Medical Assistance in Dying committee  The problem is that it's often unsuccessful.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes. My role is to advocate as hard as I possibly can on behalf of my client to get the supports and the funding in place so that person doesn't have to consider MAID.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I do not have that data available for you. I can provide information based on the experiences and the legal practice that I do and that ARCH does, based also on the information that we are receiving from some of our partners, disability advocacy groups, from across the country.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I am not suggesting that a person should accept going into an institution and living out their entire life in an institution in a setting that's entirely inappropriate for them. I am telling you that that is the exact kind of discrimination and the exact kind of deprivation of the ability to live your life in dignity that is driving the people who I work with to consider, apply for or go through with MAID.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you for the question. I did hear it. I think that without a doubt it does create a very difficult relationship between people with disabilities and their health care providers. In the work I do, what I've heard expressed by clients in my communities of people with disabilities is a feeling of abandonment by the government and a sentiment of “Why are governments not providing us with the supports we need to address suffering rather than offering death as an end to suffering?”

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you for the question. I can't say that I've had in-depth conversations with my clients about all of the steps that physicians are taking to inform them of services that might be available to alleviate their suffering, but I can tell you, from a broader perspective, the concern of the clients I've worked with is not so much that they're not being informed of what's available, but it's that they have, for years or months or really extended periods of time, tried to avail themselves of the services that are in fact available to them, and either they have encountered extensive barriers in not being able to access those services or the supports they needed were simply not available.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you. Good morning, members of the committee. I am a lawyer working at ARCH Disability Law Centre. ARCH is a specialty legal clinic that provides legal services to people with disabilities in Ontario. ARCH is a poverty law clinic, meaning that the majority of the legal services we provide are to low-income people with disabilities.

Human Resources committee  Is there a dispute...?

Human Resources committee  I think some of the issues that people with disabilities will complain about to the accessibility commissioner may also be able to be brought to the Canadian Human Rights Commission under their legislation, the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Human Resources committee  How do I address the issue about people with...?

Human Resources committee  We experience every day in our clinic that people with disabilities are very disempowered. There are many complaint processes because, as you said, the respondents or the organizations that are being complained about usually have a lot more resources, and they have lawyers and in-house counsel, and they can bring a lot of resources to bear in defending themselves.

Human Resources committee  Yes. It's very—

Human Resources committee  It's very difficult to say, because we don't know what that process looks like right now, so I'm not really able to answer as to whether it's going to be more favourable to people or not. What will determine whether it's going to be more favourable is how accessible the process is, how much it allows people with disabilities to meaningfully understand and participate in the process, what kinds of results or remedies we get, how well trained the decision-makers are, and how deeply they understand human rights and accessibility issues.

Human Resources committee  We addressed this in our opening remarks, but I think our recommendation has been to have no exemptions. The policy reason for that is, as Mr. Lattanzio said, that accessibility is everyone's responsibility, and no one should be exempt from moving towards a more inclusive and accessible Canada.

Human Resources committee  We did. During the consultation process, we made comments and provided information around trying to think about this legislation as not only focused on accessibility but really focused on rights for persons with disabilities, in terms of thinking about persons with disabilities as rights holders and about the CRPD implementation kind of legislation.