To the Human Rights Commission, requesting enforcement

Dear Ms. Hansen,

Here is the response I received to my November 24 email to you, Dr. Strang, Minister Miller and Minister Furey from Adrian Fuller Executive Director Inspection, Compliance and Enforcement Division, NS Environment.  

In the letter, Director Fuller says  the Human Rights Board of Inquiry "has ordered Nova Scotia Environment to require restaurants to have accessible washrooms in order to comply with the Food Safety Regulations, unless the permit holder applies for an exemption based on undue hardship."

This is untrue; a misinterpretation of a perfectly straightforward order:

An order that the Respondent interpret, administer and enforce the words washroom facilities for the public available in a convenient location" in s.20(1) of the Food Safety Regulations as requiring those washroom facilities to be accessible to members of the public who use wheelchairs;

There is no mention of anything remotely resembling 'undue hardship'.  Undue hardship is frequently the weapon of choice used against people with disabilities, and signals that their own undue hardship is of no consequence.  This reinterpretation, along with deliberate footdragging reflects poorly on the Human Rights process.  It calls into question your commission's independence and accords special treatment to other branches of government.

In more than three months since the decision the Department of the Environment has failed to comply.  Furthermore, it seems unable to correctly interpret a forty-three word order.  I request that you remind the government of the actual words and meaning of the decision and ask it why it hasn't complied with such a simple directive.  Indeed, Section 38 of the Human Rights Act addresses noncompliance:

Every person who does anything prohibited by this Act or who refuses or neglects to comply with any order made under this Act is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction to 

(a) if an individual, a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars; and 

(b) if a person other than an individual, a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars. 

It is discouraging that NS Environment has so badly misunderstood their Public Health obligations to vulnerable Nova Scotians.  Noncompliance certainly will bring the the administration of the Human Rights Act into disrepute.

I have posted this email to my blog.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Warren Reed