Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials is a comprehensive overview of law and disability issues in Canada. The authors – six academics and experts in the field – discuss persons with disabilities and their interactions with the law as a holistic phenomenon that requires knowledge of and engagement with different areas of law. Through an examination of barriers regularly faced by people with disabilities, they present key and foundational domestic and international equality rights instruments (including the Charter, human rights law and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), the history of disability rights litigation and several contemporary access to justice issues.

Comprehensive Content

The first part of Law and Disability in Canada: Cases and Materials explores ways to achieve equality for persons with disabilities in everyday settings and analyzes tensions in community living, workplace accommodation, income security and disability benefits. The second part focuses on specific legal contexts where disability issues arise and have to date been inadequately explored, such as the criminal justice system (arrest, detention, trial and sentencing) and inquests. It also discusses mental health and specialized courts. While the book incorporates an intersectional lens throughout, the second part of the book pays particular attention to examining issues of law and disability affecting persons with disabilities from marginalized groups including Indigenous peoples and women. Finally, the book references challenges faced by people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and includes a robust set of bibliographies on disability and additional topics of access to justice.