July marks Disability Pride Month, an event that aims to celebrate all who experience disability and their unique experiences and identities. According to Statistics Canada, 27% of the Canadian population or 8 million people have at least one disability as of 2022.
To mark Disability Pride Month, we wanted to promote resources and legal help organizations that may be useful to your patrons with disabilities who are experiencing legal problems.
Benefits & Financial
Disability Alliance BC (DABC) has a number of help sheets that can support your patrons who are:
- Applying for disability benefits like Persons with Disabilities, Persons with Persistent Multiple Barriers and others
- Appealing denials of these benefits.
- Looking for help with their financial options like creating trusts or saving plans
- Filing income taxes while receiving disability benefits
- Wanting to know more about employers' duty to accommodate or what to do if they experience discrimination in the healthcare system.
DABC has also created self-help guides for the Canada-Pension Plan Disability benefit, including applying, appealing, and attending the Social Security Tribunal where appeals are held. They’ve also created multiple guides and help sheets to support accessing the Disability Tax Credit.
Most of these resources are available in multiple languages: English, Arabic, Persian, Punjabi, and Spanish.
DABC also offers free help directly to people with disabilities through their advocacy programs. They can help people with disabilities apply for benefits, file income taxes, and apply for tax credits such as the Disability Tax Credit.
For those who need legal advice, DABC offers the Disability Law Clinic, which can help those experiencing discrimination, having trouble accessing services or accommodations, and more. The Clinic is available throughout the province, with interpreters available for those who need them.
If your patron simply wants to learn more about benefits that may be available to them, you can point them toward the Disability Benefits Compass. This website provides information about five key disability benefits in all provinces/territories in Canada. Each page will introduce the benefit, have eligibility information, and walk you through the application process.
Those who have the Persons with Disabilities designation may be interested in creating a trust to hold their assets while remaining eligible for disability assistance. The BC government has put together a page on Trusts, which provides information on eligibility, types of trusts, how to set them up, and more. For those who prefer print resources to take home with them, check out the Disability Assistance and Trusts brochure, also from the BC Government, which can be printed for patrons to take home with them.
Discrimination
People’s Law School has a few pages that can help those experiencing discrimination, whether due to their disability or another reason, learn more about their rights:
- Human rights and discrimination protection
- Discrimination in the workplace
- Mental health and discrimination
- Discrimination in housing
- The employer’s duty to accommodate
- Discrimination in accessing health care
For a print option, the LSLAP Manual has a chapter on Human Rights, which contains an overview of legislated human rights in BC and Canada, including the BC Human Rights Code, as well as information about filing complaints for discrimination under these Acts.
If your patron has filed a complaint at the BC Human Rights Tribunal and needs legal assistance, you can direct them toward the BC Human Rights Clinic. This clinic can provide free legal advice, consultations, and representation to those who are eligible. They also offer a Short Service Clinic which provides free 30-minute phone appointments for those who want to know how the BC Human Rights Code may apply for them or how to file a human rights complaint. For those who want more information about the Human Rights Code and the Tribunal process, they can find information on the Clinic’s website or contact their Inquiry Line.
Going to Court
If your patron is representing themselves in a court matter, they may need extra support. The National Self-Represented Litigants Project has A Guide for SRLs with Disabilities (SRL stands for self-representing litigant). The guide provides information across the jurisdictions of Canada about the different types of services accommodations one can receive and how to request them, including a sample Letter of Accommodation request. The guide can be easily downloaded and printed for those who prefer the print.
For those who need visual language interpretation or captioning services, these are provided by the court. The BC government website has more information on their page Arrange an interpreter for court proceedings.
This article is a LawMatters Blog post written for current awareness at the time of publishing. Please check the publication date as some information may have changed since then.