Advocates for disabled communities in Canada are upset that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s newly sworn-in cabinet does not include a minister dedicated to people with disabilities.
Earlier this year, Carney received criticism for eliminating several roles from his initial cabinet when he stepped in to replace Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party. This included ministers responsible for women, gender equality, youth, official languages, diversity, inclusion, persons with disabilities and seniors.
When his new cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday, it included 28 ministers, but not one dedicated to issues impacting Canadians with disabilities. This left many people questioning why this is.
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Inclusion Canada, an organization advocating for the full inclusion and human rights of people with intellectual disabilities across the country, told Now Toronto that this is concerning as people with disabilities need a strong voice in Ottawa.
“Over 27% of people in Canada identify as having one or more disabilities,” Inclusion Canada said in a statement on Thursday. “Having a Minister dedicated to advancing the full inclusion of persons with disabilities and their families will ensure that a disability lens is consistently brought to the cabinet table.”
The organization said that every government decision must take into consideration the impacts on people with disabilities, and whether the actions of that government advance the full inclusion and rights of this community.
“Ideally, every Minister and Secretary of State would be well-versed in disability issues and apply that lens to government decisions,” the statement continues. “The reality is that it does not happen.”
It says this is why the disability community is intensely disappointed by the lack of a minister or secretary of state dedicated to their interests.
“Before the appointment of the cabinet, it was reported that priority areas for government would be given to Secretaries of State. With no mention of disability, what does this say about whether people with disabilities will be a priority for the new government?”
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance (AODA) is a disability consumer advocacy group that works to support the implementation of full and effective accessibility standards in Ontario. It pointed out that while Carney’s cabinet does not have a disability minister, it does have two ministers responsible for Indigenous peoples, as well as ministers for women, seniors, and sports.
“We of course recognize the value of sports in Canada, but are the urgent needs of people with
disabilities less important than sports?” the organization questioned in a statement shared with Now Toronto.
“This sends a strong and deeply worrisome message to millions of people with disabilities in
Canada that they and their issues are a low priority in the world view of Canada’s new prime minister,” the statement continued, adding that the organization finds this more concerning due to Carney’s plans to undertake major restructuring of Canada’s economy and government in response to threats posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“If disability considerations are not fully factored into those plans, we can expect that yet more serious new disability barriers will be created in Canada,” the organization said. “This will violate the requirement in the Accessible Canada Act that the Federal Government lead this country to become accessible to people with disabilities by 2040, a deadline that we have already fallen quite behind on reaching.”
AODA told Now Toronto that during the recent federal election, it reached out to all federal party leaders requesting they make detailed commitments on disability issues, and make the Accessible Canada Pledge. The organization said only the Green Party did so.
However, the advocacy group says that having a minister dedicated to disability issues does not guarantee that the Canadian government will meet the needs of the country’s disabled communities.
AODA said that while former Disability Minister Carla Qualtrough spearheaded both the Accessible Canada Act and the Canada Disabilities Benefit Act, and played a part in ensuring an emergency disability benefit was available during the pandemic, both those bills were far too weak.
“Their implementation has been crushingly sluggish and ineffectual. The single disability benefit during the entire pandemic took an absurd amount of time to reach impoverished people with disabilities,” AODA said.
“At the same time as these measures were being developed, the Federal Government was excessively liberalizing doctor-assisted suicide, applicable only to people with disabilities, without ensuring proper safeguards for society’s most vulnerable.”
However, it says that it is reasonable to conclude that these measures would have been weaker if there had not been a disability minister at the time. Therefore, AODA is calling for Carney to add responsibilities for disabled communities to the portfolio of a current minister.
“The last thing people with disabilities now need is for the Federal Government to be backtracking in any way on disability issues.”
