Hello! This is DeafDots, 24 March 2023.
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[ANSELMO]: The Human Rights Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador ruled
in the human rights complaint "Carter Churchill vs. Newfoundland
Labrador English School District". In past DeafDots reports,
we talked about the parents and their struggle to obtain
appropriate education support for their Deaf son Carter Churchill.
DeafDots interviewed both a Deaf educator and
a Deaf Lawyer to tell us more about the latest ruling.
Last week, Carter Churchill's family won a human rights complaint
and they said that the school did discriminate because
their program was not meeting his needs.
[ANSELMO]: Scott, how important was this decision?
It depends on how you interpret the decision. There are four levels of court.
First, there is the Tribunal, that’s what we’re speaking of,
for this decision. Next, there is the Newfoundland Provincial Court.
Then, the province also has a Court of Appeal. And finally,
the most powerful, the Supreme Court of Canada. If you compare
the values of all these courts, the Tribunal is the weakest
of all these levels. However, we can look at it differently:
the focus is on Deaf education. If we’re comparing ASL to AVT
(auditory verbal therapy), we are comparing the two as
to which offers the most reasonable accommodation.
That is unique. So yes, this case could be important
in the future when we again consider Deaf Education rights.
[ANSELMO]: Joanne, were there any surprises in the ruling?
What really surprised me was that Gallant referred to World Federation
for the Deaf on the best learning environment being around Deaf people,
having access to their language, and their culture to pick up
their language. Having them refer to that statement is very important.
The second thing that really excited me was the finding that the school
district, well really the school board, really screwed up their process
of making all these decisions without listening to the parents and
many other teachers who have experience working with Deaf children
and can sign. They all complained and said that Carter needed
a new program and needed a contained classroom to have the best
resource to learn and have language acquisition.
The School Board ignored that.
[ANSELMO]: What do you see as the key points of this decision?
The judge — called the adjudicator — addressed many important points.
For example, the idea of a dedicated team, called a “satellite classroom”,
meaning there’s the main school, but also connected to a smaller
classroom with a team dedicated to helping disabled students.
ASL teachers, special education assistants, and auditory-verbal
therapists. This team helped Carter to the best of his abilities.
At the same time, the adjudicator was careful not to criticize
the school board. He recognized that sometimes the school board
tried, but had the wrong idea, or tried but failed, or whatever.
But the adjudicator talked about the seven years Carter was
in the school system, and for the first four years, the school
board did not meet Carter’s needs in special education.
However, after, the school board finally set up a satellite
classroom for Carter. That improved everything significantly.
At that point, the adjudicator found that the school
board met its duty to offer accessible education.
What do you see as important points?
Gallant warned [the school board] that the procedures are not in order.
That's the whole point and impact that means now the parents across Canada
can start rolling up their sleeves and complain about their child's
right to language access. This is a really important step.
Understand this, The parents did not SUE the school district
but rather filed a complaint. This may be the next step.
But they won the Human right commission hearing.
That means parents across Canada can follow them. Thank you to that family.
[ANSELMO]: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission,
CRTC ruled in CRTC 2023-41, "Mobile wireless service plans that meet
the needs of Canadians with various disabilities" on February 23rd.
This proceeding focused on barriers to wireless connectivity.
What did they decide? DeafDots asked the Deaf & Hard of Hearing
Coalition who has been actively involved.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing people use cell phones. Cell service has
had multiple barriers. CRTC's new report recognizes that there
are still barriers in place. CRTC is not working to end barriers.
They are connecting with phone companies and telling them to meet
with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities and discussing
their mobile services. That’s it. This happens every year and
each one writes a report to discuss who they meet, what they
talk about, and your mobile services. How do your cell phone
companies accommodate Deaf and hard of hearing people?
CRTC takes these reports and reviews them for barriers.
If there are still barriers, they will get involved.
Bottom line, they’re forcing cell service providers
to talk and break barriers. If they can’t then
CRTC’s last steps are to take full action.
[ANSELMO]: How would the Deaf community be impacted by the ruling?
There are two points. CRTC is not working to end barriers.
They will connect with phone companies, and demand they end barriers.
The second thing is that every cell phone company has a data plan
for sign language communication such as VRS. Many times Data will
run out and the company slows down Data going out and in of the phone.
This interferes with the ability to use VRS. CRTC told them that
it is not allowed to “throttle” data. Speed must remain the same.
[ANSELMO]: We see “would, should, could, etc.”
does this mean that these are orders or suggestions?
The rule from 2006 says phone companies can do whatever they
want with mobile services the cost is up to them. How much data
they can offer is all up to them. CRTC will not be involved.
But in 2019, the rules changed. CRTC will not get involved
to end barriers but the phone companies must work together
with Deaf and hard of hearing people. They will talk with
the community about how to end barriers. The other thing
is that CRTC will not tell mobile services and Deaf and
Hard of Hearing people how to get together and work together.
