"Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."

-- Robert Kennedy

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

-- J. C. Watts

"Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."

-- Sir Winston Churchill

Dave Shannon is not your typical lawyer. Upon graduating from Dalhousie Law School, he and two friends climbed into his car and headed off to Los Angeles to pursue their dream of becoming actors. They remained in L.A. for over a year, securing bit roles and a few jobs in commercials. Dave then moved to Toronto, where he continued acting for another year. Typical for Dave is following his heart.

In high school Dave had been heavily involved in the school Drama Club -- he loved acting. Growing up, he had dreamed of becoming an actor. His two years in Los Angeles and Toronto were part of fulfilling this childhood dream. It didn't matter that he and his friends left Halifax with nowhere to stay and no ready means of financial support. Nor did it matter that Dave used a wheelchair full time to get around. His time in Los Angeles, like the challenges before and after, was simply an opportunity to explore a part of the world, and a part of himself at the same time.

David Shannon was born on August 29, 1963, in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario. When Dave was eight years old, his father, Bill, decided to complete his doctorate in education. He was accepted into a program in Greeley, Colorado. Bill and his wife Lorraine packed their bags, bundled the three kids -- Dave and his two sisters -- into the family car and headed west.

After Dave's father had completed his studies the family moved back east -- to Philadelphia, where Bill began a teaching assignment at Temple University.

Two years later, the family was on the road again, this time heading further east -- to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Dave was twelve years old and in grade seven. He stayed in Dartmouth until the end of high school seven years later.

Although he lived there for only a few years, Dave still considers Dartmouth home and remembers his years in high school fondly. "I had a lot of very close friends," recalls Dave. "They became a great support for me after my accident."

Dave was a high achiever in high school -- both academically and in extracurricular activities. Dave even received a gold medal in his final year for the amount of time and energy he had committed to extracurricular programs. For him it was a way to meet people and make friends.

His interests were broad. He enjoyed rugby (in his final year of high school, he was selected for the Nova Scotia junior rugby team, and represented the province at the 1981 Canada Games), was heavily involved in the drama club and participated on the student council.

In 1980 Dave's parents moved to Toronto. Having established a close group of friends, Dave asked to stay behind in Dartmouth to finish his final year of high school. His parents agreed, and Dave spent the next year boarding with friends.

Although Dave enjoyed his final year of high school, he missed his family. To be closer to them, Dave applied to the University of Waterloo in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, and was accepted. He began classes in drama and English in September, 1981.

In leaving Nova Scotia, Dave had left behind his only close set of friends. In Kitchener he was on his own. Wanting to meet new people, Dave once again immersed himself in extracurricular activities. He joined the drama club. He also joined the university rugby team.

Joining the rugby team proved to be a life-altering act for Dave.

On September 23, 1981, only three weeks into his new life at the University of Waterloo, Dave was on the rugby field practising with his teammates. They were in a scrum. The scrum collapsed -- with Dave on the bottom. The play moved on. Dave did not. He simply lay where he had fallen.

"It was surreal," says Dave. "I was wide awake and remember everything. Emotionally and intellectually, I was moving with the play. Physically, I wasn't."

As Dave realized that he couldn't move, he called out for help. "It was an utter perversion of reality," he says. "Intellectually, I knew what was going on, but emotionally, I didn't."

In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Dave asked his coach, "Is this permanent?" His coach didn't know what to say.

At the hospital Dave heard the diagnosis -- he had broken his neck at the cervical 4-5 level. It was a complete break and the likelihood of ever walking again, he was told, was nil.

"I was in denial for a fairly long time," says Dave. "I thought, 'Oh yeah, I'll just pick up and go on.' There was a definite naïveté."

It was at this point that Dave witnessed the strength of the friendships he had developed back in Nova Scotia. As soon as the news of Dave's injury reached them, five of his high school friends immediately flew to Waterloo to give Dave their support.

"They spent two weeks, day in and day out, at my side," recalls Dave. And there was a flood of cards. "Maritimers in general are a supportive culture. The support I felt was overwhelming."

Friends continued to come from Nova Scotia to visit throughout his time in hospital. They came during the Christmas holidays and again during the February break. "Although I could no longer walk, there was never a sense that our socializing would change," says Dave. "That really helped me."

Once his injury was stabilized, Dave was transferred from the hospital in Kitchener to the Lyndhurst Rehabilitation Centre in Toronto, where he continued therapy until finally being discharged in April, 1982.

