At the Time of Your Choosing, Watch the Interview on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” about the Battle in 1980 to Get Disability Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

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

Twitter: @aodaalliance

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance

At the Time of Your Choosing, Watch the Interview on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” about the Battle in 1980 to Get Disability Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

September 20, 2024

Very few know about the battle that people with disabilities in Canada fought 44 years ago to get Parliament to add equality rights for people with disabilities added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms when Parliament was deciding what the Charter would include. On September 16, 2024, TVO’s flagship public affairs program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” included a 26-minute interview with AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky on this very subject. Earlier this year, he published a new memoir about that successful campaign, in which he participated among many others. That victory was a key factor in the later enactment of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act AND THE Accessible Canada Act.

To watch the TVO video on YouTube, just click here. You can also read the memoir that was the subject of this interview. It is available for download at no charge. Its title is: “Swimming Up Niagara Falls! The Battle to Get Disability Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

How You Can Help

Please encourage others to watch this interview. Send them the link to it, which is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rELGQu2ulSI

Post it on social media.

Encourage federal, provincial and municipal politicians to watch it. They are all obliged to comply with the Charter of Rights, including its guarantee of equality for people with disabilities.

There are only 103 days until 2025. That’s the deadline for the Ontario Government to lead this province to become accessible to people with disabilities. Where’s the Ford Government’s comprehensive plan of action to fulfil its duty to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities?