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Archive Record
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Metadata
Object ID |
2017.2.7 |
Object Name |
Video Recording |
Title |
Joanna Jackson & Jenna Ghassabeh (about Dr. Robert Jackson) |
Interview Summary / Résumé d'entrevue |
Dr. Robert W. Jackson, Order of Sport recipient, inducted in 2017, born in Toronto, Ontario, is represented in this interview by his daughter, Joanna Jackson, and granddaughter, Jenna Ghassabeh. Joanna talks about how he introduced arthroscopy to the western world and how it significantly lessened post-surgery recovery time, particularly impacting athletes. Joanna and Jenna believe Dr. Jackson would have been most proud of this accomplishment. They further describe how, while in Japan as a medical student, he met and conversed with the then-President of the Stoke Mandeville Games (one of the first Paralympic sporting events). Dr. Robert Jackson was passionate about equality in sport, and they describe how he founded the Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association to have Canadian representatives at the Paralympic Games. They further explain how he organized the 1976 Olympiad for the Physically Disabled in Toronto, held in conjunction with the Montreal Olympic Games. Joanna and Jenna discuss how he worked hard to normalize disability, remove stigma, and create equality. Joanna and Jenna emphasize that Dr. Jackson would encourage anyone to pursue their passion and that you will succeed by following your passion. Dr. Jackson would ask what you want to do versus what you think you need to do. He emphasized listening to a person to get to the root of any issues. Joanna and Jenna discuss how the family is honoured by Dr. Jackson's induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame because they see it as another step towards normalizing and celebrating disability and inclusion. 2017.2.7 Entrevue avec Joanna Jackson et Jenna Ghassabeh, 2017, MP4 d'origine numérique, trois cassettes d'une durée totale de : 00:35:33. Le Dr Robert W. Jackson, récipiendaire de l'Ordre du sport, a été intronisé en 2017 et est né à Toronto, en Ontario. Il est représenté dans cette entrevue par sa fille, Joanna Jackson, et sa petite-fille, Jenna Ghassabeh. Joanna raconte que son père a initié le monde occidental à l'arthroscopie et explique comment cette intervention réduit considérablement la période de récupération post-opératoire, ce qui a eu des effets considérables sur la vie des athlètes. Joanna et Jenna croient que c'est de cela que le Dr Jackson aurait été le plus fier si on le lui avait demandé. Elles décrivent plus en détails comment, pendant un séjour au Japon en tant qu'étudiant de médecine, il a rencontré et échangé avec celui qui était à l'époque le président des Jeux de Stoke Mandeville (un des premiers événements sportifs paralympiques). Le Dr Robert Jackson était passionné de la question de l'égalité dans le sport et Joanna et Jenna décrivent comment celui-ci a fondé l'Association canadienne de sports en fauteuil roulant afin d'assurer que des athlètes représentent le Canada aux Jeux paralympiques. Elles expliquent ensuite comment il a organisé les Olympiades de 1976 à Toronto pour les athlètes avec une déficience physique, événement qui s'est déroulé de concert avec les Jeux olympiques à Montréal. Joanna et Jenna discutent du travail acharné du Dr Jackson pour normaliser les déficiences, éliminer la stigmatisation des personnes présentant une déficience et promouvoir l'égalité. Elles soulignent que le Dr Jackson encourageait quiconque à poursuivre sa passion en disant que les gens pouvaient réussir quand ils suivaient leur passion. Il demandait aux gens ce qu'ils voulaient faire, plutôt que de leur demander ce qu'ils pensaient qu'ils devaient faire. Il accordait beaucoup d'importance à l'écoute d'autrui comme clé pour comprendre la nature de tout problème et de toute chose. Joanna et Jenna disent que c'est un grand honneur pour leur famille que le Dr Jackson soit intronisé au Panthéon des sports canadiens. Elles voient cela comme une avancée de plus pour normaliser et célébrer les déficiences et l'inclusivité. |
Scope & Content |
Joanna Jackson and Jenna Ghassabeh interview, 2017. Joanna and Jenna were interviewed as familiy representatives of Robert Jackson, 2017 inductee into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Born digital MP4 videos. Three videos with a total viewing time of 00:35:33. Tape 1 00:12:17 - 00:20:01Zach: -you can always ask ahead. All right, so, we'll start with Dr. Robert Jackson. Was your father involved in sport as an athlete? 00:21:19 - 00:52:23 Joanna: My dad was athletic and he enjoyed sports. He played for the Mets at the University of Toronto, he didn't make the varsity team and he was quite disappointed about that. But he was very much an athlete in a recreational sense. He also played lacrosse, and he was injured in lacrosse, and he hurt his knee. That, actually, probably was the start of his career as a sports medicine doctor. 