First Deaf Canadian Iron Worker With Certificate

Winnipeg iron worker receives red seal certificate in Canada.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Jonathon Anderson is a qualified tradesman. At 26 years of age, he's the first Deaf Canadian iron worker with a red seal certificate.

The national designation lets qualified tradespeople use their skills anywhere in the country, something Anderson said he’s very proud of.

“I'm very happy to be doing what I am doing,” Anderson explained using American Sign Language. “I love my job."

Anderson was diagnosed as Deaf shortly after his first birthday, when his parents noticed he was sleeping through loud noises.

His parents said he never let his hearing impairment get in the way of what he wanted to do.

“He learned to adapt, he couldn't hear but he always had his way of communicating," his mother Bertha Anderson said.

Growing up in Winnipeg, Anderson attended the Manitoba School for the Deaf and St.James Collegiate.

According to his mother, Anderson played hockey and football with the help of an interpreter and by finding unique ways to communicate with his teammates.

“The coaches would often write on the white board to help with the communication,” she said.

Anderson attended Red River College where he earned his iron working qualifications.

Last spring he took his red seal examination and passed.

On Sunday family, friends and mentors gathered at Union Centre to celebrate Anderson’s achievement.

Throughout his career Anderson has worked across the country, but his most significant job was at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

It’s the building he is most proud to have helped build.

"My parents will say my son helped build that building and my sons will say daddy worked there," he explained.

Anderson has also worked on many other buildings in the city, including the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg, University of Manitoba and True North Square.

He hopes what he has accomplished will inspire youth who also live with a hearing impairment to chase their dreams.

"I want to show people that Deaf people can work with people who are not Deaf," Anderson said.

“You can succeed and prove them wrong if they say you can’t, show them that you can."

SOURCE - CTV News

Related Deaf Winnipeggers:
Deaf 'Peg Faced 'Disrespect' During Traffic Stops
Deaf-Blind Housing Project In Winnipeg, Canada
Deaf Canadian's Gallaudet Dream
Manitoba Deaf Athletes To Get More Sign Language Help
Manitoba Swimmer At Deaflympics
Deaf Homeless Man In Compassionate Gesture
Deaf Canadian Curling Champion Dies
Winnipeg Most Racist City In Canada: Maclean's

Related Posts: #DeafCanadians

Study on Sarcasm and American Sign Language

Deaf News: University of Manitoba researchers study how people who are Deaf understand sarcasm.

WINNIPEG -- Researcher Nicole Hiebert studying how sarcasm is conveyed and understood among Deaf, Hard of Hearing. Researchers at the University of Manitoba are looking for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Manitobans to participate in a new study covering uncharted territory discovering how people who use American Sign Language convey sarcasm.

It's the first time researchers have looked at how adults who use sign language communicate and understand sarcasm. For those in the community, it's no secret.

Watch on CBC News with Subtitles

"There isn't a lot of research. We certainly know [sarcasm is] prevalent in sign language usage, but there is not that research that actually provides evidence how sarcasm is relayed," said Rick Zimmer, who co-ordinates the ASL interpretation program at Winnipeg's Red River College.

Zimmer is Deaf, as is his wife, Kyra and son Cody. Kyra and Zimmer are both instructors at RRC, and Zimmer said sarcasm is a part of his instruction teaching hearing interpreters how to understand and convey sarcasm between people who use ASL and the Hearing community.

"I do it by demonstrating sarcasm and in that way they see it and learn it," he said. "Whether or not interpreters are actually capable of using it and conveying sarcasm themselves is another question."

That's where the U of M's Nicole Hiebert comes in.

"I've just been really fascinated and passionate about signing for my entire life pretty much," she said. "I've had a deaf friend since I was really young."

Now, she's melding her experiences in the Deaf Studies program with the research of Melanie Glenwright, an associate professor who specializes in sarcasm and sarcasm comprehension for the U of M's psychology department.

The study is going to look at the cues within the Deaf community for understanding and comprehending sarcasm... Read The Full Story.

Related Deaf Winnipeggers:
Deaf 'Peg Faced 'Disrespect' During Traffic Stops
Deaf-Blind Housing Project In Winnipeg, Canada
Deaf Canadian's Gallaudet Dream
Manitoba Deaf Athletes To Get More Sign Language Help
Manitoba Swimmer At Deaflympics
Deaf Homeless Man In Compassionate Gesture
Deaf Canadian Curling Champion Dies
Winnipeg Most Racist City In Canada: Maclean's

Deaf Canadian's Gallaudet Dream

Winnipeg family faces $200K bill to send Deaf son to the US university.

