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1980 to 82 Advocacy to Amend the

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Canadian Charter of Rights to Protect
Disability Equality.

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David Lepofsky, Chair, Accessibility for
Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.

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Delivered at the Osgoode Hall Law School,
January

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22nd, 2014 as a Roy McMurtry Clinical
Fellow.

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>> Good morning everyone.

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It's a freezing cold January and it's 8:30
in the morning.

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And we're here to talk about
constitutional law.

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[LAUGH] This is only your second class on

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constitutional law and on the Charter of
Rights.

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So you see a document that was passed over
30

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years ago, with a package of a whole bunch
of rights.

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But what doesn't jump from you jump from
the page when you read

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the charter is that, when that charter was
first proposed in October of 1980.

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All those rights were in there one way or
another except for one.

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And that was equality for people with
physical and mental disabilities.

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And it was due to a campaign by people

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with disabilities and organizations
supporting them that led to

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an amendment during the battle over the
patronization of

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our constitution that got that single
right added in.

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It is worthwhile to begin your study of
the Charter of Rights

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by finding out how the one right that
wasn't initially in got in.

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I had the privilege of being a participant
in that campaign.

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Let me tell you about it.

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I want to explain at the very outset first
that I'm here speaking in

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my personal capacity, not on behalf of the
Ontario government where I work by day.

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And second, to explain that I'm giving
kind of, an oral personal memoir.

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There were many involved in this campaign.

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All contributed.

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I was but one.

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I'm not trying to exaggerate or
over-inflate my contribution.

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I just want to tell you my story.

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I've had a lot of great experiences in my
legal career,

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both my professional job and my community
disability advocacy as a volunteer.

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But there is no date in my entire 35 years

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since I left Osgood Hall Law School with
my law

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degree that was more amazing and more
surreal

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than the 10th of December, 1980.

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I had only graduated from here, but 18
months earlier.

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I'd finished my year articling.

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And back then we had a long, dreary,
eight-month bar admission course.

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I was in the middle of inhaling more

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coffee than you can imagine to get through
it.

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I came home.

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I was living with my parents.

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I came home from a, a day out on a
Wednesday.

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And the phone rang around 5 o'clock.

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I answered it.

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Hello.

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Is this the Canadian National Institute
For The Blind, I was asked.

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I said, who are you looking for?

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They said, is this the Canadian National
Institute For The Blind?

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I said my names David Lapopski, is that
who you're looking for?

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They said, this is the house of commons
and

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we're calling, for the Canadian National
Institute for the Blind.

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Somehow I got past this one and convinced
them

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that I was the one they wanted to talk to.

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[LAUGH] It was the staff of the joint

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committee of the Senate and the House of
Commons.

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[SOUND] Which was reviewing the proposed
new

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Constitution for Canada, including the
charter of rights.

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And they called to indicate that the CNIB

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had asked for a chance to make a
presentation.

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We were invited to do so in 36 hours.

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This was Wednesday at 5:00.

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We were slotted to present Friday morning.

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I was in Toronto, it was in Ottawa.

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Regaining my composure, I managed to
convince them that I

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was actually in a position to speak for
the CNIB.

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Because I was, in fact, their
constitutional spokesperson.

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And with no authority whatsoever, I
accepted the invitation.

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I had no time to call the Executive
Director, or the Chair of

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the Board of Directors, to be sure that
they were prepared to do this.

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I just barreled ahead.

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Let me tell you about what happened over
the next 36 hours.

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But let me first take you back a few
months

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in time to unfold the story that led to
that date.

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In the 1970's, I went to law school here
from '76 to '79.

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We didn't have a charter of rights.

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In constitutional law courses, we didn't
study a charter of rights.

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We didn't talk about constitutional rights
at all.

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We talked about which powers belong to the
provincial government,

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which below to federal government, and
that was about it.

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Over that period, unbeknownst to this
teenager.

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The Federal government had had ongoing

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dialog with the provinces over possibly
bringing

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our Constitution home from the British

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Parliament, and adding a Charter of
Rights.

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We didn't talk about it when I was in law
school, in first year constitutional law.

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We didn't even think about it.

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But during those discussions, to the
extent there

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was any discussion of including an
equality rights provision.

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There were, to my knowledge, no proposals
on the table

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of including equality for people with
physical or mental disabilities.

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It's hardly surprising because even though
various provinces had human rights codes

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statutes that ban discrimination in
employment

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and housing and goods and services.

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On grounds like race, or religion, or sex.

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Disability was not included as an illegal
ground of discrimination

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until starting in the late 70's and into
the 80's.

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We weren't on the legal agenda.

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There was also no movement among people
with disabilities.

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To advocate for a constitutional right to
equality for people with disabilities.

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We didn't talk about it.

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We didn't even think about it.

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Let me summarize my entire thought process
on it before 1980.

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After I finished the first year of law
school, I

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got a job to direct a project at the CNIB.

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Being

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blind myself and a law student, it was
kind of an interesting challenge.

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Called the Blindness Law Reform Project.

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We decided, I hired a number of law
students.

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To work with me as a team and we reviewed
different areas of law

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which we proposed needed to be reformed to
protect the rights of blind people.

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Interestingly, when I looked at all of the
proposals,

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all the chapters that all my colleagues
had written,

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The title of our report came immediately,
Vision and Equality.

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Equality was the theme.

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One of the students working on our project
was a young man named Bruno Cavion.

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Now, Mr. Justice, Bruno Cavion.

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He had done work for human

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rights commissions, and he proposed
studying, writing

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a chapter on whether we should get

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disability included in all human rights
codes.

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He did his work, wrote a good chapter, I
reviewed it, and

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one day I sat there with my colleague, now
Mr. Justice Bruno Cavion.

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And I said, hey while we're proposing all
of these reform

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amendments to include disability in human
rights codes, what about proposing.

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This is the summer of 1977.

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What about proposing that we also have a
right

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to equality for people with disabilities
in the constitution?

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He said something to the effect of, are
you nuts?

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Like, who would ever even think of
including a constitutional right

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to equality in the charter, much less
putting us in it?

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And, my friend, Bruno Cavillon was, of

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course, absolutely right at that point in
time.

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Nobody would even think of it.

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That now, is the end of my research, my
analysis and

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my thoughts on this subject during my
entire stay in law school.

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Pretty in depth.

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Well, the prehistory of the charter battle
doesn't relate to the charter at all.

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It's actually quite interesting.

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In 1976, go back a year.

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The Ontario human rights code did not
include a

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guarantee of equality for people with
disabilities, at all.

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And the human rights commission released a
report called life together, proposing

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that the code be amended.

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To include physical disability.

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It didn't even think about mental
disability.

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Man, have we come a long way since then.

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Over the new three years, from '76 to '79,
the Ontario government studied it, i.e.

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did nothing.

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Then came 1979.

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A new labor administer was appointed named
Dr. Robert Elgie.

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A phenomenal man passed away in the past
year.

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Sorely missed.

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An amazing guy.

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Lawyer and neurosurgeon.

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What a mix.

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Who went into politics because he couldn't

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get enough interesting done in law and
neurosurgery.

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And he brought forward a bill to include a
guarantee of human rights for people with

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disabilities, akin to the Human Rights
Code, but

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not in the Human Rights Code, a separate
law.

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The disability community pulled a
coalition together to fight it.

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Because they wanted our rights in the
human rights code.

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The government quickly backed down and
said all right, all right, all right, we

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won't do it in a separate law, we'll do it
in the human rights code.

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Our coal, that coalition then began
working on

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advocating for the specifics of what
should be included.

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In the guarantee of human rights to people

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with disabilities in the Ontario Human
Rights Code.

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I was in 1980, in the spring of 1980, an
articling student at a private firm.

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I heard about these activities and I
decided to get involved.

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At the provincial level.

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And I soon became a member of the
leadership team.

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The committee that led the advocacy
efforts negotiating the terms of the

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amendments we were seeking with Dr. Robert
Elgey, the provincial labor minister.

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Time doesn't permit me to tell you about
that amazing experience other than to say

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I learned a lot, about how to organize and
do legislative lobbying.

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But we weren't getting as far as we'd
like, and we wanted to put

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pressure on the provincial government
under conservative

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Premier Bill Davis and Labor Minister
Robert Elgie.

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But we didn't want to be too critical.

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Because we didn't want to undermine Dr.
Elgie who

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we thought was trying to get somewhere,
for us.

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So, how do you put pressure, how do you
show that you can get media attention,

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without being too nasty.

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Well, along comes October of 1980.

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Prime Minister Pierre Trudot proposes a

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constitutional package, tables it with the
parliament.

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It includes equality rights, section 15,
but it doesn't include disability.

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Moreover, the way it was initially worded.

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There was no way a court could amend,

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could interpret it to expand the grounds
covered.

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It included an exhaustive list of the
kinds of discrimination forbidden, race,

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religion, sex, age eh, national or ethnic
origin to name some of them.

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But it did not include disability.

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So the idea struck me, and others, that we
should advocate, in Ottawa,

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to try to get The Charter of Rights
amended before Parliament passed it.

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But we didn't have the slightest
expectation

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that there was any hope of success.

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My main thinking, in 1980 in October, in
raising this

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issue was that this would give us a stage
to try to get national media attention.

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Blasting the Trudeau Government, and
Pierre Trudeau's then

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justice minister, a guy named Jean
Chretien, who

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later went on to become the Prime
Minister.

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And we could use as strong a language as

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we wished because we didn't have any hope
of success.

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And it would be a way of signaling to
Queen's Park that

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we're worth dealing with because we could
really turn up the heat.

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This chain of reasoning in retrospect is,
a little amateurish.

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But that's what I was thinking.

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So, I decided personally that I thought
this was a fight worth fighting,

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as did other folks at various parts of the
country, but we didn't do it together.

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We did it separately.

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Let me finish the prehistory by setting
the political stage in the

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fall of 1980, and then I'm going to leap
right into what happened.

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Back then, there was no internet.

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There was no email.

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There were no fax machines.

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There was certainly no social media.

