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Expanding the Circle:Monitoring the Human Rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis People with Disabilities in Canada: Systemic Report (Word – 260 KB)
Expanding the Circle: Monitoring the Human Rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis People with Disabilities in Canada: Systemic Report (PDF – 584 KB)

Title

Expanding the Circle: Monitoring the Human Rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and  Métis People with Disabilities in Canada: Systemic Report

Authors

Emily Gillespie, Research Assistant, Expanding the Circle
Marcia Rioux, Principal Investigator, York University
Samadhi Mora Severino, Graduate Research Assistant, Expanding the Circle
Debbie Lipscombe, Steering Committee, Expanding the Circle and Grand Council Treaty # 3
Melanie Moore, Project Coordinator, Expanding the Circle and Centre for Independent Living Toronto
Linda Williams, Toronto Monitor, Expanding the Circle
Robin Simmons, Toronto Monitor, Expanding the Circle
Christine McFarlane, Toronto Monitor, Expanding the Circle
Laura Vukson, Research Assistant, Expanding the Circle
Emily Hostland, Project Coordinator, Expanding the Circle, York University

Publication Date

March 2016

Report Content

Introduction: Framing the Context of the Systemic Review

This report reviews laws and policies in Canada and Ontario that affect the rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities.  It does so as part of the Expanding the Circle project that focuses on expanding the conversation on disability rights monitoring, and is guided by DRPI’s National Law and Policy Monitoring Template (http://drpi.research.yorku.ca/drpi-resources/drpi-national-law-and-policy-monitoring-template/). The Template is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Its purpose is “to monitor human rights for people with disabilities at the systemic level, that is, at the level of existing laws, policies, and programs”, and to “identify and draw attention to the most critical gaps and deficiencies in the legislative and policy framework”.  DRPI’s National Law and Policy Monitoring Template was first used to conduct systemic monitoring on the rights of people with disabilities in Canada in 2012 (Mykitiuk & Peters, 2012; Peters & Mykitiuk, 2015). The systemic monitoring conducted in this report differs in that it focuses on laws and policies in Canada and Ontario that affect the rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities. The report focuses on four categories of rights: 1) Access to the physical environment, transportation, information and communications; 2) Education; 3) Health, and 4) Cultural Life and five key human rights principles: dignity; autonomy, participation, inclusion & accessibility; non-discrimination & equality, and respect for difference.

In the report, the term people with disabilities is used to demonstrate that the person comes before the disability. The terms Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people is used to acknowledge the diversity among groups. However, when legislation refers to a specific group, the term used by the legislation or report is used. For instance, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), 2007, uses the term indigenous, so when referring to this piece of legislation the term indigenous is exclusively used.