AODA Alliance
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
Toronto Star Print and Online Editions Cover Disability Barriers in the New Toronto Courthouse
August 25, 2024
SUMMARY
Now it’s the Toronto Star that’s reporting on the serious disability barriers at the new Toronto courthouse! Very prominently set out on page 6 of the front section of the Saturday, August 24, 2024, edition of the Toronto Star is a hard-hitting article that reports on the AODA Alliances recently released, captioned, video. Our video exposes the billion-dollar accessibility bungle that is Toronto’s new Armoury Street mega-courthouse. Earlier this month the AODA Alliance made public a 14-minute video and a more detailed 49-minute video.
Below you can read this excellent new Toronto Star article by journalist Francine Kopun, and an earlier January 29, 2023, Toronto Star article that forewarned of other anticipated problems with this new courthouse before it opened to the public (which did not refer to any disability accessibility concerns).
It is noteworthy that In none of the media reports on this issue, by the Toronto Star, CBC, Global News or City News, has the Ford Government disputed the accuracy of the AODA Alliance’s video. Had the Government disagreed with it, it would surely have told the media.
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There are now 129 days left until 2025, the deadline for the Ford Government to lead Ontario to become accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities according to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act which the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed in 2025. Building a new courthouse replete with disability barriers doesn’t help achieve this goal.
Learn more about the AODA Alliances efforts to advocate for access to justice for people with disabilities by visiting the AODA Alliance website courts accessibility page.
MORE DETAILS
Toronto Star August 24, 2024
Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/a-billion-dollar-bungle-toronto-courthouse-slammed-for-failing-to-be-the-accessible-space-it/article_70e0b064-5ff8-11ef-b631-f31a92ccb6a9.html
‘A billion-dollar bungle.’ Toronto courthouse slammed for failing to be the accessible space it was promised to be
Disability rights activist David Lepofsky says courthouse violates the province’s own Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Disability rights activist and retired lawyer David Lepofsky said he and others raised concerns with the government during and after the construction of the provincial courthouse, which opened in March 2023.
Francine Kopun Senior Writer
The $956-million provincial courthouse in Toronto is under fire again – this time for failing to meet the province’s own accessibility legislation.
Disability rights activist and retired lawyer David Lepofsky has produced two videos, posted to YouTube, detailing the building’s failings, like a lack of accessible parking spots and inadequate wayfinding, calling it “a billion-dollar bungle by the Ontario government.”
Lepofsky said he and others raised concerns with EllisDon, the company awarded the contract to build and maintain the courthouse, and Infrastructure Ontario, the provincial government’s crown agency in charge of the province’s real estate portfolio, during construction and since the courthouse opened in March 2023, but it took a year to produce the video, working with volunteers.
“They made a series of very bad mistakes. They easily could have avoided all of them,” said Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance (AODAA) and visiting research professor of disability rights at the faculty of law at the University of Western Ontario.
Lepofsky said the AODAA flagged numerous concerns to the province long before shovels went into the ground, and he also voiced concerns as a member of the group convened by the government to advise on access issues at the facility.
Ian McConachie, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Ontario, said officials are reviewing feedback on the building from stakeholders, including its accessibility advisory group and the public, with an eye to mitigating issues.
“In order to facilitate this process, the project’s accessibility consultants conducted the final building review and we are gathering their feedback,” said McConachie.
Lepofsky, who is also a member of the Ontario Courts Accessibility Committee, said he had to lobby for the establishment of the access advisory committee for the building, which was formed after the design was largely finalized.
The building violates the province’s own Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), passed in 2005 with a2025 deadline for making Ontario fully accessible, he noted.
Despite that, the new courthouse has numerous barriers, said Lepofsky, among them some issues he had flagged during the process:
There are no accessible parking spots on the court property for the public, and the space designated for WheelTrans drop-off along the west side on Centre Street is often occupied by other vehicles; the WheelTrans area cannot be seen from the waiting area, which is equipped with a monitor, which the visually impaired can’t use.
The wayfinding system that is supposed to help blind people find their way around the building is flawed; the main floor help desk is hard to locate for people with disabilities and does not have knee space to accommodate a person in a wheelchair.
The soaring, multi-floor atrium and shiny white floor result in strong bright light and glare inside the building, creating problems for people with low vision and some people with autism, says Lepofsky. The space has poor acoustics, making it hard to hear, especially the elevator prompts.
In court services, inconveniently located on the third floor, the electronic kiosk where people obtain a number for service is operated using a touch screen, which the blind cannot operate. Only two of the eight service counters are at an accessible height. Hearing loops are only available at two of the eight.
Lepofsky said the building also violates the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, because the barriers discriminate based on disabilities.
The new courthouse has sparked other controversies: Smaller courthouses scattered across the city were closed when Ontario Court of Justice’s criminal operations were consolidated at the new building on Armoury Street, resulting in longer commutes for hundreds of staff.
Falling ceiling tiles and tipping courtroom benches prompted the Ministry of the Attorney General to order Infrastructure Ontario and EllisDon to launch a review of the entire building. Lepofsky and others said people with disabilities are also challenged by the travel to the new centralized facility.