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There were no word processors.

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In fact, there were no personal desktop or
laptop computers at all.

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If you wanted to write a letter to your
politician or prepare

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a press release, you typed it on a thing
called a typewriter.

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I wrote my law exams on those.

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My first one, partway through, I found out
the ribbon

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broke and my brilliant answers were all on
blank paper.

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>> [LAUGH].

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>> I got an A, it was criminal law.

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>> [LAUGH]

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>> I did manage to type stuff after I
found out I

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was typing blank paper, they don't usually
give A's for blank paper.

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At least they didn't back then.

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I'm sure they don't know.

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In any event, I I we didn't have

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Skype and a chance to have telephone or
video conference calls.

239
00:15:33,410 --> 00:15:35,220
If you wanted to write a letter

240
00:15:35,220 --> 00:15:38,540
personally addressed to each member of the
legislature

241
00:15:38,540 --> 00:15:44,450
or parliament or a committee it had to be
retyped over and over and over again.

242
00:15:44,450 --> 00:15:47,010
And if you made a typo you either had to
use

243
00:15:47,010 --> 00:15:50,340
this odd stuff called White-Out or just
start all over again.

244
00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:55,250
And if you sent a letter or a a

245
00:15:55,250 --> 00:15:59,120
press release, you put it in something
called snail mail.

246
00:16:00,870 --> 00:16:03,720
So, things took days to happen.

247
00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,090
The idea now that we write a press
release, email it, post it online.

248
00:16:08,090 --> 00:16:10,650
And you know, ten minutes later if it's a
big enough

249
00:16:10,650 --> 00:16:13,820
story, you, you might see an online
article in the newspaper.

250
00:16:13,820 --> 00:16:14,430
Not ten minutes.

251
00:16:14,430 --> 00:16:18,178
But within an hour or two a story an
online story in the newspaper.

252
00:16:18,178 --> 00:16:19,750
No, nothing like that.

253
00:16:19,750 --> 00:16:22,790
This was the stone age of community
organizing.

254
00:16:25,170 --> 00:16:29,510
So and, and I, in terms of my own personal
world, cuz this is a memoir.

255
00:16:29,510 --> 00:16:32,040
I had not studies the human rights code.

256
00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:34,350
I had learned nothing about constitutional
rights

257
00:16:35,410 --> 00:16:39,840
of to equality when I was at Osgood.

258
00:16:41,190 --> 00:16:43,040
I didn't know anything about this stuff.

259
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:47,370
And I had no personal training in how to
do community organizing

260
00:16:47,370 --> 00:16:53,060
or how to present to a committee of the
Legislature or the Parliament.

261
00:16:53,060 --> 00:16:55,640
We didn't learn how to do that when I was
in law school.

262
00:16:57,280 --> 00:16:59,580
Part of my agenda while I'm here for a
month is to

263
00:16:59,580 --> 00:17:04,560
try to find ways to add that to the legal
educational curriculum.

264
00:17:07,190 --> 00:17:09,690
But on top of that, we did not have a
culture

265
00:17:09,690 --> 00:17:15,540
in the late 70's or 1980 of community
organizing and advocacy.

266
00:17:15,540 --> 00:17:17,495
Many of the disability agencies,

267
00:17:17,495 --> 00:17:20,770
non-profit charitable organizations do
fabulous work.

268
00:17:20,770 --> 00:17:25,130
But giving hard-hitting press conference
wasn't the kind of thing they

269
00:17:25,130 --> 00:17:30,207
typically did to blast the government over
a proposed piece of legislation.

270
00:17:30,207 --> 00:17:35,630
Moreover the Trudeau constitutional
package was highly controversial.

271
00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:39,160
And so wading into that highly
controversial

272
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:42,160
thing was certainly not something that
organizations

273
00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:44,650
which are not that politically active as

274
00:17:44,650 --> 00:17:47,000
legislative advocacy we normally want to
jump into.

275
00:17:49,420 --> 00:17:50,080
Never the less

276
00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,190
I, for my part, decided I wanted to be one
of the people acting.

277
00:17:55,190 --> 00:17:55,820
So what did I do?

278
00:17:57,650 --> 00:18:01,170
I talked to some of my colleagues with
whom I was doing

279
00:18:01,170 --> 00:18:06,940
active in the coalition to advocate for
human rights reforms in Ontario.

280
00:18:06,940 --> 00:18:08,450
And I didn't get any uptake.

281
00:18:08,450 --> 00:18:13,020
Not that people disagreed, people were
just really stretched and really busy.

282
00:18:13,020 --> 00:18:15,890
And battling at Queens Park over the human
rights code

283
00:18:15,890 --> 00:18:18,880
was more than enough to fit in to
overloaded schedules.

284
00:18:20,250 --> 00:18:26,830
Moreover, some of these organizations,
non-profit charitables, were

285
00:18:26,830 --> 00:18:29,900
facing some of the dilemmas that pulled
Canada apart.

286
00:18:29,900 --> 00:18:32,180
You see, Trudeau tried to get the
provinces

287
00:18:32,180 --> 00:18:35,040
to agree to a reform, Constitutional
reform package.

288
00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:38,880
Couldn't get them to agree, so he decided
to propose a

289
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:43,070
unilateral amendment to the Constitution,
the Federal government would go it alone.

290
00:18:44,530 --> 00:18:46,180
Ontario supported him.

291
00:18:47,190 --> 00:18:49,370
New Brunswick supported him.

292
00:18:49,370 --> 00:18:54,650
A number of the other provinces didn't,
especially Quebec, and the West.

293
00:18:54,650 --> 00:18:56,380
And I got word back that some

294
00:18:56,380 --> 00:19:00,680
national disability organization or other
was itself divided.

295
00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:02,130
Some of their western representatives,
they

296
00:19:02,130 --> 00:19:04,190
didn't want to support this constitutional
package.

297
00:19:04,190 --> 00:19:06,790
Because they didn't agree with what
Trudeau was doing, period.

298
00:19:06,790 --> 00:19:09,170
So there was the, the same politics that
was

299
00:19:09,170 --> 00:19:14,820
yanking Canada to the, to the edge of its
nerves.

300
00:19:14,820 --> 00:19:17,520
Was bullied within the community itself.

301
00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:18,420
I don't know how much.

302
00:19:18,420 --> 00:19:20,820
I just know what people told me.

303
00:19:20,820 --> 00:19:24,100
So my own personal decision was for my
part to get involved.

304
00:19:24,100 --> 00:19:24,890
Time was short.

305
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:28,190
So what's the easiest way to do this?

306
00:19:28,190 --> 00:19:31,850
And when I say time was short, Trudeau had
brought the bill forward.

307
00:19:31,850 --> 00:19:34,670
He had scheduled a short period of public
hearings

308
00:19:34,670 --> 00:19:38,360
in Ottawa, and then planned to ram the
package through.

309
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:46,560
So there wasn't a lot of time, for, for,
for strategizing.

310
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:48,385
So I went to the CNIB and I

311
00:19:48,385 --> 00:19:52,300
said, why don't you appoint me your
constitutional spokesperson?

312
00:19:52,300 --> 00:19:54,090
And why don't we pitch for this amendment?

313
00:19:55,950 --> 00:19:58,320
And I got their permission to do so.

314
00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:00,290
But it wasn't just one meeting.

315
00:20:00,290 --> 00:20:01,890
I actually had to write a resolution.

316
00:20:01,890 --> 00:20:06,050
I, the CNIB has a national board and at
the time it had provincial boards.

317
00:20:06,050 --> 00:20:07,440
I was on the provincial board.

318
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:09,210
It's a non-profit charitable.

319
00:20:09,210 --> 00:20:11,240
And I was the chair of a committee of

320
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:15,590
that board called the public education and
advocacy committee.

321
00:20:15,590 --> 00:20:16,980
So I wrote a resolution.

322
00:20:16,980 --> 00:20:18,820
You gotta get a load of this.

323
00:20:18,820 --> 00:20:21,830
Of my committee, calling on the Ontario
Board.

324
00:20:21,830 --> 00:20:24,540
To call on the Canadian Board, the
National

325
00:20:24,540 --> 00:20:28,510
board, to advocate for this a constitution
to include

326
00:20:28,510 --> 00:20:32,450
disability in the charter and if memory
serves to

327
00:20:32,450 --> 00:20:35,970
appoint me to lead the activity as a
volunteer.

328
00:20:35,970 --> 00:20:38,350
And it got through my committee and then I
had to go to the Ontario

329
00:20:38,350 --> 00:20:39,460
Board and then we got it through the

330
00:20:39,460 --> 00:20:42,150
National Board and then I got my
appointment.

331
00:20:42,150 --> 00:20:44,940
Pay was zero, it was a volunteer activity.

332
00:20:44,940 --> 00:20:45,910
So then what do you do?

333
00:20:47,270 --> 00:20:49,040
Well, I did two things.

334
00:20:50,110 --> 00:20:52,820
We had to write a brief to submit to the
government

335
00:20:52,820 --> 00:20:55,850
and ask for a chance to appear before the
standing committee.

336
00:20:55,850 --> 00:20:58,930
Knowing full well that there was
absolutely no chance

337
00:20:58,930 --> 00:21:01,570
we'd get a chance to appear before that
committee.

338
00:21:01,570 --> 00:21:03,340
There were a lot of people that wanted to
appear.

339
00:21:03,340 --> 00:21:04,570
There were on tight timelines.

340
00:21:04,570 --> 00:21:07,840
The line up was big and we weren't the
first in line.

341
00:21:09,970 --> 00:21:12,250
Well I'd never written a legislative
brief.

342
00:21:12,250 --> 00:21:15,740
So I called up the standing committee
staff and I said what should I do.

343
00:21:15,740 --> 00:21:21,020
And I remember one of the staffers, I have
no idea who it was

344
00:21:21,020 --> 00:21:25,630
Said that they have a pile of briefs from
floor to ceiling, make it short.

