Marin Richards, now 19 years old, has autism, dyslexia and dysgraphia. Marin struggled in public school in Manitoba because she was not diagnosed until age 19, and never received the help and support to learn to read that she should have received in school.
There was a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2012 which said that the public school system must provide the support for children with learning disabilities (like dyslexia) to be able to read, even when it requires intensive instruction. To this end Marin's Principle was created.
Marin’s Principle
Marin's Principle asks for:
1) Manitoba Provincial Government action including associated service providers, to adopt Marin’s Principle and to comply with Supreme Court of Canada judgments, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Human Rights Code.
2. Manitoba Provincial Government to ensure provincial public classroom teachers are fully trained in knowledge and approaches explicitly created for students with learning disabilities, with no restriction to a single program or product.
3. Manitoba Provincial Government to commit to funding for private literacy services, (for children at their parent’s discretion), for all who are currently learning-disabled (diagnosed/suspected), with no penalty of discontinued instruction in public school, so they can become functionally literate and gain knowledge and skills like their peers.
4. Manitoba Provincial Government to commit funding for private counselling so each learning-disabled adult, diagnosed/suspected, has their choice of therapist to help overcome education trauma due to adverse provincial curriculum and policies, for private literacy instruction, at their discretion, to become functionally literate and for access to evidence-aligned senior year classes that were missed so they can graduate with the education they have always had a right to receive.
5. Manitoba Provincial Government action to provide compensation for harm and loss of income for Manitobans with learning disabilities who remain functionally illiterate (level two) after the age of 18
Instructions for the Marin’s Principle Petition
Download the petition, make a paper copy of it, and get one or more signatures.
Signatures must be in blue ink.
Electronic signatures cannot be used.
The signed petition cannot be scanned and emailed.
The petition must be mailed to:
MB Liberal Caucus Office
Questions can be directed to the Manitoba Liberal Caucus office at 204-945-6276
Instructions for the Marin’s Principle Advocacy Letter
Download the advocacy letter, sign it and email it to one or more of the MLAs on the list of MLAs and email addresses.
Alternatively, people who are not able to scan the signed advocacy letter can copy and paste the message of the letter into the body of an email and send it to their MLAs.
