Litigation

CCD intervenes in test cases so that the judge/judges hearing cases will have the opportunity to benefit from the collective experiences of the disability rights community and the analysis of human rights by legal experts fully informed by disability experience. (A test case is one which is likely to lead to a legal precedent and alter a law or practice.) CCD has been involved in many of the landmark cases that helped to bring down barriers that were preventing the full and equal participation of Canadians with disabilities. For example, CCD has used the Canadian legal system to advance jurisprudence on the following issues:

  • the accommodation of people with disabilities in employment (Bhinder, O'Malley, and Grismer cases)
  • access to long term disability benefits (Gibbs case)
  • how equality is defined under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Andrews case, the Lovelace case)
  • inclusive education (Eaton case)
  • the right of deaf people to have interpreters in medical settings (Eldridge case)
  • the application of the proscribed legal penalties when the victim of a killing is a person with a disability (Genereux and Latimer), and
  • the equal protection of the law (Latimer case)

Recent Work

January 11, 2013

Factum in the Carter Case

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) and the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) were granted intervenor status in the appeal of the Carter Case, which struck down Canada’s Criminal Code prohibitions against assisted suicide. CCD/CACL argued in their factum Criminal Code prohibitions on assisting suicide and on euthanasia are justified and in accord with the principles of fundamental justice. CCD and CACL requested an order that the appeal be allowed and the trial judgement set aside. Following directions from the Court, CCD and CACL restricted their factum to arguments based upon Section 7 (Security of the Person) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Another intervenor, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition was directed by the Court to focus on Section 15 (Equality Rights) arguments. Read more.

November 18, 2012

The Moore Case: Summary of Key Points

The Moore case says that students with disabilities are entitled to receive the accommodation measures they need to access and benefit from the service of public education.  In this regard, the Court said that adequate special education is not “a dispensable luxury”.  With respect to children with learning disabilities, the Court said that such services serve as “the ramp that provides access to the statutory commitment to education made to all children in British Columbia.” Read more.

March 23, 2012

Factum in the Moore Case

CCD has intervened in this appeal because it is deeply concerned about the template for comparator group analysis adopted by the lower courts, reducing the right to accommodation to a right to the same treatment or same accommodation that others receive. The reasoning of the lower courts, if accepted by this Court, threatens to make the duty to accommodate meaningless, thereby profoundly eroding the human rights of persons with disabilities in a wide variety of settings. Read more.

More on Litigation

February 10, 2012

Supreme Court Ensures that the Voice of Women with Disabilities Will Be Heard by Courts

November 15, 2011

Factum in the D.A.I. Case

March 8, 2011

Factum in the Mowat Case

December 10, 2010

Council of Canadians with Disabilities to Intervene at Supreme Court of Canada Hearing Regarding Access to Justice for Victims of Discrimination

September 21, 2010

Report of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities Human Rights Committee's Litigation: 2009-2010

May 27, 2010

Factum in the Caron Case

Litigation Archives