345
00:21:27,810 --> 00:21:30,180
I will tell you that many who've received
briefs that I've

346
00:21:30,180 --> 00:21:35,260
written insisted would wish that I
continue to listen to that advice.

347
00:21:35,260 --> 00:21:40,805
Members of my coalition say only Lapovsky,
my nickname at law school, was Verbovsky,

348
00:21:40,805 --> 00:21:45,590
[LAUGH] Could prepare a 100 page document
and call it a brief.

349
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:50,740
But in any event, it was a couple of pages
long and we made our pitch.

350
00:21:50,740 --> 00:21:52,650
And we sent it in, in a hurry.

351
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:58,510
The second thing for our part that I
decided

352
00:21:58,510 --> 00:22:01,700
CNIB should do is to reach out to the
media.

353
00:22:01,700 --> 00:22:04,330
There was all this coverage of
constitutional reform.

354
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,770
Let's get into the story.

355
00:22:07,770 --> 00:22:09,450
Now the, we have two problems.

356
00:22:09,450 --> 00:22:11,640
One I knew, and one I learned.

357
00:22:12,780 --> 00:22:17,680
The one I knew was that most of the public
debate grabbing the headlines

358
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:22,860
week after week and day after day, was not
about the content of the charter.

359
00:22:22,860 --> 00:22:24,830
Should we include freedom of expression?

360
00:22:24,830 --> 00:22:26,690
Is the principles of fundamental justice
the

361
00:22:26,690 --> 00:22:30,820
way to include, to frame procedural
rights?

362
00:22:30,820 --> 00:22:33,340
Well, what kind of rights should a
criminally accused person have?

363
00:22:33,340 --> 00:22:36,430
Should we exclude evidence if it's
unconstitutionally obtained?

364
00:22:36,430 --> 00:22:37,790
That wasn't being debated.

365
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,410
In legal circles, there were some debates.

366
00:22:42,410 --> 00:22:45,410
Over should judges have the final say?

367
00:22:45,410 --> 00:22:46,970
Should we leave this to legislatures?

368
00:22:46,970 --> 00:22:48,630
Is this an appropriate thing to do?

369
00:22:48,630 --> 00:22:54,710
But the overall public debate was should
Trudeau be allowed to go it alone.

370
00:22:54,710 --> 00:22:57,140
Is it acceptable for the federal
government, with only

371
00:22:57,140 --> 00:23:00,750
the support of two provinces, to amend the
constitution?

372
00:23:00,750 --> 00:23:02,400
That was what was getting the headlines.

373
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:07,350
And the critics said oh you're just trying
to maintain your legacy in history.

374
00:23:07,350 --> 00:23:09,970
And the supporters said no we need the
charter rights.

375
00:23:09,970 --> 00:23:12,430
And, anyway there is also of course a

376
00:23:12,430 --> 00:23:15,890
huge debate over how the amending formula
should work.

377
00:23:15,890 --> 00:23:21,710
Because once the constitution came here
from from from England.

378
00:23:21,710 --> 00:23:23,900
We'd have to have a formula for figuring
out how to amend it

379
00:23:25,170 --> 00:23:28,770
from then on and that was and still
remains a hugely controversial subject.

380
00:23:30,150 --> 00:23:32,750
So that was, it was predictable that it
was going to be hard to

381
00:23:32,750 --> 00:23:37,320
get coverage on our issue when nobody was
talking about the contents of the charter.

382
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,350
Here's what I didn't know.

383
00:23:39,350 --> 00:23:41,380
I didn't know anything about how to craft
new stories.

384
00:23:41,380 --> 00:23:42,740
I'd gotten some in the past.

385
00:23:44,220 --> 00:23:46,000
Let me tell you about my first phone call.

386
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,250
I won't mention the news organization, but
their initials were CTV.

387
00:23:52,770 --> 00:23:53,590
Phone rings.

388
00:23:53,590 --> 00:23:54,580
News.

389
00:23:54,580 --> 00:23:56,990
Hi, my name's David Lepofsky, I'm the
offical

390
00:23:56,990 --> 00:24:00,090
constitutional spokesman, brackets,
whatever the heck that is, close,

391
00:24:00,090 --> 00:24:02,060
brackets, of the Canadian National
Institute of the

392
00:24:02,060 --> 00:24:04,160
Blind, and we have a new story for you.

393
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,060
What's that, says the, call taker.

394
00:24:07,110 --> 00:24:09,600
Always in a busy and hurried cuz it's an
assignment desk.

395
00:24:11,070 --> 00:24:15,870
We wanna argue, we're now officially
contesting the charter of rights

396
00:24:15,870 --> 00:24:19,740
because it does not include equal equality
for people with disabilities.

397
00:24:20,770 --> 00:24:23,600
From the CTV reporter, I am asked, well,

398
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:28,350
is there anything visual about this story
[LAUGH].

399
00:24:28,350 --> 00:24:28,960
Visual?

400
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,140
It's the Canadian National Institute for
the guess what?

401
00:24:32,140 --> 00:24:33,560
Blind.

402
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,600
[LAUGH] I had not yet learned that the

403
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:40,750
media don't cover issues, the media cover
events.

404
00:24:40,750 --> 00:24:43,370
And what I was calling about was an issue
and

405
00:24:43,370 --> 00:24:46,380
I was later to learn over and over again
in doing

406
00:24:46,380 --> 00:24:50,880
my community advocacy, that a news story
just, we don't like

407
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:55,790
what the government's doing, sometimes can
get coverage, but often won't.

408
00:24:55,790 --> 00:24:58,460
But we didn't get much if any coverage at
all.

409
00:25:00,630 --> 00:25:01,720
So what do you do next?

410
00:25:03,270 --> 00:25:07,290
The next weeks unfold, we tried writing
letters

411
00:25:07,290 --> 00:25:09,710
but an opportunity came up that we frank,

412
00:25:09,710 --> 00:25:11,510
that I frankly hadn't expected and part of

413
00:25:11,510 --> 00:25:14,079
doing advocacy is grab every opportunity
you can.

414
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:20,990
You see 1981, the next year, had been
declared by the United Nations

415
00:25:20,990 --> 00:25:26,540
to be the International Year Of The
Disabled Person, IYDP.

416
00:25:26,540 --> 00:25:30,830
And it's theme was full of participation
and equality.

417
00:25:32,490 --> 00:25:36,800
And Canada had cosponsored the U.N.
resolution.

418
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:38,270
So declaring that year.

419
00:25:39,590 --> 00:25:45,200
So our government had decided in 1980, in
anticipation of the

420
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,030
next year being the International Year of
People of Disabled Person.

421
00:25:49,030 --> 00:25:52,350
To appoint a committee of parliament,
chaired by then

422
00:25:53,500 --> 00:25:57,630
back bencher liberal member of parliament,
now senator David Smith.

423
00:25:59,140 --> 00:26:03,790
To look into the status of people with
disabilities across Canada.

424
00:26:04,990 --> 00:26:09,080
It held hearings and various groups made
presentations.

425
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:14,210
One of which was in the Fall of 1980, that
the Constitution should,

426
00:26:14,210 --> 00:26:19,240
the Charter of Rights should be amended to
include equality in Section 15.

427
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:20,420
The equality rights provision.

428
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,110
Of the many deponents that appeared, I had

429
00:26:24,110 --> 00:26:26,330
the opportunity of doing, being one of
them.

430
00:26:26,330 --> 00:26:30,200
Not for CNIB but of interest for the
Canadian Jewish Congress.

431
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,920
The Canadian Jewish Congress decided to
make a deposition.

432
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:37,370
Professor Fred Zemans of this law school
was heading up that proposal.

433
00:26:37,370 --> 00:26:39,180
He called and said could you help.

434
00:26:39,180 --> 00:26:40,390
I said, sure.

435
00:26:40,390 --> 00:26:42,490
Off we went to Ottawa, and one of our
pitches

436
00:26:42,490 --> 00:26:46,880
to David Smith was please include equality
in section 15.

437
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:50,240
Again, one of many, many, many deponents.

438
00:26:52,900 --> 00:26:55,820
That committee ended up passing a
resolution.

439
00:26:55,820 --> 00:26:58,760
It was an interesting one, because they
had liberals, conservatives, and

440
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:02,930
DP, and the conservatives and DP were
against the unilateral patriation.

441
00:27:02,930 --> 00:27:04,000
So what they did is they came with a

442
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,550
compromise resolution, it said, look,
we're not saying if there

443
00:27:07,550 --> 00:27:10,740
should be a charter, but if there is one,
you

444
00:27:10,740 --> 00:27:13,370
should amend it to include equality for
people with disabilities.

445
00:27:14,690 --> 00:27:19,230
So that dynamic was going on in the Fall
of 1980.

446
00:27:19,230 --> 00:27:21,640
Then comes the phone call.

447
00:27:24,250 --> 00:27:26,610
Wednesday the 10th at 5 o'clock.

448
00:27:26,610 --> 00:27:27,600
Oh my god.

449
00:27:28,970 --> 00:27:32,470
After I take the phone call, accept

450
00:27:32,470 --> 00:27:36,410
the invitation, put the phone down,
immediately walk

451
00:27:36,410 --> 00:27:41,360
upstairs, lie down in bed, look at the
ceiling and go what do I do now?

452
00:27:43,270 --> 00:27:46,340
I called the CNIB Vice President, got the

453
00:27:46,340 --> 00:27:49,180
green light that what I accepted was
actually okay.

454
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,820
They put a call out to the executive
director who was in

455
00:27:52,820 --> 00:27:56,260
BC to get him on a plane, from BC back to
Toronto.

456
00:27:56,260 --> 00:27:58,620
He was literally flying the entire time
from

457
00:27:58,620 --> 00:28:00,680
that call until I walked into the hearing.

458
00:28:03,530 --> 00:28:06,520
And then I had to prepare what we were
going to say.

459
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,440
This is an amazing story, but we didn't

460
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,250
have laptop computers and opportunity for
online research.

461
00:28:13,250 --> 00:28:14,550
I did two things.

462
00:28:15,580 --> 00:28:19,060
I called a friend of mine who was then a
new friend of mine.

