40+ Years of Activism in the Disability Community:

• With over 40 years of experience, Tim Louis has been actively involved in the disability community.
• During his first year of Law School, Tim co-founded the Pacific Transit Cooperative (PTC), an innovative coop made up of Handydart users. Thanks to PTC’s successful bid for the Translink contract to operate Handydart in Vancouver, the organization was able to operate for 27 years.
• As one of the co-founders of the BC Coalition of the Disabled (now known as the BC Disability Alliance) in the late 1970s, Tim has been elected many times as the board’s chair.
• Tim also helped to found the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), which takes test cases to court to set precedents, with a focus on disability cases. Over the years, Tim was elected several times as the chair of the PIAC board by his fellow members.
• Another organization Tim co-founded is the Association of CSIL Employers (ACE), a program where individuals with disabilities receive monthly funding to hire personal care attendants directly, instead of going through a homemaker agency. Together with Ken Kramer, the chair of ACE, Tim successfully lobbied the provincial government for a 30% raise in the hourly rate of CSIL personal care attendants.
• Currently, Tim sits on Translink’s Handydart User Advisory Committee (HDUAC), where he was unanimously elected as the chair approximately 18 months ago.

Tim Louis on the Issues:

In addition to his activism and legal work, Tim writes a weekly blog called Tim Louis on the Issues where he shares his thoughts on important issues.

When he’s not working or advocating for change, Tim enjoys spending time outdoors with his long-time partner Penny Parry, listening to audio books, and attending political events.