00:53:25 - 00:57:08Zach: That's fabul- that's great, because I was actually gonna lead into that and use that as the question, so- 00:57:09 - 00:57:13Joanna: Oh yeah? 00:58:04 - 01:02:11Zach: -did his athletic career influence his decision to become a sports doctor, if so how? 01:03:24 - 01:52:10Joanna: So when my dad was injured in lacrosse, the ball hit his knee, and - it could have been his meniscus, I think it was - and at that time, they didn't have arthroscopy 'cause my dad had not yet introduced it to the western world. But that was the driving force for him to try and figure it out and get involved, he was very curious. His injury led him to surgery, he was forced to have his knee completely opened, and at that time the healing time was - it was long, and he wasn't able to play as he used to, so that ended his career in football and lacrosse, and really sort of got him thinking 'there's gotta be a better way!' and so he decided sports medicine was the way to go. Tape 2: 00:03.05-00:05.16Zach: Good? So, why did your father have such a passion for sport? 00:07.01-01:06.21Joanna: It made him feel good, and he was good at it. When I was a kid, he used to talk about how he was allowed to play outside until the streetlights came on, and so all his friends and him would play sports. And he liked the same things that they did, he loved the passion, and he just loved seeing what he could do and how well he could do it. It was - he was definitely a team player, and the sports that he was involved with were teams. I do remember my dad playing racquetball - was it racquetball? - yeah, it was racquetball, he belonged to a club, and my mom used to say "Okay, kids, it's time to go to church," and my dad would say, "Oh, it's family day at the gym, who wants to come play racquetball?" just for fun, of course we went to church. No, my dad just enjoyed it, and he really, he loved the people that he was introduced to through sports, and through sports and the people he created many great friendships. 1:07.06-1:10.18Zach: Awesome. And what drew him to Parasports in particular? 1:11.05-03:05.14Jenna: I think the biggest thing with Parasport is he saw a need. So when he went to go visit Japan as a medical student he had a really great conversation with the current president at the time of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which was kinda the first Paralympic sporting event that ever really existed. And after that he saw a need and he saw a want and he started to feel the passion that the director of the Stoke Mandeville Games had, and from there he just surged forward with this amazing dedication. And he ended up bringing the first Canadian Paralympic teams to the Olympics two years later, which was amazing. But I think he's always believed in equality and in passion, and that anybody who has any sort of talent or desire to pursue anything that they're willing to work hard at, they should be able to do it regardless of their gender or their physical capability or their financial status. He wanted to see everyone have the opportunities that he did, because he loved sport so much. Joanna: And it was at those Games that he was wowed by how these athletes could perform, and perform so well. And he just - I remember a quote that my dad used to often say was that he focused on the ability and not the disability. Jenna: And that's something that's carried through too, like we work closely with Parasport Ontario, and the main thing is that it's a space for every body, and all you have to focus on is the ability in everyone, and I think that's one of the most important life lessons that I've taken away, is it's not about what you can't do, it's what you can, and what you can do you do well. Joanna: And also just to add on, a lot of these athletes were able-bodied athletes in the beginning, at least some of them that he met, and he wanted to provide and help get them back at what they loved doing, and help them, you know, do well and excel and just celebrate their passion and drive. 03:15.24-03:24.07Zach: So, that was great, loved it. So, in 1967 Dr. Jackson founded the Wheelchair - Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association- Joanna (to Jenna): So you can start on this. 03:24.22-04:03.02Zach: -in order to send a team to the next Paralympic Games, becoming the founding president, as we kinda discussed a little bit there, and he was the founding president of the organization from 1967 to 72, and in 72 he agreed to organize the Olympiad for the Physically Disabled in Toronto, which was held in parallel to the Olympic Games in Montreal in 76. So this eventually resulted in the creation of the Canadian Paralympic Committee. So- 05:21.19-08:10.17Jenna: So I think what drove him to continue down the Paralympic path was the celebration of ability that started to happen, not just within the little community that he had started to create over the two years that he built up the team, but that he was now starting to see expand globally, and we see it now with things like the Invictus Games and a whole bunch of other sporting organizations that support adapted sports and the adapted sports community. And so, I think he continued it because he was seeing so much success and he wanted to see it go further, and I know that he really worked towards normalizing disability, and when you normalize something you create equality because you remove the stigma. So I think that it wasn't just the sporting aspect of it and the amazing