From the Charter to the Accessible Canada Act: Canada’s Slow March to Equality

"In this third episode on advocacy, the Triple Vision team connects the dots between the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 and the passage of the Accessible Canada Act in 2019. And who better to tell this story than two of Canada’s strongest advocates, who have been on the ground for many years making change happen? In this, our 16th podcast episode, the team interviews Order of Canada and Order of Ontario recipient David Lapofsky about his contributions to advocacy in Ontario and across Canada. We also speak to Yvonne Peters, who has been an advocate since kindergarten! Both these individuals were instrumental in ensuring the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Charter. In this episode you will hear an excerpt from David Lapofsky’s presentation to the House of Commons committee reviewing the draft Constitution in 1980, available on his own Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Alliance (AODA) website. Meanwhile, Yvonne Peters talks candidly about the pros an cons of the 2019 Accessible Canada Act and her concerns that Canada is implementing a “two-tiered” rights system where Canadians without disabilities may go to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, while those with disabilities will need to seek re-dress elsewhere first. “That’s the way it happens for us, always. The barriers that we face aren’t because someone sat down and calculated them. The cost of including us for the most part is negligible. Where there is a cost it’s a cost worth paying. But the cost of not including and providing inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities, that is much, much higher.”"