Nova Scotia Disability Rights are Human Rights
Visit the social media resource page for the Road to Inclusion 2023 Campaign. Use Twitter and Facebook to take part in the conversation and make your views known on social media.
In 2013, the current government committed to closing institutions and providing community-based living supports for all persons with disabilities within 10 years—by the end of 2023. It was all set out in the Roadmap—a plan to community inclusion drafted jointly by the Province and disability rights advocates, and endorsed by then Premier Stephen McNeil and his government.
n 2013, the incumbent government committed to a ten-year plan for equality, making Nova Scotia fully accessible and promising they would close institutions providing community-based living supports for all persons living with disabilities by 2023. With 30 months to go, the progress thus far has been glacial.
New Disability Rights Coalition report shows Nova Scotia government is not following its own Roadmap
A report issued yesterday by the Disability Rights Coalition says there remains “a mismatch” between government rhetoric on providing services to disabled adults and the frustrating reality faced by many families. Photo: Questsociety.ca
I remember how genuinely excited disability advocates were when in 2013 Denise Peterson-Rafuse, then minister of Community Services, announced a five-year plan to close down all large institutions for people living with physical or intellectual disabilities and provide them with the supports to live in their own communities, either in a small group home or in a place of their own. -Robert Devet
The Nova Scotia government is being accused of pushing its plans to transform services for people with disabilities to the back burner.
The Disability Rights Coalition says the 2013 roadmap in which the province committed over 10 years to more community-based services rather than institutional care has stalled.
As part of the United Nations Human Rights Committee preparation of a “list of issues” for its 2023 Review of Canada, the Disability Rights Coalition along with 23 other Canadian NGOs has filed the following submission seeking to address the rights violation of people with disabilities who are unnecessarily institutionalized and Canada’s failure to provide the necessary supports and services for social inclusion.
The pages below will introduce you to the recent Human Rights Case in Nova Scotia:
The case is a legal discrimination complaint about the Province’s failure to treat people with disabilities in a way that ensures that all persons with disabilities are supported to live in community.
This is the documentary The Freedom Tour of Nova Scotia (1:11 hours)
As of July 2021, you can write to the Premier and your other representatives about The Road to Inclusion and Equality for People with Disabilities using the template provided.