New Video Series: TVO Interviews on 26 Years of the Battle to Get Strong Ontario Disability Legislation Enacted and Implemented – “The Paikin Interviews”

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

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

Website: www.aodaalliance.org

Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @aodaalliance

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

 

New Video Series: TVO Interviews  on 26 Years of the Battle to Get Strong Ontario Disability Legislation Enacted and Implemented – “The Paikin Interviews”

 

June 3, 2025

 

SUMMARY

 

Would you like to learn about the grassroots non-partisan battle in Ontario to make this province fully accessible to millions of people with disabilities? For 26 years, a series of interviews on TVO have gradually told this story, one step at a time.

 

We have now compiled all these interviews in a video series, which we call “The Paikin Interviews!” All appeared on TVO, and in most, the interviewer was legendary journalist Steve Paikin. In a few cases, it was one of his colleagues. In most, but not all of these, it was David Lepofsky being interviewed. He is now Chair of the AODA Alliance and previously was the Co-Chair and then Chair of the predecessor coalition, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee.

 

Steve Paikin has recently announced that at the end of June, he is stepping down from his 19 year long stint with Ontario’s flagship public affairs program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin.” However, he says he is not retiring from journalism.

 

Over time, we have noted that disability issues don’t get the amount of media coverage they deserve. There are a number of journalists who buck that trend and have provided excellent coverage of this issue. This seems in some media contexts to be growing, which is a great thing.

 

Over the past 26 years, however, Steve Paikin has stood out as a leading journalist ready to give important airtime to our issues, all within the spirit of highly professional and even-handed journalism. We are and will always remain indebted to him and the public affairs programs on which he has appeared for this.

 

These videos are all public. They can be used by the media, by school and post-secondary course instructors and teachers, and by anyone else interested in these issues. We hope that this video series will interest anyone concerned with health care policy and practice, disability rights, human rights, social justice and activism, community organizing, public law, constitutional law, anti-discrimination law and policy, history, or political science. We welcome your feedback on these videos. Send your feedback to aodafeedback@gmail.com.

 

This update first gives a short listing of the videos in this series. After that, each video is described, with helpful links to additional information and background relative to each video.

 

How You Can Help

 

  • Please tell others about and widely post this video series. Check out the many other videos that the AODA Alliance has posted:
  • Visit the AODA Alliance website videos page.

 

  • Plow through the important video series on health care barriers facing patients with disabilities in our health care system, and how to fix them.
  • Flip through the equal education video series that the AODA Alliance earlier posted which addresses the grassroots campaign to make Ontario’s education system become barrier-free for students with disabilities.
  • Wander through the AODA Alliance’s disability advocacy history video series that documents the history of Ontario’s grassroots non-partisan campaign for the enactment and effective implementation of strong accessibility legislation for people with disabilities.
  • Sign up to follow the AODA Alliance YouTube channel, to get instant alerts every time we post another new video.

 

 

 

Quick Guide

  1. June 15, 1999 Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee Chair David Lepofsky interview on TVO Studio 2

 

  1. Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee February 20, 2000 Interview on TVO Fourth Reading with Steve Paikin

 

  1. November 5 2001 Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee Chair David Lepofsky on TVO Studio 2 with Steve Paikin

 

  1. October 2 2003 David Lepofsky on TVO Election Night Coverage of Ontario Election Results

 

  1. TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, January 28 2008

 

  1. Agenda with Steve Paikin” May 29, 2010

 

  1. Accessibility in Ontario – David Lepofsky Interview on TVOntario’s the Agenda with Steve Paikin September 22, 2011

 

  1. Creating a Barrier-free Ontario – David Lepofsky’s January 16, 2013 Interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”

 

  1. The Agenda with Steve Paikin” June 11, 2014 Interview with David Lepofsky

 

  1. AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky Interviewed on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” February 2, 2015

 

  1. Special Education Update – David Lepofsky’s Interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” March 3, 2016

 

  1. A Champion for Disability Rights– Lainey Feingold on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” February 13, 2017

 

  1. The Agenda with Steve Paikin Making Progress on Disability Issues

 

  1. November 28, 2019 The Agenda with Steve Paikin – Fighting for a Barrier-Free Ontario

 

  1. May 8, 2020 The Agenda with Steve Paikin – Demanding Disability Rights Amid COVID-19

 

  1. December 8, 2020 The Agenda with Steve Paikin – “A Disaster”: Online Learning in Ontario for Students with Disabilities

 

  1. January 13, 2021 TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Deciding Who Lives: Is Ontario’s Crisis Triage Discriminatory?

