ARCH Alert ARCH’s Quarterly Newsletter on Disability and Law in Ontario. ARCH Alert Volume 16, Issue 2 June 26, 2015 INSIDE THIS ISSUE - Message from the Executive Director - ARCH's Search for New Board Members has Begun! - Access Awareness Events and the Carter Decision - ARCH's Library Update - The Second Review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act: How Has Ontario Progressed? - ARCH and the St. Michael's Hospital Legal Services Program: A Health Justice Initiative - New Complaint Mechanisms in Ontario Health Care and Education: Bill 8 - The Ontario Budget: Who does it Help? - ARCH on Social Media MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ROBERTO LATTANZIO ARCH's staff compliment has undergone significant changes over the last several months. To begin, I have taken over the position of Executive Director since April 2015. I have worked at ARCH since 2003 and I am honoured and humbled to take on this leadership role. It has been an exciting challenge thus far, and hope to work closer with our members, communities, and community partners in the future. As reported in our last issue of ARCH Alert, Laurie Letheren, staff lawyer, was appointed as Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and thus is currently on leave from ARCH for two years. Kerri Joffe, staff lawyer is currently on maternity leave until next spring 2016. Yedida Zalik, Outreach Worker, is currently on parental leave until the end of 2015. Ivana Petricone, ARCH's outgoing Executive Director, has taken over my vacant staff lawyer position on a part-time basis. Tess Sheldon and Karen Spector, staff lawyers, joined ARCH early this year on a part-time basis. Johanna Macdonald was hired as the onsite lawyer for the Health Justice Initiative at St. Michael's Hospital, and ARCH is in the process of hiring an administrative assistant for this project. I hope you find this issue of the ARCH Alert interesting and informative. We have made some changes to the ARCH Alert and as always, are open to feedback in our efforts to make this newsletter increasingly accessible to all readers. ARCH's Search for New Board Members has Begun! ARCH Disability Law Centre (ARCH) is a specialty legal clinic dedicated to defending and advancing the equality-rights of people with disabilities who live in Ontario. ARCH promotes the full social justice of persons with disabilities, and their realization of equal opportunities and full participation on an individual and systemic basis. ARCH's Nominating Committee invites applications from across Ontario from those interested in serving on the governance Board of Directors of ARCH. The Board of ARCH provides strategic leadership and general direction, makes policy, oversees the organization's general performance, and ensures overall accountability. The Committee is seeking, in particular, someone with an accounting or financial management background and someone from Northern Ontario. According to the by-laws, the ARCH Board is to be composed of 13 directors and a majority of the directors must be persons with disabilities. Prospective directors should know that ARCH provides legal services throughout Ontario for persons with disabilities. Applicants should have at least 5-10 hours a month to dedicate to ARCH. This includes preparation for (reading, reviewing and commenting on materials) and attendance at Board meetings, in person or by telephone conference call, and participation at occasional day-long events including planning meetings, and Annual General Meetings. ARCH reimburses directors for travel costs and covers disability related accommodation expenses. Each member of the Board of Directors is expected to do the following: Participate in annual and long range planning for the organization; Monitor the performance of the organization in relation to the plans; Read and understand a set of financial statements; Develop, amend and approve by-laws and governing policies; and Be a member of at least one committee. The Nominating Committee will review the list of prospective directors, interview selected applicants and do its best to nominate a slate of individuals who collectively cover as many of the skills, experience and geographic coverage it has identified to strengthen the Board's capacity to effectively lead ARCH over the next two years. The Nominating Committee requests that interested applicants send an email expressing interest together with a resum‚ or short biography by: July 31, 2015 to Doreen Way, Office Manager at wayd@lao.on.ca. Access Awareness Events and the Carter Decision By Elsa Ascencio and Nilofar Ahmadi, Law Students The Carter Decision On February 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down the provision in the Criminal Code prohibiting doctor-assisted suicide in the landmark case Carter v Canada. The Court in Carter ruled that the prohibition of doctor-assisted suicide infringed on section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Furthermore, the court ruled that such infringement could not be justified in a free and democratic society. The Carter decision provides a legal test on when doctor-assisted suicide can be permitted. The Court stated that assisted suicide can take place only if the person: - clearly consents to the termination of their life; and - has a grievous and irremediable medical condition that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition The Supreme Court suspended the declaration of invalidity for 12 months to offer Parliament the opportunity to craft legislation that reflects the Court's decision. No one is sure what new federal or provincial legislation may look like or what issues will be covered. Clearly the community of persons with disabilities has a keen interest in ensuring that their concerns and hopes are addressed. The Access Awareness Forum For these