Thank you very much for your question. It's a very important one.
As I said in my opening remarks, one of the things that we know is a legislative gap in our current system is the frustration many of us face as advocates when we have to wait until people are discriminated against to help them. We also know that there's a disproportionate burden on individuals with disabilities to address systemic issues through our current human rights structure. We also know that 50% of the complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission are on the ground of disability. So we know that there are systemic issues at play.
I can tell you that those issues include accessibility, as physical access is often denied or minimized, and they are attitudinal, as people have assumptions and incorrect knowledge about others' ability. People really focus on what they don't know about what someone with a disability can do, instead of what we'd like them to know.
By giving me the mandate to create a Canadians with disabilities act—which I have now taken to calling “accessibility legislation”, because I believe that's more inclusive—it gives us a chance to have historic conversations at the national level about disability issues, conversation that have never been had before. This will give Canadians with disabilities an unprecedented opportunity to talk about the sometimes difficult and very personal obstacles they face in their full participation in society.
As we move forward, I would say that this is a historic opportunity for us all to listen, to contribute, and to really make the lives of Canadians with disabilities, 14% of our population and growing as our population ages, better and more inclusive.