 

  1. February 3, 2022 TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Does Ontario’s COVID Plan Ignore Disabled People?

 

  1. May 11, 2022 TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin: The Most Important Election for People with Disabilities?

 

  1. March 28, 2023 Interview on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” — Is Ontario Doing Enough for Students with Disabilities?

 

  1. September 16, 2024 Interview with AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky on “The Agenda With Steve Paikin” on His Memoir About the Battle in 1980 to Get Disability Equality Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

 

  1. February 25, 2025 David Lepofsky on the “Agenda with Steve Paikin” Discusses the Disability Issues in the 2025 Ontario Election

 

  1. June 3, 2025 David Lepofsky’s Final Interview on “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”

 

Detailed Guide

 

Video 1) Title: June 15, 1999 Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee Chair David Lepofsky interview on TVO Studio 2

Link to video: https://youtu.be/FMC0q5a6yv8

Description: TVO’s flagship current affairs program in the 1990s, “Studio 2” was the precursor to the “The Agenda with Steve Paikin.” In this June 15, 1999 interview on Studio 2, Steve Paikin’s cohost Paula Todd interviewed David Lepofsky, Chair of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee (precursor to the AODA Alliance) on the disability issues in the 1999 Ontario general election.

Related resources:

 

Video 2) Title: Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee on February 20, 2000 Interview on TVO Fourth Reading with Steve Paikin

Link to video: https://youtu.be/KzZ7X7LV77o

Description: On February 20, 2000, TVO’s provincial public affairs show Fourth Reading included this interview with Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee

Chair David Lepofsky, with host Steve Paikin.

Related resources:

 

Video 3) Title: November 5 2001 Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee Chair David Lepofsky on TVO Studio 2 with Steve Paikin

Link to video: https://youtu.be/0UcZj-mWgzg

Description: This is the November 5, 2001 interview of Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee Chair David Lepofsky on TVO’s Studio 2 program. The interview is introduced

by co-host Paula Todd, followed by co-host Steve Paikin. This interviewed occurred on the day when the Conservative Ontario Government of Premier Mike Harris introduced Bill 125 into the Ontario legislature, the proposed Ontarians with Disabilities Act, for First Reading, a bill that was widely criticized as too weak:

Related resources:

 

Video 4) Title: October 2 2003 David Lepofsky on TVO Election Night Coverage of Ontario Election Results

Link to video: https://youtu.be/kaMYd_LqsQs

Description: This is an excerpt of the 2003 Ontario election night coverage on TVO, hosted by Steeve Paikin and Paula Todd, which aired live on October 2, 2003. In this excerpt, Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee Chair David Lepofsky is interviewed on the election results from the perspective of people with disabilities.

Related resources:

 

Video 5) Title: TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, January 28 2008

Link to video: https://youtu.be/zwWNswisUl4

Description: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky is a guest on The Agenda’s segment on Living With Disabilities, “Next Stop, Progress”.

Related resources:

 

Video 6) Title: Agenda with Steve Paikin” May 29, 2010

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocRbsLQC_y4

Description: In this interview on TVOntario’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, David Lepofsky talks about the accessibility barriers that impede voters with disabilities, and the steps needed to remove and prevent them.

Related Resources

  • The AODA Alliance’s multi-year campaign to remove the voting barriers impeding voters with disabilities in Ontario, available at this link.
  • The March 17, 2010 AODA Alliance brief to the Ontario Legislature which recommended amendments to strengthen Bill 231, a 2010 law aimed at modernizing Ontario elections., available at this link.
  • The June 26, 2013 AODA Alliance analysis and critique of Elections Ontario’s report on telephone and internet voting, for which the AODA Alliance continues to advocate, available at this link.

 

Video 7) Title: Accessibility in Ontario – David Lepofsky Interview on TVOntario’s the Agenda with Steve Paikin September 22, 2011

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB3yTuq1ErE

Description: In this interview, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky discusses the disability accessibility issues that are in play during the October 2011 Ontario general election.

