Letter to Minister Furey on accessible washrooms in restaurants
Gus Reed is not happy about government inaction after the Human Rights Commission decision that Environment must enforce the requirement that restaurants provide accessible washrooms.
NSHRC
One year after the Liane Tessier apology, what has changed at Halifax Fire?
It’s been a year since Halifax Fire chief Ken Stuebing publicly apologized to Liane Tessier, and both Halifax Fire and the Human Rights Commission are reluctant to share what changes were made at the organization to deal with the misogyny that was so prevalent. “We’re dealing with issues that were hidden, now we are letting it out of the bag and HRM and the NS Human Rights Commission don’t like it, because now they are being held to account,” Tessier says, pointing to the work of Equity Watch, the anti-bullying organization she co-founded.”
Paul Vienneau: Why we have to fight our own battles
“…we have to fight our own battles. The government would still be gleefully discriminating against us if we didn’t sue them,” writes disability activist Paul Vienneau.
Two years after Court decision NS Human Rights Commission still not transparent about its intake processes
Almost two years after a judge ordered the NS Human Rights Commission to change its intake process we still don’t know what those changes look like.
News release: Human Rights Awards for Shelburne’s South End Environmental Injustice Society (SEED)
Congrats to Louise Delisle and the South End Environmental Injustice Society (SEED)! I learned a lot about activism and rural Nova Scotia from listening to them. We posted this same news release yesterday, but with a photo that is no longer current. We are reposting with a current photo of Louise and her fellow SEED members, with apologies.
Landlords flout the law while government looks the other way
Nova Scotia landlords openly flout the law and families with children suffer the consequences. And nobody within the provincial bureaucracy seems to give a damn.
Human Rights enquiry on community living reaches critical decision point
A Nova Scotia Human Rights enquiry reached a crucial stage last Wednesday after closing statements were delivered by the Province of Nova Scotia, the respondent in the case. If the enquiry chair finds that the way government deals with housing needs of people with disabilities is indeed discriminatory, then, and only then, will there be a second phase, to determine to what extent the Province must make changes in its policies and activities.
Farting rainbows and unicorns – Paul Vienneau on the government’s response to the accessible washrooms decision
Paul Vienneau is one of the accessibility advocates who successfully challenged the government’s refusal to enforce health and safety regulations when it comes to accessible washrooms. After a long battle with the Human Rights Commission there finally was a human rights tribunal, and in September they won their case. Just this Friday the government announced that it accepts the decision. Paul is NOT impressed.
New approaches and less whining: Lessons from the human rights tribunal on wheelchair accessible washrooms
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.
News release: Firefighter Kathy Symington has won — New decision at the NS Human Rights Commission
News release: Barely 24 hours after her Media Conference yesterday, Kathy Symington received an email from the NS Human Rights Commission (NSHRC). The NSHRC has decided to refer her entire complaint as it relates to Gender, Disability and Retaliation to a Board of Inquiry.