Nova Scotia Disability Rights are Human Rights
Globe & Mail: Al Etmanski, who has spent decades advocating for disabled people’s rights to housing, livelihoods and autonomy, now has a major part to play in crafting the Canadian Disability Benefit. If implemented, it would make Canada the first country to guarantee disabled people an income above the poverty line.
Nova Scotia’s Accessibility Advisory Board calls for the Province to drop its appeal and take action on systemic discrimination
Claire McNeil: “I first met Marty in the Kings gym where Vince and I occasionally played basketball on Sunday mornings in the mid 1980s before Marty gave up basketball for golf. Years later we met again – this time on the same side – working on behalf of people whose voices were ignored, in advocating to meet their basic needs for supports and services to live in the community. …”
When Nova Scotia’s top court ruled the province discriminated against people with disabilities — by housing them in institutions like nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals — Vicky Levack felt relief and hope for the future. The Oct. 6 ruling found systemic discrimination in how the provincial government placed Nova Scotians with disabilities in institutions, even though they could have lived in the community with support. But last week the province announced it intends to appeal. We hear from Levack, as well as Lawyer Claire McNeil, who’s a part of the Disability Rights Coalition that launched the appeal.
The Nova Scotia government has been “misleading” and “disingenuous” in its attempt to justify appealing a court ruling that found the province culpable of systemic discrimination against disabled people, says a disability lawyer.
“I find the government’s response, rationale as to why they are going to the Supreme Court of Canada misleading in the extreme,” said Claire McNeil, lawyer for the Disability Rights Coalition. (photo: Ryan Taplin)
“‘It’s the right thing to do. It’s the human thing to do,’ Premier Tim Houston said two months ago.
“Now that his government intends to do the opposite, wouldn’t that reversal have to be wrong and inhuman?” -Jim Vibert
The Progressive Conservative government has had a change of heart about appealing a landmark October court decision that found the province culpable of systemic discrimination against disabled persons.
The Nova Scotia government plans to appeal a recent court decision that found there was discrimination against three people with mental and physical disabilities who had sought improved services and housing in the community.
The Nova Scotia government says it will appeal a recent court decision that found there was discrimination against people with disabilities who had sought improved services and housing in the community.
A day after the Oct. 6 Court of Appeal ruling, Premier Tim Houston said his government heard the court’s message “loud and clear,” and he pledged to work with the disabilities community.
He also said he didn’t believe citizens should have to take the government to court to make it “do the right thing.”
But in an emailed comment Thursday, Community Services Minister Karla MacFarlane appears to shift the Progressive Conservative government’s approach.
“I just don’t think anybody should have to take their government to court to get their government to do the right thing,” Premier Tim Houston told a news conference on Thursday.