Mr. Speaker, like my colleagues in the House, I want to support the member for Kitchener—Conestoga, who suggested that we make some quick comments and then take it to a voice vote.
The Liberal Party supports this very much and we are very grateful to Liberal Senator Jim Munson, who brought the bill forward. However, I do want to add some comments.
My hon. colleague for Vancouver East discussed the fact that gender is a huge issue in terms of early diagnosis. We know that early diagnosis is very important to get the kind of early interventions one needs. However, there are some other things I want to highlight.
I was quite impressed and moved at a conference I was at this weekend in British Columbia. It was an international conference with people from eight countries, all of whom themselves were autistic or on the spectrum disorder at some level. I heard some things from them that, even as a physician, I was not aware of and that moved me greatly.
We talk about this as a spectrum disorder, which becomes an illness, a diagnosis, et cetera. However, I was very much moved by the people in that room, from eight countries, in that that they did not want people to see them as a disorder. They wanted people to understand that many of them are functioning well and have great ability. They need people to understand the nature of autism in its full spectrum.
It was interesting when the member for Vancouver East talked about diagnosing girls at about 12. I met women with Aspergers who belong to the Asperger Women Association, who were diagnosed at 50, 42 and 35.
We see that we do not understand, in fact, that many people with autism function in our society. However, the people at the conference commented that they are discriminated against in society. Sometimes at home and school there is a certain protection for them, but when they go out into the real world they are discriminated against. They cannot get jobs. They find that people look at them as if they have a mental disability, when many of them have extraordinarily high IQs. Many are extremely talented artists. Some are very verbal and very good at all kinds of communications, not necessarily verbal ones.
I heard that they wanted the schools to understand them and not discriminate against them. They are subject to bullying a great deal and they wanted to deal with that issue.
As we talk about awareness, they very much want people to understand the fact that they are very able. Many of them are highly functioning. I met people there that day who had extraordinary IQs that were much higher than mine. They would be at genius levels. I also heard that they are concerned about their human rights.
I heard some moving things. For instance, they do not want people to fix them or cure them, but they do need support, understanding and opportunity to participate fully in jobs and the economic, cultural and social sectors. This is where I want to put a plea on the table. I was extremely moved by that.
As a physician, I had understood the spectrum disorder very differently. However, I do not even want to talk about it as a spectrum disorder anymore. As a physician, I saw it as a problem for a long time and not necessarily as something where a person would say they were born autistic, that is who they are and they are happy with the gifts they have. They just want opportunity, understanding and the ability not to have people say they want to fix them.
In fact, some said that family doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists have told them that if they are functioning well they should not tell anyone they are autistic. If they did not tell anyone, they would not be discriminated against. It was kind of like telling the LGBT community, as in the old days, to stay in the closet and not to come out.
I want to put that to members here so that we can understand people with autism spectrum disorder very differently from how we have tended to understand them.