Category: All Posts

Before Omicron and protesters took over the news cycle, Nova Scotia’s new PC Premier was facing criticism for his about-face on defending in court the Province’s treatment of people with disabilities. After initially declaring that people shouldn’t have to take government to court to make it “do the right thing” Tim Houston did just that to Nova Scotians with disabilities who need supports and services to live in the community. In October the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal wrote the latest chapter in a long-running saga, confirming a Human Rights Board of Inquiry  finding of discrimination in the Province’s  treatment of persons with disabilities. Houston indicated at the time his government would accept the  ruling as “the right thing to do, the human thing to do.” But those words turned out to be only half true.  The government is accepting the court decision to uphold the human rights complaint of discrimination by the province against Beth MacLean, Joey Delaney and Sheila Livingstone. But in a surprise move the government filed a last-minute application to the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal the Nova Scotia court’s finding of systemic discrimination affecting hundreds of others.  In its application for leave to appeal to the SCOC the province makes a number of arguments, a key one being whether government or “human rights adjudicators” should be “the administrators of disability benefits.”...