A time of healing

Life for Dave was, on one level, completely different -- yet on another, strangely the same. He could no longer walk and required help with many things that had never been an issue before his injury. He used a wheelchair to get around, and his days of playing rugby were definitely over. However, his love for drama and for politics, and his desire to jump with both feet into whatever life had to offer, hadn't diminished.

Dave returned to Thunder Bay. Leaving Toronto -- a large metropolitan city with its myriad of services -- to relocate to a small town in northwestern Ontario would appear, on the surface, to be an odd decision. Dave had his reasons.

Key to independence for Dave were accessible housing and the availability of attendant services -- people to help him with tasks of daily living. Unable to walk and with limited upper body movement, David requires assistance with things like getting dressed, getting into and out of his wheelchair, cooking and cleaning. Not wanting to return home to be cared for by his family, Dave began to search for a place to live that would provide the supports he required. In 1982, accessing disability supports in Toronto was not easy. Waiting lists were long. Following up on a tip from relatives still living in the Thunder Bay region, Dave discovered that these services not only existed in Thunder Bay, but existed without waiting lists. Dave's life was being directed by the availability of disability services.

In May, Dave once again packed his bags and headed out on his own, back to the town he'd left twelve years earlier. Upon arriving in Thunder Bay he immediately enrolled in a summer course at Lakehead University -- "Social Work 1100." With limited income, Dave applied for and received financial support through the Ontario Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS) program.

In September, Dave decided to enroll as a full-time student. His VRS caseworker, however, thought differently. Believing Dave's disability would limit his capacity to undertake a full course load, she agreed to continue support only on the condition that he enroll on a part-time basis. The Independent Living philosophy of self-determination had obviously not reached Dave's caseworker.

His hands tied, Dave agreed, enrolling in only three courses for the fall semester. By Christmas his grades made it clear that he could handle a full course load, and in February Dave picked up two concentrated courses. He finished his first year with five credits.

"It was the best of times and the worst of times." On the one hand Dave was glad to be back in school. He enjoyed the intellectual stimulation. "I liked education for education's sake," he says. English courses were taken on a level playing field. Poetry and writing were not affected by his disability. His studies reaffirmed his belief that he could get on with his life.

It was, however, a very lonely time for Dave. All his close friends were in Nova Scotia and, although Dave had relatives living in Thunder Bay, his immediate family still lived in Toronto. "I was literally restarting socially," says Dave.

University in Thunder Bay was a time of healing for Dave. Although he was physically healthy after his stay in rehab, the "intellectual surrealism" of his disability took a lot more time to deal with. While outwardly Dave looked and acted like a well-adjusted, "normal" person, he knew that he still had to confront his invisible demons -- self-esteem and body image issues, and uncertainty about his future. He used his four years at Lakehead University not only to challenge himself intellectually but also to deal with the less visible but no less important emotional and psychological trauma of the injury.

Dave graduated from Lakehead in April, 1986, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. He managed a full course load his entire four years at university.

His demons vanquished, Dave was still lonely. He decided to return to Nova Scotia to continue his studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, pursuing a degree in law. An older university, Dalhousie was not wheelchair-friendly. Undeterred, Dave pulled together his own support network to help him get into buildings and to assist with some of the physical tasks of attending classes, such as notetaking. In September, 1986, Dave began his new degree – once again, on a full-time basis.

For the next two years, Dave's life consisted of balancing a full course load with an active social life.

By his third year, Dave's interest in politics manifested itself. Dave successfully managed a campaign to run for president of the Dalhousie Student Union.

Dave says he ran for president "on a platform of the need for a cohesive student force to face off against the university administration."

His passion for politics having superceded his interest in academics, Dave accommodated his new, almost-full-time job by taking only half a course load.

Campus politics are politics in their rawest form. They are about very real, very personal issues, such as tuition fees and student housing. During his term as president, Dave was responsible for negotiating a new contract with university administration. In an era of escalating tuition and other university fees, his platform of a united voice was designed to lend weight to the student side of the debate.

Serving on the student union gave Dave a taste for elected office and for politics in general.

Taking only half a course load in third year, however, meant that Dave had to take an extra semester to complete his degree. And completing his course work in December, 1990, meant that he had not written the exams necessary to convocate in 1990. The earliest he could write his exams would be the fall of 1991. Rather than wait in Halifax for a year with little to do, Dave decided there would be no better time to pursue his yearning to act. Following his heart, Dave left for Los Angeles, California, in January, 1991.

