SUMMARY

Today, the 20th anniversary of the Charter of Rights, is an especially important day for all interested in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities. The ODA issue continues to get media coverage over the weeks leading up to this day. Here's an update:

* In today's Toronto Star is a guest column or "Op-Ed" item by ODA Committee chair David Lepofsky on the battle 20 years ago to get disability rights included in the Charter, and its link to our current campaign on the ODA front. See this article below.

* On Monday April 15, 2002, on TV Ontario's "Studio 2" programme (seen across Ontario), journalist Robert Fisher, speaking on a panel discussing Premier Eves' new cabinet, raised the ODA issue. He said that it was a piece of important unfinished business on the agenda of the new Citizenship Minister, and that the Minister should expect to hear from the ODA Committee promptly on the issue.

* In an April 8, 2002 article, the Toronto Star reviewed important matters of
unfinished business which new Premier Eves inherited from Premier Harris. The
ODA was on this list. Among other issues in this article, set out in full
below, was the following:

"Large sections of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act that passed into law
before Christmas have yet to be proclaimed, leaving advocates for the disabled
questioning the Tories' commitment.

To date, the province has not even proclaimed the part of the bill that would
see fines for illegal parking in a disabled spot jump to a $5,000 maximum from
the current $500.

David Lepofsky of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee, said his group
will be pressuring Eves to act quickly to remove barriers, including reviewing
municipal laws and the Elections Act.

"They've spent the better part of last fall making some pretty big promises
about what they would do for us and the new premier inherits those promises and
rest assured we'll be there," he said."

* On Friday April 5 and Sunday April 7, 2002, the national Canadian
Parliamentary Affairs Channel, CPAC, ran a 15 minute item on the 20th
anniversary of the Charter's disability equality guarantee, what it has done,
and the link to the need for a strong and effective Ontarians with Disabilities
Act. We are told this item will re-run at some time during the summer on CPAC,
not yet determined.

* In the March 23, 2002 Toronto Star, columnist Helen Henderson, who covers
disability issues, wrote an article about the disability issues facing the
incoming premier, and included, among other things, the following (full article
set out below):

"THE FAKE PASS

Legislation promised during the pre-game hoopla turns out to be nothing more
than an illusion designed to divert attention from the same old rushing
strategy. This move may follow the quarterback getting sacked trying to pass a
bill so misguided even diehard fans can't justify it.

Remember the Harris pre-'95 election promise to enact a law dismantling
barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating in and
contributing to society. It was to be Ontario's version of the Americans With
Disabilities Act, which committed the U.S. government to supervising the timely
removal of barriers to transportation, employment, housing and communications
services.

With the clock running out on the Conservatives' first term, then Citizenship
Minister Isabel Bassett introduced a shoddy two-page effort. The reviews were
so bad it was allowed to die on the order paper. Bassett, currently head of
TVOntario and partner of leadership hopeful Ernie Eves, was taken out of play
by voters at the polls.

The Ontarians With Disabilities Act introduced in the party's second term was
weightier, but still a masterpiece of waffling. It set up no mandatory changes,
no deadlines for accomplishing anything, no means of enforcement.

No matter. It was passed anyway. But months later, it's clear there's no rush
to proclaim the majority of its provisions."

* As always, we welcome your feedback on this media coverage. Write us at:

oda@odacommittee.net

*****

Toronto Star Wednesday, April 17, 2002 Page A27

How disabled won place in Charter
David Lepofsky

THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY of the Charter of Rights, April 17, 2002, has special
meaning for me. I was privileged to play a small part in the battle to get
equality for persons with disabilities added to the Charter, the only right
explicitly added to it in the parliamentary debates.

When the Charter debate began, I was finishing my law studies, cramming for bar
exams. Two years before, I had lost my minimal, dwindling eyesight.

The 1980 draft Charter originally included equality rights but deliberately
omitted persons with disabilities. Many voices contributed to our victory in
getting the Charter amended to include disability equality. Mine was but one of
them. We did not expect to win. But we had to try.

Then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, to whom we remain indebted, was pushing the
Charter so hard that I never thought he would stop to listen to us. The media
paid us scant attention. They were preoccupied with Trudeau's battle against
those premiers opposing the Charter.

Meanwhile, Parliament was considering the Charter at warp speed.

Disability activists were inexperienced at national lobbying. We had no faxes
for instant communication, for example. I, along with Ontario's disability
organizations, was preoccupied with lobbying the provincial Conservative
government to include disability in Ontario's Human Rights Code. There was no
time to co-ordinate a national strategy.

Individuals and organizations had to do what they could on their own.

When I heard that the Charter excluded disability, I asked the Canadian
Institute for the Blind to appoint me as its "constitutional spokesman,"
whatever that was. The CNIB agreed. I immediately launched our campaign to the
media. But the media ignored us. Ironically, one TV station complained that
there was nothing "visual" in our story.

