In June 2021 Dr. Julie Macfarlane presented to the Ontario Courts Accessibility Committee on the experience of self-represented litigants with cognitive disabilities in the court system, and their attempts to request and access accommodations for their disabilities. Her presentation included suggestions for improving this experience. See below for her slide deck from this presentation.
(Ggle: “Out of the Shadows at last” / Mental Health Commission of Canada – – very comprehensive report, including this compelling passage by a participant):
“… on the grounds of that hospital there was a sign. The sign was supposed to say “Dogs must be kept on a leash.” Someone had spray-painted out the word “Dogs” and had put in the word “Nuts.” “Nuts must be kept on a leash.” Every time I drove by that hospital for an interview, I checked to see if that sign was there. Patients would have seen it, doctors would have seen it, and the public would have seen it.
Eight months after I began my research, someone had finally spray- painted out the offending word.
Now, imagine a different scenario; picture a similar sign on the grounds of a synagogue. If the word “Dogs” had been replaced by “Jews,” people would have been outraged. The police would likely have been called, the act would have been described, accurately, as a hate crime, and rest assured, the sign would have been gone the very next day.
Yet, the sign at the hospital remained unaltered for all that time, and who knows how long it had been there before I first noticed it. —Scott Simmie25”
(ggle – how scarcity can change us why the justice system needs empathy – for an overview of how an insurer, publishing a “don’t let them in” doctrine, and making that an incentivized part of a lawyer / judges (police / crown lawyer etc)’s work – will really mess some folks up in a bit of a (genocidal?) way?
Until insurers stop financing the legal costs to address this issue, and tinkering with our jurisprudence to make legal services less accessible – this issue will go on.
How is / has any of this overt discrimination in our legal / insurance sector ever been legal, and how do we evaluate the conduct of adjudicators in these circumstances? Should all forms of discrimination be held up to “Robin Camp” scrutiny?
(Ggle: CJC recommends Robin Camp be removed – sexism – )
Also – recent supreme court decision over hateful words targeting disabled performer in Quebec a sign of how pervasive (5 supreme court judges / judicial councils and federations of law societies, unable to determine that lawpro’s publications, targeting ‘the mentally ill’ – are not overt, discrimination – is indicative of a really unsafe, toxic work environment that should be declared a public health and safety hazard until it’s remedied?
This sort of accommodation request to court staff doesn’t seem to go over terribly well….many are left stunned in silence, and lash out, rather than respond (as your data seems to confirm?)
Google centre for occupational health and safety – “bullying”) – isn’t publishing ableist rhetoric (all the ‘difficult client” materials etc) – a form of ‘hate speech? ” (Ie – a crime / act of bad faith / not entitled to judicial exemptions, immunities, services exemptions, insurance coverage (etc)?
This issue is undermined by the insurers lawpro, who actively incentivize lawyers judges etc to discriminate.
I can say that there are people connected with orgs like cdac who I’ve seen (experienced) who actively support ableism by using their role as a communication intermediary to block testimony, evidence, and ableist conduct by lawyers and judges. (On both sides).
Very serious systemic issue that wint be addressed until you target the source of the problem (insurance industry), I think.
This is amazing. I only wish I could contribute to the Fall 2021 study. Unfortunately, due to cyberstalking and cell phone device safety issues in tandem with a confirmation of identity fraud and ongoing evidence of a cyberhacker and email interception, it is not safe for some of us to be interviewed other than in person. Hopefully Julie was able to provide the study with our past correspondence on this issue. My experiences with the courts has exacerbated my trauma experience, as a PWcD. It has been horrible and has affected my quality of life. PWcDs are not safe in Canada’s Courts systems of what is to be a first world country. My confidence in our justice system hangs by a very thin thread.
What Great Courage you have / have had, Elizabeth.
I’ve just sent over 20,000 (twenty thousand) – emails to nearly every legal organization on this issue, and it’s a bit like the scene from Karate Kid, where the mean skeletons chase Daniel all over the place – with nearly the entire group.
Legal education, insurance, and therefore cutlure – is deeply discriminator, and this is an occupational health and safety crisis nationwide, (with a higher destruction count than covid).
