Friday October 10, 1997

Sign Language Ruling Hailed as Key Victory

by David Vienneau, Ottawa Editor

OTTAWA - In what is being hailed as a major victory for disabled people, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that provinces must pay for sign language interpreters for the deaf when they receive medical treatment.

Advocates for the deaf and other disabled groups said the judgement recognizes that the deaf have the same right to communicate with their doctors as people who can hear. They said the decision would serve as a powerful lever for all disabled people in their struggle for equal treatment.

The court, in a 9-0 judgement, said the B.C. government's failure to pay for sign language interpreters at a cost of $150,000.00 a year infringed the equality rights section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Section 15 of the Charter says everyone is equal under the law regardless of whether they have a handicap.

"Effective communication is an indispensable component of the delivery of medical services," Mr Justice Gérad La Forest wrote in a decision released yesterday.

"The absence of a publicly funded sign language interpretation service discriminated against deaf people by denying them the equal benefit of the B.C. health care system."

Although the case arose in British Columbia, the ruling has national implications because it sends a signal to every province that sign language interpreters must be made available at public expense. B.C. has six months to comply with the decision.

"We are thrilled with this decision," Gary Malkowski of the Canadian Hearing Society told reporters through a sign language interpreter. "It is the best scenario we possibly could have gotten."

"We have finally recognized that the deaf have access to health care on an equal basis," said Malkowski, a former Ontario MPP.

Michael Huck of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities predicted the decision will result in improved access to public services, education and training programs.

"This decision is about inclusion, inclusion for all Canadians including those with disabilities," he told reporters.

There are limited interpreting services for health care in Ontario. But a doctor or hospital must request the service and pay between $30 and $40 an hour for it.

Toronto lawyer David Baker of the Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped said only about 40 per cent of hospitals have allocated funding for this purpose.

"It is subject to some hospitals paying for the service and many hospitals are declining," Baker, one of the lawyers who argued the case, said in an interview. "Interpreters are present in only about 10 or 15 per cent of the circumstances where they should be."

La Forest, who recently announced his retirement, made a strong plea for recognizing the rights of all disabled persons whom he said have long been targets of discrimination.

"People with disabilities have too often been excluded from the labour force, denied access to opportunities for social interaction and advancement, subjected to invidious stereotyping and relegated to institutions", he wrote.

"This historical disadvantage has to a great extent been shaped and perpetuated by the notion that disability is an abnormality or flaw. As a result, disabled persons have not generally been afforded the equal, concern, respect and consideration" that the Charter demands, he wrote.

"Instead, they have been subjected to paternalistic attitudes of pity and charity, and their entrance into the social mainstream has been conditional upon their emulation of able-bodied norms."

The court challenge was brought by three people, including John and Linda Warren. Their twin daughters were born prematurely and after some difficulty, but there was no sign interpreter in the delivery room to explain what was happening.

At the October, 1992, trial, Linda Warren's doctor testified that communicating in writing was time-consuming, impractical and had the potential to result in harm, especially during a difficult childbirth.

The Canadian Hearing Society estimates that more than 200,600 people in Canada, including about 72,200 in Ontario, are completely deaf or have severe hearing problems.