Letter to The Honourable Helen Johns,
Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation

August 30, 2000

The Honorable Helen Johns
Minister of Citizenship,
Culture and Recreation
400 University Avenue, 6th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2R9

Dear Minister:

Re: Ontarians with Disabilities Act

I am writing as a follow-up to the August 15, 2000 letter to me
from a member of your political staff. We were happy to change the meeting
date with you from September 7, to September 8, at
your request to accommodate your schedule. We also appreciate your office
arranging for the accommodations of American Sign
Language and real time captioning that we have requested.

As for the meeting's contents, you will recall that we requested
this meeting with you back in the spring at the Premier's
suggestion. We had written to him asking for a response to a
series of important questions about your Government's plans for the
Ontarians with Disabilities Act. His office responded by
asking us to raise those matters with you, and indicated that you would be
willing to meet with us. We consider it very
important that we and you fully address these questions at our meeting. We
are, of course, prepared afterwards to also address
the additional matters which your political staff member suggested in his
August 15, letter to us to the extent that they relate
to the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, if time permits. Otherwise, we
would suggest scheduling a follow-up meeting.

We wish to emphasize that we do not consider this meeting the open, public
consultation on the Ontarians with Disabilities Act
that we have repeatedly called for. This meeting can only address a very
limited number of issues. It is limited in terms of
such things as the time that you have made available, and the number of
people who you have agreed to meet with.

We look forward to a meaningful discussion with you on Sept. 8,
about the issues we have raised.

Sincerely,

David Lepofsky, C.M.
Chair
Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee

cc: Hon. Mike Harris 325-7578
Norman Sterling 326-2913
Dalton McGuinty 325-9895
Dwight Duncan 325-2201
Steve Peters 325-7262
Howard Hampton 325-8222
David Christopherson 325-3189
Marilyn Churley 325-3252

 

 

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