I sent a brief to Parliament, but never dreamed CNIB would be invited to
testify. Hearings were on tight time lines and many groups wanted to make
presentations. Then came an unexpected phone call. Parliament invited CNIB to
appear before it within 36 hours. Hearings were televised nationally. Shaking,
I pleaded for a week to prepare. Parliament's response was, take it or leave
it. Thankfully, my next bar exam was still a week away. I had 36 hours to
become an equality rights expert.

I contacted a computerized legal service and pleaded with officials to search
Canadian legislation for "blind," "deaf," "disabled," etc. They read search
results over the phone. It was a moment I'll never forget. In the background I
heard thousands outside City Hall, singing "Imagine" in remembrance of Beatle
John Lennon, murdered that week.

Arguments made by various organizations before the parliamentary committee and
elsewhere in 1980 were simple: If the Charter is to guarantee equal rights, it
must include equality for all, including persons with disabilities, not just
equality for some.

Canadians with disabilities face unfair barriers when seeking employment,
education, and opportunities that others take for granted. We needed and need
equality.

Canada planned to pass the Charter in 1981, which happened to be the
International Year of the Disabled. Canada co-sponsored the U.N.'s declaration.
How could Canada deny us at such a time? After the public hearings, the federal
government wouldn't budge, despite enormous pressure.

At home, I watched live on television the government's presentation before the
parliamentary committee rejecting our proposed disability amendment. I ran to
the phone, called a newspaper minutes before its deadline, and denounced the
government for being wrong and unfair. My words ran the next day on page 2,
beside the government's speech.

Trudeau wanted to win public support for the Charter over the heads of the
holdout premiers. Advocates kept up the pressure.

Then word came from a justice minister named Jean Chrétien that the government
would support our disability amendment. The federal Tories and NDP agreed.

The disability amendment was an enormous milestone on our road to equality. The
media hardly noticed. The Charter gave Canadians with disabilities a potent
tool to urge governments to remove barriers we face, to take court action if it
was refused, and to show us that we are entitled to fully participate in
Canadian life.

Twenty years later, some governments have acted. The Supreme Court has
enunciated visionary legal principles about disability equality. Law journals
contain disability equality cases, some better than others.

Yet we still face many barriers.

Litigating Charter claims, one barrier at a time, costs too much and takes too
long. That's why many worked so hard over the past seven years to get Ontario's
Conservatives to fulfil their promises to enact and implement an effective
Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

Our campaign for equality continues. We now know much more about how to wage it
and are more determined than ever.

--------------

David Lepofsky is a Toronto lawyer and activist for reforms to protect the
rights of persons with disabilities. Learn more at
http://www.odacommittee.net.

*****

Toronto Star
Monday April 8, 2002
Page A6

All eyes on Eves to deliver on pledges
Doctors, teachers, disabled look for quick action

Caroline Mallan
Queen's Park Bureau Chief

In just one week's time, Ontario premier-designate Ernie Eves will be sworn
into office, name his cabinet and inherit the agenda left over from the era of
Mike Harris.

Eves' first priority is winning his by-election seat in the
Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey riding vacated by a loyal backbencher who moved
on to make way for the new leader of the Ontario Conservatives.

Then there will be the business of government to see to, including a throne
speech, followed within days by a budget. And all the while, Eves will be
watched closely by those people to whom he made commitments during the
five-month long leadership race.

Hospitals are watching for stable, multi-year funding, school boards and parent
groups are watching for not just stable funding but a complete review of the
funding formula that both urban and rural boards say has left them without the
money they need for necessary maintenance and repair.

Eves committed to reviewing the funding formula "as soon as I have an education
minister."

The province's teachers are looking for a sign of good faith that shows Eves
was serious when he talked about a new tone and better relations with the
teaching profession.

And with a cash shortfall that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has warned could
reach between $3 billion and $5 billion, the bankers are watching to make sure
that Eves keeps the books balanced and continues to pay down the province's
$110 billion debt.

During a brief meeting of the two men last week, Flaherty signalled that those
predications - made late last year - hold true today even though Eves hinted
during the leadership race that they represented a "worst-case scenario."

Dr. Ken Sky, the head of the Ontario Medical Association, said doctors in
Ontario are looking for a promised northern medical school to be up and running
as quickly as possible in order to help ease a doctor shortage.

"We have a crisis in physician human resources of very large proportions and we
need to start producing new physicians immediately if we're going to avoid a
catastrophe in the next few years," Sky said.

Sky said doctors and others in the health-care community are all looking for
lasting peace with the federal Liberal government in Ottawa over health-care
funding.

On the environmental front, Harris has left Eves to set a clear position on
where Ontario stands on the Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
after Harris joined Alberta Premier Ralph Klein in denouncing the accord during
a recent trade mission to Germany with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Harris has since said he still supports the agreement, although proponents of
the deal are looking for some clear answers from Eves.

