There are two accessible parking spots along the Harbourwalk South, where you will find the NSCAD Port Campus, the Nova Scotia Centre for Crafts and Design, the Mary E. Black Gallery, and more. Unless the cruise ships are in town, that is. That’s when the Halifax Port Authority shuts the spots down.
Warren (Gus) Reed is one of the successful complainants in a recent human rights case that considered the province’s refusal to enforce accessible washrooms in restaurants. Here Reed looks back on the tribunal in all its absurdity. “It is typical of the provincial authorities not to exercise any creative economic thinking. Accessibility calls for new approaches and less whining!,” writes Reed, who pulls out a calculator himself. The money spent on government lawyers could have been spent so much wiser.
In July we reported on a Nova Scotia Human Rights tribunal asked to decide whether to prevent people who use wheelchairs from washing their hands in a restaurant amounts to discrimination. Well, this time the good guys won, and the the province lost. Another loser was the NS Human Rights Commission, which did not want to consider the case until told by a judge to do so,
Our friends at the James McGregor Stewart Society report on a Halifax restaurant that went from a nicely wheelchair-accessible entrance to make-do.
Day one in a human rights inquiry into wheelchair access to washrooms in restaurants. It was quick, wrap up is tomorrow. Oh, and the case almost didn’t happen because the Human Rights Commission didn’t think it had merit, and the complainants had to take the Commission to court. Sound familiar?
Paul Vienneau, disability advocate, asshole with a shovel and sometime NS Advocate contributor, won an award for his disability advocacy. We went to the ceremony, and it was very nice.
“Exclusive lifestyles are profoundly antisocial. They lead to the creation residential and commercial ghettos. Inclusive culture makes space for and welcomes people of all cultures, abilities and income levels,” writes Kimberly Smith. We need more of the latter, and thinking about cohousing may get us there.
Paul Vienneau considers a new all-ages Pavilion on the Common, more accessible and even better than the current one, because live music matters.
Warren (Gus) Reed, together with five others, filed a complaint about inaccessible washrooms in restaurants with the NS Human Rights Commission almost two years ago. He’s still waiting for some kind of resolution. We talk with Reed about why the delays, and what he would do to change that. It’s about way more than not having enough resources.
Sure a bus will kneel, but once on the bus a wheelchair can give you a rough ride. New contributor Paul Vienneau writes on how he has been working with Halifax Transit to fix that, and how a trip to Disney World made him realize that a solution is out there.