Dr. Laverne Jacobs, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at Windsor Law says that enforcing accessibility legislation can be tricky.
“It’s important to have government will to put into place the discretion in order to ensure that inspectors are put into place, that investigations are done,” says Jacobs.
She adds that the federal commissioner’s job is fairly elaborately set out, and there is the inclusion of a complaint mechanism that doesn’t exist in the Ontario legislation.
“There are provisions for remedies if an individual has suffered monetary or psychological damage because of a lack of accessibility,” says Jacobs. “Investigations can be done and matters can then be brought before the Human Rights Tribunal. It’s quite well thought-out.”
Jacobs adds that while the federal commissioner will have great tools and powers, the legislation says that existing authorities such as the Canadian Transportation Agency, or the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will still take complaints and do enforcement based in their own jurisdictions.
Open the full article on the Law Times website.