Ontario By-Election Action Kit — Raise Disability Issues in Ontario’s Three September 3, 2026 By-Elections

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
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aodaalliance
Twitter: @aodaalliance
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance
TikTok @AODAAlliance

August 20, 2026
SUMMARY

An Ontario by-election has been called for September 3, 2026 in three ridings: Scarborough Southwest, Hamilton East – Stoney Creek and York – Simcoe. As in the past, we want to try to get the strongest commitments we can from the candidates to tear down disability barriers in this province.

The AODA Alliance has written the candidates for the four major parties in each riding. Read our letter below. It asks each candidate to make four important commitments that are important to over 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities, including
• To support and not weaken the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
• Support tearing down disability barriers in Ontario’s education system facing hundreds of thousands of students with disabilities including enacting an Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA.
• To oppose the use of public money to create or perpetuate disability barriers, and
• To support reforming the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and the process for enforcing human rights in Ontario.

We will make public any candidates’ responses we receive. Our non-partisan aim is to get the strongest commitments we can on accessibility for people with disabilities. As always, the AODA Alliance does not support or oppose any party or candidate.

Who are the Major Parties’ Candidates?

Scarborough Southwest

Greens: Mark Bekkering
Email: markbekkering@gpo.ca

Liberals: Ahsanul Hafiz
Email: info@votehafiz.ca
Twitter/X: @AhsanulHafizOLP

NDP: Fatima Shaban
Email: fatima.shaban@ontariondp.ca
Twitter/X: @FatimaShabanNDP

PC: Noor Tarun
Email for media inquiries: media@ontariopc.ca

Hamilton East – Stoney Creek

Greens: Pascale Marchand
Email: pascalemarchand@gpo.ca
Twitter/X: @PascaleHamOnt

Liberals: Heino Doessing
Email: hello@hamiltonheino.ca

NDP: Monique Taylor
Email: Monique.Taylor@ontariondp.ca
Twitter/X: @MTaylorNDP

PCs: Jeff Beattie
Email for media inquiries media@ontariopc.ca

York – Simcoe

Greens: Matt Pearce
Email: matt.pearce@greenparty.ca

Liberals: Naomi Davison
Email: info@votenaomi.ca

NDP: Bobby Nikmard
General email: info@ontariondp.ca

PCs: Susan Lahey
Email: susan.lahey@ontariopc.ca

Quick Summary of Disability Accessibility Issues in the September 3, 2026 Scarborough-Rouge River Ontario By-elections

For a decade starting in 1994, Ontarians with disabilities campaigned tirelessly to win the enactment in 2005 of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). All parties unanimously voted for that law.

The AODA has required the Ontario Government to lead Ontario to become fully accessible to people with disabilities by 2025, 20 years after it was passed. Ontario failed to meet that deadline. It now has no multi-year plan to get this province to the goal of full accessibility.

Under the AODA, the Ontario Government is required to enact and enforce all the accessibility standards we need to reach the goal of full accessibility by 2025. Some accessibility standards have been enacted. However, they aren’t enough to get Ontario to ever become accessible. The last accessibility standard was enacted in 2012. AODA enforcement is paltry and ineffective.

How You Can Help, Especially If You Live In or Near One of The Three Ridings Having By-Elections

Key Questions for You to Raise with the Candidates

The questions we encourage you to ask by-election candidates are:

1. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires the Ontario Government to become fully accessible to people with disabilities by 2025. Do you support that law? Will you oppose any efforts to weaken it or any measures under it?

2. Will you support the call by people with disabilities for the Ontario Government to develop an Education Accessibility Standard under the Disabilities Act, to make Ontario’s education system fully accessible to students, parents, and education staff with disabilities?

3. Do you agree that that public money should never be used to create new barriers against people with disabilities, or to perpetuate existing barriers?

4. Do you agree that Ontario needs to reform the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario And the process for enforcing human rights/discrimination claims, to make it expeditious and effective?

ACTION TIP #1: Raise Our Issues at All Candidates Debates and Other By-Election Events

• Publicly ask the candidates questions we listed here.
• Bring copies of this Action Kit to hand out to the public at these events. Ask people you meet at these events how disability barriers affect them and their families and friends.

ACTION TIP #2: Raise Our Disability Accessibility Issues With The Campaign Offices Of Candidates

• Contact the campaign offices of the by-election candidates. Email them this Action Kit. Ask them what their position is on our issues set out in this Action Kit. Urge them or their campaign workers to support our non-partisan call for the Government to kick-start stalled action on disability accessibility.

ACTION TIP #3: Use Social Media To Spread The Word and Tweet Any By-Election Barriers

• Use the incredible power of social media to spread the word on our by-election issues.
• Make as many social media posts as you can on these accessibility issues. Tag the candidates in your posts.
• Take pictures or videos on your smart phone of any accessibility barriers in this by-election. Check out each candidate’s campaign office, their campaign events, and the locations of all-candidates debates. If any lack full accessibility, take pictures or videos of these. Then do social media posts including these photos or videos with descriptions of the accessibility barriers. Use the hashtag #AODAfail in your posts. Let candidates know that if there are any election barriers in any campaign events, you will publicize them on social media.