WINNIPEG -- Manitoba family appeals to province to help fund Deaf students to go to only Deaf university in world.

A Manitoba family is calling on the provincial government to better fund schooling for Deaf students after they incurred thousands of dollars of debt for just one year of university for their son.

Last year, 18-year-old Cody Zimmer left his home in Winnipeg to attend Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., the world's only university exclusively for Deaf students.

"My vision of what it might be like was completely obliterated  - it was so much more than what I expected," said Cody. "I made so many friends so quickly. I was involved in sports and soccer. It was just such a quick year because it was so exciting. It felt like a blink and it was done."

But his education came with a hefty price tag. One year of undergraduate study cost his family $56,000 (including tuition, dorm fees and health insurance.)

And financial assistance was limited; Cody's application and appeal to have the full cost covered were denied by the province. Instead, he got about $10,000.

"They would support him in going [to Gallaudet], however, they'll only pay at the level of what tuition would be at the University of Manitoba," said Rick Zimmer, Cody's father.

The province used to fund the cost of Deaf students attending Gallaudet completely, but they've since reduced the amount of money students can apply for and instead encourage them to go to a Manitoba school and use interpreters.

Officials with the Manitoba government said the province runs a $1.9-million-a-year program called marketAbilities, "that provides the same amount of funding to a student pursuing training out of province as would be available to the student if they chose to study in Manitoba. Courses that have no equivalent in Manitoba may be fully funded."... CBC News with Closed Captioning.

Why fundraising campaign? - April 14, 1997 Cody Zimmer was born and from that moment I knew he was bound for greatness. You see Cody is Deaf and he comes from a long line of Deaf family members and I knew from the moment we found out he was Deaf that he was going to change the world.

Cody and his family have spent countless hours advocating for basic human rights that Deaf people are denied. It is now time for Cody to pursue his dream of going to university. Cody wanted to go to a university where everyone shares his culture and language. Unfortunately there is only one university in the world that provides this opporunity That university is Gallaudet and it is located in Washington D.C. Read more: Cody's Gallaudet Dream - gofundme.com

Cody Zimmer's fundraising website:
http://www.gofundme.com/w5nz8g8

Related Deaf Winnipeggers:
Deaf 'Peg Faced 'Disrespect' During Traffic Stops
Deaf-Blind Housing Project In Winnipeg, Canada
Study on Sarcasm and American Sign Language
Manitoba Deaf Athletes To Get More Sign Language Help
Manitoba Swimmer At Deaflympics
Deaf Homeless Man In Compassionate Gesture
Deaf Canadian Curling Champion Dies
Winnipeg Most Racist City In Canada: Maclean's

Deaf Canadian Curling Champion Dies

Deaf Manitoba curler, Clifford Beaulieu, 42, sent to hospital after being discovered outside by Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- The family of a Manitoba man who died after spending the night outdoors is devastated and still has questions about what led him into the cold.

Clifford Beaulieu, 42, was spending time with some friends at a home in the Rural Municipality of St. Francis Xavier, Manitoba. Feb. 4. He left and never returned.

"I know he froze from the elements and that, but why let him leave the house like that, and not, you know, check on him, see where he went?" said Martin Beaulieu, Clifford's brother.

Beaulieu was sent to hospital after being found outdoors by police the next day. He died in hospital.

Martin said the group had been drinking and that Clifford left the house after an argument broke out.

"They told me that he was intoxicated when he left the house, but he was also angry at them and when he left, he just, like, he walked away angry," said Martin. "Still, no matter what, you don't let a person walk out in the cold like that."

Beaulieu was part of a Canada’s National Deaf Curling team. The team will compete in the 2015 Winter Deaflympics in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia - March 28 to April 5, 2015.

SOURCE - CBC News

Guest Book - Share your memories and/or express your condolences:
Clifford Beaulieu - Passages - Winnipeg Free Press

Related Deaf Winnipeggers:
Deaf 'Peg Faced 'Disrespect' During Traffic Stops
Deaf-Blind Housing Project In Winnipeg, Canada
Study on Sarcasm and American Sign Language
Deaf Canadian's Gallaudet Dream
Manitoba Deaf Athletes To Get More Sign Language Help
Manitoba Swimmer At Deaflympics
Deaf Homeless Man In Compassionate Gesture
Winnipeg Most Racist City In Canada: Maclean's