Sign of the Times

By Peter Carter

New Democrat MPP, Gary Malkowski, was elected to the Ontario Legislature last summer. The 32 year old represents the Toronto riding of York East and serves as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Citizenship. Malkowski is a prominent politician who has made many contributions to the Canadian political scene. He has also earned a place in history as the first deaf person to campaign successfully for public office.

Malkowski’s native language, the one in which he earned his BA in social work and psychology and his MA in rehabilitation counselling and the one in which he ran for and won his Queen’s Park seat, is American Sign Language (ASL). He does not speak in the traditional sense. He gestures. He signals. He emotes. Sometimes he uses textbook sign-language symbols and other times he twists his body or contorts his face to punctuate his sentences. In order to share his ideas with his constituents, colleagues and journalists, Malkowski makes use of full-time ASL interpreters; special equipment, such as a Telephone Device for the Deaf (TDD); and the Bell Relay Service which allows hearing people who do not have access to a TDD to converse with him.

To be considered a success at Queen’s Park, Malkowski must be careful to be seen as more than a single issue politician. He is an MPP first and a deaf person second. Nevertheless, to discuss Malkowski is to discuss deafness. It was through his lifelong campaign as a deaf-rights advocate that he earned his political stripes.

In addition to working as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor at the Canadian Hearing Society (CHS), Malkowski chaired the Ontario Association of the Deaf’s Education Task Force Committee and helped spearhead the Ontario Ministry of Education Review into Deaf Education. In 1989, he was presented with a Community Action Award in recognition of his commitment to improving deaf education in the province.

The politicking was all part of the ongoing effort to bring Ontario out of what he calls "the dark ages" of deaf education. His work brought him to the office of former NDP MPP, Richard Johnston, who served as a catalyst in Malkowski’s decision to run for a seat.

Recalls Johnston: "He came in to see me in April of ’88 with Judy Rebick (current Chairperson of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and former colleague of Malkowski’s at the CHS). They were going to go see the new Minister of Education regarding deaf education. I was the Education Critic at the time and knew absolutely nothing about the issue". Less than a year later, courtesy of Malkowski’s tutoring, Johnston was familiar with deaf education issues and introduced Bill 112, which demands the recognition and acceptance of ASL as a language of instruction and a heritage language in Ontario Schools. The Bill failed to pass due to the election; the fight, however, continued. In fact, the situation led to Malkowski’s campaign.

According to Johnston, "One day, Gary mentioned that Chris Hart was resigning because of conflict-of-interest allegations. ‘That’s my MPP’, he said. I told him he should be our candidate and he said we should talk about it further. That is what set it all in motion".

Malkowski’s campaign took him and his volunteer interpretors across the diverse riding of York East. Gary reports that after people got over the initial shock of meeting a deaf candidate, "They were fascinated. It was a wonderful experience. I think the people were impressed with our strong platform and I think they liked the fact that I admitted that I didn’t have all the answers. I would say that I would do research and look for solutions,"

Born profoundly deaf to hearing parents in Hamilton, Ontario, Gary communicated with his family by way of hybrid signs and lip reading techniques. He was introduced to ASL in Milton, Ontario at the E.C. Drury Institute for the Deaf. But the language of instruction was English; students were forbidden from using ASL, which was much easier for deaf children to learn. "At the time," says Malkowski, "you would be strapped if you were caught signing. They used the oral method so I was labelled a slow learner."

Despite being labelled and listed as unlikely to proceed to post-secondary school, Malkowski completed entrance exams to the only liberal-arts degree-granting deaf university in North America, Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. He was accepted and there, "the slow learner" earned his degrees and a place in the 1984 edition of "Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges."

Malkowski sees his election to Queen’s Park as a victory for deaf people everywhere. Malkowski’s mentor, Richard Johnston, sees the election of a deaf MPP as a victory for Canada. "It is history alright," he says. "We still have a long way to go when it comes to disability issues. But with people like Gary Malkowski out there, things will happen."