Human Rights Archives

November 15, 2011

Factum in the D.A.I. Case

In the D.A. I. case, the Supreme Court of Canada was asked to consider whether people with intellectual disabilities should be allowed to testify in court. Specifically, the question before the Court is whether people with intellectual disabilities are required to demonstrate an understanding of the concept of a “promise to tell the truth” in order to be permitted to testify. CCD was been granted intervener status in this case.  CCD argued that courts should not impose a test to allow people with disabilities to testify that is not imposed on others. Courts should focus scrutiny on the testimony given by individuals not the individuals themselves. Read more.

May 27, 2010

Factum in the Caron Case

Fighting a case in court is costly and CCD learned this lesson during its litigating against VIA Rail in support of accessible passenger trains. The Caron case focuses on the court's power to award interim costs while a case is in progress rather than waiting until its conclusion. An interim award provides a litigant with some of the resources it needs to present its case to the court.

CCD, working in coalition with other organizations (LEAF, Charter Committee on Poverty and the Poverty and Human Rights Centre), is intervening in the Caron case. Read more.

January 25, 2019

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS WITH DISABILITIES APPLAUDS DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA

The CCD is pleased by the Supreme Court's decision in S.A. v MVHC. Read more.

November 29, 2018

Update on the Charter Challenge to BC's Mental Health Act

In August 2018, the BC government brought an application to have the case dismissed, arguing that CCD did not have the legal status (“standing”) to defend the rights of people with mental disabilities in court. In October 2018, the BC Supreme Court decided that CCD did not have standing and dismissed the case before it got to trial. CCD has appealed the Court’s decision. Read more.

April 24, 2018

S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation

On April 25, 2018, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) is intervening in a very important case before the Supreme Court of Canada. This case could have a significant  impact on persons with disabilities, affecting their autonomy, independence and inclusion. The case is called S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation. It raises the question: can absolute discretionary trusts, also known as Henson Trusts, be taken into account in eligibility criteria for social programs, like a housing subsidy or social assistance?  Read more.

February 27, 2018

MEDIA ADVISORY

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), the ODSP Action Coalition and the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) will be at the Divisional Court - Superior Court of Justice to intervene in an appeal hearing on a case called Abbey v. Ontario on February 28, 2018.  ARCH Disability Law Centre (ARCH) and ISAC are representing the interveners. Read more.

September 22, 2016

Charter challenge of forced psychiatric treatment filed in BC Supreme Court

April 19, 2016

A Modernised Court Challenges Program of Canada: A perspective from the Council of Canadians with Disabilities

The Court Challenges Program of Canada (“CCPC”) is essential to ensure access to justice for persons with disabilities in accordance with article 12 and 13 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. If persons with disabilities do not have the means to access the courts, the rights to equality guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and in human rights legislation are hallow and meaningless. Read more.

January 7, 2021

Jewelles Smith Welcomed to CCD Staff

Roxana Jahani Aval, Chairperson, and Shari Hildred, National Coordinator, announced that Jewelles Smith  has joined the staff of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) as the organization’s first Communications and Government Relations Coordinator.   Read more.

December 17, 2020

Victims and Survivors of Crime Week 2020: Video Now Available

On November 27, 2020, IRIS and Warriors Against Violence Society hosted an event for Victims & Survivors of Crime Week entitled: Access to Justice for Indigenous, Racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ people with disabilities. There were over 150 attendees! You can now watch each of the panel presentations at: https://irisinstitute.ca/2020/12/11/panel-presentation-videos-access-to-justice-for-indigenous-racialized-and-2slgbtq-people-with-disabilities/ Read more.

December 3, 2020

December 3, 2020: Do Better Now Says the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD)!

The theme for 2020 is “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 world.  This is not some future task. The time is now. Read more.

November 13, 2020

CCD Concurs: Add Anti-Racism Pillar to Canada Health Act

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), a national human rights organization of people with disabilities working for an accessible and inclusive Canada, adds its voice to the Brian Sinclair Working Group’s call for the amendment of the Canada Health Act to make anti-racism the Act’s sixth pillar. Read more.