Related resources

  • The summary of the September 2, 2011 AODA Alliance Queen’s Park news conference on the disability issues in the Ontario 2011 general election and the positions of the political parties on these issues, available at this link.
  • The AODA Alliance’s comparison of the major parties’ positions and promises on the 2011 Ontario election’s disability accessibility issues, available at this link.
  • The September 23, 2011 Toronto Star article on the disability accessibility issues in the 2011 Ontario general election, available at this link.

 

Video 8) Title: Creating a Barrier-free Ontario – David Lepofsky’s January 16, 2013 Interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHWxUCzhTsU

Description: In this January 16, 2013 TVOntario interview, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky gives an update on progress towards a fully accessible province. He also addresses the disability issues as they relate to the then-ongoing leadership race in the Ontario Liberal Party, to choose the replacement for outgoing Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. The AODA Alliance had solicited commitments on accessibility from each of the candidates for Liberal leadership.

Related Resources

  • The commitments on accessibility which the AODA Alliance sought from the candidates for leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, available at this link.
  • The accessibility commitments which Kathleen Wynne made on accessibility in her December 3, 2012 letter to the AODA Alliance, available at this link. Kathleen Wynne was to go on to win the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party and to become Ontario’s premier.

 

Video 9) Title: The Agenda with Steve Paikin” June 11, 2014 Interview with David Lepofsky

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLlYIhS6f_E&t=29s

Description: In this interview on TVOntario, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky discusses the disability accessibility issues in the 2014 Ontario general election.

Related resources

  • The AODA Alliance’s May 16, 2014 virtual news conference on the 2014 Ontario election’s disability accessibility issues, and related background information, earlier in this video series (all information available at this link).

 

Video 10) Title: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky Interviewed on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” February 2, 2015

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JRhfg4U9Us

Description: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and the Ontario Government’s Special Advisor on Accessibility David Onley (formerly Ontario Lieutenant Governor) give an update on progress and challenges on the road to a fully accessible Ontario for people with disabilities. This interview came on the eve of the Ontario Government’s public release of the 2014 final report of the Mayo Moran Independent Review of the AODA’s implementation and enforcement.

Related resources

  • The June 30, 2014 AODA Alliance brief to the Mayo Moran Independent Review of the AODA’s implementation and enforcement, available at this link.
  • To download the Final Report of the Mayo Moran Independent Review of the AODA’s implementation and enforcement, which the Ontario Government made public on February 13, 2015, visit this link.
  • The February 13, 2015 AODA Alliance news release responding to the Government’s release of the final report of the Mayo Moran AODA Independent Review ‘s final report, available at this link.
  • The AODA Alliance’s analysis of the final report of the Mayo Moran AODA Independent Review, including analysis of the findings and recommendations the AODA Alliance supports (link here), and the AODA Alliance ‘s analysis of the findings and recommendations the AODA Alliance does not support (link here).

 

Video 11) Title: Special Education Update – David Lepofsky’s Interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” March 3, 2016

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p00EN6Z7GOM

Description: In this interview on TVOntario, David Lepofsky addresses the need to substantially reform the way education is provided in Ontario to students with special education needs and to all students with disabilities. He draws on his role as AODA Alliance chair, and as chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee of Canada’s largest school board, the Toronto District School Board.

Related resources

  • The AODA Alliance’s long campaign to get the Ontario Government to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA, available at this link.
  • The work and recommendations for reform of the Special Education Advisory Committee of the Toronto District School Board, available at this link.
  • Later in this video series, David Lepofsky’s November 29, 2016 lecture on why Ontario needs to enact an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA (link here), and his January 30, 2017 lecture on why all teachers should be trained to teach all students, including students with disabilities (link here). See also the background documents listed under those two videos.

 

Video 12) Title: A Champion for Disability Rights– Lainey Feingold on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” February 13, 2017

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WOsT1Ppf44

Description: In this TV interview on TVOntario’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”, US disability rights lawyer Lainey Feingold explains her novel approach to resolving disability accessibility and human rights claims, which she calls “structured negotiations”. This is especially important in Ontario, where enforcement of accessibility remains a serious deficiency.

Related resources

  • Lainey Feingold’s February 10, 2017 lecture to the first year class at the Osgoode Hall Law School, included in this video series (and available at this link, and the documents and resources listed there for more information.

