Canada’s First National Accessibility Law To Be Drafted By Visually Impaired MP

Carla Qualtrough, a highly successful human rights lawyer and former Paralympian swimmer, who has been visually impaired since birth, has decided to take action on accessibility issues by introducing a series of discussions surrounding legislation of accessibility laws.

The 44-year-old, committed to equality and inclusion, serves as both Canada’s federal minister of sport and the first ever minister to be responsible for people with disabilities. She mentions: “when I was growing up, it was called accommodation. But today it’s called innovation.”

Carla has a long history of volunteering in sport, including with the International Paralympic Committee and for the Toronto 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games. She was also President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Chair of the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, on the Board of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, and was Vice-Chair of the Delta Gymnastics Society.

Qualthrough, also a former chair for the Minister’s Council on Employment and Accessibility in British Columbia, and ex-adjudicator with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal, is encouraging fellow Canadians to think about disability in a new way whilst she drafts the country’s first national accessibility legislation.

Under the current legal framework, people with disabilities can only defend their rights once they feel they have been ignored, a process the minister called “exhausting, expensive and unfairly burdensome.”

“When systems and spaces are accessible, every Canadian wins. Barriers are bad for business,” Qualtrough told a gathering last week at Whitby’s Abilities Centre, where she announced a series of national round-table and town hall meetings this fall.

Disability services in Canada have the utmost importance due to the high numbers of Canadians living with the daily challenges of disability: 14% of the general population aged 15 and older have a disability that limits their daily activities; 411,600 people aged 15 to 64 are unemployed with a disability; and 50% of Canadian human rights complaints were related to disabilities Between 2011 and 2015. 6% of Canadian human rights complaints were also related to inaccessible services and 2.1 million Canadians aged15 or older are at risk of facing physical or communication barriers.

Qualthrough has been working in human rights at both federal and provincial levels and served as staff for several Liberal cabinet ministers on Parliament Hill between 1999 and 2005. Regarding running for office, she’s glad she took the plunge. “It’s a very interesting time in the evolution of disability rights,” she notes. For the government to create a cabinet position and to give it to someone with a disability — “it’s a big deal,” she added.

Canada is somewhat late to the table when it comes to accessibility legislation. The USA has had the Americans with Disabilities Act since 1990. The landmark Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act was introduced in 2005, with a goal of making the province fully accessible by 2025.

Qualthrough notes she will be using Ontario’s experience to help guide federal law. But she will also be looking at how other provinces and countries legislate accessibility and learn from their successes and shortcomings. One of her main goals is to develop a common definition for disability that would apply to all federal laws and regulations and eventually be adopted by the provinces.

She adds “Let’s try and harmonize our approach to disability across the federal government. That would be huge for Canadians.” Qualthrough expects public consultations, the country’s first national conversation about accessibility, will provide valuable input for Ottawa’s legislation and other federal programs such as the Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefit, the Disability Tax Credit and the Registered Disability Savings Plan. She believes the consultation may also bolster calls for a basic or guaranteed income for people with disabilities. “ It’s something that could certainly come out of this — not as an actual program but a direction that Canadians want the government to look into,” she added.

Regarding making Canada more accessible and boosting support for people with disabilities, Qualthrough believes “we can’t afford not to…with our labour shortages and our aging population . . . and all the challenges in society. If we don’t get this right, we are missing a huge opportunity.”

Since online consultations on the new law began in July, the government has received more than 700 submissions -Canadians have until February 2017 to give their views.

Qualtrough will then report on these consultations during the spring and revealed she hopes to have legislation ready to introduce in the Commons by early 2018 at the very latest.

The MP said she was thrilled when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave her the double-barrelled portfolio — encompassing her two life passions — and told her to “go out and change the world.”

“No pressure,” she quipped. “The creation of this cabinet position makes it very clear that people with disabilities are important to our government and that we deserve to be considered in every decision around the cabinet table.”

Carla won three Paralympic and four World Championship medals as a competitive swimmer. She has been named one of Canada’s Most Influential Women in Sport six times, and received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Sources:

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/08/27/blind-mp-to-draft-canadas-first-national-accessibility-law.html

Canada’s First National Accessibility Law To Be Drafted By Visually Impaired MP

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