Contents
Access 
U.S. Access Board Webinar: Sporting: The Spectators Experience (January 4) 
U.S. Access Board Webinar on Emergency Transportable Housing Available in Archives 
Advocacy group celebrates as Accessible Sask. Act comes into force | Regina Leader Post 
Dental Care 
Dentalcare program to be gradually phased in over 2024 | CTV News 
Federal Government 
Pre-Budget Consultations 
Human Rights 
Ontario Human Rights Commission | 100 recommendations to address anti-Black racism 
Newsletters 
Cooperation Canada 
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter 
Rick Hansen Foundation | Happy Holidays from the Rick Hansen Foundation 
Seniors for Social Action 
We Count Recount | Inclusive Design Research Centre 
Zero Project | #ZeroCon24 Agenda: Speaker Announcements & Keynotes! 
Mental Health 
I WAS FIRED BECAUSE OF MY MENTAL ILLNESS—SO I FOUGHT BACK. 
Transportation 
Blistering Toronto Star Editorial Calls on Canada Transportation Agency to Crack Down on Airlines’ Poor Service to Passengers with Disabilities 
Call for Law Commission of Ontario Board Nominations 

Access

U.S. Access Board Webinar: Sporting: The Spectator s Experience (January 4)

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://www.accessibilityonline.org/ao/session/?id=111097

U.S. Access Board Webinar on Emergency Transportable Housing Available in Archives

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://www.accessibilityonline.org/ao/archives/111090

Advocacy group celebrates as Accessible Sask. Act comes into force | Regina Leader Post

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/sask-politics/advocacy-group-celebrates-as-accessible-saskatchewan-act-comes-into-force

Dental Care

Dentalcare program to be gradually phased in over 2024 | CTV News

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-dental-insurance-program-to-be-gradually-phased-in-over-2024-cp-sources-1.6681744

Federal Government

Pre-Budget Consultations

Click on the following link for information: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2023/12/government-of-canada-launches-pre-budget-consultations-to-hear-from-canadians.html

Human Rights

Ontario Human Rights Commission | 100 recommendations to address anti-Black racism

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/news_centre/ohrc-launches-online-videos-its-policy-accessible-education-students-disabilities

Mental Health

I WAS FIRED BECAUSE OF MY MENTAL ILLNESS—SO I FOUGHT BACK.

(Source: Readers Digest Best Health Magazine Life Lesson)

In September of 2018, I was fired from my job. It was an exciting, new position at a large employer, and when I accepted the role, I’d felt ready for the challenge. I’d worked in the legal industry for nearly a decade, and I was good at it. I’d built a career managing busy practices for my supervisors, balancing their demanding schedules and dealing with the court systems. I was the first point of contact for many clients. I was used to fast-paced work environments with lots of moving parts, I knew what I was doing and I felt confident. I’d certainly never been fired before.

But I also live with bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and agoraphobia. I regulate my day-to-day by keeping a close watch on my moods and somatic symptoms. I take my medications, visit my doctor when needed and attend my therapy appointments. After 20 years of dealing with this, I’ve become a bit of a self-management expert.

As the days went by in my new job, anxiety started creeping in. Despite the positive feedback I was receiving from my supervisors and colleagues, I began to feel incompetent, and it was affecting my ability to work quickly and under pressure, which is the norm in the legal field. I also heard harmful slanders against folks with mental illness, and working in a large open-concept space was triggering my agoraphobia. For me, this manifests as panic attacks whenever I feel like people can see me, judge me or otherwise threaten my safety.

One Friday afternoon, panic hit. It started around my jaw—my muscles tightening, my teeth chattering. It didn’t take long for the panic attack to overwhelm me. My desk suddenly felt unfamiliar, the space hostile.

As I tried to catch my breath, furiously wiping away tears that just kept coming, my supervisor walked by. She stopped and asked if I was okay. “I’m having a panic attack,” was all I could whisper. “I’m okay, though.” With a nod she continued on her way. No one else came by. After a while, I was able to work through it alone, but the rest of my day, unsurprisingly, wasn’t very productive. No one ever followed up with me.