463
00:28:19,060 --> 00:28:21,200
Just met him recently, named Mark Gold,
who was

464
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:23,900
a professor of law here, went on to be
associate

465
00:28:23,900 --> 00:28:27,010
dean, had written his master's the year
before at

466
00:28:27,010 --> 00:28:30,770
Harvard on equality, and I said, get me
your master's.

467
00:28:30,770 --> 00:28:34,410
I fired it over to CNIB, they got someone
to read it on tape.

468
00:28:34,410 --> 00:28:36,210
This is all by taxi.

469
00:28:36,210 --> 00:28:38,650
They read it on tape, we didn't have audio
books.

470
00:28:38,650 --> 00:28:41,400
The taxis were coming to my house with
tapes by

471
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,560
the hour, so I could be reading his
master's thesis.

472
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:52,330
And meanwhile, I also realized that I had
to figure out what,

473
00:28:52,330 --> 00:28:55,660
if, if we're complaining, we've got to
tell them what we're complaining about.

474
00:28:56,660 --> 00:29:02,180
I need examples of laws that violate the
equality of people with disabilities.

475
00:29:03,270 --> 00:29:06,320
Well fortunately the year before when I
was articling, we

476
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:11,120
had just been exposed to this newfangled
technology called QuickLaw.

477
00:29:12,130 --> 00:29:13,390
Online legal research.

478
00:29:14,420 --> 00:29:15,760
By the way back then they didn't even have

479
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,480
full cases only head notes and we thought
wow!

480
00:29:19,980 --> 00:29:24,620
I can read case summaries and online and
search on terms.

481
00:29:24,620 --> 00:29:30,070
Well, the problem with doing QuickLaw
research it had all the legislation on it.

482
00:29:30,070 --> 00:29:32,770
But nobody had QuickLaw wired into your
office.

483
00:29:33,930 --> 00:29:35,940
Remember I was working at a law firm at
this point

484
00:29:35,940 --> 00:29:39,050
anyway, but back then it was so new that
if you wanted

485
00:29:39,050 --> 00:29:41,610
it in your office they had to lay in
special cabling and

486
00:29:41,610 --> 00:29:45,260
equipment or else you had to go to the
offices of QuickLaw.

487
00:29:45,260 --> 00:29:48,868
So 5:30 or 6:00 at night that Wednesday I
got

488
00:29:48,868 --> 00:29:53,580
the phone number for a QuickLaw on Queen
Street around Bay.

489
00:29:53,580 --> 00:29:57,770
Whoever answered, nice young woman, I
said, I hope you're not leaving yet.

490
00:29:58,950 --> 00:29:59,780
I have a problem.

491
00:29:59,780 --> 00:30:04,090
And I said, I, I'm a law student, I'm

492
00:30:04,090 --> 00:30:07,060
blind, I'm, speaking for the CNIB, and
we've gotta

493
00:30:07,060 --> 00:30:09,640
go in 36 hours and tell the House of

494
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,880
Commons and the Senate about laws that
violate our rights.

495
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:14,680
And you folks have the way to find out.

496
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:16,620
And I can't get down there to, to do

497
00:30:16,620 --> 00:30:19,220
the research because I got to go to Ottawa
tomorrow.

498
00:30:19,220 --> 00:30:21,120
Can you do the research online for me?

499
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:22,575
By the way I have no money.

500
00:30:22,575 --> 00:30:27,129
[LAUGH]
I said if you want to bill CNIB go ahead.

501
00:30:28,660 --> 00:30:29,485
Make my day.

502
00:30:29,485 --> 00:30:32,710
[LAUGH] I don't believe they ever did.

503
00:30:32,710 --> 00:30:36,880
So I start, you can telling her search
terms handicap which

504
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,460
we use to use back then, disabled, also,
you name it.

505
00:30:40,460 --> 00:30:44,310
She is reading results and I have a tape
recording

506
00:30:44,310 --> 00:30:46,960
running next to me and I am dictating what
she's saying.

507
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:52,950
Disabled vehicle, highway traffic, a, no,
no, no, no, no, doesn't really help.

508
00:30:52,950 --> 00:30:55,930
I mean, whenever it came up, she was
reading

509
00:30:55,930 --> 00:30:58,560
them to me, and I was dictating them out
loud.

510
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:02,365
That alone would be surreal enough.

511
00:31:02,365 --> 00:31:04,030
>> [LAUGH]

512
00:31:04,030 --> 00:31:07,620
>> But it's, there was more, cuz you
see, a day or two

513
00:31:07,620 --> 00:31:13,550
before, beloved Beatle, John Lennon, had
been gunned down in New York City.

514
00:31:13,550 --> 00:31:17,790
The world was mourning, we all were
mourning.

515
00:31:17,790 --> 00:31:23,130
And thousands of people had just converged
to express their love

516
00:31:23,130 --> 00:31:28,760
for him across the street from QuickLaw,
at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.

517
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:30,910
Right in front of City Hall.

518
00:31:30,910 --> 00:31:34,460
And the thousands of people were singing
aloud.

519
00:31:34,460 --> 00:31:36,800
All we are saying is give peace a chance.

520
00:31:38,460 --> 00:31:41,990
Imagine, all these great, visionary
Beatles songs

521
00:31:41,990 --> 00:31:43,940
are being sung by thousands, and I'm

522
00:31:43,940 --> 00:31:45,680
hearing in the background, is I'm hearing,

523
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:51,930
well, there's highway traffic act,
disabled vehicle [LAUGH]

524
00:31:51,930 --> 00:31:53,820
And I'm not exactly in the position to
say, can you

525
00:31:53,820 --> 00:31:56,165
tell them to shut up, I'm trying to get my
research done.

526
00:31:56,165 --> 00:31:59,770
[LAUGH] Anyway I was with them.

527
00:31:59,770 --> 00:32:00,810
It was grieving too.

528
00:32:02,470 --> 00:32:05,970
So I got these ideas together, and the
next morning I'm, the tapes are

529
00:32:05,970 --> 00:32:09,300
coming and the cabs are coming and I get
eventually later in the day.

530
00:32:09,300 --> 00:32:12,240
I get in a cab to go to the airport to fly
to Ottawa.

531
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,850
I had no idea who's even gonna play, pay
for the airline ticket.

532
00:32:14,850 --> 00:32:16,820
Did I know that Parliament pays for these
things?

533
00:32:18,230 --> 00:32:21,820
They put us up in the shuttle area, hotel.

534
00:32:21,820 --> 00:32:23,375
I said, can I order food?

535
00:32:23,375 --> 00:32:25,030
>> [LAUGH]

536
00:32:25,030 --> 00:32:26,968
>> I mean, what do I know from expense
accounts?

537
00:32:26,968 --> 00:32:29,530
And up till late at night, I'm writing my
notes,

538
00:32:29,530 --> 00:32:33,550
and the next morning, I walk in to make
the presentation.

539
00:32:34,630 --> 00:32:36,920
It's the 12th of December, 1980.

540
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,610
Anyone else would be excited.

541
00:32:40,710 --> 00:32:42,680
I was, I felt terribly guilty.

542
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:42,950
Why?

543
00:32:42,950 --> 00:32:46,150
It was my mother's birthday, and here I
was, away from home.

544
00:32:47,490 --> 00:32:52,210
Anyway, I make the pitch, I'm pleased to
tell you that these were the

545
00:32:52,210 --> 00:32:57,080
first hearings before any committee of
Parliament

546
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,760
that were ever broadcast on television
live.

547
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:04,800
And I'm pleased to tell you that because
they were also video-recorded

548
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:09,930
on something called videotape and I got a
copy of that videotape.

549
00:33:09,930 --> 00:33:15,030
And I later digitized it and it's now on
YouTube, so you can watch it.

550
00:33:15,030 --> 00:33:16,690
I will tell you that the dominant thing
that you

551
00:33:16,690 --> 00:33:20,165
will experience by watching it is: A),I
had hair back then.

552
00:33:20,165 --> 00:33:22,450
[LAUGH] Lots of it.

553
00:33:23,710 --> 00:33:26,290
And B, my voice sounds higher.

554
00:33:26,290 --> 00:33:27,885
I'm convinced it was the recording.

555
00:33:27,885 --> 00:33:33,090
[LAUGH] Let me summarize what I had to
say.

556
00:33:34,300 --> 00:33:36,980
In, a, and this is an argument.

557
00:33:36,980 --> 00:33:38,310
Welcome to your careers.

558
00:33:38,310 --> 00:33:41,930
The most amazing opportunities may involve
zero prep time.

559
00:33:41,930 --> 00:33:47,460
And all you can draw on is the resources
that you get here at law school.

560
00:33:47,460 --> 00:33:49,020
So, pay attention.

561
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:52,790
From now till you graduate, it all helps.

562
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:59,140
The pitch we basically made, and I was one
of three different

563
00:33:59,140 --> 00:34:03,250
opponents who came from the disability
community on different days to present.

564
00:34:03,250 --> 00:34:05,359
But the pitch we basically made was this.

565
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,350
Number one, people with disabilities face
discrimination.

566
00:34:11,060 --> 00:34:14,650
Number two, it includes discrimination in
legislation.

567
00:34:16,500 --> 00:34:18,500
Number three, that's not fair.

568
00:34:19,510 --> 00:34:23,550
We tried to also respond to the arguments
that

569
00:34:23,550 --> 00:34:26,050
we had heard in the public arena up til
then.

570
00:34:27,950 --> 00:34:29,800
We were told, oh it's good enough if we're
in

571
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,980
human rights, if disabilities are included
in human rights codes.

572
00:34:32,980 --> 00:34:34,420
The answer is no.

573
00:34:34,420 --> 00:34:36,580
Well, for one thing Ontario didn't even
have disabilities in the human

574
00:34:36,580 --> 00:34:40,220
rights code, we were still fighting for it
and had been for years.

575
00:34:40,220 --> 00:34:43,380
Or had been on the agenda I should say for
years.