reasons, on June 4, 2015, ARCH Disability Law Centre in partnership with the Law Society of Upper Canada held their annual Access Awareness Symposium, asking the question to the community-at-large, "Where do people with disabilities go from here?" About 177 people attended the event in person, and others participated by webcast. The event included comments and questions from scholars, lawyers, community leaders, people with disabilities, students and other members of the public. Community Concerns over the Carter Decision Dr. Joan Gilmour, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, was the initial speaker at the event. She gave an overall summary and analysis of the Carter decision. She expressed concern with the fact that there are ambiguities concerning consent and the definition of "suffering." Dr. Gilmour stated that there is a subjective element as to what factors into a grievous and irremediable condition because the court does accept that the line of suffering may be crossed for one person, but not for another person. Dr. Gilmour further noted that Carter still leaves some unanswered questions for minors. Since the Court has ruled in past cases that there is no minimum age to consent to treatment as long as she or he is able to understand and appreciate the consequences of his or her decision, it remains unclear as to whether the ruling in Carter extends to minors with a disability. The Access Awareness Forum provided opportunities for the public in attendance to ask questions to the panelists. A notable example was a question concerning consent. The question from the audience included whether there were any safeguards in place to protect some persons with mental health disabilities. The audience member noted that assessing consent may be tricky for some individuals because their condition may vary per day; for example a person may consent on a day where she or he is relatively more depressed than other days. Dr. Gilmour responded that there isn't a complete answer from the Court regarding this concern. However, the scope of consent is an issue that the drafters of the assisted suicide legislation will have to consider. Other speakers at the event presented different viewpoints and more concerns about the availability of physician assisted dying: * Michele Gardiner, a member of the Executive of Citizens with Disabilities-Ontario said that most people with disabilities do not identify as being "ill", even if their life expectancy is shorter than someone without their disability. Some people with disabilities worry that they will be unduly targeted for physician assisted dying. * Michael Bach, the Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL), argued that people are suffering because of the lack of proper palliative care and assisted suicide should not be seen as the solution. The goal of the community should instead be to provide patients with better care. If we focus on implementing better care for those in need, then there may not be as many patients who would want to die rather than live. He raised concerns about the decision's fundamental assumptions about the quality of life of persons with disabilities. * Kerry Bowen, a Clinical Ethicist at Mount-Sinai Hospital, proposed that there should be a high threshold for assisted suicide. Furthermore, Bowen noted that many physicians have expressed concern over Carter and whether they will be obligated to perform such procedures. The Access Awareness Forum brought forward the message to the community-at-large that Carter still leaves many crucial, unanswered questions for patients, doctors, and all Canadians. Moving forward, the event highlighted a need for greater dialogue between the disability community, and policymakers. The challenge moving forward is to ensure that this dialogue takes place and that unanswered questions are properly and fully explored. ARCH's Library Update By Mary Hanson, Librarian The ARCH Public Library invites you to browse the shelves in the Centre or use the online catalogue. Go to ARCH Public Library or copy and paste http://goo.gl/vozgB . Here you can find information on current disability law and policy, as well as memoirs and practical guides on dealing with daily life issues and self-advocacy. A separate historical collection traces the development of inclusion, rights and programs for persons with disabilities in Ontario and Canada. It includes material by government, legal and grassroots organizations. Our Resource Centre also offers two fully accessible computers with free internet access. We welcome and encourage you to use the computers in the Public Library for online searching, filling in and printing off applications or forms, or other research purposes. Now available - ARCH Periodicals database on DVD Since 1984, ARCH has been documenting, through its publications ARCH Type (1984- 2000) and ARCH Alert, the growth of the disability movement, its successes and challenges in having barriers removed and rights recognized. Recently a digitization project funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario has allowed ARCH to make available a database which includes all issues of both periodicals published from 1984 up to 2000. * Use the resource to find analyses of earlier law reform, policy proposals and key cases; past advocacy and campaign initiatives; news about and by community partners and individuals, and the social and political climates of the day for persons with disabilities; * Search the full-text database by keyword or browse the scanned newsletters by issue. Access the database onsite at ARCH on the ARCH Public Library computers, or for information on obtaining a copy of the DVD please contact Mary Hanson at archlib@lao.on.ca . Subscribers can receive new issues of ARCH Alert by email in text or Word format, or access the newsletter through