Discovering his purpose

Dave remained in L.A. for over a year, taking acting classes and auditioning for roles. Although he says that in L.A. "I was never really successful in landing a major part," he decided to pursue his acting career in Canada, returning to Toronto in 1992. Here he was more successful, securing a recurring role in Divorce Court and appearing in a few commercials and training videos. Dave had always loved to act, and for him the two years he spent in Los Angeles and Toronto were about realizing a dream.

"I thought I had lost something when I had my injury," explains Dave. "In going to California, I was closing the circle."

After seven years of academics and two years of acting, Dave remained restless. In October of 1992 Dave left for London, England, to pursue an advanced degree in law. "I was interested in the concept of justice and the principals of why laws are made," says Dave. "For me, law school was always more than simply vocational training."

Dave readily admits that his going to London was as much about growing and exploring who he was as it was about law. Highly intelligent, with a natural flair for acting, a genuine gift of the gab and a desire to make his mark on society, Dave had yet to discover his life’s calling. He left for London still in search of a purpose. After completing his course work for his master's in law, Dave returned to Canada in 1993. He spent the summer writing various exams to complete his law degrees, and in October started his articles of clerkship.

During the summer of 1994, with a lot of time on his hands, Dave began planning his next adventure.

Recognizing the many barriers that continued to face people with disabilities, Dave wanted to reach out to Canadians, to share with them some of his own dreams about how Canada could be accommodating to all people. He wanted to reach them in their own communities. Dave decided to travel across the country in his power wheelchair to raise awareness about the abilities of people with disabilities.

The idea evolved over the next couple of years to include the performance of a one-man play -- a play about a journey in self-discovery. The play would provide Dave with an opportunity to talk to people, to reach out and touch them in a way not always possible in real life.

The timing, however, had yet to be worked out. For the moment he had other commitments -- namely, finishing what he'd started. Dave wrote his bar exams between September and December, 1995. The following February he was called to the bar. He spent the next year working in a legal aid clinic and planning his cross-Canada tour.

Dave began his journey in Newfoundland on April 1, 1997. Nine thousand kilometres and six months later, on October 16, he ended his tour in Vancouver, British Columbia. Along the way, he had met thousands of individuals, performed his play in front of hundreds of audiences and learned a lot about Canada -- and about himself.

"The tour left me with an intrinsic sense that I had accomplished something," says Dave. "Whereas up to that point, everything to do with my injury had been about taking something away from me -- my ability to walk, my ability to play rugby -- all those losses, the tour was an accomplishment that could never be taken away."

In addition to this very personal legacy, the tour had a larger impact on the people with whom Dave spoke. It is hard to measure the full impact of an awareness campaign, but there were moments along the way when Dave knew he had made a difference in someone's life.

"In every province, I met young kids with disabilities and their families who were having a difficult time with the school systems," says Dave. "They were being told to lower their expectations about their future. Their services were being cut back because administrators had a perception that they could never amount to much. In some ways, I became a role model for them. I succeeded in becoming a lawyer when many of these kids were being actively discouraged from even thinking about university!"

After ensuring a proper wind-down of his tour, Dave "hung his shingle" in February, 1998. Today he practises case law and is a part-time member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. In addition he is a sessional lecturer at Confederation College in the Aboriginal Law and Advocacy Program and in Volunteer Management, and a sessional lecturer at Lakehead University in the Department of Political Science. He is still "less interested in the application of law than in how and why laws are developed in the first place."

In the summer of 1996, while visiting his sister Liana in Guelph, Ontario, Liana introduced Dave to her friend, Alison Denton. Originally from England, Alison had moved to Canada to work as a nanny fifteen years earlier. In 1995 she had decided to return to school as a mature student and went to Guelph to pursue an undergraduate degree in sociology.

"We had a lot of mutual interests," says Dave. He was in Toronto throughout the fall of 1996, during which time he commuted regularly to Guelph.

By the time Dave was ready to begin his cross-Canada tour, the couple had become so close that Alison decided to accompany him. "Her presence on the tour was both good and bad," recalls Dave. "The stress of the tour was a strain on our relationship."

The relationship, however, survived, and in 1999 Alison moved to Thunder Bay to complete her master's in sociology -- and to be closer to Dave. "We have a good time together," says Dave. "She likes to travel, do new things and, I guess most of all, she likes to do them with me!"

In October of 2000, Dave and Alison bought and renovated their first house.

Over the years, Dave's love of drama and interest in politics have never waned. In February, 2001, Dave ran for the presidency of the Thunder Bay-Atikokan Liberal Riding Association -- and won.

Does he feel compelled to run for office someday? "Who knows?" is all he replies.

At age 37, Dave's star is still on the rise and, given his passion for helping others and his love of adventure, his adventures are far from over.