opportunities that the athletes got, I think it was also kind of the social repercussions of it because it was so powerful in empowering all of these different athletes, and in also just empowering disable- or people living with disabilities within Canada and within the world. Joanna: That is very, very true. Also, I remember my dad saying that when he did the first Olympics in Toronto, the Toronto Olympiad, and it paralleled the Montreal games, and he stood in front of the athletes and he read out everybody's name that was gonna be attending the games, and the thrill that these athletes had made him go, "Wow! Oh my goodness, this is amazing!" And he just, it just fed his soul and he just wanted to help them. And it was funny, 'cause I remember asking him, "What do - what do you do, Dad? Like, do you coach them?" and he'd say, "Well, I'll hold their chair, or I'll say 'On your mark, get set, go!'" and it was just really cute, his drive and his passion for it. I was very young at that time, I'm aging myself right now, but my siblings, my older siblings, they actually worked at the games. So my dad was really sweet, I remember he got everyone t-shirts, and they were part of the volunteer committee, they were part of the welcoming committee, and it just took over. He even shut down his practice, his medical practice, to dedicate and work on developing the Paralympics, and it was a very important - it encompassed his world at that time. Jenna: Yeah, it did. And it was at that point too that he realized how much it meant to people when he read out those names, and especially the people who didn't make it on the list, to see the impact that had on them too, he realized how much people had riding on it, and how passionate that they were about it - it wasn't just something that they were doing 'cause like, it was sort of fun. Like, that was his family, that, at that point I think was one of the biggest turning points because that was when it went from being sort of this extracurricular passion project to his entire life and his legacy, essentially. Joanna: Absolutely. 08:13.14-08:20.14Zach: Awesome. That was fantastic. So, what in your father and grandfather's distinguished career would he be most proud of and why? 08:21.01-11:00.00Joanna: Arthroscopy. My dad - it gave him an opportunity to travel the world, to teach and to learn, and to just help athletes and non-athletes and, I don't know if I'm using the correct term there, but your everyday person as well can benefit from arthroscopy. And for him to go to Japan at that time as a student and to meet a doctor there who he heard was taking this little scope and looking into a knee - he was fascinated. And his name was Dr. Watanabe. My dad went and in exchange for learning this, taught him English, and my dad always joked and said, "I think I got the better end of the deal." And when my dad returned back to Canada he then went on to practice and develop and pioneer and introduce to the entire western world, which not only just was for the knee, it was for the body, like all the joints, and it just changed the way in which life is today, and the athletes are back on their field at a quicker time, the everyday person is in and out, there's a, it's a non-invasive surgery, there's just something he was so proud of, and he - I was proud of him for it, and it's neat to think that he would create these instruments, he would design them, and he, you know - Japan would make them and then send them back, and we had them all over our dining room table, do you remember, all of them? Jenna: They're everywhere. Like, if you go to Gran's house, like, there's an - like, there's a scope on every different shelf. But it's, it's amazing, because it really encompasses what his motto was, and it totally relates to the Paralympics too, because he really, really believed that everybody deserved a chance, and just because you fall and you hurt your knee doesn't mean that that chance should be over and that you should lose any opportunity for a career. Essentially, like, by creating the scope, he created a second chance for athletes, so that they could continue their passion and so that they can finish their careers, Jenna: It was a game-changer. In the medical field and in - in the sports community as well, I think. 11:19.00-11:29.12Zach: So, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame of course is focusing on women in sport this year, which we're very excited about, so what would your father say to encourage women to participate in sport? Or grandfather? 