Still with the environment, Eves has also promised to create a centre for water
quality excellence in Walkerton and to implement all 28 recommendations of Mr.
Justice Dennis O'Connor's report into the tainted water tragedy that claimed
seven lives and left 2,300 ill.

Large sections of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act that passed into law
before Christmas have yet to be proclaimed, leaving advocates for the disabled
questioning the Tories' commitment.

To date, the province has not even proclaimed the part of the bill that would
see fines for illegal parking in a disabled spot jump to a $5,000 maximum from
the current $500.

David Lepofsky of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee, said his group
will be pressuring Eves to act quickly to remove barriers, including reviewing
municipal laws and the Elections Act.

"They've spent the better part of last fall making some pretty big promises
about what they would do for us and the new premier inherits those promises and
rest assured we'll be there," he said.

Also lingering on from Harris's time in the Premier's office are two lawsuits -
both relating to the shooting death of a native protestor at Ipperwash
Provincial Park.

Harris and his government are being sued for wrongful death by the family of
the dead man, Dudley George and the case continues to wind its way slowly
through the courts.

*****

Toronto Star
March 23, 2002

New leader likely to play the same unfair old game
Helen Henderson

What kind of Ontario will we be looking at tomorrow? When it's all over but the
shouting and the party faithful have crowned the successor to Mike Harris, how
much will change?

Hard to say. But few pundits expect the game plan to alter significantly for
this province's most vulnerable people. In that spirit, here's an eclectic
guide to indications that the province's new coach is still playing by the old
rules.

THE FAKE PASS

Legislation promised during the pre-game hoopla turns out to be nothing more
than an illusion designed to divert attention from the same old rushing
strategy. This move may follow the quarterback getting sacked trying to pass a
bill so misguided even diehard fans can't justify it.

Remember the Harris pre-'95-election promise to enact a law dismantling
barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating in and
contributing to society. It was to be Ontario's version of the Americans With
Disabilities Act, which committed the U.S. government to supervising the timely
removal of barriers to transportation, employment, housing and communications
services.

With the clock running out on the Conservatives' first term, then Citizenship
Minister Isabel Bassett introduced a shoddy two-page effort. The reviews were
so bad it was allowed to die on the order paper. Bassett, currently head of
TVOntario and partner of leadership hopeful Ernie Eves, was taken out of play
by voters at the polls.

The Ontarians With Disabilities Act introduced in the party's second term was
weightier, but still a masterpiece of waffling. It set up no mandatory changes,
no deadlines for accomplishing anything, no means of enforcement.

No matter. It was passed anyway. But months later, it's clear there's no rush
to proclaim the majority of its provisions.

THE QUARTERBACK SNEAK

Support to families caring at home for kids with disabilities is chopped by
shifting as many as possible into one existing program. The program is kept
underfunded. Then letters are sent out saying, in effect: We are delighted to
inform you that your funding for special services at home has been cut in order
that we may serve more clients.

Families who complain they can't make ends meet are told they surely wouldn't
want to make other families suffer by taking money away from them.

THE SUICIDE SQUEEZE

Hospital beds are cut while community health care agencies remain underfunded.
The agencies are then blamed for not meeting needs.

Last year, the 43 Community Care Access Centres that co-ordinate in-home
nursing and daily living assistance throughout the province responded angrily
to having their budgets frozen. They pointed out that they would have to cut
services to accommodate the increasing numbers of people discharged early from
acute-care hospitals or coping daily with the frailties of age or disabilities.

Harris accused them of fear-mongering to garner public support for their
funding requests. Next thing you know, a bill was passed installing cabinet
appointees as chief executives and directors of the access centres.

The government argued its actions would make home care more efficient. Critics
say said it was simply setting the stage for more cutbacks and nipping any
opposition in the bud.

THE SALARY DUMP

To improve the look of the bottom line, many of the top funding outlays are
taken off the books and downloaded.

Affordable housing, transit, social assistance and public health already have
been foisted on cash-strapped communities by the Harris government. In turn, it
took over education. The provincial auditor, who said downloading has
shortchanged Toronto to the tune of some $140 million, has refuted the
Conservatives' claims that the switch won't cost cities anything.

This is clearly one of the current regime's favourite game strategies. Speaking
to 1,100 municipal leaders gathered in Toronto last month, Citizenship Minister
Cam Jackson emphasized it is municipalities that are the key to greater
accessibility under the Ontarians With Disabilities Act.

It all gives a whole new meaning to the term "double play."

Write to Helen Henderson c/o Life Section, Toronto Star, 1 Yonge St., Toronto,
Ont. M5E 1E6. Please include your telephone number. Or send e-mail to
hhenderson@thestar.ca.

oda@odacommittee.net

 

Conservative Government's 13 Commitments to Ontarians With Disabilities
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Conservative Government's Statements Setting Out Its 13 Commitments to Ontarians With Disabilities
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