Disability Policy in CanadaAn Overview (original) (raw)
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Canadian Disability Policies in a World of Inequalities
Canadian disability-related policies are shaped within a global system of inequalities, including colonialism and neoliberalism. Using a critical theory framework, this article examines the complicated material inequalities experienced by people with disabilities and evident in the intersections of disability, gender, Indigenousness, race, and age. The collectively held ideas that give context to disability policies are at odds. Human rights protections are found in the foundational documents of Canadian society and part of its international commitments, yet these commitments often become window-dressing for a pervasive logic that it is better to be dead than disabled, and medical assistance in dying legislation supports this choice. While human rights protections are essential, they are not sufficient for decolonizing inclusion. Constructive actions between Indigenous peoples and settlers may help to find new ways of addressing disability and inclusion in Canada.
Disability Rights Frameworks in Canada
Journal of Individual Employment Rights, 2007
This article provides an overview of legislation and precedent-setting disability rights cases in Canada in the context of employment. It reviews the prevalence and impact of disabilities and identifies various types of accommodations that are ameliorative in the workplace. Key terms and concepts such as the Meiorin test, undue hardship, and bona fide occupational requirements (BFORs) are presented, and the article also includes a brief overview of provincial human rights legislation. Finally, several comparisons are drawn between Canadian and American approaches, and suggestions are made to integrate Canadian strategies into American disability rights frameworks.
Canada's responses to disability and global development
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Canada has taken some positive action in addressing disability in its foreign and development policies, including its long-standing commitments to disabled peoples' organisations globally, and significant engagement in the drafting process of and subsequent ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). But, ultimately, the lack of a rightsbased disability framework in Canada's global development policies, and the implications of an approach primarily directed to disability prevention and rehabilitation, have combined to make Canada unable to effectively realise its commitments to the CRPD Article 32 on international cooperation.
Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 2012
The Canadian disability movement expresses a style of activism distinguished by values and beliefs which are a form of social liberalism. Disability activism, however, is taking place within a contemporary setting in which a set of ideas and interests often called neoliberalism prevail in political discourse and policy making. This article considers the role of neo-liberalism and its interplay with social liberalism in relation to the full citizenship goals of the Canadian disability movement. Political activism, among other things, is a discursive production; an expression of ideas and information as well as a performance of power. Disability activism, in the Canadian context, is a form of social liberalism that emphasizes individual self-development and also community and the rights of numerous politically salient social groups. In many respects, social liberalism is a counter-discourse to the dominant discourse of neo-liberalism; in other ways, they are mutually reinforcing systems of ideas; and, at all times, they connect together in a larger historical and institutional context of particular societies.
Quebec's government established a mechanism to monitor its progress towards achieving the right to equality for people with disabilities. With the goal of strengthening the accountability of public actors, this mechanism is based on legal provisions and inclusive political guidelines. In 2009, the provincial government adopted a policy entitled "Equals in Every Respect: Because Rights Are Meant to Be Exercised" along with other legal dispositions aimed at significantly increasing the social participation of people with disabilities. The Disability Creation Process, a conceptual reference model also known as the Quebec Model, proposes that public actors should be able to identify and act upon environmental obstacles within their respective competences to transform them into facilitators. The challenge facing inclusive policy-monitoring mechanisms is to acquire quantitative and qualitative information-collecting tools and strategies that link the quality of access of the components of the physical and social environment to the quality of the social participation for the various segments of the population with or without disabilities.
Canadian journal of law and society, 2006
RésuméCet article décrit l'histoire de l'équité en emploi et de la législation des droits humains, en ce qui concerne les personnes handicapées aux États-Unis et au Canada. Il compare les approches législatives et judiciaires des deux pays au problème d'accomplir l'égalité pour les citoyens handicapés dans les lieux de travail. En comparant, il aborde les aspects tant positifs que négatifs des deux juridictions. En conclusion, il suggère que le Canada intègre les approches «universelles» et «holistiques», incorporées dans les parties sur l'environnement de la ADA américaine, ainsi que dans les décisions judiciaires canadiennes, afin de créer une solution législative originale. Il suggère que les lois canadiennes qui priorisent l'égalité pour les handicapés devraient se rapprocher des lois portant sur la santé et la sécurité au travail, en exigeant que tous les employeurs respectent une norme d'accessibilité universelle à tous les lieux de travail, indépen...