Insurers and the LSO are entirely capable of solving this NOW – it takes TEN MINUTES to address their issues – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkUrnHT1VvI&t=8s
This is a very serious cultural competency issue with dire consequences for so many people working to get through weird stuff going on in their lives – I think this is bullying, and the center for occupational health and safety, need to step in and re-educate, everyone from the insurers, to the lawyers, the judges, court staff, court accommodation providers, etc –
https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/bullying.html
If the so called medical / legal / insurance ‘regulators’ followed these short steps as well – the issues would be much better. But the message is clear “disabled people are not welcome in society, and we will use our insurers / state resources / etc – to fold “people like you” – terrifying, genocidal conduct – normalized by “I am Canadian” beer ads.
I had (am having) a life threatening experience with this system, and their response is “we’ll keep on triggering you until you are dead”
These are genocidal things that are happening, and this has been ‘normalized’ in legal culture for over a century.
Who do we notify? The police?
Yikes.
Trust me, its a nightmare. I attempted to report my fraud issue to Police Services. The intake officer on the phone asked if anyone suffered a “mental illness”. I felt I had to disclose I PWCD with depression, anxiety and PTSD. Instead of the Financial Crime Unit arriving, two beat COPs showed up with guns, looked at my tiny congested environment I am living in due to my unfortunate and in constant chaos circumstances, with legal files boxes and papers stacked up everywhere in a small 460 sq ft apartment shared with my incredibly supportive daughter. The COPs said to me that they refused to take my report because I was “mentally ill” and that they “weren’t going to do [my] work for me”. I was terrified they were going to turn on me as we have seen in many cases of Police “wellness checks”. In my hometown, a man was shot and killed because his family asked to conduct a wellness check. I no longer trust police despite needing to make a police report (which they refused to take) because I need the report number to apply for new government ID. My experiences with the Courts have likewise left me feeling gaslit, demeaned, belittled, intimated, sharp-practiced, and not believed, all abusive triggers for a person with PTSD, depression and anxiety.
The ANTI-BULLYING ACT should not apply only to school children. It should apply to the Justice System and Legal Industry.
I do not believe I am the crazy one. I believe the legal system is.
Hi, I am researching to understand trusts. I found the prefix TB on historic land registry instruments. I now believe TB may mean Treasury Board. Wondering of the British Crown Estates system flowed to Canada as a Commonwealth country, my search led to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca, and to this, which I believe is far reaching:
The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) offers federal public sector employees and other persons a secure and confidential process for the disclosure of serious wrongdoing in the workplace, as well as protection against reprisal.
The PSDPA defines wrongdoing as follows:
a contravention of any Act of Parliament or of the legislature of a province, or of any regulations made under any such Act;
a misuse of public funds or a public asset;
a gross mismanagement;
a serious breach of a code of conduct;
an act or omission that creates a substantial and specific danger to the life, health or safety of persons, or to the environment;
knowingly directing or counselling a person to commit a wrongdoing.
Under paragraph 11(1) (c) of the PSDPA, chief executives shall promptly provide public access to information on founded wrongdoing.
Information to which public access is provided must describe the wrongdoing, including the identity of the person found to have committed it if necessary in order to describe the wrongdoing adequately; the recommendations, if any, set out in any report made to the chief executive; and any corrective action taken by the chief executive or the reasons why no corrective action was taken.
I believe there is a Federal Treasury Board office in Prince Edward Island, home of lobsters, Canada’s very first anti-NDA legislation, as well as our news-headliner Chief Justice of the Tax Court, Eugene Rossiter.
It would be a wonderful twist of fate if the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat , any Federal Real Property or other assets, or CMHC Mortgages or Federal or Provincial funding sources, perhaps? and non-disclosure of trusts would fall under the brand new PEI anti-NDA legistlation? Should transparency and disclosure not be as clear as one would hope. 🙂
Under the current Land Registry systems it seems Trusts and Beneficial Ownerships are not required to be disclosed on public record. So, if one were not aware they were a trustee or a beneficial owner it seems it would be problematic to enforce instructions said to be from one who was not aware they were one (If that makes sense?)
Ontario is now moving to Legislate a Trust and Beneficial Ownership public transparency list. This is very good news for folks like myself trying to understand Trust and Beneficial Ownership Laws in Canada. I hope they design them per the W3C requirements for cognitively and other disabled.