Brad Evoy, executive director of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, said the issues with the courthouse point to more fundamental problems with the justice system when it comes to the disabled, including the Social Benefits Tribunal and Human Rights Tribunal, which are slow and deeply bureaucratic, and the abuse of inmates with disabilities in correctional facilities.
“We’re in the middle of an access-to-justice crisis for disabled people in this province,” said Evoy, whose organization runs programs with disabled prisoners in several federal and provincial prisons.
Infrastructure Ontario said the building achieved a gold rating from the Rick Hansen Foundation, an organization that advocates for accessibility and aims to make public spaces barrier-free.
“While achieving gold demonstrates commitment and that a site is doing many things well, it does not mean that a site is 100 per cent accessible,” spokesperson Laura McBride said.
“In fact, no site is ‘fully’ accessible or 100 per cent perfect as there are always things that can be improved, particularly as technology continues to advance. The Toronto courthouse’s rating is a starting point on their continued journey towards improved accessibility.”
Toronto Star January 29, 2023
Originally posted at: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/new-courthouse-poses-safety-access-to-justice-risks-say-critics/article_6e6bc6c9-2048-5668-bc77-8bc4eca9c82f.html
New courthouse poses safety, access to justice risks say critics
The new hub will amalgamate the bulk of provincial court operations in Toronto, leading to the closure of most of the courthouses scattered across the city.
The Ontario Court of Justice Toronto building along Armoury St. in Toronto.
By Jacques Gallant Courts and Justice Reporter
The organizations representing prosecutors, duty counsel and court staff want the Ontario government to halt completion of the new Toronto courthouse, citing safety and access to justice concerns.
The new 17-storey, 63-courtroom downtown courthouse is set to open this year. It will amalgamate the bulk of provincial court operations in Toronto, leading to the closure of most of the courthouses scattered across the city.
“What I would like to see is that they hit pause and re-evaluate how we should be using this beautiful new building, to address the safety issues, the access to justice issues, and the effect it’s going to have on the local economies in the boroughs” where courthouses will be closed, said Betty Vavougios, president of the Ontario Crown Attorneys’ Association.
“It’s not too late.”
The association is urging the provincial government to only merge the two provincial courthouses that currently exist downtown, at Old City Hall and College Park, and to leave courthouses in North York and Scarborough open.
The association argues there are ongoing safety concerns with putting nearly all Toronto provincial court operations in one downtown location, concerns they say have become heightened due to a recent spate of violent attacks on the transit system.
Vavougios pointed to a secret Toronto police report that the Star obtained in 2018, which found that the new courthouse will bring an “unprecedented number of violent criminals to a single location,” and the potential of having rival gang members attend the same location could spark violence.
“You only have to look at the increases in random violence on the transit system now to realize that adding this to the mix, the new Toronto courthouse, is just going to heighten the danger to the public,” Vavougios said.
Criminal defence lawyers who spoke to the Star this week argue the association’s concerns about safety are overblown. Defence lawyer Alison Craig said there have always been rival gang members in the various courthouses across the city, with measures in place to deal with that situation.
“Courthouse security is pretty strict, I can’t really see the safety concerns there,” she said.
Defence lawyer John Struthers said smaller jurisdictions have had centralized courthouses for decades without major safety issues.
“My view is we’ve got to give it a try,” he said. “If there are problems that develop, they’re going to have to be dealt with, but saying the TTC is unsafe and therefore nobody should come downtown anymore seems to me to be a little bit over the top.”
Craig said she did, however, share the concern regarding the impact of the new courthouse on access to justice.
The Crowns, court workers and duty counsel — the legal aid-funded lawyers who work in courthouses and assist unrepresented accused persons — argue that requiring accused persons, victims and witnesses to travel longer distances to get to court, and having to take more time off work, poses a significant barrier.
“The many court workers who have settled near the neighbourhood courthouses where they work will also face personal hardship at a time when workers across the province are struggling to make ends meet,” said a statement from JP Hornick, president of OPSEU, which represents court staff.
“It’s not too late to reverse this bad decision.”
The local vice-president of the Society of United Professionals, which represents duty counsel, said the local courthouses are also important hubs for their communities, offering social services to those caught up in the justice system.
One central provincial courthouse for Toronto “is not in the best interests of accused persons, it’s not in the best interests of our members, and it’s not in the best interests of victims, witnesses, and justice,” said Dana Fisher.
“I don’t think we see any reason that this should be moving forward at this time.”
Construction of the new courthouse was announced by the previous Liberal government, and began in 2018. A spokesperson for Attorney General Doug Downey said the new courthouse is still scheduled to open this year.
Andrew Kennedy said “extensive consultation” was done with the various legal organizations, including on access to justice issues. And as a result of input from Toronto police and other services, the new courthouse’s “security features will exceed those in other courthouses in Ontario,” he said.
Some of the concerns expressed could be alleviated by a greater use of video court appearances, though the lawyers point out not everyone has access to those capabilities.
Vavougios also said self-represented people who appear in person would get more assistance than over video. And she said it’s not always clear if a witness appearing by video is actually on their own or if someone is in the room potentially coaching them.
Craig argued those concerns are also overblown, saying it’s not been an issue for her in Zoom trials during the pandemic, and said there have also been instances of witness coaching when appearing in person.
Jacques Gallant
Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering courts, justice and legal affairs for the Star.
Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant