The Toronto Star – March 22 2006 – Involve community in policy decisions Who will benefit from rights plan

Much of the current and growing furor over the future of Ontario’s Human
Rights Commission could have been avoided if the Ontario government had
conducted

an open and inclusive consultation with the community. Persons with disabilities
file by far the largest percentage of complaints to human rights commissions

across Canada and we insist on being involved in all policy decisions that
affect us. Instead the government has been working with a number of human rights lawyers and excluding us.

If the Ontario government would only provide adequate funding, real will and
involve the communities most affected, other ways might be found to make the

Ontario Human Rights Commission the envy of all human rights supporters.

John Rae, President,
Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, Toronto