Double win for woman in human rights complaints
Legislative assembly accepts report; city to carry out fixes at pool says mayor
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Saturday, October 1, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A city woman has secured two human rights victories against the City of Yellowknife and legislative assembly, wins that will see her paid more than $18,000.
Elizabeth Portman, shown speaking to city councillors at the start of the year about accessibility issues, was successful in two Northwest Territories Human Rights Adjudication Panel decisions issued last month. - video still courtesy City of Yellowknife
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The two separate decisions by the Northwest Territories Human Rights Adjudication Panel issued last month in favour of Elizabeth Portman have prompted changes to public buildings and services to better accommodate those with disabilities.
The assembly has already carried out about $315,000 in renovations, including automatic door buttons for an accessible washroom and other public spaces and widened and easier to open doors.
The city has been ordered to make some small renovations to the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool within six months, including removing a lip at the entrance to the accessible showers and ensuring a handrail is properly secured. Part of the ruling against the city dealt with how it had charged more for an accessible bus service than regular transit, which was ruled unfair.
Neither ruling is being appealed.
"We certainly respect the decision of the adjudicator and will be acting on what they've ordered us to do," said Yellowknife Mayor Mark Heyck in an interview last week.
The legislative assembly was scolded in the ruling for not acting previously on the issues, because it hadn't received any complaints.
"The (assembly) cannot use the apparent absence of previous complaints as a reason to not properly investigate concerns when raised," Adrian Wright, the adjudicator who issued both decisions, wrote.
The legislative assembly issued a news release stating it would follow the order set out in the the ruling against it, which means paying Portman $10,000 for injury to her dignity, feelings and self-respect.
Portman has multiple sclerosis, a condition affecting the nervous system that can affect a person's stamina, co-ordination and ability to perform physical activities.
She did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
While she was using crutches in November 2013, she had gone to the washroom area of the assembly, finding the door to the accessible washroom too heavy to open. Fearing she'd get trapped, she used the women's washroom but once in the stall found there was no grab bar she could use to get back to her feet. She used the bottom of the stall door. The decision states it was a Saturday and she feared getting stuck in the washroom on a day when few people would be around to assist her.
"This has been a valuable learning experience and one that has resulted in significant improvements to the accessibility of our building by all members of the public," Jackson Lafferty, speaker of the assembly, stated in a news release last week. "I sincerely regret that Ms. Portman suffered the indignity that she did in 2013."
Lafferty was not speaker at the time the issues were brought to light by Portman, beginning with a 2011 meeting with the Sergeant-at-Arms.
The assembly paid $32,668 between April 2015 and July this year for costs related to the case, according to spokesperson Barbara Abramchuk. The assembly wasn't able to say by press time how much was spent in earlier years.
Legislative assembly staff will also undergo human rights and duty to accommodate training for its staff this month, according to a news release.
The city has been ordered to pay Portman $8,518.50 which is in part the difference between the fares she paid. The city ended the use of two fare systems in December 2015 as the case wound through the hearings process.
The city not making the service available to Portman "at the same rate as the regular service made her feel like a lesser person," the ruling states.
It must also carry out the pool fixes, though it's not clear how much that will cost. Heyck said the city is analyzing the list and some aspects may have to be included in the city's 2017 budget.
"We'll make it happen," he said.