[ANSELMO]: CRTC also released a new rule on February 13, 2023.
Does that ruling have any impact on their recent decision?
The rule from 2006 was thrown out. The rules from 2019 were also
thrown out. Now on Feb 13, 2023. The rules say CRTC now is
responsible for breaking down barriers. So, that happened
during the recent decision related to Mobile decisions.
Will this affect the mobile decision? No.
The old rules are still applied to this decision.
This is a setback. If CRTC had applied the new rule to mobile plans,
there would be more accountability in accessible mobile plans.
Durham Deaf Services is seeking candidates to become their
next Executive Director. DeafDots DDS staff member Behishta Mushtaq
to tell us a bit about DDS history.
DDS was founded in May of 1982. In September of 2022 we celebrated 40 years!
We came together and celebrated. Our old building was in operations
for 38 years and we sold the building because it was not safe and
was deteriorating. It was time to move and the Board approved
for us to sell it. We moved in Feb 2020 to our new location
at 900 King Street East DDS is now seeking their new Executive Director.
Maggie Doherty-Gilbert is retiring in June of 2023.
[ANSELMO]: What services or programs does DDS offer?
One of the DDS grant funded programs is to teach literacy to people
over the age of 18. We also host both Durham Deaf Club and
Oshawa Deaf Senior Citizens Club on Wednesdays. DDS also hosts
special events such as Easter and Halloween and many different
holiday events. Deaf children along with their parents are welcome
at DDS to socialize with us. DDS works with many different
community partners. Such as CHS. We work to support counseling
for deaf community members. Deaf Adult Upgrading Program (DAUP)
offers zoom classes, one on one assistance. If students want
in person one on one assistance they can request that.
If you have goals such as preparing for a driver's license exam
or booking online courses. Technology can be difficult
to help find good courses to take. Assistance on filling
out medical forms. If you want referrals to different
agencies for care etc. We do referrals.
[ANSELMO]: Where does DDS get funding?
Funding comes from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training
and Skills Development. These classes assist with bilingual and
bicultural approaches. They learn to improve skills for independence
or employment; sometimes they want to learn enough language
to be able to go to post high school education.
[ANSELMO]: You are one example of DSS’ success!
Could you share a little bit about yourself?
I moved to Canada from Afghanistan. Did I understand ASL or English?
No I did not. I didn't even know what DDS was. I was dependent
on my sister to assist me when I moved here. I had no confidence.
Luckily someone told me that DDS had a school for adults.
I enrolled and wow! The teachers were amazing,
the support and learning I did. Finally I improved and was able to write.
I was able to communicate. I was able to sign!
I now work as a full time teacher at DDS.
[ANSELMO]: Now DDS has posted the position of Executive Director.
What makes DDS a unique place to work?
During COVID-19 most service providers closed.
DDS had no extra money but our program continued
to stay open and we worked our best to provide services
for those that need our agency. We are the only
Deaf agency with full access between here and Toronto.
[ANSELMO]: On March 11, 2021 CRTC - the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission - announced that they were opening
“Call for comments” on Canada Video Relay Service.
This was an opportunity for individuals or representatives
of organizations that use VRS to provide comments and in-depth
feedback about their experience using Canadian VRS.
Then in responding to requests from Deaf organizations,
CRTC posted “Consultation about the Video Relay Service in Canada”
in ASL on March 14, 2022. We asked our new DeafDots reporter
Rae-Mairi Richardson that two years has passed,
has CRTC made any decisions based on feedback from VRS users?
CRTC appears to be realizing that they need to better accommodate
the needs of Deaf Canadians. They are now sensitive
to the need to post future CRTC proceedings not only
in English and French but also in ASL and LSQ!
And in reviewing the comments that VRS users submitted,
they decided to schedule “virtual discussion sessions”
with those organizations and individuals who submitted comments.
[ANSELMO]: What is the purpose of the virtual discussions?
According to Paolo Maiorino at CRTC, the virtual discussions
would give an opportunity to “express your views directly
to CRTC decision makers. Three CRTC Commissioners will participate
in the sessions and a facilitator will moderate the sessions.”
[ANSELMO]: When would the virtual discussions be done?
It was supposed to be in October 2022 but CRTC had to reschedule
as they couldn't confirm sign language interpreters.
It was finally done last month January 24, 25 & 26.
Among those invited was CDGM and DHH Coalition and DeafDots
believes 11 other intervenors who participated. CRTC requested
focus be: “Please describe user experiences with CAV VRS".
This means you can only discuss user experiences and nothing else.
[ANSELMO]: What’s next?
CRTC says they are currently correcting transcripts and
captioning the virtual discussion videos and will post them
on CRTC's YouTube channel. Then we all will have the opportunity
to submit comments on what was discussed in these videos.
This is great information, many thanks Rae-Mairi for the update!
Thank you for watching DeafDots.
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