The following week, I attended a mandatory, in-person seminar on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which took place in a boardroom filled with about two dozen people. During the seminar, I noticed that there was barely a mention of mental illness. This didn’t seem appropriate. I’d been navigating misperceptions of mental illness in the workplace long enough to know to speak up when I could.

Then and there, I asked if anyone in the firm was trained in the event of a mental health emergency, but there wasn’t an answer. I followed up with inquiries about mental health accommodations. Again, no answer.

The group benefits offered a few hundred dollars a year for therapy, and most prescriptions were covered. But those types of resources weren’t really what I was concerned about. I needed to know that if I experienced another panic attack, there would be some kind of support. What if I needed some time off, or to work from home? Was that available? And, deep down, I needed to know whether I could feel safe enough to be myself, mental illness included.

Three hours later, my employment was terminated.

In an empty boardroom—the same boardroom I’d initially been interviewed in—my supervisor told me that it had been a difficult decision, but it was best for all parties. Best for whom? Why was I being fired? What had I done wrong? Why didn’t anyone say anything, coach me, train me? Why was this such a surprise?

I was told I wasn’t learning fast enough, not taking enough notes and that I’d been seen crying at my desk. “But I was having a panic attack,” I shot back. “You knew that.” She simply smiled and said, “See? This job isn’t for you.”

As I was escorted out of the office, seething with fury, I wondered whether there would ever be a place for someone like me in the working world. If the only visible sign of my disability—a panic attack—could be seen as a reason to fire me, what hope was there?

When I got home, I told my partner all the reasons why this simply wasn’t okay. How could they so blatantly disregard my rights? If that job wasn’t for me, what job would be?

My partner sat there, quietly listening, until he said, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

With his support, I hired a lawyer and filed an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The policies differ slightly from province to province, but the Canadian Human Rights Act protects employees with disabilities from discrimination, including from termination due to disability, even if the employee is within the probationary period (often the first three months), like I was. But lawyers are expensive, usually hundreds of dollars per hour, and the former employee—who is now without a paycheque—must shoulder it. Employers typically have more funds to fight back, and a case can drag on for months, even years. If a case settles privately, the dismissed party might have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and it’s possible the employer would not be required to admit any wrongdoing. In these cases, because no one can speak out, it’s likely that nothing will change and the discrimination continues.

Yes, employees can elect to disclose their disability at the outset of a new job. But this wasn’t something I had ever felt comfortable with, due to the stigma associated with mental illness.

And the data backs me up: The federal Office of the Ombudsman for Mental Health and Employee Well-Being reported in 2017 that 82 percent of the confidential meetings they held over a six-month period were with concerned employees rather than employers (and it was mostly women—68 percent were female). The report found that when workers do address their mental health challenges and requirements with employers, they risk facing stigmatization or negative career repercussions. Because of this, employees may hide their diagnoses instead of seeking accommodations. So where does that leave people with mental illness? What security do we have?

The day after I was fired, a friend told me about an editor at a national newspaper who was taking pitches. I didn’t even know what a pitch was, but I cobbled something together and sent it off.

I received a response within the hour: This sounds great. I can give you 600 words. Also included was a rate and a deadline. I couldn’t believe it. I started writing immediately.

That assignment opened a door: I learned that people wanted to hear my opinions. Not only that, to my complete disbelief, they were also willing to compensate me for my writing.

From that thought, another one began to percolate: While legal recourse is impossible for many folks with mental illness, what I had was my ability to communicate, which could help others feel less alone. I continued to write about mental health, using my own experience. One of my essays even won an award.

This is what I learned: Being fired was hard, and fighting back is even harder. Justice can be so far out of reach that silence and compliance feel like the only viable next step. But maybe that’s not good enough. What if I dared to use my own voice? Could I possibly become louder than the wrongs levied against mentally ill folks? Could this be my form of advocacy?

I’ve now left my former career behind to pursue my own writing projects and mental health awareness work. I know that what I send out onto the internet reaches thousands of people, and that makes me proud. This is exactly the life I’ve wanted all these years. Some days, I don’t know how I got so lucky.

