Accessibility Legislation Across Canada: The current situation

Source: flickr/Patrick Haney

by Linda McKay-Panos

Reposted from LawNow 45(6) with permission

According to Statistics Canada (2017), 22% of Canadians over the age of 15 live with at least one disability that limits their everyday activities. Federal and provincial human rights legislation prohibit discrimination based on mental and physical disability. However, many believe there is a need to proactively address systemic barriers.

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What Needs to be Done if Canada Wants to Remove the Monarch?

by Myrna El Fakhry Tuttle

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyharris/

Recently, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal declined to accept a complaint in a case called The Customer v The Store, 2021 BCHRT 39 (The Customer). Since November of 2020, due to COVID-19, masks have been mandatory indoors in B.C. Before that, many businesses followed recommendations to make face coverings mandatory. Most recently, under Ministerial Orders passed under the authority of the Emergency Program Act, a visitor to an indoor public space must wear a face covering. There are exemptions to the rule. These include where a person is unable to wear a face covering because of a “psychological, behavioural or health condition” or “a physical, cognitive or mental impairment” (see s. 4 of the Order).

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Transgender Inmates in Canada

Source: flickr/Matthias Muller

By Myrna El Fakhry Tuttle

Reposted from LawNow 45(3) with permission

Individuals may identify with a gender that goes along with their sex given at birth, they may identify with a gender that is different from their sex given at birth, or they may identify with a non-traditional notion of gender. “Transgender” characterizes those who identify with a non-traditional gender.

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