Because of my original motion, I had felt that the disability status would cover what we have, but I certainly do want to take a moment to speak to the subamendment that we have.
Many disabilities are invisible, and when we look at the number of people in this country who suffer from mental illness at some time—people do go in and out of this because of treatments, circumstances, and situations—I understand the significance of it, the importance of this. Having that included in it for discussion, I believe, is very important.
Originally I was at that stage thinking that this is self-declared. The board has to present all of this information publicly to the stakeholders. If we go through what the clause actually says and where we're going with this, it becomes a public disclosure portion of it. I'm not sure how the boards would do that. We do understand how you would do that as far as gender is concerned. Then are you kind of getting into the nitpicking side of this, or would a disability status be more inclusive?
I certainly do appreciate the statements that have been presented by Mr. Masse. Again, people who are on a board—and I say, tongue in cheek, the only way I might be able to get in there is by being able to state that is my condition. But from a serious standpoint, there are people who function very well but who also have other issues they have to work through. As the discussion on mental illness has expanded, groups like Bell Let's Talk do an amazing job, and it becomes one of those issues that people are more understanding of. The words “mental illness” are significant. “Mental disability” is where I have a bit of a question, because I don't think society has got to the stage where people look at the term “mental disability” as being the same.
With physical disability, I could roll in here and have physical issues, but I could still function in a lot of ways. When you speak about “mental disability”, we haven't yet seen that, and I don't think society has quite got to that, but “mental illness” certainly is. I'd just add that to the discussion portion. I do believe it has merit. I would sooner see “mental illness” and “physical disability”, but I understand where the argument there is coming from, and words matter, but I'll allow Mr. Masse to expand.