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TORONTO/CNW/ - Municipalities have to
consider the needs of everyone - including people with
disabilities or on social assistance - when making bylaws. The
Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) made that ruling late last week,
saying “municipalities - and this Board - are bound by the
(Human Rights) Code.”
Two bylaws stopped new non-profit and supportive housing from
being built in the Cedar Hill neighbourhood in downtown
Kitchener. The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) and
other groups objected and the Ontario Human Rights Commission
(OHRC) argued in a submission to the OMB that the Board had to
follow the Code.
“The OMB said the City of Kitchener did not look at the impacts
of their actions when it decided to pass these bylaws,” said
OHRC Chief Commissioner Barbara Hall. “People with disabilities
or on social assistance were the targets; they were told, in
effect ‘we don’t want more people like you in this
neighbourhood. The Human Rights Code says you can’t discriminate
like that.”
The City of Kitchener has been sent back to the drawing board to
redraft the two bylaws as well as an amendment to the City’s
Official Plan.
“Using bylaws to keep some people out of neighbourhoods is
wrong; zoning is for buildings, not for people,” said Barbara
Hall. “Municipalities should be working to improve accessibility
for people with disabilities - not making it harder for them to
find places to live.”
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