our website (http://www.archdisabilitylaw.ca/arch-alerts), which offers issues dated back to 2002. Let us know if you need assistance with your research...We're here to help! The Second Review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act: How Has Ontario Progressed? By Dianne Wintermute, Staff Lawyer In November 2014, Mayo Moran, the Second Independent Reviewer of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) released her final Report. This report follows the initial review conducted by Charles Beer in 2010. ARCH made both oral and written submissions to the Moran review. Our written remarks and recommendations can be found under Submissions on our website at www.archdisabilitylaw.ca. The issues ARCH, and many others, raised helped to inform Ms. Moran's thorough review of the AODA. The disappointing conclusion she reached was that there remains significant work to be done for the goals of the AODA to be fully realized, and for accessibility to be wholly achieved in Ontario by 2025. Ms. Moran made a number of concrete recommendations designed to improve implementation of the AODA by the target date of 2025. Not surprisingly, one of the most common concerns raised was the lack of "teeth" or robust enforcement mechanisms requiring organizations to comply with the AODA. This was also a primary issue raised in the Beer Report 2010. Inadequate enforcement is a "critical impediment" holding Ontario back from effectively implementing the AODA. The government has not been proactive in ensuring that organizations meet their obligations: there is little or no follow up requiring obligated organizations to file reports; there are no investigations of non-compliant organizations; there are no penalties imposed for failure to file reports; and there is no meaningful public complaints system. In short, there is no incentive for organizations to implement their AODA obligations. To address this major obstacle, Ms. Moran recommends: 1. The government should prepare and make an enforcement plan that is publicly available; 2. Transparency must be built into the transparency plan; 3. A public "feedback" mechanism should be developed under all standards. This will allow for comments or questions about the standards that have been, or will be, developed and implemented. It will include any organizational response to how complaints are resolved and that information will be made available upon request. Public feedback can be made in a variety of different ways: in writing; via email; or by using a toll free phone number; 4. The Accessibility Directorate of Ontario is to release quarterly updates on AODA enforcement actions, broken down by sector and the size of the organization; 5. The Accessibility Directorate is to become more proactive in assisting organizations to understand their obligations. They should collect and publish best practices; develop a resource centre to support and provide answers to compliance issues; and develop interpretive guides to help organizations with forward planning; and 6. New standards must be developed to meet on-going accessibility issues. Education and health care were identified as priorities. These are only some of Ms. Moran's recommendations. Her full report can be found at: Legislative Review of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act or copy and paste http://goo.gl/bNgzEB . In response to the Report and Recommendations, the Government released "The Path to 2025: Ontario's Accessibility Action Plan" on June 3, 2015. This date marked the 10th anniversary of the AODA. The Plan is an ambitious one. Among its undertakings the Plan specifies timelines for full implementation of the current standards. It introduces a Compliance Awareness Campaign. The government promises a more aggressive enforcement approach. It will enhance the role of government as a policy maker and leader in accessibility. It pledges to engage employers to hire people with disabilities. The government plans to meet its accessibility goal in 2025. More detailed information on Ontario's Accessibility Action Plan can be found at Ontario's Accessibility Plan or copy and paste https://goo.gl/NEfBNa . ARCH will continue to monitor and report back on AODA issues as they arise. * * ARCH and the St. Michael's Hospital Legal Services Program: A Health Justice Initiative By Johanna Macdonald, legal counsel, Health Justice Initiative Since our launch in January, the St. Michael's Hospital Legal Services Program has continued to develop operational structure as we pilot services at the 80 Bond Street Health Centre. Our office is located at the 80 Bond Street Health Centre, but our initiative will extend to all 40,000 patients of the five Health Centre sites of the St. Michael's Hospital Family Health Team. ARCH's program partners include Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, Neighbourhood Legal Services, St. Michael's Hospital and St. Michael's Hospital Family Health Team. Over the last few months, the on-site lawyer has engaged our legal partners to gauge our best methods to streamline assisted referrals and coordinated education and law reform work. The entire community legal clinic system, Legal Aid Ontario, and the private bar have been extremely supportive of our initiative's four components: 1) Direct legal assistance; 2) Legal education to the health professionals and patients; 3) Law reform and systemic advocacy; and 4) Evaluation of direct legal assistance, legal education and law reform activities. Our initiative's goals are to improve the social determinants of health and experiences of access to justice in the population we are working with. We are currently framing our definitions of social determinants of health and access to justice, and planning evaluation of the initiative's components. To better capture our goals, we are using