Canada has long been a leader in sport and recreation for persons with disability, and it is astounding to consider the contributions made in the last century. This is found in every aspect of disability sport including those for persons with intellectual impairment, mobility disabilities, and deafness. But for the purposes of this article, the focus will be on the earliest programs that focused on mobility disabilities and primarily those with spinal cord injuries (SCI).
The history of adapted physical activity in Canada goes back to 1918 when “Reclaiming the Maimed” was published by Tait McKenzie and James Naismith (Legg, 2000). Years later, and parallel to many nations, sport for persons with SCI began in earnest following World War II. This was due to a large influx of persons with spinal injuries as a result of the war, and changes to medical practice that meant those living with SCI had greatly extended lifespans.
Around the same time, increasing recognition of the importance of sport and recreation for a higher quality of life and its ability to act as a catalyst for other social objectives contributed to the development of new programs being offered in rehabilitation hospitals and wheelchair sport clubs being founded.
The first recorded example of a rehabilitation sport program in Canada was in the late 1940s at the Deer Lodge Rehabilitation Hospital in Winnipeg. Events here included archery, milk-bottle pitching, basketball-throwing, ring-tossing, croquet, and golf-putting (Steadward, personal communication). Other clubs across the country then slowly evolved and these were primarily focused on wheelchair basketball. In the UK, at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, a physiatrist, and head of a rehabilitation for veterans with spinal cord injuries, hosted a wheelchair sport event on the same day as the opening ceremonies of the 1948 Olympic Games in London. The local newspaper noted that he hoped one day these Games could evolve into something that paralleled the Olympic Games.
The start of international games
The first international wheelchair sport games were then held back at the Stoke Mandeville hospital in 1952 with one team from the Netherlands. These games would evolve into what would become known as the Paralympic Games. The first of these were held in 1960 in Rome and for a second time in 1964 in Tokyo (Legg & Steadward, 2011; Darcy & Legg, 2016).
Canada did not compete in either, but it was in Tokyo that Canadian orthopaedic surgeon, Robert Jackson, had a chance to meet with Guttmann. Jackson expressed his concern to Guttmann that Canada had focused too much on occupational rehabilitation, while ignoring the benefits of other modalities such as sport and recreation. Jackson promised Gutmann that he would bring a Canadian team to the 1968 Paralympic Games.
But it nearly didn’t happen. Jackson forgot about his promise until 1967 when, as a personal project to commemorate Canada’s Centennial birthday, he and his wife Marilyn invited a few patients from a local hospital to race at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium. After a few months, a formal club was created under the title “Coasters Athletic Club” and Jackson then took the team to 1968 Paralympic Games (Legg, 2000).
During this time, other international wheelchair sport events emerged.
- 1962: The Commonwealth Games Federation hosted events for athletes with SCI in Perth, Australia.
- 1966: The second Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica. It was at those Games that Ben Riemer, from Winnipeg, represented Canada and was named Canadian athlete of the year.
Did you know: It was, in part, due to Reimer’s success that motivated Allan Simpson, a person with polio since the age of 14, to go a little bigger. Simpson, who was living in Winnipeg, and leader of an unofficial ‘Monday Night Club’, asked the organizing committee for the 1967 Winnipeg Pan-American (Pan Am) Games to include a Wheelchair Pan-American Games section. When his request was denied, he decided to organize a separate wheelchair event, which was the first Pan-Am Wheelchair Games in 1967. Simpson also organized the Manitoba and Canadian Wheelchair Sport Associations, spent 30 years working on behalf of Canadians with disabilities, and was one of Canada’s most successful lobbyists. These games evolved into what are now the Parapan American Games, first held in Mexico City in 1999 (Legg, 2000).
First Pan-American Wheelchair Games (1967)
In trying to arrange for the first wheelchair games in 1967, Simpson communicated with counterparts in the United States, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago noting that “the point to this gathering was not necessarily for the love of sport, but instead to build social acceptance and undo the myth that persons with a disability were a burden to society” (Legg, 2000).
The Canadian government agreed to help pay for the Games, but they required a national organization to hold the funds. The Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association (CWSA) did not officially exist at that point, and so, the Canadian Paraplegic Association Board of Directors and others agreed to act as a temporary national association.
A month later in September of 1967, a meeting was held with wheelchair sport leaders from across Canada and a motion presented “that a national wheelchair sports association in Canada be formally established” (Legg, 2000). It was here that CWSA was officially founded with Jackson, the orthopedic surgeon who had promised to bring a Canadian team to the 1968 Paralympic Games, elected as CWSA’s first President.
At the time, Jackson said, “… we should note with some pride that although wheelchair sport may have started earlier in England and the USA, that the Canadian organization was started by paraplegics themselves, with full cognizance of the many benefits that they would receive” (Legg, 2000). Ten of the 14 board members were wheelchair users.
