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Act Now
Empower U: Learn to Access Your Disability Rights Training on Canadian Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol (OP) training aims to increase awareness of how to address discrimination using more familiar Canadian human rights laws such as Human Rights Codes and the newer international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This is training for persons with disabilities by persons with disabilities. The training is part of a project funded by Employment and Social Development Canada and implemented by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) in collaboration with Canadian Multicultural Disability Centre Inc. (CMDCI), Citizens With Disabilities – Ontario (CWDO), Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities (MLPD) and National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS). Read more.
Human Rights
CCD's work in the area of Human Rights and Equality Rights apprises judges, law-makers and other decision-makers about how disability must be taken into consideration in all areas of community life, thus ensuring Canadians with disabilities have full enjoyment of their human and equality rights. The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities and the Equality Rights Section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees people with disabilities equal benefit and protection before and under the law.
CCD's Human Rights Committee monitors court cases and law reform which could affect persons with disabilities, guides CCD's legal interventions, analyzes human rights/equality rights questions for the CCD National Council and provides recommendations on possible courses of action.
Recent Work
July 6, 2022
Sad News: Passing of Jim Derksen
It is with sadness that we report that long time CCD volunteer Jim Derksen has passed away.
Jim was a truly visionary leader, helping our organization meet challenges in a principled manner consistent with our human rights philosophy. Jim was a Chairperson of CCD, when it was called the Coalition of Provincial Organizations of the Handicapped (COPOH). He was also a National Coordinator of the organization.
Read more.
June 23, 2022
Supreme Court of Canada Rules Charter Challenge to Forced Psychiatric Treatment Laws Can Continue
June 23, 2022, (Vancouver, BC) Today the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the BC government’s five-year legal campaign aimed at stopping the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) – a nationally respected disability rights organization – from challenging BC’s outdated and unconstitutional forced psychiatric treatment laws. The court not only rejected the government’s appeal, but also confirmed that CCD has the legal right to bring the case forward. In an extraordinary move, the Court also ordered that the government pay for all legal costs associated with this unnecessary delay.“The Supreme Court unanimously and decisively resolved the standing question in CCD’s favour,” says Michael Feder, a lawyer with the law firm McCarthy Tétrault who argued the case on behalf of CCD. “This ruling has broad importance for access to justice and for ensuring discriminatory and other unconstitutional laws can be challenged in court.” Read more.
More on Human Rights
March 8, 2022
Celebrating International Women's Day
November 25, 2021
An Open Letter from the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) Concerning the Canadian Psychiatric Association Position Statement on Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD)
November 24, 2021
Immediate and Meaningful Action Required to Address Systemic Discrimination of Adults Who Have a Disability in Nova Scotia
October 6, 2021
SIGNIFICANT VICTORY FOR NOVA SCOTIANS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
March 15, 2021
CCD Disappointed by House of Commons Yes Vote on Bill C-7 (Medical Aid in Dying)
February 17, 2021
Dear Health Ministers- Remember us? People with disabilities, the most vulnerable and ignored in the vaccine rollout?
Some members of the CCD team at the Supreme Court of Canada on April 25, 2018 to intervene in S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation. (L. to R. Bob Brown, CCD Human Rights Committee member, Dianne Wintermute, legal counsel (ARCH), Dahlia James, a second year JD candidate at U. of Ottawa and Prof. Ravi Malhotra’s Research Assistant and Luke Reid, legal counsel (ARCH) , and Prof. Ravi Malhotra, a member of the Human Rights Committee, Prof. Anne Levesque, Chair of the Human Rights Committee, and Erin Carr, a second year JD candidate.
January 26, 2004
Twenty Years of Litigating for Disability Equality Rights: Has it Made a Difference?
This paper traces the evolution of disability equality rights; from demanding recognition and inclusion in human rights law, to becoming experienced litigatiors for a substantive vision of equality in Canada. Read more.
The Latimer Case
The Latimer case directly concerned the rights of persons with disabilities. Mr. Latimer's view was that a parent has the right to kill a child with a disability if that parent decides the child's quality of life no longer warrants its continuation. CCD explained to the court and to the public how that view threatens the lives of people with disabilities and is deeply offensive to fundamental constitutional values. Learn more.