Video 13) Title: The Agenda with Steve Paikin Making Progress on Disability Issues

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFp5Ni1x4lQ&list=UUu_u-P3cBFO7D-sAjxd_I-w&index=42

Description: During the 2018 Ontario general election, TVO’s flagship public affairs program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” discussed the disability accessibility issues being raised at the grassroots during the campaign, and the major parties’ platforms on this issue. Steve Paikin interviewed Osgoode Hall Law School visiting professor and AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, and YVONNE FELIX.

Related resources:

 

 

Video 14) Title: November 28, 2019 The Agenda with Steve Paikin – Fighting for a Barrier-Free Ontario

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8MDvJ3cGUE

Description: On November 28, 2019, the eve of the 25th anniversary of the birth of Ontario’s non-partisan grassroots movement campaigning for accessibility legislation Ontario’s flagship public affairs TV program, TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, interviewed Osgoode Hall Law School visiting professor and AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and Thea Kurdi, an accessibility consultant specializing in making the built environment accessible to people with disabilities (with DesignAble Environments). This interview focused in large part on disability barriers in the built environment.

Related resources:

 

Video 15) Title: May 8, 2020 The Agenda with Steve Paikin – Demanding Disability Rights Amid COVID-19

Link to video: https://youtu.be/KmMlTrNbud8

Description: In 2020, Ontario’s flagship public affairs TV program, TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, twice included panels on COVID-19’s impact on people with disabilities that included Osgoode Hall Law School visiting professor and AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky as a panelist. In this, the first of these two episodes that aired on May 8, 2020, Steve Paikin interviewed both David Lepofsky and Wendy Porch, the executive director of CILT, the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto. The panel addressed the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities, and the heightened barriers they face during the pandemic, especially in access to health care and education. This interview took place less than two months into the pandemic. The issues it raised persisted for months afterwards.

Related resources:

 

Video 16) Title: December 8, 2020 The Agenda with Steve Paikin – “A Disaster”: Online Learning in Ontario for Students with Disabilities

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO0MDM54gnA&feature=youtu.be

Description: In this December 8, 2020 interview with Osgoode Hall Law School visiting professor and AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, Ontario’s flagship public affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, presented a panel on the hardships facing students with disabilities in Ontario schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, both those engaged in distance learning and those attending re-opened schools. On the panel in addition to David Lepofsky were Laura Kirby-McIntosh (parent of two children with autism, a high school teacher, and president of the Ontario Autism Coalition) and Paula Boutis (parent of a child with disabilities, member of her community school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee, and president of Integration Action Now. This panel presented a very different picture from the perspective of students with disabilities than the rosy picture of distance learning in Ontario that had earlier been presented by a different panel in the November 13, 2020 edition of The Agenda with Steve Paikin, available at https://www.tvo.org/transcript/2627590/online-learning-during-covid-19.

Related resources:

Video 17) Title: January 13, 2021 TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Deciding Who Lives: Is Ontario’s Crisis Triage Discriminatory?

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkq1NmaXLwk

Description: In the January 13, 2021 edition of TVO’s flagship public affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a debate was held on the impact of Ontario’s critical care triage protocol during the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with disabilities. That protocol was circulated to Ontario hospitals to direct which patients should be refused needed life-saving critical care if pandemic hospital overloads meant that hospitals could not serve all patients and would have to ration critical care services. Disability advocates contended that this critical care triage protocol discriminates against a number of vulnerable patients with disabilities. Debating were AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and ARCH Disability Law Centre lawyer Mariam Shanouda on one side, and Physician Dr. James Downar (an author of the critical care triage protocol) and philosophy/bioethics progressor Udo Schüklenk.

Related resources

 

 

Video 18) Title: February 3, 2022 TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin: Does Ontario’s COVID Plan Ignore Disabled People?

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcpIGlPd84

Description: On February 3, 2022, after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, TVO’s flagship Ontario public affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin interviews Osgoode Hall Law School Visiting Professor of Disability Rights and Legal Education and AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky about the impact of the pandemic on people with disabilities, and the Ontario Government’s ongoing failure to protect the urgent needs of people with disabilities during the pandemic.

Related resources

 

Video 19) Title: May 11, 2022 TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin: The Most Important Election for People with Disabilities?

