The Case For Canadians With Disabilities

By Stephen Pate – The US Department of Justice announced a landmark legal agreement with Rhode Island. “On April 8, 2014, the United States entered into the nation’s first statewide settlement agreement vindicating the civil rights of individuals with disabilities who are unnecessarily segregated in sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs.”

Unless the Government of Canada enacts a Canadians With Disabilities Act, you will never see that happen in Canada. Canadians with disabilities must hire their own lawyers at great expense and launch law suits under various Provincial and Federal Human Rights tribunals.

Using the ADA and the Olmstead Act, the US Department of Justice negotiated “The settlement agreement with the State of Rhode Island resolves the Civil Rights Division’s January 6, 2014 findings, as part of an ADA Olmstead investigation, that the State’s day activity service system over-relies on segregated settings, including sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs, to the exclusion of integrated alternatives, such as supported employment and integrated day services.”

“The settlement agreement provides relief to approximately 3,250 individuals with I/DD over ten years. Rhode Island will provide supported employment placements to approximately 2,000 individuals, including at least 700 people currently in sheltered workshops, at least 950 people currently in facility-based non-work programs, and approximately 300-350 students leaving high school.”

“Individuals in these target populations will receive sufficient services to support a normative 40 hour work week, with the expectation that individuals will work, on average, in a supported employment job at competitive wages for at least 20 hours per week. In addition, the State will provide transition services to approximately 1,250 youth between the ages of 14 and 21, ensuring that transition-age youth have access to a wide array of transition, vocational rehabilitation, and supported employment services intended to lead to integrated employment outcomes after they leave secondary school. The parties have jointly filed the settlement in federal district court and have requested that it be entered as a court-enforceable Consent Decree.”

In Canada Harper Government trickles out job grants

In Canada, there are a variety of programs to help the disabled, some of them good and some weak.  The Canada Pension for Persons with Disabilities is just enough to keep a disabled working age person at 60% of the poverty line.

Stephen Harper, no human rights help for disabled, with Rick Hansen

The Minister responsible trickles out job grants that are a drop in the bucket.

We have no government agency in Canada that enforces human rights for people with disabilities.

If someone with a disability has lost their job, suffered discrimination in housing, education or other basics of life, they can file, at their own expense, a human rights complaint. Government lawyers do not help them, except in provinces with legal aid and then help is only partial.

The Harper government in Canada expects the blind, the lame, the deaf, those with learning disabilities and other impairments to become their own lawyers, agents and advocates.  It is a totally unrealistic approach to human rights for the disabled and speaks to the lack of enthusiasm by politicians and the government to see human rights for all.

From the stories I have covered for others and from my experience, I know that human rights battles for Canadians with disabilities are rarely won. The government does not care. The media don’t care and most of the non-profit-organizations for people with disabilities are too afraid of their government funding to get involved.

Rick Hansen, for example, is a powerful media presence and friend to politicians. He has no campaign to enhance the human rights of Canadians with disabilities.

The odd case that trickles to the Supreme Court can take 10 to 15 years to achieve resolution. How many people with disabilities can fund one year’s legal expenses at that rate?

That is why large corporations in Canada can abuse the human rights of the disabled with no fear.  The fight against getting my work credentials back is being funded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a crown corporation.  The CBC is neither embarrassed by playing bully nor willing to even negotiate. They know the cards are stacked against Canadians with disabilities and the law is a joke to them.

I am not suggesting that Canada is not a great place to live. It’s just not a great place for people living with disabilities.

Follow me on Twitter at @sdpate or on Facebook at NJN Network, OyeTimes and IMA News Buzz. Featured image – President Obama meets with PWD.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network