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Jul/26 - Mackintosh needs to set us free
What kind of a community do we all want to live in?I believe that the incarceration of persons with disabilities is shameful.
It has now been a year since Ontario closed its remaining three institutions for persons with intellectual disabilities and welcomed approximately 1,000 individuals back into the community. Newfoundland, New Brunswick and British Columbia have also closed all of their large facilities. However, in Manitoba roughly 500 of our citizens remain trapped behind institution walls. Why?
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Jul/26 - On Citizenship and Soda pop: Why the Manitoba Developmental Centre Should be Closed
We read with dismay and disbelief the article "Friends of MDC group in the works" in The Daily Graphic on May 3.We were dismayed by the fact that within the same few weeks that our country is celebrating the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), a group in Manitoba wants to become friends with an institution and keep it open to house people with intellectual disabilities.
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Apr/29 - Update on Huronia Regional Centre class action process
The Honourable Justice Cullity has decided that the claims of the two women who were sent to Huronia as small children met virtually all of the requirements for a class proceeding, especially for the years 1961 to 1979. The law team would now like to find people who were in Huronia before 1961 and after 1979 who experienced similar mistreatment. That way no one will be left out of the potential claims. The legal team would also welcome people placed in other institutions in Ontario to come forward and swear affidavits about their treatment. We know that when Huronia got too big and the province opened other institutions such as Rideau and the Mid-western Regional Centre that staff from Orillia were sent to those institutions and carried on the same abusive practices. People placed in these other institutions will not benefit directly from this lawsuit but this legal action sets the very important precedent and the legal team is prepared to now launch further actions if people come forward.It is our goal to ensure that no one is excluded from the benefits that this action seeks.
The Judge also ruled that we must file an amended litigation plan to determine the process to follow to assist former residents, once a judgment is rendered.
We know that it is a huge responsibility to make sure we support the rights of all of the very vulnerable class members in this case. The lawyers have such a plan ready to take to the Judge. A date will be set for these matters to be addressed in court.
In all other respects, the Huronia case met the test for certification under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992.
Information can also be found at http://www.kmlaw.ca/Case-Central/Overview/Court-Documents/?rid=99
For legal assistance, please contact
David Rosenfeld
Koskie Minsky LLP
Barristers & Solicitors
20 Queen Street West, Suite 900
Toronto, Ontario
M5H 3R3
Tel: (416) 595-2700
Fax: (416) 204-2894
email: drosenfeld@kmlaw.ca
website: www.kmlaw.ca
On 24 March 2010, the European Coalition for Community Living (ECCL) published a new report highlighting that European Union funding is being used in some EU Member States of Central and Eastern Europe to renovate, or build new, residential institutions for people with disabilities. This means that disabled people continue to be segregated from society and puts them at risk of serious human rights abuses.
ECCL's report points out that such use of EU funding (known as the Structural Funds) continues despite EU and Member States' policies that emphasise the need to protect the rights of disabled people and promote their social inclusion. Numerous reports over the last decade have brought to light the horrific reality of institutional care for many disabled adults and children in Central and Eastern Europe. They have shown the appalling living conditions; use of physical restraints, physical and sexual abuse of some residents by other residents and sometimes staff; inadequate clothing; involuntary placements subject to no independent review; the lack of privacy and the absence of rehabilitative or therapeutic activities.
The report, ‘Wasted Time, Wasted Money, Wasted Lives ... A Wasted Opportunity?’, argues that the practice of using Structural Funds to maintain the system of institutional care is contrary to EU policy objectives, EU law and European and international human rights standards.
Camilla Parker, the main author of the report, commented: ‘The continued institutionalisation of disabled people is not acceptable in the Europe of the 21st Century. Residents are often subjected to severe human rights violations and generally their quality of life is very poor. Investing in such long term residential institutions is therefore not a good use of public funds. Structural Funds should not be used to maintain this archaic system of institutional care.’
ECCL's report notes that Structural Funds have the potential to provide the resources and expertise to help Governments shift from the current system of institutional care to providing support to disabled people to live in their own homes and participate in community life. The report comments that failure to use Structural Funds to develop community-based alternatives to institutional care will be a wasted opportunity and an inefficient use of substantial amounts of money. Of more fundamental importance, those most in need for these changes to take place - the disabled adults and children placed in residential institutions - will be the ones to suffer. They will continue to be segregated, excluded from society; denied the opportunity to live their life as other citizens do.
In the report, ECCL outlines a number of recommendations addressed to Member States and the European Commission. These include the urgent review of the current use of Structural Funds in relation to services for disabled people, in particular the need to end investments in residential institutions. In addition, EU funded projects in this area must make explicit how they will support the implementation of EU social inclusion policies, the national strategies for social inclusion of people with disabilities and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Report and the Executive Summary can be downloaded from the ECCL website www.community-living.info. Please reply to this e-mail if you would like to receive the Plain Text version.
Mar/05 - Huronia residents seek justice
By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUNJoe Lambert says he tried to escape from Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia 114 times during a six-year period and is now standing up for justice in a Toronto courtroom.
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