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The Long, Arduous Road To A Barrier-Free Ontario For People With Disabilities.
M. David Lepofsky1
This is a contemporary history of an Ontario grassroots disability rights movement. It is an account of this movement's unfinished campaign from 1994 to 2003 to achieve a barrier-free province for persons with physical, mental and/or sensory disabilities through the enactment of strong new legislation to be called the Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA).
Told from inside the movement, this account explains the goals of the ODA movement, why new legislation was sought to remove and prevent barriers that impede persons with disabilities from fully participating in society e.g. in access to employment, goods, services and facilities. It details the origins and pre-history of the ODA movement, how it got off the ground in late 1994, and its actions, strategies and policy positions up until Ontario's provincial election in October of 2003.
This grassroots legislative history includes a thorough description of the legislation which this movement secured in 2001, the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001, the ODA movement's efforts at getting that legislation strengthened during legislative debates in the Fall of 2001, why this legislation ended up being so disappointing, and the ODA movement's strategies to get this legislation implemented from late 2001 to 2003. It concludes with a look to the future when the ODA movement will seek to get Ontario's new Government, elected in October 2003, to substantially strengthen this legislation.
Throughout this account, the reader progressively learns about the lessons that the ODA movement itself gradually learned during its campaign on how to be more effective. This account is the first chapter of a saga which is just embarking on its as-yet unwritten second chapter.
This account is aimed at a wide range of readers including those interested in disability rights, disability policy and/or disability activism, those who may have no grounding in disability issues, but who are concerned more broadly about social justice movements, social change, or the broad worlds of public policy and/or extremely recent political history and those interested in law, including human rights, anti-discrimination and constitutional law.
1 C.M., LL.B. (Osgoode Hall Law School), LL.M. (Harvard Law School), LL.D. (Hon.) (Queen's University). The author served as a founding co-chair of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee, became its chair in 1999, and served in that capacity throughout the balance of the period covered in this account. This is a volunteer position.
Totally apart from and unrelated to this volunteer activity, the author is employed as Counsel with the Crown Law Office Criminal of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. This account is written in the author's personal capacity, and does not purport to represent the views of Ontario's Attorney General or his Ministry.
This account is dedicated to the many wonderful people who helped out with the ODA cause over the many years of this unfinished effort. Many selflessly contributed so much, often without public fanfare or recognition. Several sadly did not live long enough to see all the fruits of their efforts, including, among others, Niagara Falls/St. Catharines ODA Committee Regional Contact Kathy Watts, Sudbury ODA Committee Regional Contact Richard Sawicki, Brockville ODA Committee Regional Contact Frank Algar, an ODA founding member Don Ogder, and London ODA activist/folk-singer Michael Lewis (who composed and performed the song "Still Waiting," putting to music the ODA movement's message. They are all heroes. It is a great honour and a humbling privilege for me to serve in this cause with them.
The meticulous assistance of Mindy Noble and Pauline Rosenbaum with the final text editing of this account, and with the footnotes, is acknowledged with gratitude
© 2003 M. David Lepofsky
National Journal of Constitutional Law, Volume 15, No. 2, April, 2004/
15 NJCL 125-333
To download a zipped copy of the first chapter, click on the link below.
The First Chapter
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