576
00:34:43,380 --> 00:34:46,590
But also the charter was needed so that

577
00:34:46,590 --> 00:34:50,940
we could challenge legislation, as well as
government action.

578
00:34:52,620 --> 00:34:56,600
Drawing on the information I got from
QuickLaw over the

579
00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:02,290
phone while listening to Geor, John Lennon
songs, I gave examples.

580
00:35:02,290 --> 00:35:04,310
When I re-read that transcript.

581
00:35:04,310 --> 00:35:07,970
And I see those examples, I can still see
me like lying in a bed in my bedroom.

582
00:35:09,150 --> 00:35:11,060
What else have you got?

583
00:35:11,060 --> 00:35:13,460
Let's look at Nova Scotia legislation try
there.

584
00:35:13,460 --> 00:35:16,500
Maybe we'll find something better and so
on.

585
00:35:16,500 --> 00:35:17,720
But in any event.

586
00:35:17,720 --> 00:35:19,280
The other argument that we made was this.

587
00:35:20,790 --> 00:35:23,050
The way the equality provision was worded.

588
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,240
It didn't guarantee equality for all.

589
00:35:27,990 --> 00:35:29,780
It just said equality without

590
00:35:29,780 --> 00:35:31,670
discrimination based on certain deemed
grounds.

591
00:35:31,670 --> 00:35:32,190
And we said look.

592
00:35:32,190 --> 00:35:35,590
Equality for some, means equality for
none.

593
00:35:38,540 --> 00:35:41,340
We knew the argument was being raised
against us

594
00:35:41,340 --> 00:35:43,999
disability might be to hard to define and
we said.

595
00:35:45,550 --> 00:35:47,360
I'm paraphrasing, but like, give me a
break.

596
00:35:48,510 --> 00:35:50,400
The charter's full of vague terms, freedom

597
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:52,970
of expression, freedom of religion,
fundamental justice.

598
00:35:52,970 --> 00:35:55,090
None of them are going to be in a
dictionary.

599
00:35:55,090 --> 00:35:57,650
That's what constitutions are about.

600
00:35:58,730 --> 00:36:00,730
And finally, we knew that lurking out
there

601
00:36:00,730 --> 00:36:02,569
was the boogeyman of what would it cost.

602
00:36:04,530 --> 00:36:08,310
And our answer was, nobody's costing all
the other charter rights.

603
00:36:08,310 --> 00:36:12,600
Noon'es coming in and saying, well, what
will, will fair trial rights cost?

604
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,100
Well we can't afford that one, so let's
just get rid of that.

605
00:36:16,930 --> 00:36:20,280
Equality for people from racialized
communities, we could

606
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,900
afford that one, but gender no, no too
expensive.

607
00:36:23,900 --> 00:36:26,300
So why are you holding that one up against
us?

608
00:36:29,220 --> 00:36:35,056
Anyway it was a and if you read the lead,
or watch the lead in my presentation.

609
00:36:35,056 --> 00:36:39,442
The first thing I did was to use the line
when the argument

610
00:36:39,442 --> 00:36:44,110
we used whenever we do any advocacy on, on
these kind of issues.

611
00:36:44,110 --> 00:36:48,330
We said, you know, the biggest problem you
think we face is our disability.

612
00:36:49,460 --> 00:36:50,290
But it isn't.

613
00:36:50,290 --> 00:36:53,710
The biggest problem we face is the, the
impediments people put in our way.

614
00:36:55,370 --> 00:36:59,440
And that idea is probably more well known
now than it was in

615
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:01,929
the 70's, but it was so important that we
had to lead with it.

616
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:04,980
So, what happened after that?

617
00:37:06,090 --> 00:37:08,510
We do the presentation, they ask me

618
00:37:08,510 --> 00:37:11,470
some questions, which is somewhat
entertaining to watch.

619
00:37:12,498 --> 00:37:19,010
And I flew home and felt guilty about
missing half of my mother's birthday.

620
00:37:21,100 --> 00:37:25,010
And after that comes the next phase of the
battle.

621
00:37:25,010 --> 00:37:26,060
The community.

622
00:37:26,060 --> 00:37:27,380
Other presentations were made.

623
00:37:27,380 --> 00:37:30,420
The two other major disability ones were
by two

624
00:37:30,420 --> 00:37:33,250
organizations that still exist but they
changed their names.

625
00:37:33,250 --> 00:37:35,760
The Canadian Association for the Mentally
Retarded, now

626
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,920
called Community Living, Canadian
Association for Community Living.

627
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,370
And a coalition of provincial
organizations of

628
00:37:42,370 --> 00:37:45,720
the handicapped now called Council
Canadians with Disabilities.

629
00:37:45,720 --> 00:37:49,350
Leading players, none of us called each
other to compare notes.

630
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:54,030
Meanwhile in the back rooms, I was to
learn later

631
00:37:54,030 --> 00:37:59,000
David Smith was lobbying his caucus one
member at a time.

632
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:01,850
To try to get the Disability Amendment
through.

633
00:38:01,850 --> 00:38:04,330
We added to our argument the fact that it
would be

634
00:38:04,330 --> 00:38:09,830
a cruel irony, if the charter was
patriated and enacted in 1981.

635
00:38:09,830 --> 00:38:13,230
The international year of the disabled
person.

636
00:38:13,230 --> 00:38:16,120
Canada co-sponsoring that resolution in
the UN.

637
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:17,930
The theme being equality.

638
00:38:17,930 --> 00:38:21,570
And we leave equality for people with
disabilities out of our own constitution.

639
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:28,535
after, and, and the other thing that we
did was we tried to use

640
00:38:28,535 --> 00:38:32,630
I and many others as many opportunities to
put the pressure on as possible.

641
00:38:32,630 --> 00:38:36,730
I heard that a couple of cabinet ministers
were speaking at my particular synagog.

642
00:38:36,730 --> 00:38:38,769
I went down there and popped up with a
question.

643
00:38:40,060 --> 00:38:44,530
A cab, a different Cabinet Minister was on
Cross Country Checkup on CBC.

644
00:38:44,530 --> 00:38:47,990
I was reading real estate for the Bar
admission course with one

645
00:38:47,990 --> 00:38:50,490
ear holding the phone in the other ear and
dialing and dialing.

646
00:38:51,730 --> 00:38:53,190
Others were doing the same thing.

647
00:38:54,660 --> 00:38:59,080
And then came the 12th of January 1982.

648
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:02,770
After all the hearings are over the way
the

649
00:39:02,770 --> 00:39:07,470
legislative process works is the
government reviews all the feedback.

650
00:39:07,470 --> 00:39:11,740
And comes forward and the justice minister
comes before the committee and basically

651
00:39:11,740 --> 00:39:18,630
says here's what here's what I'm prepared
to do and then takes questions.

652
00:39:18,630 --> 00:39:25,110
Now in a moment I'm gonna have Professor
Pyg read out what Jean Chretien said and

653
00:39:25,110 --> 00:39:27,370
then how he answered a question, a series

654
00:39:27,370 --> 00:39:31,170
of questions, from Lauren Nystrom, an NDP
position member.

655
00:39:31,170 --> 00:39:33,700
But let me just explain what he did.

656
00:39:33,700 --> 00:39:38,090
There were two main groups who were asking
to be added to section 15.

657
00:39:38,090 --> 00:39:42,350
And everybody was saying strengthen the
actual way it described equality.

658
00:39:42,350 --> 00:39:45,560
I won't go into the wording on how to
strengthen equality,

659
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:51,730
but Justice Minister Chretien agreed to
that proposal to strengthen those words.

660
00:39:51,730 --> 00:39:55,070
The two groups that wanted in, this is
fascinating

661
00:39:55,070 --> 00:40:00,880
in hindsight, were people with
disabilities and gays and lesbians.

662
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:07,240
And back in 1980 and '81 the idea of
including gays and lesbians

663
00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:12,750
in human rights protection was politically
a huge uphill battle.

664
00:40:12,750 --> 00:40:14,710
We've come a long way since then.

665
00:40:14,710 --> 00:40:18,790
I'm talking about in terms of even
political acceptability in the community.

666
00:40:18,790 --> 00:40:21,310
Much less actually getting it through the
legislature.

667
00:40:22,310 --> 00:40:24,020
And I remember when I was at this law
school.

668
00:40:24,020 --> 00:40:27,660
A classmate who was a lead activist in
the, in the gay rights community.

669
00:40:27,660 --> 00:40:30,040
We talked about the different battles we,
we

670
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:32,770
were each battling for, for the same
thing.

671
00:40:32,770 --> 00:40:35,430
Well what the federal federal government
decided to do.

672
00:40:35,430 --> 00:40:37,630
And you'll, you'll hear this passage in a
moment.

673
00:40:37,630 --> 00:40:41,020
But what they decided to do was, they were
gonna open end section15.

674
00:40:41,020 --> 00:40:42,340
They were gonna open up the, they

675
00:40:42,340 --> 00:40:45,000
weren't gonna add any new grounds of
discrimination.

676
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:49,330
They wouldn't put sexual or disability in.

677
00:40:49,330 --> 00:40:51,830
But what, they would expand the wording

678
00:40:51,830 --> 00:40:56,040
so it would say equality without
discrimination,

679
00:40:56,040 --> 00:41:00,050
and in particular, without discrimination
based on

680
00:41:00,050 --> 00:41:03,160
race and national ethnic origin and so on.

681
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:04,940
So that the courts could add grounds.

682
00:41:05,950 --> 00:41:08,660
When Justice Minister Chretien was called
upon to

683
00:41:08,660 --> 00:41:11,010
answer and you'll hear the quotation in a
moment.

684
00:41:11,010 --> 00:41:12,850
Why not include disability?

685
00:41:12,850 --> 00:41:16,220
He said handicap, cuz that was the term we
all used, of course we don't use it now.

686
00:41:16,220 --> 00:41:18,440
The terminology changes every 20 minutes

687
00:41:20,460 --> 00:41:21,100
in this area.

688
00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:24,880
Not every 20 minutes, but every few years.

689
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:30,230
But what happened was he said,
contradictorily.

