It is our pleasure to announce that the Planat in Action: Accessibility Assessment of UBC Competition and Accommodation Venues for the Special Olympics Canada 2014 Summer Games report is available in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository!

Serving as the host venue from July 8-12, 2014, UBC’s Vancouver campus proudly welcomed 1,300 athletes with intellectual disabilities for the Special Olympics Canada 2014 Summer Games. Over 350 students, staff and faculty from the UBC community signed up for volunteer opportunities for the Games.

These opportunities ranged from “UBC varsity athletes [who] volunteered at training camps and formed a team with Special Olympics BC athletes at the annual Storm the Wall student recreation event” to “[m]ore than 100 students [being] involved in projects related to the Games such as creating maps, reducing waste, sourcing local food, and eliminating the need for bottled water” and much more.

This report provides a summary of each venue used during the Games along with recommendations. It is based on information and photo gathering on current accessibility and inclusive features at venues and public spaces used during the Games.

Read the full report in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50894.

Explore the Centre for Sport and Sustainability (CSS) community and its collections in cIRcle at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/35776.

Above text in italics is courtesy of 604 Now

Above image is courtesy of the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre

On June 28, 2013 at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, a historic summit of two groups of WWII veterans that faced discrimination: the Tuskegee Airmen and Chinese-Canadian soldiers was held. Meeting for the first time ever, these aging veterans will share their stories with the public on how they overcame prejudice to serve their countries with courage and distinction. The Tuskegee Airmen are African-American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Corps (United States Army Air Forces after 20 June 1941).

While most of their ranks have passed away, a few remaining veterans, now mostly in their late 80s and 90s, will meet to share their stories.  During WWII, the Tuskegee airmen were the first group of African-American aviators to fly in combat for the US armed forces. At the time, the American military was still racially segregated. Many felt African-Americans lacked the intelligence and skill to perform anything beyond basic, menial tasks in military duty. Despite this segregation and prejudice, the Tuskegee Airmen went on to become one of the most highly respected fighter groups in the war. They were dubbed “the Red Tails” after one fighter group painted their P47s and later P51s with a red tail.  Please join us for this historic occasion.  This UBC opening symposium took place on June 28, 2013, 2013 at the Victoria Learning Theatre (Room 182), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre as part of the Chapman Discussion Series.

Panelists include:  Col. Charles McGee, Lt. Robert Ashby, Bill Norwood, Col. Dick Tolliver (Tuskegee Airmen); Col. Howe Lee, George Chow, Neil Chen, Frank Wong (Chinese-Canadian Veterans); Moderated by Don Chapman

Select Books and Articles Available at UBC for more research

Horn, B. (2008). Show No Fear: Daring Actions in Canadian Military History. Dundurn. [Link]

Moye, J. T. (2010). Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. OUP USA. [Link]

Percy, W. A. (2003). Jim Crow and Uncle Sam: The Tuskegee Flying Units and the US Army Air Forces in Europe during World War II. The Journal of Military History, 67(3), 773-810. [Link]

Select UBC Library Research Guides on this topic

Political Science

Canadian Studies

A recent CBC News article reported the latest results of a UNICEF survey, which ranked Canada 17th out of 29 nations with regard to childhood well-being.

Click here to read the story. 

Troubling trends in the Canadian education system can be reversed if the country adopts national standards for learning, a report released Tuesday suggests. The Canadian Council on Learning, in its final report before it ceases to exist, says without a national oversight body for education, student achievement will continue to decline and undermine Canada’s economic competitiveness in the years to come.

“Canada is the only country that doesn’t have a national ministry,” says Paul Cappon, the council’s CEO. And the principal reason for this, the report says, is “that our governments have failed to work together to develop the necessary policies and failed to exhibit the required collective political leadership.”

Education falls under the responsibility of provincial governments, with limited federal involvement, but Cappon says that relationship shouldn’t get in the way of what’s good for Canadians, which, he says, is similar to the dynamics of Canadian health care.

 ”The dysfunctionality of the health-care system costs lives, every week and every month,” says Cappon. “And the dysfunctionality in the education and learning systems costs Canada prosperity, costs opportunities for the young and the not-so-young: so of course, you can only overcome (the divide) if you want to and if there is political will do it.”

The federal-provincial dynamic decreases the quality of education in Canada from early childhood education through to post-secondary schools, aboriginal and adult learning, the council argues. A change is needed to get governments of all levels to work together to avoid further declines in student outcomes, the council says.