A year later in 1968, Maury Van Vliet, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, and Robert Steadward, a University of Alberta undergraduate student (who would later found a research and training centre for athletes with disabilities at the University of Alberta, now called The Steadward Centre, and serve as President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee) helped organize the first National Wheelchair Games, where athletes would be selected for the 1968 Paralympic team led by Jackson.
1970s
Following Canada’s first participation in the 1968 Paralympic Games (along with the 1969 Parapan American Games in Argentina and the 1971 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica), the Canadian team travelled to Heidelberg, Germany in 1972 to compete in their second Paralympic Games (then called the 21st International Stoke Mandeville Games).
In 1976, Canada hosted the Summer Games in Toronto, called the “Olympiad for the Physically Disabled (Toronto)”. This was the first Olympiad with full competition for athletes with amputees and visual impairments.
The addition of different disabilities encouraged organizers to change the name of the event from the “Paralympics” to the “TORONTOlympiad for the Physically Disabled” (Legg, 2000). The term Paralympics was not used because it was believed to signify Games for people who have paraplegia (a type of SCI that affects the lower half of the body). However, the term ‘Paralympics’ would eventually be chosen as the official name with “Para” denoting “in parallel” to the Olympics.
1976: Canada in first Winter Paralympic Games (Örnsköldsvik, Sweden)
Canada’s participation in the Winter Paralympic Games have their origins going back to 1961 when Jerry Johnston started teaching adapted skiing at Sunshine Village in Banff. He helped create the Alberta Association of Disabled Skiing in 1971, and in 1976 the national association was created. The funding for the creation of the association came from money earmarked earlier by the Federal government for the Toronto summer games but was not used due to geo-political issues involving South Africa. This funding also helped create the umbrella group originally called the Coordinating Committee of Sports for the Physically Disabled (CC-SFD). In 1980, it was renamed the Canadian Federation of Sport Organizations for the Disabled (CFSOD) and then in 1989, the name was changed to the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC).
1980s
Disability sport and recreation continued to evolve in the early 1980s. For example, icons Terry Fox and Rick Hansen demonstrated how persons with disabilities could achieve excellence through physical activity. The evolution of the sport system also continued. In 1986, University of Alberta Professor Robert Steadward hosted the Jasper Talks, a national symposium on physical activity and disability. This event eventually led to the creation of the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability (ALA) and the International Paralympic Committee’s VISTA Conference. Leaders of the ALA would then publish the Blueprint for Action helping guide municipal parks and recreation departments to become more inclusive.
Another significant moment in the 1980s included the leaders of the ALA writing the Moving to Inclusion series, which helped guide physical education teachers to make curricula more inclusive for children with disabilities. Steadward would then become the founding President of the International Paralympic Committee in 1989, a position he would hold for 3 terms until 2001. In this role, he initiated the signing of the agreement with the International Olympic Committee whereby any city bidding to host the Olympic Games would also agree to host the Paralympic Games.
1990s
In the 1990s, Canada once again became a global leader by encouraging able-bodied sports organizations to become more inclusive in their programming by providing the same or similar privileges, opportunities, and responsibilities to all national athletes regardless of whether they were able bodied or disabled. Early examples included Swim Canada Natation and Archery Canada.
More recently, Canada hosted its first Winter Paralympic Games in Vancouver in 2010, Parapan American Games in 2015 in Toronto and the Invictus Games in 2017 for war veterans with disabilities and these Games will be held in Vancouver and Whistler in 2025.
The Canada Games, meanwhile, are still the only major Games globally that include events for athletes who are able-bodied, athletes with physical disabilities and athletes with intellectual disabilities, a practice that started in the 1990s.
Inclusion in the Commonwealth Games also has its roots in Canada with Rick Hansen leading the addition of athletes with a disability into the 1994 Games held in Victoria after exhibition events were held at the 1990 Games in Auckland, New Zealand. In 2002, at the Manchester Games, the policy was ratified and every Commonwealth Games since has included events for athletes with disabilities.
Today
Today, Canada continues to be represented and led by outstanding and extraordinary icons in adapted sport. This includes Minister of Sport and Physical Activity Carla Qualtrough; Senator and Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame 2010 inductee Chantal Petitclerc; Michelle Stillwell, former British Columbia MLA and Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation; IPC Athletes’ Council First Vice Chairperson Josh Dueck; former IPC Governing Board member Patrick Jarvis; former Chair of Own the Podium Todd Nicolson; and Danielle Peers, former Team Canada wheelchair basketball player, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair and Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame 2023 inductee.
Thanks to the creativity, tenacity, and vision of a several outstanding leaders, Canada has been a driver of Paralympic sport, and disability sport and we will hopefully continue to move forward with the same commitment, and integrity towards inclusion and accessibility in sport.