690
00:41:30,230 --> 00:41:33,320
We don't want to include it because we
don't know how to define disability.

691
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:35,930
We don't think equality for people with
disabilities have

692
00:41:35,930 --> 00:41:38,300
matured enough, we think human rights
codes are the

693
00:41:38,300 --> 00:41:41,940
way to go and any way it's opened up so
you can get in there by the courts.

694
00:41:43,750 --> 00:41:48,860
And so our, to which the obvious reaction
is, look, if we're not ready for it.

695
00:41:48,860 --> 00:41:50,550
Why are you giving us the chance to get in
and

696
00:41:50,550 --> 00:41:53,060
if you think we should get in because
you're opening it up,

697
00:41:53,060 --> 00:41:55,090
why not just put it in so we don't have to

698
00:41:55,090 --> 00:41:58,190
go to, all through, all sorts of court
proceedings to get there.

699
00:41:58,190 --> 00:42:00,400
So Richard could you just read the two
passages.

700
00:42:01,610 --> 00:42:01,750
>> Sure.

701
00:42:01,750 --> 00:42:04,130
The, the statement from Chretien?

702
00:42:04,130 --> 00:42:04,620
>> Yeah.

703
00:42:04,620 --> 00:42:09,000
There's first there's the passage that he
said before the committee.

704
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:12,699
And then after that is the passage that in
exchange with Lauren Nightstrum.

705
00:42:14,070 --> 00:42:18,365
>> So I have, you know, I wish I could
do a Chretien accent, but I can't.

706
00:42:18,365 --> 00:42:20,540
>> [LAUGH]
>> Equality rights.

707
00:42:20,540 --> 00:42:23,340
There has been much discussion of the
non-discrimination

708
00:42:23,340 --> 00:42:26,110
provisions of the charter, as found in
section 15.

709
00:42:26,110 --> 00:42:29,550
I want to deal with this in some detail.

710
00:42:29,550 --> 00:42:33,030
First, I want to state that I agree with
the proposal made by the advisory

711
00:42:33,030 --> 00:42:37,840
council on the status of women and the
National Association of Women in the Law.

712
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:41,090
That the section be entitled Equality
Rights, so as to stress

713
00:42:41,090 --> 00:42:44,030
the positive nature of this important part
of the charter of rights.

714
00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:47,860
I want to take this opportunity, to
congratulate

715
00:42:47,860 --> 00:42:50,810
all of the witnesses who testified on this
section.

716
00:42:50,810 --> 00:42:54,030
I want to specifically to complement the
Advisory Council

717
00:42:54,030 --> 00:42:57,890
on the Status of Women for a particularly
fine brief.

718
00:42:57,890 --> 00:43:01,110
As well as for an impressive presentation
before you.

719
00:43:01,110 --> 00:43:03,140
The work of the council has greatly
influenced

720
00:43:03,140 --> 00:43:05,710
the government, as have the presentations
of the

721
00:43:05,710 --> 00:43:08,690
many witnesses who have spoken on this
subject

722
00:43:08,690 --> 00:43:12,090
on behalf of women's groups, the
handicapped and others.

723
00:43:13,260 --> 00:43:16,800
A provision on equality rights must
demonstrate that there

724
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:20,850
is a positive principle of equality, in
the general sense.

725
00:43:20,850 --> 00:43:22,850
And, in addition, a right to laws which

726
00:43:22,850 --> 00:43:28,230
assure equal protection and equal benefits
without discrimination.

727
00:43:28,230 --> 00:43:30,750
To ensure the foregoing and that equality
relates to

728
00:43:30,750 --> 00:43:33,920
the substance as well as the
administration of the law.

729
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:36,350
I would be prepared to accept an amendment
to

730
00:43:36,350 --> 00:43:40,600
section 15-1, so that it would read as
follows.

731
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:44,550
Every individual is equal before and under
the law, and has the

732
00:43:44,550 --> 00:43:46,520
right to the equal protection and

733
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:50,210
equal benefit of the law, without
discrimination.

734
00:43:50,210 --> 00:43:53,540
And in particular without discrimination
based on race, national

735
00:43:53,540 --> 00:43:58,402
or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex or
age, period.

736
00:44:01,470 --> 00:44:04,200
I know that many witnesses have
recommended either that the

737
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:10,360
grounds for nondiscrimination be widened
to include handicap persons or others.

738
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:12,740
Or that there be no specific enumeration
and that

739
00:44:12,740 --> 00:44:15,880
more discretion be left in the hands of
the courts.

740
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:20,120
The government has studied these
representations with great care.

741
00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:23,560
The position of the government is that
certain grounds of discrimination

742
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:29,050
have long been recognized as prohibited,
race national or ethnic origin,

743
00:44:29,050 --> 00:44:33,410
color, religion and sex, are all found in
the Canadian Bill

744
00:44:33,410 --> 00:44:37,260
of Rights, and are capable of more ready
definition than others.

745
00:44:38,390 --> 00:44:42,710
I want to make clear that the listing of
specific grounds where discrimination is

746
00:44:42,710 --> 00:44:45,420
most prohibited, does not mean that there

747
00:44:45,420 --> 00:44:48,820
are not other grounds where discrimination
is prohibited.

748
00:44:48,820 --> 00:44:51,880
Indeed as society evolves, values change

749
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:55,620
and new grounds to discrimination become
apparent.

750
00:44:55,620 --> 00:44:57,260
These should be left to be protected by

751
00:44:57,260 --> 00:45:01,830
ordinary human rights legislation, where
they can be defined.

752
00:45:01,830 --> 00:45:03,550
The qualifications spelled out in the

753
00:45:03,550 --> 00:45:06,919
measures for protective action specified
by legislatures.

754
00:45:07,940 --> 00:45:10,990
For example, it was only four years ago
that federal human rights

755
00:45:10,990 --> 00:45:13,780
legislation specifically provided
protection for the

756
00:45:13,780 --> 00:45:16,290
handicapped in the area of employment.

757
00:45:17,830 --> 00:45:20,340
Recently the Special Parliamentary Task
Force on

758
00:45:20,340 --> 00:45:22,590
the Handicap, chaired by David Smith, has

759
00:45:22,590 --> 00:45:25,020
recommended changes and, and improvements
in the

760
00:45:25,020 --> 00:45:28,630
Human Rights Act, with respect to the
handicapped.

761
00:45:28,630 --> 00:45:33,720
The government will be acting on some of
the recommendations of the task force.

762
00:45:33,720 --> 00:45:35,710
The government is also proposing to act on

763
00:45:35,710 --> 00:45:38,400
some of the recommendations made by the
Cana,

764
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:41,110
Canadian Human Rights Commission in this
area, and

765
00:45:41,110 --> 00:45:43,740
will propose amendments to the Human
Rights Act.

766
00:45:45,170 --> 00:45:49,590
But if legislatures do not act, there
should be room for the courts to move in.

767
00:45:49,590 --> 00:45:53,120
Therefore, the amendment which I mentioned
does not list

768
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,730
certain grounds of discrimination to the
exclusion of all others.

769
00:45:56,730 --> 00:45:59,680
Rather, it's open ended and meets the

770
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:03,600
recommendations made by many witnesses
before your committee.

771
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,970
Because of the difficulty of identifying
legitimate new grounds

772
00:46:06,970 --> 00:46:10,160
of discrimination, in a rapidly evolving
area of the

773
00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:13,500
law, I prefer to be open ended rather than

774
00:46:13,500 --> 00:46:16,620
adding some new categories with the risk
of excluding others.

775
00:46:17,970 --> 00:46:20,080
That's the end of that statement.

776
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:21,440
>> And then later is when.

777
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:23,777
>> Do you have the passage there where
Lauren Nistrom is questioning you?

778
00:46:23,777 --> 00:46:24,490
>> No, he didn't give me.

779
00:46:24,490 --> 00:46:25,760
>> Oh, it didn't show up in the email.

780
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:26,650
Must've wiped that.

781
00:46:26,650 --> 00:46:32,460
Anyway, what happened, I'll summarize it,
is he's asked, like, why not add it now?

782
00:46:32,460 --> 00:46:34,200
And he said, well it hasn't matured.

783
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:36,830
Or and, and he said it's hard to define.

784
00:46:36,830 --> 00:46:37,970
The same kinda arguments.

785
00:46:37,970 --> 00:46:38,810
Hard to define.

786
00:46:40,470 --> 00:46:42,610
And better dealt with in human rights
codes.

787
00:46:42,610 --> 00:46:47,920
So let me tell you what happened with me,
cuz this is actually quite amazing.

788
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:50,320
In terms of just serendipity.

789
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:54,870
I was sitting at home studying for, yes,
another bar exam,

790
00:46:54,870 --> 00:46:57,490
and the TV was running in my bedroom, and
this was on.

791
00:46:57,490 --> 00:47:00,290
And it was the evening.

792
00:47:00,290 --> 00:47:04,390
I saw this answer and I was understandably
appalled.

793
00:47:04,390 --> 00:47:08,640
So I walked over to the telephone and I
called the Globe and Mail.

794
00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:12,540
Fortunately it was before deadline cause
it's a morning paper.

795
00:47:12,540 --> 00:47:15,820
And I said, I got the assignment desk and
I said this is David

796
00:47:15,820 --> 00:47:18,450
Lepofsky the official constitutional
spokes person for

797
00:47:18,450 --> 00:47:20,170
the Canadian National Institute for the
Blind.

798
00:47:20,170 --> 00:47:23,350
Brackets whatever that is those brackets
fortunate at

799
00:47:23,350 --> 00:47:25,570
this point in time I didn't have the same

800
00:47:25,570 --> 00:47:27,560
amount of media coverage I've had since
then

801
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:30,370
on accessibility issues and nobody knew
who I was.

802
00:47:30,370 --> 00:47:34,160
I'm not saying everybody does now most
most don't but a few

803
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:38,140
do and I've done enough interviews that
some people go yeah him.

