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Monitoring Law and Policy (Theme 3) Presentation

Note: The slides for this presentation are available for download at the end of this page, but since some slides are not accessible to some users, efforts have been made to outline the substance of the presention and discussions on this page.

Objectives

The Monitoring Law and Policy theme involves an analysis of legislation, policy and case law at federal and provincial levels (corresponding to the 4 monitoring sites for Monitoring Individual Experiences). This theme will assess the human rights protections for Canadians with disabilities and identify the changes required to existing legal and policy frameworks to improve the lives of people with disabilities in Canada.

The broad research questions focused on in this theme include:

  1. How are the federal and provincial responsibilities for disability allocated?
  2. What are the approaches to disability employed by policy makers and how these impact on the realization of disability rights?
  3. How have Canadian courts and statutory human rights bodies addressed disability issues?

Methodological Approach

  1. Law and policy template – research instrument: The Law and Policy Template represents the research instrument used to collect data for this theme. The template was developed in collaboration with the D.R.P.I. International project and it was adapted to the Canadian-specific context. Grounded in a human rights approach to disability, its components were mainly derived from the articles of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This makes the template a valuable tool on systemic monitoring under the new Convention.
  2. Organization methodology – template implementation: Given the complexity of the template, it was essential to set up guidelines (parameters for depth and breath of analysis) in order to ensure consistency in the data collection process. Specific parameters were developed for each of the following components of the template:
    1. Policy database
    2. Case law database
    3. Legislative database
  3. Data collection and analysis: Data is analyzed during collection and comprehensive analyses are conducted to identify gaps in the existing legislative and policy frameworks. The perspectives gained through this process will be complemented with data collected through key informant interviews.

Preliminary Findings

Preliminary analysis of legislation and policy regarding disability rights suggests that although legislation and policies exist to prevent disability-based discrimination, that key terms such as 'disability', 'impairment', 'barrier', 'reasonable accomodation' and 'best interests' are not well defined or are highly subject to interpretation. Narrow definitions of disability and impairment can be used to excuse accountability for a broad range of disability rights issues. This allows anti-discrimination legislation and policy to be interpreted in discriminatory ways.

View the Theme 3 presentation (PDF - 225 KB)