It took me a few years to realize that my former supervisor’s comment—this job isn’t for you—was in fact true, but not in the way she had intended. That job wasn’t meant for me because I was meant for a lot more.

Newsletters

Cooperation Canada

Click on the following link to access the information online:  : https://centre-arc-hub.ca/2023-annual-report/?mc_cid=921175e750&mc_eid=a800a3de9e

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://mailchi.mp/cooperation.ca/december-15-2023-members-insights?e=0cbfa058d7

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter

Click on the following link to access the newsletter online:  https://mailchi.mp/epcc.ca/canadas-life-expectancy-drops-euthanasia-is-one-of-the-reasons-644381?e=59924ae386

Rick Hansen Foundation | Happy Holidays from the Rick Hansen Foundation

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://pardot.rickhansen.com/webmail/808133/501802422/a73f19348711c428c8cea6812cc3abd0d640d539c0fed8d23d90c17919ffcad1

Senate of Canada Newsletter

Click on the following link to access the information online: https://secure.campaigner.com/csb/Public/show/br4n-2rnhug--15izvu-5k4xeul2

Seniors for Social Action

Click on the following link to access the newsletter online: https://mailchi.mp/22e44f179600/information-bulletin-ontario-health-teams?e=88ba5cdd64

Seniors for Social Action: Editorial - How Do We Confront the Pandemic of Loneliness? Click on the following link to access the newsletter online: https://mailchi.mp/6dfd74f78f87/editorial-how-do-we-confront-the-pandemic-of-loneliness?e=88ba5cdd64

We Count Recount | Inclusive Design Research Centre

Click on the following link to access the newsletter online: We Count Recount: November-December 2023 (mailchi.mp)

Zero Project | #ZeroCon24 Agenda: Speaker Announcements & Keynotes!

Click on the following link for more information: https://zerocon24.zeroproject.org/components/36540#msdynttrid=BOqCAO5crK_8wmeVDvkjvCrkwBwImRzjDXAn_5E-Ank

Transportation

Blistering Toronto Star Editorial Calls on Canada Transportation Agency to Crack Down on Airlines’ Poor Service to Passengers with Disabilities

December 12, 2023

SUMMARY

The Toronto Star’s December 12, 2023 edition includes a powerful editorial. It blasts Canadian airlines for failing passengers with disabilities. It slams the Canada Transportation Agency for weak enforcement of disability accessibility requirements. This editorial, which we set out below, includes a quote from AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky.

This is the 19th major media outlet’s editorial in support of our grass roots accessibility campaign since late 1994. You can read all those editorials on the AODA Alliance website’s editorials page. It is always great when the media covers our issues. A news outlet’s editorial is particularly powerful for us. In it, a major news outlet like the Toronto Star does not just report on our issues. It goes further, by endorsing a call for reform for which we have advocated.

We have raised serious concerns for years with the Canada Transportation Agency’s poor work at enforcing accessibility of airline services. The CTA is too close to the airlines it is supposed to effectively regulate. That is a key reason why the AODA Alliance called on the Trudeau Government to re-assign responsibility for enforcing disability accessibility at airlines to another agency when the Government was developing the Accessible Canada Act. We have been very critical of the Trudeau Government for rejecting our position and for leaving the enforcement of disability accessibility at the airlines with the CTA despite its decades of poor performance on this issue. Our efforts on that issue can be found on the AODA Alliance website’s Canada page.

On November 9, 2023, Air Canada announced some partial new measures to do better at addressing the needs of some passengers with disabilities. The November 9, 2023 AODA Alliance update commended those limited steps while identifying why much more is needed. Today’s Toronto Star editorial echoes a number of our concerns.

