The Politics of Puppy Love

In this, our Valentine’s Day episode, the Triple Vision team takes a look at “puppy love” by tracing the history of guide dogs and issues related to public access and certification for our favourite furry workers. Hanna and David talk to Steven Doucette, the Client Services Administrator of Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind, about guide dog history, and the history of this Canadian training facility. Irene Lambert recounts her own story of arriving back in Montreal in 1969, to a less than warm reception, with her husband, two sons, and their two owner-trained retriever guide dogs. Finally, Alan Conway of Guide Dog Users of Canada discusses the thorny issue of recent Canadian efforts to have guide dogs meet new standards when they are already certified under the International Guide Dog Federation. “We were all gung-ho to join this new culture, however, we were often refused access to restaurants and to theatres, especially the Place des Arts. We looked into the Proof of Laws that allowed people access. We had carried these all around in the States with us and had never been denied except for the occasional taxi driver, but hear we were in Montreal facing all of these rejections.”