804
00:47:38,140 --> 00:47:43,160
But back then they didn't know, and
fortunately,

805
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:44,890
he could of called, hung up and said,

806
00:47:44,890 --> 00:47:48,220
you know, call me, call back tomorrow, we
want to check to see if you're for real.

807
00:47:48,220 --> 00:47:51,239
Whoever the reporter was kept listening.

808
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:54,540
I said, Mr. Chretien has just said he is
leaving people

809
00:47:54,540 --> 00:47:58,580
with disabilities out in the cold, he's
out of touch with reality.

810
00:47:59,810 --> 00:48:03,200
You know, we are really, and I, and I made
my pitch.

811
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:06,580
He essentially, I guess, told me to talk
slower, I started

812
00:48:06,580 --> 00:48:10,920
describing what was going on, slowly, and
I heard his typewriter typing.

813
00:48:12,100 --> 00:48:14,310
The story ran the next day.

814
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:17,410
It, we couldn't have been luckier.

815
00:48:17,410 --> 00:48:20,740
See, at this point the Trudeau package was
so

816
00:48:20,740 --> 00:48:23,740
controversial and Trudeau's main strategy
was he can't get

817
00:48:23,740 --> 00:48:25,520
the Premiers to agree so he's trying to
appeal

818
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:29,380
to the public over the heads of the
Premiers.

819
00:48:29,380 --> 00:48:32,290
So, any story about this kind of thing had

820
00:48:32,290 --> 00:48:36,380
a lot of potential if it got into the
news.

821
00:48:36,380 --> 00:48:37,869
But we had a lot of trouble getting news.

822
00:48:39,310 --> 00:48:41,470
The next day after this.

823
00:48:41,470 --> 00:48:43,480
That was the 12th, I guess it was the 13th

824
00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:47,480
of January, the Globe and Mail ran, and it
quoted,

825
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:49,990
if memory serves, it didn't include just
an article, but

826
00:48:49,990 --> 00:48:54,190
either large quotes, or the entire key
parts of the statement.

827
00:48:54,190 --> 00:48:57,080
And sidebar to it was my article.

828
00:48:58,220 --> 00:49:01,600
And Richard you got it there can you just
read it out?

829
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:05,730
>> I can read this is, so this is the
Globe and Mail, January 13th, 1981.

830
00:49:05,730 --> 00:49:10,330
Headline, Disabled Out in the Cold,
Spokesman at CNIB says.

831
00:49:10,330 --> 00:49:13,740
And the text reads, the liberal
government's refusal

832
00:49:13,740 --> 00:49:16,780
to expand equality rights to include the
handicapped.

833
00:49:16,780 --> 00:49:20,300
Makes a mockery of Canada's participation
in the International Year of the

834
00:49:20,300 --> 00:49:25,360
Disabled, a spokesman for the Canadian
National Institute for the Blind says.

835
00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:29,390
Rather than moving to protect the
handicapped, Ottawa has decided to let

836
00:49:29,390 --> 00:49:35,050
discriminatory laws remain on the books,
said David Lupofsky, a CNIB director.

837
00:49:35,050 --> 00:49:38,587
Who appeared before the Parliament Entry
Committee on the Constitution last month.

838
00:49:38,587 --> 00:49:44,020
Mr. Lupofsky said that Justice Minister
Jean Chrétien's remarks in

839
00:49:44,020 --> 00:49:48,960
making the announcement, quote, have
absolutely no relation to reality.

840
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,210
He's saying that the term handicap is too
vague,

841
00:49:52,210 --> 00:49:54,280
and that no one will know what it means.

842
00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:56,310
That's absolutely ridiculous.

843
00:49:56,310 --> 00:49:58,210
It's very clear what we're talking about.

844
00:49:58,210 --> 00:49:58,658
Endquote.

845
00:49:58,658 --> 00:50:01,605
Mr. Lepof, Mr. Lepofsky also criticized

846
00:50:01,605 --> 00:50:04,900
Mr. Chretien for suggesting that
entrenched protection

847
00:50:04,900 --> 00:50:07,460
for the physically and mentally disabled

848
00:50:07,460 --> 00:50:10,910
would only duplicate existing human rights
legislation.

849
00:50:10,910 --> 00:50:14,160
On the contrary he said, much of the
current legislation is

850
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:18,395
concerned only with discrimination in the
workplace, or in rental agreements.

851
00:50:18,395 --> 00:50:23,050
Quote, those provincial statutes don't
address themselves to all the other

852
00:50:23,050 --> 00:50:25,570
provincial and federal laws which
discriminate

853
00:50:25,570 --> 00:50:28,650
against the handicapped, Mr. Lepofsky
said.

854
00:50:28,650 --> 00:50:32,855
He cited laws which prohibit blind people
from sitting on juries in some provinces.

855
00:50:32,855 --> 00:50:37,330
Denying minimum wages, minimum wage
protection to some handicap

856
00:50:37,330 --> 00:50:40,908
people and forbid some mentally handicap
couples from marrying.

857
00:50:40,908 --> 00:50:44,204
>> That's [INAUDIBLE].

858
00:50:44,204 --> 00:50:46,230
>> So, I mean, serendipity.

859
00:50:46,230 --> 00:50:49,760
When I got the call on the Wednesday, the
10th of December, I

860
00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:53,720
asked if there was any way in to go and do
this hearing.

861
00:50:53,720 --> 00:50:56,990
I was obviously in shock, and I said,
look, is there any

862
00:50:56,990 --> 00:50:59,920
you could do it, I, I could do it next
week or something?

863
00:50:59,920 --> 00:51:02,390
And they said, basically, take it or leave
it.

864
00:51:02,390 --> 00:51:04,670
If I'd had a bar exam that Friday rather
than

865
00:51:04,670 --> 00:51:06,520
the following Friday, I wouldn't have been
able to go.

866
00:51:07,810 --> 00:51:13,090
If I had been watching a different tv
program on the 12th rather than watching

867
00:51:13,090 --> 00:51:16,320
Justice Minister Chretien's statement, or
if they hadn't

868
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,260
carried it live, this article wouldn't
have run.

869
00:51:19,260 --> 00:51:22,620
I'm not saying this is all decisive in
anything in the campaign.

870
00:51:22,620 --> 00:51:25,820
It was decisive only in the sense that It
was, it

871
00:51:25,820 --> 00:51:30,310
was a decisive part of my contribution,
whatever that contribution may be.

872
00:51:32,430 --> 00:51:37,470
anyway, the next days led to the big
change.

873
00:51:37,470 --> 00:51:43,800
A few days after this, during debates in
the Standing Committee, a liberal member,

874
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:46,060
I believe it was on the 16th of January, a
liberal member of the

875
00:51:46,060 --> 00:51:49,080
Standing Committee I asked Justice
Minister Kushti

876
00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:52,890
if they might reconsider the disability
amendment

877
00:51:54,070 --> 00:51:55,330
in light of the fact that this

878
00:51:55,330 --> 00:51:57,650
is the international year for people with
disabilities.

879
00:51:59,490 --> 00:52:00,370
And he said he would.

880
00:52:02,300 --> 00:52:04,300
Then comes the 26th of January.

881
00:52:05,940 --> 00:52:07,370
Back up a bit.

882
00:52:07,370 --> 00:52:10,800
The year before, I articled for a private
firm, and one of the lawyers there who I

883
00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:15,230
did a little bit of work with and met very
briefly was a man named Eddie Goldenberg.

884
00:52:15,230 --> 00:52:20,730
And he, Goldenberg went onto become, when,
when, when he, when Chretien got

885
00:52:20,730 --> 00:52:24,410
elected reelected or, excuse me, became
Justice

886
00:52:24,410 --> 00:52:26,790
Minister, became one of his policy
advisers.

887
00:52:26,790 --> 00:52:30,430
When I appeared before Standing Committee
on the 12th of

888
00:52:30,430 --> 00:52:35,070
December, 1980, after I was done speaking
and I'm walking out.

889
00:52:36,740 --> 00:52:39,300
He came up and said, David it's Eddie
Goldenberg, I'm working

890
00:52:39,300 --> 00:52:41,710
for, for Justice Mister, Chretien and I
said we should talk.

891
00:52:43,720 --> 00:52:48,470
Foolish me, I should've like talked right
then or called him the next day.

892
00:52:48,470 --> 00:52:51,150
One the morning of the 26th I decided to
call him up.

893
00:52:52,310 --> 00:52:55,100
I called the office, somehow I got
through, and I said,

894
00:52:55,100 --> 00:52:57,150
let me give you the 28 reasons why you
really should.

895
00:52:57,150 --> 00:52:58,380
He said we're gonna do it.

896
00:52:58,380 --> 00:52:59,660
But you gotta listen to me, you really
got.

897
00:52:59,660 --> 00:53:02,120
He said, we're gonna do it.

898
00:53:02,120 --> 00:53:06,870
And later that, so I, I floated for the
rest of the day.

899
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:09,560
It wasn't public.

900
00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:13,060
And later that day David Cromby,

901
00:53:13,060 --> 00:53:15,940
conservative member of the legislature for
parliament.

902
00:53:15,940 --> 00:53:18,780
Former member, mayor of this city.

903
00:53:18,780 --> 00:53:23,560
Put forward the amendment it passed, and
the rest is history.

904
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:28,529
Interestingly as with many events in our
campaign for accessibility over the years.

905
00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:35,320
That amendment got to memory very little,
attention in the media.

906
00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:39,530
There is one little PS to this story, and
I

907
00:53:39,530 --> 00:53:42,140
wanna wrap up by telling you a bit about
the consequences.

908
00:53:45,050 --> 00:53:51,110
the, in the spring, The package finished
going through Parliament.

909
00:53:51,110 --> 00:53:56,260
And then, the well known history unfolded
where the opposition

910
00:53:56,260 --> 00:53:59,990
forced Prime Minister Trudeau to refer to
the Supreme Court of

911
00:53:59,990 --> 00:54:03,460
Canada to the question of whether he could
amend the

912
00:54:03,460 --> 00:54:06,400
Constitution without all the provinces or
most of the provinces agreeing.