November 7, 2020

CCD Calls for Co-Creation of Solution to Address Anti-Indigenous Oppression in Health Care and Beyond

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) seeks to honour Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman, by pledging to serve as an ally supporting the long overdue work needed to remedy systemic anti-Indigenous racism and oppression, which is the result of Canadian colonialism and white supremacy.  As an ally, CCD urges all Canadians, and particularly Canadian leaders at all levels, to do their part to address anti-Indigenous oppression. Read more.

November 7, 2020

CCD Announces New Executive Committee

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), a national organization working for an accessible and inclusive Canada, is proud to announce the Executive Committee for 2020-22 that was elected by CCD’s member organizations:

Chairperson: Roxana Jahani Aval
Past Chair: Jewelles Smith
1st Vice Chair: Heather Walkus *New
2nd Vice Chair: Tracy Odell *New
Secretary: Ian Young *New
Treasurer: Pat Danforth
Member-at-Large on the Executive Committee: Frank Folino
  Read more.

November 7, 2020

Disability-Rights Organizations' Public Statement on the Urgent Need to Rethink Bill C-7, The Proposed Amendment to Canada's Medical Aid in Dying Legislation

The Canadian disability-rights community remains united in denouncing Bill C-7 as an assault on the Equality Rights of people with disabilities. The flaws—and, indeed, the overt pro-MAID bias— which characterized the “consultation” process leading up to the tabling of Bill C-7 are well documented. In short, everything from the online questionnaire to the in-person consultations were geared toward a pre-determined outcome, namely, the expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying as a legally- and socially-sanctioned substitute for assistance in living that we see in Bill C-7.  Read more.

November 7, 2020

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS WITH DISABILITIES DENOUNCES TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT'S RE-INTRODUCTION OF UNAMMENDED BILL C-7 ON MEDICAL AID IN DYING AS "HEAD-IN-THE SAND MENTALITY" THAT ENDANGERS THE LIVES OF CANADIANS WITH DISABILITIES

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), a national disability rights organization, is vehemently denouncing the Trudeau government’s re-introduction of Bill C-7, a bill which extends access to Medical Aid in Dying to people who are experiencing intolerable suffering as a result of illness or disability, but whose death is not reasonably foreseeable. The bill was first introduced in early February, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada. Read more.

November 7, 2020

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities Supports Quebecer, Jonathan Marchand, as he brings his cage in front of the National Assembly in Quebec to obtain his and his friends' release from long-term care facilities

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), a national disability rights organization, is expressing its support for 43-year-old Jonathan Marchand as he begins a protest to obtain his and his friends’ release from long-term care facilities in Quebec. Read more.

October 24, 2018

CCD to Launch Tracy Latimer Archives and Facebook Page

On the 25th anniversary of the tragic murder of Tracy Latimer, a young Canadian girl with Cerebral Palsy, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) announces it will be establishing the virtual Tracy Latimer archive and Facebook page. Read more.

September 4, 2018

CANADA'S MEDICAL ASSISTANCE IN DYING REGULATIONS FALL SHORT

The Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) and the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) strongly call on the federal government to strengthen the monitoring system for medical assistance in dying (MAiD).  Read more.

July 12, 2018

TRACY LATIMER MUST NOT BE ERASED; HER MURDER MUST NOT BE PARDONED

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Robert Latimer has submitted a letter to the Minister of Justice seeking a pardon or a new trial following his conviction for the murder of his daughter Tracy in 1993. 

Latimer has been free on parole since 2010.  Contrary to some media reports, Latimer has been able to travel outside Canada since 2015, according to the Globe and Mail.

Disability rights activists are concerned that the pardon request is a “symptom and effect of the continuing devaluation of disabled people” as shown by the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia in 2016, according to Amy Hasbrouck, director of Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet.  She notes that individual choice is supposed to be key to the suspension of homicide laws in cases of assisted suicide and euthanasia.  “Yet Tracy was not given a choice.”

Dr. Heid Janz, Chair of CCD’s Ending-of-Life Ethics Committee, expresses profound dismay at the mainstream media’s continuing practice of disseminating entirely erroneous descriptions of Tracy Latimer’s condition. “Some reports on Latimer’s petition revived the decades’ old false description of Tracy Latimer as a bed-ridden quadriplegic,” Janz said. “But the fact, documented in all of Latimer’s trials, is that Tracy rode the school bus to her school program right up until the weekend that her father murdered her.”
 

  Read more.