-
General
Vancouver B.C. – BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (BCOHRC) has released their newest “I love my human rights” video featuring accessibility advocate and guide dog user Georgia Pike.
Like many guide dog and service dog users, Georgia Pike has experienced discrimination when trying to access services in British Columbia. In 2019, Pike made a successful human rights complaint to the BC Human Rights Tribunal regarding discrimination she faced in a Vancouver café: the owner told her to leave several times because she was accompanied by her guide dog. Pike’s “I love my human rights” video tells her story of losing her sight, her experience with her guide dog, the discrimination she and others have faced and her hopes as an accessibility advocate.
“Hearing Georgia Pike’s story, told in her own words in this video, helps us understand the real, human impact of being refused service because you rely on a guide dog for independence,” said Commissioner Kasari Govender. “Her experience stands in contrast with the inclusive communities we strive to create in B.C.—but it is through advocates like her that change will come.”
“Repeatedly explaining that I have a right to access public spaces, just as anyone else, is exhausting. I advocate for the right to exist in my community because there is a lack of education about human rights,” said Georgia Pike.
Georgia Pike’s “I love my human rights” video builds upon educational resources released by BCOHRC in 2024 to help workers in the restaurant and taxi industries understand their responsibilities to people who use guide dogs and service dogs. To develop the resources and ensure an effective response to issues raised by guide dog and service dog users, BCOHRC staff met with restaurant and taxi industry workers and representatives to determine what resources would best help them understand guide dog and service dog users’ rights and how to navigate issues that may arise. The resources include infographics, posters, stickers and meeting guides, among other things.
This is the sixth installment in BCOHRC’s “I love my human rights” series, which uses video storytelling as a tool to help personalize complex human rights concepts and encourage empathy and action.
The “I love my human rights” video series and resources can be found via BCOHRC’s website at bchumanrights.ca/love.
– 30 –
Related resources
Those interested in resources on the rights of guide dog and service dog users may also be interested in BCOHRC’s resources for taxi workers and restaurant workers and the #RewriteTheRules campaign, which addresses ableism.
Media contact
To request an interview with Commissioner Kasari Govender, please contact Lindsey Bertrand, Manager, Communications, at or 604-306-7369.
Media kit
Download our media kit for images of Commissioner Kasari Govender
About the “I love my human rights” series
BCOHRC’s “I love my human rights” project (bchumanrights.ca/love) is a multi-year series that uses video storytelling as a tool to help personalize complex human rights concepts and encourage empathy and action. The series title was inspired by one of our first video storytellers, B.C. artist and self-advocate Teresa Pocock, who in 2014 created the slogan for her successful public campaign to defend her right to choose where she lived. BCOHRC is producing the series as part of our mandate to educate British Columbians about systemic discrimination and how to eliminate it. Updates about the series, including new video releases and launch events, will be posted to the bchumanrights.ca website.
About BCOHRC
BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner exists to address the root causes of inequality, discrimination and injustice in B.C. by shifting laws, policies, practices and cultures. We do this work through education, research, advocacy, inquiry and monitoring. Learn more at: bchumanrights.ca
About the Commissioner
Kasari Govender began her work as B.C.’s first independent human rights commissioner in September 2019. As an independent officer of the Legislature, Commissioner Govender is uniquely positioned to ensure human rights in B.C. are protected, respected and advanced on a systemic level. In her first five-year term, her work through BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner included a public inquiry into experiences of hate in the pandemic, a report on systemic discrimination in policing, community embedded research about a range of human rights issues experienced by British Columbians, public awareness campaigns about ableism and racism and guidance to government that, among other things, informed the creation of both the Anti-Racism Data Act and the Anti-Racism Act. Commissioner Govender was reappointed for a second term beginning in September 2024.
Follow us
Get the latest human rights news from us on Twitter/X (@humanrights4BC), Instagram (@humanrights4BC), Facebook (facebook.com/HumanRights4BC) and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/HumanRights4BC)