People with disabilities encounter many barriers to accessing public spaces. It can be tempting to identify a person’s disability as the reason for the barriers they encounter. In fact, however, it is often the choices, policies, and practices of others that create the barriers disabled […]
By Emily Zarychta and Laura Track, Human Rights Clinic Lawyers, June 16, 2022
Climate change is an increasing risk to human health. The heat dome that swept across BC in June, 2021 saw temperatures soar to a record-breaking 49.6°C in some parts of the province. A […]
February 14th, 2022 by Emily Zarychta, Human Rights Clinic Advocate
This blog post is a follow-up to our July 13, 2020 post: No-Pet Clauses and Human Rights. Our Clinic continues to receive many questions about this issue, and there have been some developments in the […]
By: Emily Zarychta, Articling Student, October 7, 2020
As employers, grocery and retail stores, schools, and many public services implement mandatory mask policies,[1] some people are wondering whether these policies violate their human rights. The answer, as with so many legal questions is – […]
Laura Track, Human Rights Lawyer July 13, 2020
This blog post has been adapted and updated from an article originally published in the Fall, 2018 edition of Landlord BC’s magazine The Key.
Landlords play an important role in protecting human rights by providing discrimination-free housing and […]
This article was originally published in Transition, the magazine of Disability Alliance BC, Winter, 2019.
June 1, 2020
One of the purposes of human rights law is to identify and eliminate persistent patterns of inequality. Yet people with disabilities still face many barriers to participation and inclusion […]
By Laura Track, Human Rights Lawyer, May 8, 2020
Part 3: Duty to Inquire
This week is Mental Health Week. To mark the occasion, we’ve published this three-part series on Mental Health and Human Rights.
In Part 1 of the series, we talked about the stigma […]
By Laura Track, Human Rights Lawyer, May 6, 2020
Part 2 – Duty to Accommodate
In Part 1 of our Mental Health and Human Rights series in honour of Mental Health Week, we talked about human rights protections for people with mental illness. The BC […]
By Laura Track, Human Rights Lawyer, May 5, 2020
Part 1 – Challenging Stigma
The Canadian Mental Health Association has named this week Mental Health Week. It’s a great opportunity to remember that mental health is a critical component of our overall health and well-being.
The theme […]
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently released an important decision about a university’s duty to accommodate a student with disabilities. The Longueépée decision sets out legal principles with potentially significant impacts on students with disabilities and service providers alike, making it an important case for parties on both sides to know.
