Press Release
For immediate release
A first in the country – Class action
More discrimination! People with disabilities have had enough!
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 – Exasperated by so much discrimination on the part of these four actors from the Montreal and Quebec scenes, the Société de transport (STM), the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT), the City of Montreal and the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ), the RAPLIQ this morning filed an official motion with the Superior Court of Quebec for a class action against these four organizations.
“We have waited too long to be truly full-fledged citizens and to tolerate discrimination in public transit,” says Linda Gauthier, president of the RAPLIQ. “Our right to equality is guaranteed in the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and in the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Canada ratified in 2010”.
The accessibility of public transportation for people with physical disabilities has been around for years, a problem that jeopardizes their full participation in all areas of daily life.
On December 1, 2014, the Agence métropolitaine de Transport began its operations on the East Train, of which only 4 stations in this corridor out of 13 are accessible to people traveling in wheelchairs. The rest except two must be made accessible in 2015-2016. In addition, on the other five AMT rail lines (Deux-Montagnes, Candiac, St-Jérôme, Vaudreuil-Hudson, Mont St-Hilaire), there is only one station accessible, therefore 51 inaccessible.
In addition, as the AMT has jurisdiction over public transit in Montreal, including the metro, the Agency violates section 76 of the Act respecting the Agence métropolitaine de transport, more particularly by the partial and incomplete inaccessibility of the Bonaventure metro station and for not having produced a plan under the said article.
The STM, for its part, offers a network of 68 metro stations, only 8 of which are accessible to people in wheelchairs. However, the vast majority of major cities in the world have a much more accessible transportation network than that of Montreal. In addition, it is too often the case that the access ramps do not work.
A study made by the RAPLIQ in 2011 showed that people in wheelchairs could only access the so-called regular bus in a proportion of only 34%. This means that in 66% of the cases, 33% of the ramps presented major problems, 30% not working at all, left users squarely on the sidewalk, forced to wait for the next, even the second and even third bus before being able to board and the remaining percentage is that at the time there were still vehicles without ramps.
In other words, many of these vehicles had left the garage in the morning and the STM was fully aware of the problems.
As for the City of Montreal, it appoints elected officials to sit on the boards of directors of public transit organizations where the factor of social inclusion and universal accessibility is not restrained. The City of Montreal does not take into account the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms or the International Convention relating to Persons with Disabilities when it approves decisions or subsidizes projects. This is also the case with the AMT and the STM.
And finally, the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ), which is the main funder of the STM and the AMT, is not meeting demand to ensure the accessibility of the Montréal metro network by not responding to reasonable and legitimate requests from associations and the Table Transport de Montréal.
The ministry has also abolished the subsidies granted to owners of restricted taxi licenses that are subcontracted by the STM to provide transportation for people with disabilities. Finally, the budget cuts and the drastic tightening of the selection criteria for eligibility for paratransit are only a few obstacles that people with disabilities must face.
“While Toronto aims for universal accessibility in its network in 2025, in Montreal we should wait until 2085. We cannot dream of a public transportation system free of barriers of discrimination until our death,” adds Ms. Gauthier.
According to Me Aymar Missakila, lawyer acting in this case, “We are talking about a potential number of 20,000 disabled people who will join the class action, each claiming $ 5,000 in damages for discrimination.”
This is the first time in Quebec that a class action has been brought for discrimination based on disability in public transportation. Hitherto rarely used, collective redress is a means increasingly considered by groups who are victims of discrimination, given the obstacles before the courts and the Commission on Human and Youth Rights, the delay and other problems in handling complaints do not allow for rapid and collective results.
“All groups seeking equality must stand behind RAPLIQ in this process, because collective redress must become a privileged remedy to combat systemic and institutionalized discrimination”, specifies Fo Niemi, Director General of CRARR (Research Center -action on race relations).
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Source :
| Linda Gauthier |
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| RAPLIQ President (514) 656-1664 www.rapliq.org |