ACTION TIP #4: Bring Our Disability Accessibility Issues To The Media

• Contact your local media. Urge them to cover this issue. Email them this Action Kit. Urge them to cover these by-election issues that concern over 1.7 million Ontarians with disabilities, as well as their families and friends. Remind them that the huge number of persons with disabilities in Ontario, 1.8 million, is growing as the population ages.
• If you know any reporters, columnists or editors in your community, urge them to cover these issues.
• Call in to phone-in radio shows to bring our issues to the public’s attention. Use this as a way to educate the audience.
• If a candidate or party leader is on a phone-in program, call to ask about our issues, using the questions we listed earlier in this Action Kit.

ACTION TIP #5: Community Organizations — Help Spread The Word Through Your Networks

• If you are a staff member, volunteer, or board member of a community organization, or are on a Municipal Accessibility Advisory Committee, please get your organization to use its network to spread the word on these issues through these action tips.
• Get your organization to link its website to the AODA Alliance’s website. Your link might say “Learn about the campaign to make Ontario fully accessible for over 2.9 million people with disabilities.”

MORE DETAILS

Text of the AODA Alliance ‘s August 20, 2026 Letter to the September 3, 2026 By-Election Candidates
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
United for a Barrier-Free Society for All People with Disabilities
Web: www.aodaalliance.org Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com Twitter: @aodaalliance

August 20, 2026
To:

Scarborough Southwest

Greens: Mark Bekkering
Email: markbekkering@gpo.ca

Liberals: Ahsanul Hafiz;
Email: info@votehafiz.ca

NDP: Fatima Shaban
Email: fatima.shaban@ontariondp.ca

PC: Noor Tarun
Email media@ontariopc.ca

Hamilton East – Stoney Creek

Greens: Pascale Marchand
Email: pascalemarchand@gpo.ca

Liberals: Heino Doessing
Email: hello@hamiltonheino.ca

NDP: Monique Taylor
Email: Monique.Taylor@ontariondp.ca

PCs: Jeff Beattie
Email: media@ontariopc.ca

York – Simcoe

Greens: Matt Pearce
Email: matt.pearce@greenparty.ca

Liberals: Naomi Davison
Email: info@votenaomi.ca

NDP: Bobby Nikmard
Email: info@ontariondp.ca

PCs: Susan Lahey
Email: susan.lahey@ontariopc.ca

Dear Candidates in the Scarborough Southwest, Hamilton East – Stoney Creek and York – Simcoe September 3, 2026 Ontario By-elections:

I write on behalf of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. We are a non-partisan Ontario-wide community grassroots coalition. We seek to achieve a fully accessible Ontario for over 1.8 million Ontarians with disabilities, through the effective implementation and enforcement of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act 2005 (AODA).

Over 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities still face too many barriers when they try to get a job, ride public transit, get an education, use our public health care system, get around in our community, or shop for and enjoy the goods, services and facilities that are available to the public. This hurts all Ontarians. Everyone either has a disability now or is bound to get one later as they age.
In 2005, the Legislature voted unanimously for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act after Ontarians with disabilities campaigned tirelessly for a decade to win its enactment. We have learned, through the experience since it was enacted, that passing a law is one thing; getting it effectively implemented is another.

Since the historic day when the AODA was passed, almost all of the MPPs who voted for it have left the Ontario Legislature. Newer MPPs may know little about the battle to win this important legislation.

We are working to renew and re-invigorate support for this legislation in the Legislature, among all the parties. We aim to ensure that all MPPs strongly support this legislation’s effective implementation and enforcement.

We therefore write you as candidates in the September 3, 2026 Ontario by-elections in the Scarborough Southwest, Hamilton East – Stoney Creek and York – Simcoe ridings. We seek your personal commitments on the following:

1. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires the Ontario Government to become fully accessible to people with disabilities by 2025. Ontario made progress but failed to meet that legal deadline. The AODA remains on the books. The Government must achieve its goal as soon as possible after that deadline.

Do you support that law and its goal as a Government priority, and will you oppose any efforts to weaken it or measures enacted under it?

2. Over one third of a million students with disabilities continue to face serious disability barriers in Ontario’s K-12 and post-secondary education systems. For the past decade, all Ontario political parties have supported the Government creating an enforceable Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA. Yet none has been enacted. Ontario’s underfunded special education program is in crisis.

Do you support the Government reforming education for students with disabilities in Ontario, including enacting an effective Education Accessibility Standard under the AODA to tear down disability barriers in Ontario’s education system?

3. Do you agree that the Ontario Government should implement effective action to ensure that public money is never used to create new barriers against people with disabilities, or to perpetuate existing barriers?

4. When people with disabilities suffer unlawful discrimination, the dysfunctional, backlogged process for filing a human rights complaint and getting a hearing at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario can take 5 years or more. The system is broken. It needs substantial reform.

Do you agree that the process at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario for enforcing human rights should be substantially reformed to recommend reforming the system and making it effective and timely?

You can learn more about these issues by visiting the AODA Alliance website.

Whether or not your party is on record on some or all of these issues, we seek your personal commitment of support on them. Please email your response to us at aodafeedback@gmail.com because the by-election date is approaching. We will make public any responses we receive. We will encourage voters to consider the responses we receive. As a strictly non-partisan coalition, we do not support or oppose any party or candidate. We are eager to work with all parties.

We would be happy to give you more background on Ontario’s accessibility issues, if you wish to contact us. Again, it is easiest to reach us via email by writing to aodafeedback@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont
Chair Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
Twitter: @davidlepofsky