March 30, 2007 — Eighty countries, including Canada, sign convention protecting rights of the world's 650 million disabled
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called the convention "a first step" in empowering the disabled, stressing that once it comes into force governments will have to enact legislation and change practices to ensure the rights of the disabled. March 23, 2007 — Canadians With Disabilities Celebrate Supreme Court Decision
The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a decision of the Federal Court of Appeal that allowed VIA Rail to run inaccessible passenger rail cars with impunity. The Court sent a clear message to VIA Rail, and indeed all Canadians, that service inaccessible to Canadians with disabilities will not be tolerated. March 23, 2007 — VIA Rail must make cars wheelchair accessible
Lawyer David Baker says Canadian standards are far behind U.S. regulations. "There's not a single wheelchair accessible rail car in the country at the present time," said Baker. "In the United States there is not a single rail car that is not wheelchair accessible." March 19, 2007 — City public transit still inaccessible: disability advocates
Asked if Montreal’s public transit system is accessible to people with physical disabilities, Joan Wolforth, Director of McGill’s Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), replied: “I don’t think anyone would say it’s satisfactory.” March 8, 2007 — Engaging in equal-opportunity laughs for fun and profit
Comedian/accountant/organizer Michael Lifshitz deals with his disability by poking fun at it. Proceeds go to his father’s Norman Lifshitz Memorial Fund to support the department of pharmacology and therapeutics at McGill University. |