the term health rather than medical, and justice rather than legal. This month we welcomed James Kreppner Health Law Intern Alyssa Lane, and are in the process of hiring an administrative support position. Grounding our work in a disability rights framework and utilizing a community development model assists us to steer the direction of our initiative as we collaborate together. We look forward to providing more updates on our development. For more information, please contact on-site lawyer Johanna Macdonald at: macdonaj@lao.on.ca * * New Complaint Mechanisms in Ontario Health Care and Education: Bill 8 By Stephanie Marchello, DLI Law Student and Ivana Petricone, Legal Counsel In December 2014, a new law called the Public Sector and MPP Accountability Transparency Act was passed by the Ontario legislature. Bill 8, as it was called before it became law, updates and adds certain provisions to regulate the public sector and ensure that it is better monitored. To help do this, Bill 8 has increased the availability of complaints mechanisms for Ontarians. This occurred in two key areas where the disability community often faces discrimination: health care and education. The establishment of a new "patient ombudsman" is one of the most significant changes. An ombudsman is a person who investigates complaints against public authorities. The purpose of the patient ombudsman is to provide Ontarians with an avenue to voice their concerns about problems faced when receiving health care, which include attendant services. The patient ombudsman will receive and respond to complaints from patients and will try to facilitate a resolution. If a resolution is not possible, the patient ombudsman may decide to investigate the complaint and make public recommendations to the health sector organization. The new law is meant to achieve better practices by increasing public awareness and having a "watchdog" in place. According to a World Health Organization study, people with disabilities report seeking more health care than people without disabilities and yet have many unmet needs. For more information about the study, go to Fact Sheet Disability and Health or copy and paste http://goo.gl/FvmQvJ . People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to report finding health care provider skills inadequate to meet their needs; four times more likely to report being treated badly; and, nearly three times more likely to report being denied care. Given this context, a patient ombudsman has the potential to serve as a useful way for members of the disability community to access health care services that are appropriate to their needs and to advance their rights as patients. The new law also expands the powers of the existing Office of the Ontario Ombudsman, who can now receive complaints about municipalities, school boards and universities. In the education context, the Ontario Ombudsman oversight may serve as beneficial for parents or students in their efforts to secure appropriate accommodation, treatment, and improved disability policy in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education institutions. The Ontario Ombudsman, Andr‚ Marin, stated in a Toronto Star column dated June 20, 2015, that Ombudsman Ontario will begin taking on complaints as of September 1, 2015 as they relate to the delivery of education services by school boards. This is a significant announcement that may have a positive impact for students with disabilities. The added role of the patient ombudsman and the expansion of the Ontario Ombudsman's power to parts of the education sector provide an additional mechanism for persons with disabilities to achieve better access to services as well as rights enforcement. A complaint to the Ombudsman is free, making it more affordable than other advocacy options. The Ombudsman is responsible for the investigation which alleviates some of the pressure and responsibility from those who complain. The Ontario Ombudsman process provides the possibility for the person who complains to remain anonymous. However, it is uncertain whether the same can be said with respect to the patient ombudsman's process. ARCH welcomes these new advocacy measures for the disability community. While these changes are steps in the right direction, many argue that Bill 8 could have gone further in its efforts to increase accountability. It will be important to monitor the effectiveness of the changes for people with disabilities to ensure excellent services in the health care, municipal and education sectors that are accountable to all Ontarians. The Ontario Budget: Who does it Help? By Dianne Wintermute, Staff Lawyer The Ontario Liberal Government released their budget on April 24, 2015. People who rely on Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) for income support do not have much cause to celebrate. A 1% increase to both OW and ODSP rates takes effect in October (ODSP) and November (OW) 2015. The effect of the insignificant rate increases means that these programs will continue to fall well beneath the rate of inflation, a pattern that has been repeated over the past three years. For people with disabilities, the 1% increase applies only to the person who has a disability. Their non-disabled family members will see no increase to their benefits at all. This means that people with disabilities and their families will have very real losses of income over the coming year. Many disability activists are outraged that the government would ignore the living conditions of those Ontarians who are most vulnerable and marginalized. The government has committed to conducting a consultation in the coming year, to consider different ways of restructuring social assistance rates. However details on the consultation process have not yet been made public. A multi-year review of social assistance