Triple Vision

Pandora Project

On Triple Vision, the Pandora Project brings you the history of Canadians who are blind, deafblind, and partially sighted, one story at a time, illuminating the challenges of the past, present, and future.

  1. Sep 1

    Just Try to Catch Up to the LH Express

    In our 68th episode the Triple Vision team changes its focus somewhat to start telling personal stories of Canadians who are blind or visually impaired. In this first episode we highlight the life and music of Lucas Haneman and his band the LH Express. From Ottawa, Lucas has been playing guitar since he was six years old. In his own words, his life has been “all music all of the time”. Lucas is now joined in his musical journey by his wife, Megan Laurence, and the two, under the name LH Express, have put out 4 studio albums, with a 5th due in October. Listen to this episode as Lucas talks about his musical life and his dedication to his family. You may also be surprised about what LH Express actually means. “If you want to be a musician you have to really, really love it” says Haneman. “You have to kind of eat, sleep, and breathe it. Sometimes it has to keep you up at night. For me it was just all of those things. Ever since I could start making money, even a small amount of money playing live, it was always the thing I wanted to do.”

  2. Jul 24

    Talking to Americans 2: An Interview with Christine Grassman

    In this 67th podcast we continue our discussion with blind Americans who share with us their lived experience. Christine Grassman, a conflict resolution specialist living in Virginia, gives us a candid interview of what life has been like for her. She has a fascinating story of being, essentially discriminated against, in one of her first full-time jobs, before landing on her feet with the Randolph-Sheppard program. Throughout the podcast Christine shares her life experience as a wife, mother, dragon boat racer, First Aid Instructor, author, and target shooter. She discusses the limitations of the Americans with disabilities Act. She recounts situations where interactions between blind Americans and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have led to one death and several injuries. "I would say that its extremely unlikely that most people would think the same about any other marginalized group. And say, oh well, of course they are good at that particular job because they are working with their particular group, or where their interest lie, or whatever that happens to be. And so, we as people with disabilities really have a hard time breaking out of that whole system where we’re kind of marginalized into particular jobs and particular sectors of employment."

  3. May 6

    Talking to Americans: On Advocacy and Blindness in the United States

    In this 66th episode of Triple Vision, the team talks with Jeff Tom, a retired lawyer for the California legislature, and past President of the California Council of the Blind. Jeff is also a current Board member of the American Council of the Blind, and the Chair of it’s Advocacy Steering Committee. For some time now Triple Vision has wanted to know about some of the differences in advocacy and social participation in the US compared to Canada. Now seemed like a perfect time as blind Americans are facing down a federal administration which has it’s sights on rolling back diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. This episode is being hosted between Karoline and guest host Sylvia Jonas, Sylvia herself having been born and raised in California, and now living in Canada for the past 15 years. Tune in for an interesting look at the history of blindness advocacy in the United States, and the current pressures that that advocacy is now under. “Clearly in the united States, for a long, long time, interest group politics has been the way things get done. Interest group politics within the two-party system construct does promote the ability for all groups, if they can advocate harmoniously and really get themselves together to make a difference, especially around the margins”.

  4. Mar 9

    Difficult Choices: Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, and the Implications for the Disability community

    In this 65th episode the Triple Vision Team tackles the complicated issue of Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID. In 2021 Canada’s parliament revised its MAID legislation to allow for MAID in circumstances other than a death being foreseeable and imminent. As a result, MAID is now available to Canadians who have a "grievous and irremediable medical condition", which can include a serious and incurable illness, disease, or disability. This change has opened the doors to many ethical discussions about possible implications for the disability community. We invite Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai into a conversation about this. Mahadeo is well qualified on this topic as Chief Operating Officer of IDEA - STEM, an organization which focuses on accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health care. He is also an Adjunct professor in the School of Medicine ophthalmology at Queen’s University, as well as faculty in the Business Administration Technology program at Ontario Tech University, and in Inclusive Design at OCAD University. "If we believe, in the disability community, that we have a right to oversight of our own bodies, then we have to acknowledge that if someone’s been given all of the information they need and this is a choice that they choose to make, we as a disability community can’t object. We can say, are we sure that there’s been appropriate levels of information provided. We can say, are we sure that there’s been appropriate consideration for all of the barriers and how those barriers exist and how those barriers play into lived experience. But ultimately, if we’re sure the person is making a choice, and its their choice to have made, we can argue with the outcome of the choice, because it might not be what we would choose, but we can’t necessarily argue with the fact that they have the choice."

