Below we list the names of all the community organizations that have co-signed this October 30, 2018 Open Letter.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Government has continued its freeze on the work of the Education Standards Development Committee and the Health Care Standards Development Committee. Students with disabilities and patients with disabilities must still keep facing disability accessibility barriers, with no end in sight. We will persist in our advocacy efforts to get these committees unfrozen so they can go back to work.
Our Comment: We agree that “…achieving a barrier-free Canada means that accessibility needs to extend beyond federal jurisdiction.” However, the Federal Government has refused to amend Bill C-81 to deploy in it the Federal Government’s most powerful means to advance accessibility across all jurisdictions.
Our Comment: It is good that the minister recognizes that “Accessibility requires consistent, conscious and continual effort” and that “…we are strongly committed to ensuring that this bill translates into significant progress in terms of accessibility in a timely manner.” However the bill does not require either to occur. It requires that the first regulations are enacted in the first two years, no matter how weak or limited they may be. After that, it sets no time lines for implementation action by the Government itself, before appointing an Independent Review, five years after the first regulation is enacted, or seven years after the bill goes into force.
Our Comment: The minister here again talks about measures to “improve accessibility.” She acknowledges that in the bill, “…there is no end date for accessibility.” This is a dramatically less ambitious goal than the one people with disabilities need, namely the goal of achieving accessibility in Canada by a legislated deadline.
“Let me give my colleagues an example of how the life of a Canadian with a disability would change because of this. Right now, as someone who is legally blind, I walk into a bank, and I cannot access an ATM. What do I do? What are my options? I have to file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. I file that complaint. I say that this particular ATM is not accessible. Two years from now, someone may tell me, “You are right. That wasn’t accessible. You were discriminated against”, and order that this one ATM in that one bank be changed.
The Bill now clarifies that at an appeal, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal may confirm, change or rescind the Accessibility Commissioner’s decision, or may give the decision that the Accessibility Commissioner should have given or refer the complaint back to the Accessibility Commissioner for reconsideration in accordance with any direction the Tribunal may give.