AODA Alliance
March 29, 2006
On Wednesday, March 29, 2006, during Question Period in the Ontario Legislature, NDP Leader Howard Hampton called on the Ontario Government to undertake a public consultation on how to reform the Human Rights Commission, rather than going ahead with its plans to weaken the Human Rights Commission. (See full text below)
Responding for the Government, the Attorney General rejected the call for
further consultations. He said: On the contrary, we’ve been working with those
very groups that the member just referred to for well over a year, and consulting with them.”
Contrary to what the Attorney General said, important community organizations
have not been consulted – organizations that wrote the Government to oppose the plan to weaken the Human Rights Commission and who call for a consultation. These include, for example, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the Canadian Hearing Society, Community Living Ontario, the MS Society, the Disabled Women’s Network, the Ontario Association of the Deaf, the Alliance for Equality for Blind Canadians, and the Canadian Paraplegic Association. The Attorney General’s statement suggests that the McGuinty Government doesn’t think these organizations and others who have voiced the same concerns deserve to be consulted. This is all the more striking since the Government viewed these very organizations and the broader disability community as major partners who deserved to be consulted when it developed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
The Attorney General’s statement in the Legislature is a slap in the face of all
those individuals and community organizations who haven’t been consulted, and
who have asked to be consulted. It is clear the McGuinty Government hasn’t yet
gotten the message. We need you to re-double your efforts. Call as many
Government MPPs as you can. Tell them how you feel about the McGuinty
Government’s response to the call for consultations, set out in this exchange in
the Legislature. To get their contact information, visit:
http://olaap.ontla.on.ca/mpp/daCurMbr.do?locale=en
for tips on what to say, review our action kit at:
Forward this newest development to your local media. Urge them to cover the
issue. Write a guest column for your local newspaper. For contact information
for media outlets around Ontario, visit:
http://dawn.thot.net/media.html
circulate this update to friends and family. Ask them to help our campaign to
prevent the Government from weakening the Human rights Commission.
******
ONTARIO HANSARD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2006
QUESTION PERIOD
Ontario Human Rights Commission
Mr. Howard Hampton (Kenora-Rainy River): My question is for the Premier. You
have proposed changes to the Ontario Human Rights Commission that are opposed by most individuals and non-government organizations that have worked with the human rights commission. Will you scrap these unfair changes that you are proposing, go back to the drawing board, and work with Ontarians with disabilities, new Canadians, visible minorities, to draft a plan for reform that will work at the human rights commission?
Hon. Dalton McGuinty (Premier, Minister of Research and Innovation): To the
Attorney General. Hon. Michael Bryant (Attorney General): Yesterday, I met with
members of the human rights commission, and we talked about these changes, these reforms, that are so long, so long overdue.
I know the member will remember, because he was the Attorney General at the
time, that Mary Cornish filed a report with the NDP government of Ontario,
calling for direct access to the human rights tribunal, which we are seeking to
move forward on, and a number of reforms which we’re seeking to move forward on.
These change are long overdue. They’ve been gathering dust throughout the
time in which the NDP were in power, throughout the time in which the Conservative government was in power. I think everybody understands that the delays that are inherent in the system do not serve human rights in Ontario.
Ontarians deserve to have the best human rights system possible, and we intend
to move forward with reforms to make that human rights system all the better.
Mr. Hampton: Well, Minister, the people who know the human rights commission the best are those Ontarians who have to go to it: Ontarians with disabilities, new Canadians, visible minorities. These are the people who say that your proposed changes are wrong and will make the situation worse. They say your cutbacks may mean certain victims of discrimination will have to hire their own lawyers, or suffer the loss of their rights and their dignity.
As a province, it is our duty to stand up for the vulnerable, not tell them to
fend for themselves. Now, these groups who are among the most vulnerable are
asking you: Will you scrap your unfair and prejudicial plans, go back to the
drawing board, and work with Ontarians with disabilities, work with representatives of new Canadian communities, and visible minorities? Will you work with them to draft a plan that works, rather than your plan, which will
make matters worse.
The Speaker (Hon. Michael A. Brown): The question has been asked. The Attorney
General. Hon. Mr. Bryant: On the contrary, we’ve been working with those very
groups that the member just referred to for well over a year, and consulting
with them.
If we piled up the reports of recommendations, as to how the reforms should
take place and what the reforms should be, you will see a consensus, and you
will see that they’re long overdue. That’s why the Toronto Star, in their
editorial of last month, said that the long overdue reforms are welcome. That’s
why the chair of the Ontario Bar Association said that the changes proposed are
timely and well designed to solve current system problems. That’s why Ruth
Carey, be the executive director of the HIV and AIDS legal clinic said that the
government should be widely applauded for the proposed reform initiative, as
giving people the right to a hearing is a matter of simple justice and fairness.
I’m sure the member doesn’t want to have a situation where he says go back to
the drawing board, which means a step backwards. I’m sure what the member wants is that we, together, take a step forward to improve our human rights system. It’s long overdue. You had a chance to do it, and you didn’t; we are.