Our Founders
Race and Disability Canada was born out of a consortium of race and disability leaders and was founded by DEEN Support Services, Organization of Tamils with Disabilities (OCTD), ATI Foundation, Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO), and Accessibility for All.
Rabia Khedr
Founder | CEO of DEEN Support Services and National Director of Disability Without Poverty
Rabia is the CEO of our parent organization, DEEN Support Services, the national director of Disability Without Poverty, and serves on various advisory groups, organizations, and boards addressing the intersections of race and disability. She has more than 25 years of experience in community organizing, including extensive work for disability justice causes, at local, provincial and national levels.
Sricamalan Pathmanathan
Founding Member | Organization of Canadian Tamils with Disabilities (OCTD) & Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO)
Sricamalan (Sri) is a Human Resources professional at Toronto Metropolitan University and a founding member of Race and Disability Canada, Organization of Canadian Tamils with Disabilities (OCTD), and Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO). Sri continuously raises awareness about accessibility and inclusion and works with many EDI-focused committees. He particularly advocates for diversity and inclusion within disability organizations and immigration settlement services to better address the needs of immigrants and/or racialized people with disabilities.
Selvamanikam Bhrapakaran
Selvamanikam (Bhrapa) is a disability rights advocate and co-founder of Race and Disability Canada, ATI Foundation, and Organization of Canadian Tamils with Disabilities (OCTD). Born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka with perfect eyesight, Bhrapa’s visual impairment was caused by optic nerve and retinal issues caused by an accident while playing at a young age. He pursued his education in Colombo and obtained his Bachelor’s degree with Honours from the University of Jaffna. Due to the ongoing war in Sri Lanka, Bhrapa moved to Canada in 1997. He began working at Scotiabank, becoming the first person with vision loss in their call centre department. He has continued to work there for more than 25 years.
Founding Member | ATI Foundation - Uplifting Canadian Tamils with Disabilities
Leroy Ennis
Founding Member | Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO)
Leroy Ennis is a prominent disability rights advocate, currently serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors at Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO), and a steering committee member for Race and Disability Canada. Since 2014, he has been actively involved with various organizations and committees that advocate for disability rights, poverty reduction, accessibility, and addressing issues that create barriers for people with disabilities. In 2010, Leroy wrote and published ‘Dream in Colour,’ an inspirational poetry book with messages of love and community to empower people with disabilities.
Meenu Sikand
Founding Member | CEO and Founder, Accessibility for All
Meenu Sikand is the founder and CEO of Accessibility for All. An experienced C-Suite leader across government, healthcare, corporate, and non-profit sectors, she has led large organizations in dismantling ableism and racism by applying the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) lens.
Meenu acquired a spinal cord injury shortly after she immigrated to Canada from India. She’s used a wheelchair since and has experienced firsthand that it’s not the disability that disables people, but it’s the inaccessible environment around them and the lack of support systems. Throughout her career, she has worked to build and strengthen systems and public policies that enable people with disabilities to participate in and thrive in their communities with dignity. Meenu has spent most of her life showing others that although people with disabilities can work hard and contribute to society, working hard isn’t enough to change society’s attitudes about disability. AFA focuses on public education campaigns to raise awareness of disability and diversity, as well as human rights training. Meenu is a well-respected mentor and coach in the SA community, where she uses her privilege to amplify the voices of people with disabilities and BIPOC populations.
“We all have unique abilities, and to the best of our abilities, we should be able to contribute to the world that we live in. The system should be set up in such a way to enable you and not disable you,” she says.
In addition to her role at the Ministry, Meenu has been an IDEA champion for over three decades, dedicating her professional and personal life to advocating for the rights of people living with disabilities and those in marginalized communities at the local, national, and international levels. As an immigrant woman with a disability, she has been pushing the boundaries within the EDI profession to ensure people living with disabilities are included in the conversation. Meenu’s lived experiences, among other things, as a South Asian immigrant to Canada and a woman with a physical disability, mean that Ms. Sikand has a critical eye for equity, accessibility, intersectionality, and public policy.
Meenu has received many accolades, including the Community Service Award from the Indo-Canada Chambers of Commerce, the 2020 Senior Executive of the Year award from the Canadian Center for Diversity & Inclusion and the Accessibility Champion Award for the Region of Peel in 2017. In 2020, she was the first SA woman inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.
