March 24, 2008

A man hired to advise the P.E.I. government on services for people with disabilities has resigned, saying he didn't feel his input was appreciated.

"When they take away your ability to act, and then take away your right to speak, you have nothing," said Stephen Pate after leaving his post on the Disability Services Review Committee, which is supposed to reform the province's disability support program.

Pate resigned two months ago, but only started speaking publicly about his resignation this past week.

Pate, who uses a wheelchair and has been a longtime advocate for the disabled, said the decision was "heartbreaking."

He said he was initially very excited to part of the reform process, but he believes he will get better results while acting as a critic rather than being part of the government process.

"I think that some people in the government wanted me to be there to help effect change and I think other people wanted to shut me up," said Pate, who has vocally criticized government policies regarding help for the disabled in the past, and keeps a blog called Disability Alert.

"I think they thought if they got me on the committee then there wouldn't be any commentary from Disability Alert on how well or how poorly the process was going."

In particular, Pate said the advisory committee should have better reflected the community of people with disabilities by including representatives such as seniors.

Before the 2007 election, Pate showed up routinely at the provincial legislature to rail against the policies of the ruling Conservative government.

He followed Tory candidates on the election trail, pushing for reforms to the disability support program.

He was hired for the committee by the new Liberal government after they won the election.