in Ontario was conducted by Frances Lankin and Munir Sheikh (the Commissioners). Their report, Brighter Prospects, was released in October 2012. The disability community was generally disappointed by the recommendations made by the Commissioners despite their broad consultations with people with disabilities and the organizations that support them, as well as employers and other stakeholders. ARCH hopes that a new consultation will be a meaningful one that provides for rate increases that will afford people with disabilities an adequate standard of living. In addition, ARCH would like to see a concrete and transparent plan in place by the end of the consultations that will detail how the government intends to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The 2014 Budget took away the ODSP Work Related Benefit. Unfortunately, the 2015 budget did not re-introduce this important benefit for people with disabilities. Although sufficient income rates were not adequately addressed in this budget, some measures were announced to improve housing for low-income people, including people with disabilities. The Expert Advisory Panel on Homelessness, which provides advice to the government about ways to end homelessness, is being continued. Additional funding will be provided to the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative. The government will also continue to invest in the Affordable Housing Program. Finally, there will be a review of Ontario's Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy. Additionally, in July 2015, the Child Tax Benefit will be indexed to inflation. This will provide an additional $26.00 per month per child to families eligible for the maximum child tax benefit. The government also announced that additional money will be provided to increase the Financial Eligibility Guidelines for Legal Aid Services. Community Legal Clinics in Ontario, including ARCH, are looking for ways to increase services, and to look at what additional areas of law our communities might want clinics to practice. ARCH will continue to review how the budget is implemented and report its implications for people with disabilities. We will also follow any developments the government has promised to improve the lives of people with disabilities. ** ARCH on Social Media ARCH has leaped into Facebook, Twitter and the YouTube world! Check us out, like us and follow us! Check ARCH's website www.archdisabilitylaw.ca for the Latest ARCH News, Publications including past issues of the ARCH Alert, publications, submissions, fact sheets and more. https://twitter.com/ARCHDisability https://www.facebook.com/ARCHDisabilityLawCentre https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZl_6YpK8XB7LJ_dQxdonlg Become a Member of ARCH If you would like to become an individual member of ARCH, please visit our website at www.archdisabilitylaw.ca or contact our office to request an Application for Individual Membership form. Membership is free. Donating to ARCH While ARCH receives core funding from Legal Aid Ontario and grant funding from other sources, we also rely on the donations from individuals. We ask you to consider being a part of our work by contributing whatever you can. If you are able to assist please donate to ARCH through www.canadahelps.org. Or you can send your donation cheque to: Office Manager ARCH Disability Law Centre 425 Bloor Street East, Suite 110 Toronto, Ontario M4W 3R4 We will promptly send you a charitable receipt. Charitable No. 118 777 994 RR 0001 ARCH ALERT is published by ARCH Disability Law Centre. It is distributed free via e-mail or mail to ARCH members, community legal clinics, and others with an interest in disability issues. ARCH is a non-profit community legal clinic, which defends and promotes the equality rights of persons with disabilities through test case litigation, law/policy reform and legal education. ARCH is governed by a Board of Directors elected by representatives of member groups reflecting the disability community. The goal of ARCH ALERT is to provide concise information, so that people are aware of important developments and resources. Articles may be copied or reprinted to share with others provided that they are reproduced in their entirety and that the appropriate credit is given. We encourage those who receive it to assist with distribution of information in this way. We do ask that both Word and Text Formats are distributed to ensure accessibility. Editor: Roberto Lattanzio Production & Circulation: Theresa Sciberras We welcome your comments, questions and feedback. We will endeavour to include all information of general interest to the community of persons with disabilities and their organizations, but reserve the right to edit or reject material if necessary. Please address communications regarding ARCH ALERT to: Theresa Sciberras, Program and Litigation Assistant, ARCH Disability Law Centre, 425 Bloor St. E., Suite 110, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3R4, Fax: 416-482-2981 or 1-866-881-2723, TTY: 416-482-1254 or 1-866-482-2728, e- mail: scibert@lao.on.ca Website: http://www.archdisabilitylaw.ca/ If you enjoyed this issue of the ARCH Alert, please consider sharing it with others. Word and text versions of our most recent and older issues of the newsletters are available on our website at http://www.archdisabilitylaw.ca/arch-alerts . ARCH Disability Law Centre 425 Bloor Street East, Suite 110 Toronto, Ontario M4W 3R4 www.archdisabilitylaw.ca Voice Telephone: 416-482-8255 Telephone Toll-free: 1-866-482-2724 TTY TTY: 416-482-1254 TTY Toll-free: 1-866-482-2728 Fax Fax: 416-482-2981 Fax Toll-free: 1-866-881-2723 Twitter: http://twitter.com/ARCHDisability Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARCHDisabilityLawCentre Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZl_6YpK8XB7LJ_dQxdonlg