11:29.23-13:38.06Jenna: Now Papa had four girls and one boy, and all of them were really active in sports. Me and all my cousins, especially the girls, were all active in sports as well. And like I mentioned before, his biggest thing was everybody deserves a change to pursue their passion, and he knows how many benefits there are to playing in a sport, he knows the friends you make and the community you build, and especially in times like this, the mental health aspect is so important, and it improves so much, playing a sport and being part of that strong kind of community. And I think that some of the things that you learn while playing a sport when you're young definitely carry over into your adult life, in the way that you conduct yourself as an adult. And so, I think that he would encourage any girl, obviously, to go for sports, but I think beyond that he would encourage any person to pursue whatever passion they have, regardless of whatever is holding them back. And I know we see a lot with girls today, I see my friends dropping out of their sports because it's not cool anymore, but the thing is, if you're passionate about it, he would encourage you to go for it, because you'll always find success where your passion is. Joanna: And he would ask you, he would - my dad was a quiet guy, he wasn't the type of guy who would say to you, "This is what you need to do," but if asked, he would still be a little reluctant to say "This is what you need to do," however, he would say "What is it you want to do?" and he would have you think deep, he would - the smile on his face would be contagious, and you would want to do it! Growing up with him as my father, and there was a lot of "I can't do it!" moments in my life, in which he would, he'd say "You've got this," or he'd leave me a note if I woke up and he was already off at work, and it would say "You've got this," and it was never "Good luck," it was "You have this," and he just taught me that I do have this, and he would do that for them [his grandchildren] too, he would say that inclusion is that it's not whether you're a boy or a girl, a woman or a man; you're an athlete, you have a passion, you want to play, what is it that makes you want to do it? 13:40.03-13:47.29Zach: That's awesome. Now, what would your father say to parents and/or coaches to help them encourage their daughters and female athletes to stay involved in sports? 13:48.26-15:54.11Jenna: I think he would say 'listen.' Joanna: Yep. Jenna: Listen to what they're saying. Find out if your daughter is telling you why she doesn't want to play sports anymore, listen and find out why. Because sometimes when you talk out with someone they start to realize that maybe the reason why they don't want to play anymore isn't really the reason, and what that comes down to, like you said, inclusion, and it's really important for girls to not drop out of sports if that's something they want to do, and if you talk to them and listen and find out why, you can be that confidence booster to help them get back into it and maintain whatever passion that they have and whatever sports-what's the word? Joanna: Talent… Jenna: Sports talent, treatment in sports, anything. Let them do what they want to do, because especially in this day and age, especially for athletes, you got to show them what you've got moving forward, and I think that's really important for women right now. Joanna: He also wouldn't make you do anything that you didn't want to do. Again, he would ask you 'what is it you enjoy?' 'What is it that you don't?', and he would let you figure out those answers, however saying that, he was big on commitment. So he would make you follow through….sorry, he wouldn't make you follow through, you would make yourself by talking with him, and fulfilling your commitments, and there's going to be hard times. He would tell a little story of hard times that he faced. Not making the varsity team was a big disappointment for him, but he found other ways. He played for Mans and other sports, and he enjoyed it and newfound passion and that. So I think what he'd say to parents, is let them do what they want to do, and encourage them and be there for them, and like Jenna said, listen to them. As far as the coach goes, find that passion in them and celebrate it. His smile and his can-do? Positive praise! It goes a long way! It's not about saying you have to, it's about you can. 15:56.25-16:07.02Zack: One more. What does your father or grandfather's induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame mean to you and your family? 16:07.23-17:37.24Johanna: We're so honoured. Jenna: It's amazing, and I think the biggest thing is for us, being part of the Paralympic Community, and for him being one of the founders of the Paralympic Community, it's just another step forward towards normalizing disability and celebrating people with these disabilities and all the amazing things that they do. It really is what the Paralympics strives to do, it's to celebrate people with differences, celebrate inclusion, and obviously celebrate amazing athletes, and this is just another step in the right direction and recognizing their full potential and fully adapt in the sports community. Johanna: I just think he would be really, really thrilled. His entire life was about sport: to see it all come together and to be a part of the deepest of this incredible honour. A tear would come to his eye-I'm actually getting a little emotional-he would be so grateful. Without the athletes none of this is possible, so for him, it would be acknowledging the fact that he made a difference in the world. I think of my dad every day, and I just think the world of him. It's a huge honour, and he would feel that too. He would be so humbled by it, and so grateful, and just so happy. Jenna: Yeah, I think so too. |
Date |
2017/ / |
People |
Jackson, Robert W. |
Search Terms |
Paralympic Games Robert Jackson Robert W Jackson Interview Joanna Jackson Jenna Ghassabeh |