Social Policy in Ontario

Barbara Turnbull set an inspiring example

Posted on May 13, 2015 in Equality History

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials –  Star reporter Barbara Turnbull set an example of courage in both her work and her advocacy on behalf of those with disabilities.
May 11 2015.   Editorial

If all she had done was go to work and do her job, Barbara Turnbull would have been an inspiring example of courage in the face of enormous obstacles.

She reported for the Star for a quarter of a century, writing hundreds of articles on everything under the sun. She travelled to cover stories and tackled difficult assignments.

All that forced those who encountered her to focus on what she could do, not on what she could not do after the 1983 convenience store shooting that left her paralyzed below the neck and confined to a wheelchair. Simply by living as she did, she set an example for people living with disabilities, and for everyone else.

But Barb Turnbull, who died on Sunday at the age of 50, did a lot more than that. She lent her name, her story and her energy to raising money for research into spinal cord injuries. And she campaigned publicly, often in the face of misunderstanding and even hostility, in favour of equal access for all.

She first told her story in a 1997 autobiography, Looking in the Mirror, and channeled the funds from that into the Barbara Turnbull Foundation for Spinal Cord Research. She complained that Ontario does comparatively little to support research in this important area, and set about to help remedy that.

Her foundation awards an annual prize of $50,000 to a top researcher in the field. And in a Star e-book published two years ago, Turnbull described how it has raised some $750,000 to support research being carried out by Dr. Charles Tator, the neurosurgeon who removed a bullet from her spinal cord.

She also campaigned for full access to movie theatres, and in 1993 lodged a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission over barriers in cinemas operated by Famous Players Theatres. That led to conflict: the commission ruled in her favour in 2001, but some movie-goers were upset when Famous Players closed two theatres rather than make them fully accessible.

Turnbull became the target of their anger. It deeply wounded her, but she refused to become bitter. “The day I stop believing in the greater good of humanity will be the day I give up,” she wrote in 2013. “Until that day comes, I will carry on.”

Carry on she did. She wrote passionately about the need for more organ and tissue donation. Last year she had 66 bylines in the Star, a very respectable output. Her last article for the Star – a brightly written story about movies and overeating – appeared on March 8. Until her final illness, she did not let anything slow her down.

She leaves a legacy that will be long remembered.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2015/05/11/barbara-turnbull-set-an-inspiring-example-editorial.html >

Tags: disabilities, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living

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