AODA Alliance: Disability Advocates Challenge Party Leaders to Live Up to New Li

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AODA Alliance: Disability Advocates Challenge Party Leaders to Live

Up to New Lieutenant Governor's Inspiring Call to Make Ontario Fully

Accessible to 1.5 Million Ontarians With Disabilities

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=767671

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 7, 2007) - At Wednesday's

swearing-in ceremony, new Ontario Lieutenant Governor Onley

challenged everyone to make Ontario fully accessible for 1.5 million

people with disabilities. What commitments will Ontario's parties

make to meet this challenge?

To press this issue, a well-known non-partisan disability coalition

held a news conference at Queen's Park today to unveil its

grassroots election strategy.

" Two years ago, following more than a decade of our intense

advocacy, all three political parties unanimously passed the

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to make Ontario

fully accessible for over 1.5 million people with disabilities, "

said Dr. Doreen Winkler, acting chair of the non-partisan AODA

Alliance, a coalition united to advocate for disability

accessibility. " In this election campaign, we'll be out across

Ontario pressing the three parties on what they'll do to make our

dream of a barrier-free Ontario a reality. "

" The McGuinty Government gave us a good Disabilities Act in 2005,

but then seriously back-tracked on putting it into action, " said

Lepofsky, AODA Alliance member who led the 10-year campaign

for the AODA. " I recently won a major human rights case forcing TTC

to announce all bus stops within 30 days, so blind people like me

can effectively use public transit. In cruel contrast to the 30 days

the TTC were given to comply, the government's proposed

Transportation Accessibility Standard under the Disabilities Act

lets transit authorities in all other cities wait another 18 years

before providing the same simple accommodation. McGuinty's failure

to effectively implement the Disabilities Act forces us to have to

file separate human rights complaints across Ontario. Making things

even more difficult, McGuinty's Bill 107 strips away our right to

have the Human Rights Commission publicly investigate discrimination

cases, and to publicly prosecute them where there's enough proof. "

The coalition has asked the parties to commit to revamping the

Disability Act's implementation to make it strong, effective, and

not lopsided against the disability community. It also urges the

parties to commit to undo Bill 107's privatization of human rights

enforcement, and to introduce new reforms to strengthen public

enforcement of human rights through a fortified, not weakened, Human

Rights Commission. Their letter to all party leaders is at:

www.aodaalliance.org/strong-effective-aoda/08262007-OntarioParties-

ElectionCommitments-DisabilityAccessibility.asp.

" Our supporters around Ontario are poised to speak out on talk radio

and at All-Candidates' Debates, and to bring our message to voters

at the grassroots, " said Winkler. " We have a solid track-record of

raising disability issues, riding by riding in the past three

Ontario elections and many by-elections in between.

" With the real prospect of a minority government and many close

local races, every vote counts, " said Lepofsky. " No party can afford

to alienate us. "