Photo Credit: Secondarywaltz/Wikimedia Commons
When Canadians traveling abroad meet someone new, one of their first actions is usually to state very clearly that they’re not American. Indeed, Canada’s differences with the United States have in many ways come to define the country. Where Americans are brash and loud, Canadians are polite; where America lunges to close its borders, Canada’s remain resiliently open; where America is socially conservative, Canada leans left. Unfortunately, there are aspects of Canadian society which lag far behind its southern cousin, including the treatment of Canadians with disabilities.
Twenty-five years ago, the United States instituted its Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil liberties law aiming to eliminate discrimination by creating and enforcing “standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities” at the federal level. In short, the ADA “gave disabled people the right to fully participate in everyday life,” wrote André Picard for the Globe and Mail, to “revolutionary effect.”
Meanwhile, Canada has no federal legislation mandating, for instance, that schools, sports stadiums, and transit buildings must be accessible. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms determines that people with disabilities are guaranteed “equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination based on … mental or physical disability,” and disabled people are protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act. But a comprehensive Canadians with disabilities act specifically addressing the needs of disabled people in Canada would, as Barrier-Free Canada puts it, help “to achieve a barrier-free Canada for all persons with disabilities.”
The push for a Canadians with Disabilities Act has been adopted by several high-profile Canadians, including NDP Leader Tom Mulcair during last year’s election campaign and legendary Paralympic champion Rick Hansen. However, the experience of disabled Canadians failed to become a major talking point during the electoral campaign, and has been largely overlooked by the media. The result, as Picard notes, is that Canadians “continue to treat the inclusion of people with disabilities” in day to day society “as a privilege rather than a right.”
The number of Canadians living with a disability varies depending on definition, but it reliably falls in the four to five million person range. On the higher end, that accounts for approximately 14 per cent of the Canadian population (equal to the total number of visible minorities in the country). People with disabilities are also twice as likely to be unemployed, more likely to rely on government subsidies, and have lower incomes.
Stephen Harper’s Conservative Government promised a national disability act in 2006, but it was never delivered. Now, Justin Trudeau has made a national act a priority, with an aim to fill gaps in the country’s patchwork disability legislation. In a mandate letter to Canada’s new Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities Carla Qualtrough, Prime Minister Trudeau listed leading “an engagement process with provinces, territories, municipalities, and stakeholders that will lead to the passage of a Canadians with Disabilities Act” as a top priority.
“Usually the law doesn’t come into play until people are discriminated against,” said Minister Qualtrough. “You’re denied a place to live, or a service, and then we help you – but you’ve already been discriminated against. It feels like there’s a gap in legislation.”
While some people were born with their disability, others are acquired through injuries, negligence, or instances of medical malpractice. If you fall into the latter category, contact the personal injury lawyers at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers today to set up a free, no-obligation consultation.
Greg Neinstein
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