Monday June 2, 2014 – 12pm
Posted Jun 2, 2014 02:09:32 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
12:00- David Lepofsky, Chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
The founder of the Waterloo Region Accessibility Watch advocacy group has reached out to 570 News following an incident last night. Lyn McGinnis says that members of the group wanted to attend an all-candidates meeting on social issues at the Islamic Centre of Cambridge. He says they called ahead and explained who they were, however, were not able to access the building once they arrived, as two women were in wheelchairs. “There were accessible parking spots at the location, but when we got out there was absolutely no way to get in. Once we started asking around, everyone started looking very distressed, running around and talking to other people. But the reality was there was no way to do it, there was no way for us to get in.” The debate was put on by the Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries and YWCA Cambridge. While he does not fault the organizers of the event, he says this this is why raising the issue of accessibility with our members of Parliament is so important. He adds that candidates should request that debates be held in locations that are accessible to everyone.
12:30- Stuart Pimm, Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University
Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene, and the world is on the brink of a sixth great extinction, a new study says. The study looks at past and present rates of extinction and finds a lower rate in the past than scientists had thought. Species are now disappearing from Earth about 10 times faster than biologists had believed, said study lead author noted biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University. “We are on the verge of the sixth extinction,” Pimm said from research at the Dry Tortugas. The work, published Thursday by the journal Science, was hailed as a landmark study by outside experts. Pimm’s study focused on the rate, not the number, of species disappearing from Earth. It calculated a “death rate” of how many species become extinct each year out of 1 million species.
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