913
00:54:07,650 --> 00:54:11,300
The supreme court of Canada rendered its
decision in the fall.

914
00:54:11,300 --> 00:54:14,890
Negotiations began were undertaken between
the governments.

915
00:54:14,890 --> 00:54:17,720
A key player was Roy McMurtry, a trained
general from Ontario

916
00:54:17,720 --> 00:54:20,840
and after whom my fellowship is named and
an amazing fellow.

917
00:54:22,032 --> 00:54:28,130
And one of the proposals that came out was
that they that

918
00:54:28,130 --> 00:54:31,660
was the basis of a deal to get more
provinces on site.

919
00:54:31,660 --> 00:54:36,300
All provinces except Quebec was to include
in the charter section 33.

920
00:54:36,300 --> 00:54:41,080
It's the section that provides that the
parliamentary legislature can

921
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:44,630
actually pass a law that violates some of
the charter rights.

922
00:54:44,630 --> 00:54:46,410
Not all of them, but some of them.

923
00:54:46,410 --> 00:54:51,500
If it includes a clause in that law that
says this law operates notwithstanding the

924
00:54:51,500 --> 00:54:54,330
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
and that,

925
00:54:54,330 --> 00:54:56,270
that lasts for five years and then
expires.

926
00:54:56,270 --> 00:54:57,830
They've gotta reenact it.

927
00:54:57,830 --> 00:55:04,850
So, when this hit, the, the proposal of
the power of legislature of Parliament to

928
00:55:04,850 --> 00:55:09,690
override the, the charter various equality
seeking groups

929
00:55:09,690 --> 00:55:12,920
went into action to try to oppose it.

930
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:15,640
Principally, aboriginal groups and women's
groups.

931
00:55:16,768 --> 00:55:22,690
And from my part I was off doing graduate
work in the States.

932
00:55:22,690 --> 00:55:25,030
I was doing my masters of law at Harvard.

933
00:55:25,030 --> 00:55:31,460
And I was able to get through to CBC and
give an interview in the morning one day.

934
00:55:32,550 --> 00:55:36,620
On one of the call-in shows long distance,
just to make our pitch saying

935
00:55:36,620 --> 00:55:39,980
equality rights shouldn't be subject to
legislative

936
00:55:39,980 --> 00:55:42,960
override but not withstanding clause of
Section 33.

937
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:49,670
Well obviously, those who oppose that
lost.

938
00:55:49,670 --> 00:55:53,790
It got included cuz it was the basis of
the deal and here we are.

939
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:57,700
Let me conclude with some observations.

940
00:55:57,700 --> 00:56:03,530
First, in your legal careers, you will
never know when serendipity will strike.

941
00:56:04,580 --> 00:56:08,000
I can't say be ready cuz there's no were,
way to prepare

942
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:11,760
other than to take your law school
training as seriously as you can.

943
00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:16,370
Because over those 36 hours all I had on
my side were my

944
00:56:16,370 --> 00:56:21,015
wits, my law school training, and taxis
showing up every hour with tapes.

945
00:56:21,015 --> 00:56:25,845
[LAUGH] Oh and a phone call to QuickLaw
with John Lennon in the background.

946
00:56:25,845 --> 00:56:31,410
[LAUGH] These opportunities it, it it's
odd that in a,

947
00:56:31,410 --> 00:56:33,560
in a career that I continue to enjoy and
that's

948
00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:36,620
been wonderful, that one of the most
decisive moments in

949
00:56:36,620 --> 00:56:41,820
my career came before I was even called to
the bar.

950
00:56:41,820 --> 00:56:43,860
And just months after I finished studying
here.

951
00:56:44,930 --> 00:56:48,795
You never know what will happen, you've
just got to put yourself in a position.

952
00:56:48,795 --> 00:56:54,040
Working with community groups and causes
that matter to you, to

953
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:58,080
be watching for one, and to seize the
opportunity when it arises.

954
00:57:00,090 --> 00:57:02,180
When I was at, I was interviewed the
morning

955
00:57:02,180 --> 00:57:05,650
after the constitution amendment was
passed on CBC Radio.

956
00:57:05,650 --> 00:57:09,690
And I was asked what I thought the
significance of the

957
00:57:09,690 --> 00:57:12,470
amendment was, and, and I don't have a
transcript of that

958
00:57:12,470 --> 00:57:15,210
interview, I haven't', I don't even have a
recording, and it's

959
00:57:15,210 --> 00:57:18,800
been a long time since I heard it, but I
remember it.

960
00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:22,410
And I said look, one of the things we want
is obviously this new right,

961
00:57:22,410 --> 00:57:26,970
which is sub stand of and important, but
we also want something that was symbolic.

962
00:57:28,210 --> 00:57:29,900
The message is now clear to people with

963
00:57:29,900 --> 00:57:34,320
disabilities and to all Canadians that
we're equals too.

964
00:57:37,620 --> 00:57:39,330
And since them some laws have been struck
down

965
00:57:39,330 --> 00:57:41,660
and some government actions changed, I'd
say not enough.

966
00:57:43,430 --> 00:57:47,710
But a discussion about equality in a law
school, at a law conference, in

967
00:57:47,710 --> 00:57:50,970
any other venue would be incomplete, if

968
00:57:50,970 --> 00:57:55,560
not inconceivable, without disability
being on the agenda.

969
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:58,820
That traces itself back to what so many of

970
00:57:58,820 --> 00:58:02,530
us fought for, and through the efforts of
so many.

971
00:58:02,530 --> 00:58:07,380
Working on our own, not together, without
email, we managed to achieve.

972
00:58:08,620 --> 00:58:12,910
One of the most interesting things
unforeseen back then is that the

973
00:58:12,910 --> 00:58:15,320
victory that day that, when the

974
00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:17,680
constitutional, when the disability
amendment was passed.

975
00:58:18,820 --> 00:58:22,560
And the similar victory around the same
time when the

976
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:26,120
Ontario, of June of, of 1982, when the
Ontario legislature,

977
00:58:26,120 --> 00:58:29,830
under the able leadership of Dr. Robert
Elgie, finally amended

978
00:58:29,830 --> 00:58:34,330
the Human Rights Code to include, physical
and mental disability.

979
00:58:34,330 --> 00:58:39,470
Those two huge strides forward underpin

980
00:58:40,650 --> 00:58:45,530
the past 20 years effort in which I've had
a privilege to take part fighting

981
00:58:45,530 --> 00:58:50,380
for Ontario's new accessibility
legislation.

982
00:58:50,380 --> 00:58:55,370
Other lectures in this series will talk
about the history of that campaign.

983
00:58:55,370 --> 00:58:57,490
What we've achieved, and what I've learned

984
00:58:57,490 --> 00:59:01,770
about doing community organizing and
community advocacy.

985
00:59:01,770 --> 00:59:02,270
But

986
00:59:04,060 --> 00:59:10,655
suffice it for the present to say that the
rights which the Accessibility for

987
00:59:10,655 --> 00:59:13,790
Ontarian's with Disabilities Act 2005, and
its

988
00:59:13,790 --> 00:59:17,270
predecessor, the Ontarian's with
Disability Acts 2001.

989
00:59:17,270 --> 00:59:22,740
For which the disability community
organized and fought for a decade.

990
00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:27,580
The rights those laws seek to implement
are not new rights.

991
00:59:27,580 --> 00:59:32,554
They're the very rights that the charter
and the human rights code gave us in 1982.

992
00:59:33,750 --> 00:59:35,550
They're rights we don't see realized

993
00:59:35,550 --> 00:59:37,820
sufficiently because we have to litigate
one

994
00:59:37,820 --> 00:59:42,230
barrier at a time, one case at a time to
win their implementation.

995
00:59:42,230 --> 00:59:45,290
The Disability Act is supposed to relieve
of much of

996
00:59:45,290 --> 00:59:49,490
the burden of litigating barriers
individually, one at a time.

997
00:59:50,900 --> 00:59:53,530
So the win back in if, if, if I was to go

998
00:59:53,530 --> 00:59:57,120
back and give that CBC interview again the
morning after we won it.

999
00:59:57,120 --> 01:00:01,980
I'd say really there were three basis of
the vic, three consequences.

1000
01:00:01,980 --> 01:00:05,300
The first, obviously an important new
constitutional right.

1001
01:00:05,300 --> 01:00:07,270
The second, a message to people with

1002
01:00:07,270 --> 01:00:10,530
disabilities and our broader community
that were equal.

1003
01:00:10,530 --> 01:00:17,670
And third the underpinnings of ten years
of advocacy from '94 to 2005 and another

1004
01:00:17,670 --> 01:00:21,480
eight years in coming advocacy under new
legislation

1005
01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:25,220
after that to make those rights a reality.

1006
01:00:26,320 --> 01:00:27,990
Let me conclude with a line that I first

1007
01:00:27,990 --> 01:00:30,510
used the day I appeared before the
constitution committee.

1008
01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:33,470
On December 12th, 1980.

1009
01:00:33,470 --> 01:00:37,330
I came up with it walking home one day
from the subway,

1010
01:00:37,330 --> 01:00:41,050
thinking, if we ever got invited to
appear, what would I say?

1011
01:00:41,050 --> 01:00:44,640
Thinking it unrealistic we'd ever get
invited to appear.

1012
01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:47,730
And I've used it many times since.

1013
01:00:49,310 --> 01:00:52,760
I said, I paraphrase, to the standing
committee.

1014
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:56,260
It is often said that justice is blind.

1015
01:00:57,520 --> 01:01:01,460
It's an aphorism, it's a goal to which we
aspire.

1016
01:01:01,460 --> 01:01:03,790
But if justice has had the opportunity

1017
01:01:03,790 --> 01:01:07,510
to experience blindness, then equality
demands that

1018
01:01:07,510 --> 01:01:09,970
blind people and all people with
disabilities,

1019
01:01:09,970 --> 01:01:13,130
equally have the opportunity to experience
justice.

1020
01:01:13,130 --> 01:01:14,040
Thank you very much.