good people. I've travelled the world talking about this, and we are ahead of many cultures. Not all, but we are ahead of many cultures. We have to do it in a way that doesn't threaten the bottom line of a business. People with disabilities don't want businesses to close. They just want access to those businesses. There has to be dialogue at the table of standards development.
Mr. Adair and I were in Ontario together. We had people with disabilities, people from the government and people from businesses at each one of these tables. At least until a few months ago, that's the way development was. Where we are lacking in Ontario is a greater public education strategy. We have isolated parts of excellence—for example, the Pan Am Games, the Invictus Games and some of the hiring practices within the public sector in particular.
We're beginning to see a change. I see the change even in my children, who are millennials, when they are talking about their friends with mental health illnesses and talking about the medication as if it's taking an Aspirin: “Oh, he forgot his clonazepam and we had to go back and get it before we went to the party.” These are things my generation would never admit to doing, or even knowing people like that.
We've come a long way, but government can certainly do more. I was disappointed that we didn't do more. I remember in 2011 there were are few commercials on TV and on the radio, and that was basically it. There were communications right to the organizations, but not as much to the general public.
I think we each have a responsibility. It's not just up to government. That is why we're trying to walk the talk at Ryerson University. We have a very strong equity, diversity and inclusion department that we've grown in the last few years. However, we have also not hired an indigenous professor in the last three years. We haven't, even though it's in our plan to do so. Even well-intentioned—