Topic spans: 1981 - 2002
Rick Hansen: Man In Motion
They said it couldn't be done, but Rick Hansen defied all the odds. The long, gruelling hours. Bitter cold and oppressive humidity. The numbing pain that shot through his arms and shoulders at the end of the day. But nothing stopped Hansen as he circled the world in his wheelchair for over two years to raise awareness and money for spinal cord research. And even when the tour was over he kept going, a man in perpetual motion.
17 television clips
2 radio clips
Doing more harm than good?
Broadcast Date: Jan. 6, 1987
Why should Rick Hansen have to wheel around the world to raise money for spinal cord research? Does medical research in Canada really hinge on such superhuman efforts? Why are a growing number of disabled people upset with Hansen? In this CBC Television clip, The Fifth Estate attempts to answer these questions as it takes a critical look at the Man In Motion Tour.The cupboard in Ottawa is painfully bare, but when Hansen visits Ottawa, Prime Minister Mulroney bypasses his cabinet, and pledges $1 million to the Man In Motion Tour. A year earlier, the federal government only sunk $50,000 into spinal cord research. Paraplegics like Judith Snow accuse Ottawa of making political hay before an election. Surely politicians aren't going to ride on the back of Rick Hansen to win votes? "Why not?" asks Snow.
Peter Kavanagh is even more cynical. A freelance journalist born with a hip defect and who lives in constant pain, Kavanagh is unimpressed with Hansen. "This is not the way you deal with fundamental social problems," he says. "You deal with them through institutional change and through social awareness. You do not deal with them through stunts." Kavanagh argues that the next time money has to be raised for a cause, "we might become a little bit hardened and want to be impressed a bit more."
Ray Wickson runs a private agency for spinal cord patients. He thinks the Tour is sham because it gives people who make a donation an easy out, and lets Ottawa off the hook from tackling the real, everyday problems of normal disabled people. "The government gives lip service to the disabled," says Wickson. "Hansen will go across the country, he will get a lot of attention for spinal cord injuries, for what he's doing and then when it's over, it's all over. Period."
Is Hansen setting the standard too high for disabled people? "I think that's short-sighted," answers Hansen. "People are not looking at the positive way we want the tour to affect them. I believe in the tour, and I believe in what it's going to accomplish." Maybe so, but Kavanagh is not convinced and is defiant in his stance: "I want Rick Hansen to stop doing what he's doing. Who wants him to do this? We didn't ask him to do this."
Doing more harm than good?
• Not everybody agreed with Peter Kavanagh's criticism that Rick Hansen was doing more harm than good. In 1989, the Manning Awards Foundation honoured Hansen with the Award of Distinction for his efforts to increase public awareness of the potential and abilities of the disabled. The award was named after Canadian statesman Ernest C. Manning.Doing more harm than good?
Medium: Television
Program: The Fifth Estate
Broadcast Date: Jan. 6, 1987
Guest(s): Harvey Anderson, Alan Arlett, Peter Cavanagh, George Cohon, Jake Epp, Rick Hansen, Norman Kuntz, Judith Snow
Reporter: Eric Malling
Duration: 29:00
Last updated:
March 2, 2011
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19 clips in this topic . page
Doing more harm than good?.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: March 2, 2011.
[Page consulted on Feb. 16, 2012.]