AODA Alliance Chair Addresses Jamaican Conference on Access to Justice for Jamaicans with Disabilities

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities

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AODA Alliance Chair Addresses Jamaican Conference on Access to Justice for Jamaicans with Disabilities

November 18 2024

Once again, the AODA Alliance has gone international! It is very exciting that our perspective and experience interests people in other parts of the world who advocate on accessibility for people with disabilities.

Last week, a major conference was held in Kingston, Jamaica exploring the barriers to access to justice experienced by Jamaicans with disabilities. AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky was invited to speak at this conference. The others on the panel with him included, among others, the President of the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Director of Public Prosecutions for Guyana. We applaud the Government of Canada for co-sponsoring this conference.

Details about this event are available on the conference Facebook page. That Here is a link to AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s November 13, 2024 speech. We will let you know when we get this speech posted on the AODA Alliance YouTube page with captioning.

The conference provided a great opportunity to learn from each other’s country and from other Caribbean countries. It addressed barriers in the court system and the law enforcement by police. In some areas, Canada is ahead of Jamaica. In other areas, Jamaica is ahead of Canada.

AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky described positive initiatives in Ontario. For over 16 years, the Ontario Courts Accessibility Committee, appointed by the Chief Justice of Ontario and the Attorney General of Ontario, has overseen progress on removing and preventing disability barriers in Ontario’s courts. They oversee implementation of the landmark 2006 report of the Weiler Committee entitled “Making Ontario’s Courts Fully Accessible to People with Disabilities,” which provides a strong and effective roadmap to the goal of barrier-free courts. He also explained that we have had major problems, notably the Ontario Government’s new Armoury Street courthouse in Toronto, which is full of disability barriers. See the AODA Alliance online video detailing many of the accessibility blunders in this new building.

Canada should learn from the fact that Jamaica has in place a program for training some lawyers and court staff in Jamaican Sign Language. We are not aware of any parallel program in Ontario.

As well, Ontario should organize a similar conference to the one held in Jamaica. Its aim was to identify the barriers that people with disabilities face throughout the broad justice system and to make concrete recommendations for reform. Attendees and speakers included disability advocates and organizations, senior government officials (including the Minister of Justice), representation from the judiciary, the police, other court-related services, the law schools, the Legal Aid system, other academics, and experts in this area from other parts of the world. It was fantastic when participants from so many parts of the community came together formally and informally for two days at the same time and place.

We can be proud that the Government of Canada co-sponsored this Jamaican conference and has funded the Sign Language training for the justice system in Jamaica. We encourage the Government of Canada or of Ontario to undertake similar initiatives here.

What You Can Do to Help

Write the Attorney General of Ontario Doug Downey doug.downey@ontario.ca and the Minister of Justice for Canada Arif Virani MCU@justice.gc.ca and urge them to fund an Ontario conference on access to justice for people with disabilities and Sign Language training for lawyers and court staff,.

Encourage others to watch AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s November 13, 2024 speech at the Jamaica conference on access to justice for people with disabilities.

Learn more about the AODA Alliance’s advocacy on access to justice by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s courts accessibility page.