  5. Jan 13

    All Things disability and All Things Green

    To start 2026 the Triple Vision team speaks with Mike Morrice, the disability and Inclusion critic for the Green Party of Canada. Mike was the Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre between 2021 and 2025 when he pushed hard on behalf of Canadians with disabilities to ensure the Canada Disability Benefit would become a reality. In this month’s podcast he talks with us, a day before the federal budget dropped last November, about how disappointed he was with the eventual benefit, as well as the Liberal Government’s track record on disability, climate change, and commitment to alleviating poverty in Canada. “The fact is that it’s expensive to leave people in poverty. The health care costs, any number of different societal costs, are significantly higher wen society, or a country, chooses to leave people in poverty. That’s what’s being done, disproportionately, when it comes to the disability community. I think it’s an embarrassment that, in a country as wealthy as ours, that we are not doing better by the disability community, and economically. It disadvantages us as a country.”

  6. 2025-12-02

    Do We Put Accessibility into diversity Equity and Inclusion, or Do We Let it Stay out?

    In triple Vision’s 63rd episode we tackle the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion. President Trump’s second term has placed DEI under attack in the United States, and there are rumblings of discontent in Canada around the practice as well. To answer some of the questions around this, Karoline and Peter speak with Varsha Naik of the Regional Diversity Round Table (RDR). Located to the west of Toronto, RDR’s mandate is to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion amongst some of the largest organizations in the area. WE ask Varsha what is the continuing value of DEI in the face of cutbacks to immigration, as well as where is accessibility in this conversation? “We are creating a lack of acceptance. We are creating a polarization in our communities. We are creating communities where hate will fester. We will be looking at an eventual violent society and that’s not where we want to go.” Please join us for this exciting and stimulating episode of Triple Vision!

  7. 2025-09-25

    Disability History Month Part 4 - A Two-Spirit Journey Can Take a Long Time, Mc-Nee Chacaby

    In this fourth and final episode for Disability History Month, the Triple Vision team talks with Ma-Nee Chacaby about her book "A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa Cree Elder". Co-written with Mary Louisa Plummer, the book won Canada Reads 2025 as the "one book to change the narrative". In this compelling podcast Ma-Nee talks about why she wrote the book, and the values which are important to her, including taking care of the land and the importance of telling your own story. She also talks about her long journey of discovery of who she is as a two-spirit person. "I also wanted First Nations people to start writing their story. Lots of people in this planet – I’m not blaming anybody – but lots of people in this planet always say things about First Nations people, when they say things about the way we live our lives, and who we are. So I always say, you know you should write your story. Just tell the truth, what it was like when you were growing up". Don’t miss Ma-Nee telling it exactly the way it is, and when you need more, be sure to pick up her book!

  8. 2025-09-18

    Disability History Month - "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" A Discussion of Acclaimed Canadian Children’s Writer Jean Little

    In this third podcast in Disability History Month, Triple vision contributors Vic Pereira and Diana Brent discuss the autobiography "Stars Come Out Within" by the much loved Canadian children’s author Jean Little. Little wrote over 50 books, many of them dealing with the topic of disability, writing about the topic long before writers began to treat kids with disabilities as their own persons, with their own agency. Born with a visual impairment herself in 1932 in Japan, Little struggled all of her life to fit in – caught between the worlds of the sighted while not quite fitting into the community of individuals with vision loss. Despite her struggles, however, she left behind a treasure trove of published works which include novels, picture books, poetry and short stories. Little identified with the 19th century poet, Emily Dickinson who wrote the poem which starts with, "We grow accustomed to the Dark" and contains the title of her book "Stars Come Out Within". "We do develop strategies, and we do learn what it is like to live as someone with partial vision or totally blind - as where someone who shows up for an event and puts on a blindfold they don’t know the strategies that we’ve developed or what we’ve learnt to do. She touched upon that, that she is going to learn how to do it so she realize that there are ways to do things. They might be slightly different. They might not be the same. I think she learnt that from her students."

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About

On Triple Vision, the Pandora Project brings you the history of Canadians who are blind, deafblind, and partially sighted, one story at a time, illuminating the challenges of the past, present, and future.

Information

  • Creator
    Pandora Project
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    69
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Pandora Project
  • Show Website
    Triple Vision