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBAKVZG9gOY

Description: On May 11, 2022 David Lepofsky, chair of the AODA Alliance, discusses why he thinks this is the most important election in two decades for people with disabilities in the province and what commitments the parties need to make to get Ontario closer to its goal of being accessible by 2025.

Related resources

 

Video 20) Title: March 28, 2023 Interview on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” — Is Ontario Doing Enough for Students with Disabilities?

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ikc7C31kY

Description: How well is the province doing at ensuring students with disabilities get the kind of education they deserve? On March 28, 2023, TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin interviewed David Lepofsky, the volunteer chair of the AODA Alliance. On the same day that this interview later aired, Ontario’s Education Minister tweeted: “@SFLecce The best educator. That’s what students deserve.” This interview however shows that in an Ontario school system full of disability barriers, that too often is not what students with disabilities now get. This is so due to failed Ontario Government leadership and despite the best intentions and efforts of Ontario’s front-line teachers and other education workers.

Related resources:

  • In this interview, David Lepofsky referred to the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee’s final report. It documents the serious barriers impeding students with disabilities in Ontario schools and makes detailed recommendations for reform.
  • Instead of reading that entire report, learn about its reform roadmap by watching a captioned video by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky that summarizes it.
  • During the interview, David Lepofsky talked in part about serious barriers impeding students with vision loss. He has extensive first-hand experience with those barriers. Learn more about those by visiting the Ontario Parents of Visually Impaired Children website’s advocacy page.
  • David Lepofsky told Steve Paikin that the Ontario Parents of Visually Impaired Children has twice written Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce, asking him to direct his Ministry to take action on the unfair barriers facing students with vision loss. The Minister has not answered either letter. This is just one illustration of the many barriers facing students with disabilities. You can read OPVIC’s April 6, 2021 letter to Education Minister Stephen Lecce, and OPVIC’s January 29, 2023 letter to Stephen Lecce.

 

Video 21) Title: September 16, 2024 Interview with AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky on “The Agenda With Steve Paikin” on His Memoir About the Battle in 1980 to Get Disability Equality Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rELGQu2ulSI

Description: On September 16, 2024, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky was interviewed on TVO’s public affairs program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” about his new published memoir about the battle in 1980 to get equality for people with disabilities enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The memoir, which is available for free download on the web, is entitled “Swimming Up Niagara Falls – The Battle to Get Disability Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Related resources:

  • Free Download “Swimming Up Niagara Falls- The Battle to Get Disability Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” on the AODA Alliance website’s publication page in MS Word, Epub, or pdf format or as a free open source audio book. It is also available for purchase As a hard copy print book from Amazon and as an e-book from Kindle.
  • Purchase “Swimming Up Niagara Falls The Battle to Get Disability Rights Added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky as a paperback or e-book on Amazon
  • Video: A Personal Perspective on the 1980-82 Advocacy to Amend the Canadian Charter of Rights to Protect Disability Equality
  • Video: December 12, 1980: David Lepofsky at Parliamentary Committee on Constitution of Canada at this link.
  • Video: (Audio only) David Lepofsky November 26, 1981 Interview on CBC Radio This Country in the Morning re Disability Amendment to Charter of Rights

 

Video 22) Title: February 25, 2025 David Lepofsky on the “Agenda with Steve Paikin” Discusses the Disability Issues in the 2025 Ontario Election

Link to video: https://youtu.be/SQB4dGdxGXk?si=8YHFAhP9PyOoFbq7

Description: On February 25, 2025, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky appeared on “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” to discuss the disability issues in the 2025 Ontario election that was then underway. Because Steve Paikin was sick, he was interviewed by guest host Jeyan Jeganathan.

Related resources:

  • The Accessible Ontario Pledge that the AODA Alliance asked all Ontario political parties to make during the 2025 Ontario general election.
  • The AODA Alliance’s Ontario elections advocacy page, which details the efforts to raise disability issues in the 2025 Ontario general election.

 

Video 23) Title: June 3, 2025 David Lepofsky’s Final Interview on “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WtocN99aI8

Description: On June 3, 2025, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky had his final interview on “The Agenda with Steve Paikin.” Steve Paikin announced a few eeks earlier that he would be leaving the program at the end of June 2025. The interview addressed current issues in the battle for accessibility for people with disabilities, especially in the area of education for students with disabilities.

Related resources: