Based on the above, the LCO has identified six principles for the law as it affects persons with disabilities:

  1. Respecting the dignity and worth of persons with disabilities;
  2. Responding to diversity in human abilities and in other characteristics;
  3. Fostering autonomy and independence;
  4. Promoting social inclusion and participation;
  5. Facilitating the right to live in safety; and
  6. Recognizing that we all live in society.  

The six principles are closely linked. They cannot be understood or successfully implemented in isolation. To a certain degree, the underlying concepts overlap. For clarity, they are outlined here separately, but the Draft Framework applies them holistically, reflecting their connectedness.

As noted above, the LCO’s consultations assisted us in understanding what the principles might mean in practical terms. As well, the LCO funded six Commissioned Papers and carried out extensive internal research on the theme of transitions in the lives of persons with disabilities and the law as a means of identifying implications and possible interpretations of the principles.

 

A.    Respecting the Dignity and Worth of Persons with Disabilities

Proposed definition: This principle recognizes the inherent, equal and inalienable worth of every individual, including every person with a disability. All members of the human family are full persons, with the right to be valued, respected and considered and to have both one’s contributions and needs recognized.

 

1.     The Principle and the Experiences of Persons with Disabilities

There is a long history in Canada of negative attitudes towards persons with disabilities. Manifestations of ableism include involuntary institutionalization, forced birth control and sterilization, segregation away from the mainstream of the population and denial of basic rights.[33] While attitudes towards disability have evolved, a recent Environics Research Group Report on Canadian attitudes towards disability-related issues found that while most people like to think of themselves as being open to the participation of persons with disabilities in their day-to-day activities, many expressed significant discomfort with some aspects of relating to persons with disabilities, particularly those whose disabilities affect their communications, or where the disability involved “disfigurement” or behaviour that was not considered “normal”.[34]

There are specific stereotypes and stigmas associated with particular disabilities. For example, during the LCO’s consultations, many persons with mental health disabilities, particularly those who have been homeless, shared experiences which demonstrated that they had been subject to heavy judgment and negative assumptions when dealing with legal systems. These attitudes may contribute to the criminalization of persons with mental health disabilities, an issue of great concern to many participants.

As well, many participants talked about the suspicion and often contempt with which persons with disabilities are treated when seeking services and supports. Services which are designed to assist persons with disabilities in meeting their basic needs or improving their autonomy, independence and participation may in practice be implemented through an adversarial mindset, which assumes that those seeking services are attempting to game the system, or obtain benefits to which they are not entitled. This is particularly the case for persons with disabilities who are also poor.[35] 

Negative attitudes or stereotypes may affect the design of laws and policies and may be incorporated into their substance. For example, capacity and guardianship laws have been subjected to persistent criticism on the basis that they are founded in ableist notions about the abilities and worth of persons with intellectual disabilities.[36] As another example, until the relevant provisions were overturned through a court challenge, the Ontario Disability Support Program Act explicitly excluded from its supports and benefits those persons whose impairments and primary restrictions resulted from addictions to drugs or alcohol.[37] The Ontario Superior Court found that this exclusion was not in accordance with the purpose of the law; rather it was based on “assumed or unjustly attributed characteristics” regarding individuals with substance abuse disabilities, and that it resulted in the denial of the “essential human worth” of persons with these disabilities.[38]

A lack of respect for the worth and abilities of persons with disabilities may also affect how laws are implemented by justice system workers, service providers and others. For example, parents with disabilities have expressed concerns that negative assumptions may lead to increased scrutiny and intervention by the child welfare system.[39] Similarly, during the LCO’s spring 2010 public consultations, many persons with disabilities expressed concern about demeaning treatment or processes for obtaining benefits and supports under the Ontario Disability Supports Program. For example, one participant commented that,

To get funding, you have to strip yourself of any itty-bitty inkling of dignity that you have … you need to sort-of strip yourself of all the dignity that you have and open your private spaces up absolutely, completely, risking legal ramifications even – I wonder, I wonder if that information could be used when there are issues of aggression and violence and abuse and all that kind of stuff, if that kind of information you end up documenting to get the support you need to save yourself from yourself, to gain your dignity and independence, may actually be used against you at some point.[40]

 

2.     Interpreting the Principle

The principle of respect for the dignity and worth of persons with disabilities is a direct challenge to stereotypes and negative attitudes towards persons with disabilities. It emphasizes that dignity is something that belongs to us because we exist: it is not something that we earn or receive, and it cannot be rightfully ignored or diminished. It does not depend upon our health status or our abilities. Every person is worth caring about and entitled to respectful treatment.

This means that those who make law and policy, or who implement it, must be sure that laws and policies, in their substance or implementation, are not tainted by negative or dismissive attitudes towards persons with disabilities, for example through demeaning processes or insulting treatment. Because barriers for persons with disabilities tend to push them towards the margins, socially and economically, there is a disproportionate incidence of low-income among persons with disabilities,[41] and the particular set of negative attitudes towards low income individuals with disabilities deserve special scrutiny.