Page - 422 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
Image of the Page - 422 -
Text of the Page - 422 -
VULNERABLE422
articulation of legal reform projects, or it may encompass grassroots
disability rights organizing.6
In bold relief, COVID-19 has revealed the financial, social, and
political structures that exclude persons with disabilities. That exclu-
sion is predictable and reminiscent of historical eugenic strategies to
ration access to scarce resources, reproduction, and immigration.7
At the heart of those utilitarian decisions are systematically biased
quality of life assessments that are predicated on the inherently dis-
criminatory notion that disabled lives are not worth living. In Part
I, we explore the accessibility of emergency preparedness. In Part II,
we turn to a discussion of the economic implications of COVID-19. In
Part III, we discuss institutionalization and its relation to COVID-19.
Accessibility of Emergency Preparedness
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (the AODA)8 and its
associated Accessibility Standards9 were adopted over a staggered
period of years after 2005 and set out guidelines for people with
disabilities, but largely have no coherent enforcement mechanism.
Similar legislation has been more recently adopted in a few other prov-
inces, such as British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia, culmi-
nating in the passage of the federal Accessible Canada Act.10 Section 13
of the Integrated Accessibility Standards requires the Government
of Ontario and other obligated organizations to, upon request, pro-
vide emergency procedures, plans, and public safety information in
an accessible format or with appropriate communication.11 Article 11
of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), to
6. See Ravi Malhotra, ed, Disability Politics in a Global Economy: Essays in Honour of
Marta Russell, (New York: Routledge, 2016).
7. Geoffrey Reaume, “Eugenics Incarceration and Expulsion: Daniel G. and Andrew
T.’s Deportation from 1928 Toronto, Canada” in Liat Ben-Moshe, Chris Chapman
& Allison Carey, eds, Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the
United States and Canada, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) at 63; Ena
Chadha, “‘Mentally Defectives’ Not Welcome: Mental Disability in Canadian
Immigration Law, 1859–1927” (2008) 28:1 Disability Studies Quarterly 1.
8. RSO 2005, c 11.
9. O Reg 191/11 [Integrated Accessibility Standards].
10. Bill M-219, British
Columbia
Accessibility
Act, 3rd Sess, 41st Parl, British Columbia,
2018; Bill 26, The Accessibility for Manitobans Act, 2nd Sess, 4th Leg, Manitoba,
2013; An Act Respecting Accessibility in Nova Scotia; 3rd Sess, 62nd Leg, Nova
Scotia, 2017.
11. Integrated Accessibility
Standards, supra note 9, s 13.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International