Send the Toronto Star a letter to the editor! Congratulate the Star for running this editorial. Tell the Star about your experience or that of others you know, traveling as a person with disabilities on a Canadian airline. Send your letter to the editor to lettertoed@thestar.ca

Federal accessibility laws addressing disability barriers in airline services implement the spirit of Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the equal protection and equal benefit of the law to people with disabilities. Of historic note, 43 years ago today, David Lepofsky, who was later to become Chair of the AODA Alliance, made a deputation to Canada’s Parliament on why the proposed Charter of Rights should be amended to include equality rights for people with disabilities. It was a result of the advocacy efforts of many that Parliament eventually added disability equality rights to the Charter of Rights. You can watch a captioned video of David Lepofsky’s December 12, 1980 presentation to the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Constitution of Canada.

Your feedback is always welcomed. Write us at aodafeedback@gmail.com

MORE DETAILS

Toronto Star December 12, 2023

Editorial

Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/why-are-canadian-airlines-failing-passengers-with-disabilities/article_1e986dd0-9869-11ee-9f22-67ec7cc8d0be.html

Accessibility woes in air travel

Sometimes sorry seems to be the easiest word.

Thanks to Air Canada's poor treatment of passengers with disabilities, the national carrier is certainly getting good at saying it. After multiple egregious incidents, including one in which a man with cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a flight, Air Canada was quick to offer its "sincere" apologies.

Amid the flurry of negative publicity, Air Canada also issued a hastily crafted news release announcing "a series of measures to reduce barriers ... for customers with disabilities." It also acknowledged that it "sometimes" fails to meet its obligations, for which it offered "a sincere apology." There's that word again.

Not to be outdone, either in its shoddy treatment of disabled passengers or its displays of contrition, WestJet offered a "sincere" apology to a Paralympian who had to perform the Olympian task of lifting herself up to the plane, stair by stair, since a jet bridge wasn't available.

Discount carrier Flair Airlines has also been doling out the apologies, including for leaving an elderly woman with a prosthetic leg at the gate and damaging a women's wheelchair.

These incidents reveal that mistreatment of passengers with disabilities - and the perfunctory mea culpas - aren't limited to Air Canada. Nor are they recent phenomena; "discrimination and unacceptable treatment," as the federal transport committee recently called it, has been occurring for years, decades even.

Consequently, following a motion by NDP MP Taylor Bachrach, the party's transport critic, the committee said that it will invite the CEOs of Air Canada and WestJet to testify. But if past is prologue, we know what to expect: "Sincere" apologies, followed by promises to improve services - in other words, the same rinse and repeat routine the airlines have been performing for years.

Clearly, more conspicuous displays of contrition aren't going to do the trick. The only thing that will is regulatory change which, fortunately, the committee seems to understand. In addition to the CEOs, the committee plans to hear from federal Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez and Auditor General Karen Hogan, and to study the regulatory regime surrounding accessibility.

That study will no doubt find that the regulator - the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) - has consistently failed to ensure the airlines fulfil their legal and ethical duties toward passengers with disabilities. The years-long "discrimination and unacceptable treatment" of such passengers is a testament to that fact.

While the CTA stresses that its role includes "monitoring compliance with regulations," problems with accessibility are typically handled reactively, by responding to passenger complaints. It's up to passengers to lodge a complaint, which is then followed by a long, arduous procedure involving contact with the airline, facilitation or mediation and, ultimately, adjudication before a panel.

Most passengers have neither the emotional nor the financial means to pursue this process to the end. Many never even bother to make a complaint in the first place, and a few bypass the complaints process and approach the media, which leads to apologies and promises to do better. And the problems continue to fester.

Instead of expecting passengers to police the airlines, lawyer and disability activist David Lepofsky argues that the CTA ought to step up and proactively enforce the law itself, by conducting "regular, unannounced on-site spot audits of airlines."

Such "secret-shopper" visits would effectively put the airlines on notice, since at any moment they could face serious consequences for failure to discharge their obligations. It would therefore be a lot more effective than simply waiting for complaints, most of which will never materialize.

It would also effectively end the need for all the "sincere" apologies. Because treating all passengers, including those with disabilities, with dignity and respect means never having to say you're sorry.

Opportunities

Call for Law Commission of Ontario Board Nominations

Click on the following link to read the call online: https://www.lco-cdo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Call-for-LCO-Board-Nominations-Nov-2023.pdf?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=here&utm_campaign=Call%20to%20BoG%20extension

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