antiquity
12-20-2002, 09:54 AM
Ruling awards $7,000 to four
Place desjardins. Lack of wheelchair access at cinemasÂ*
ELISABETH KALBFUSS
The Gazette
Friday, December 20, 2002ADVERTISEMENT
Place Desjardins must pay $7,000 to each of four would-be movie-goers for not providing wheelchair access to its theatres.
Gisèle Allard, Diane Langevin, Lucie Grenache and Gérard Pomminville complained to Quebec's Human Rights Commission in 1996 about the lack of wheelchair access to the cinemas at Complexe Desjardins, charging they were being discriminated against because they were handicapped.
Pomminville and Grenache had tried to go the movies together, while Langevin and Allard, friends of theirs, had tried to go on separate occasions. All ran into problems and launched the complaint together.
After an investigation, the case went to the commission's tribunal, where it was regularly postponed as the building's management started renovations to increase disabled access.
In its judgment, the human-rights tribunal noted that since the complaint was filed, the building's owners have installed a panoramic elevator that serves the floors previously accessible mainly by escalators, and has installed automatic door openers for wheelchair users at its four main entrances on Ste. Catherine, St. Urbain and Jeanne Mance Sts. and René Lévesque Blvd.
As well, the two sides negotiated the total $28,000 in compensation.
"The charter says you can't discriminate when it comes to providing access to public spaces," said BĂ©atrice Vizkelety, the lawyer who represented the complainants.
The issue, she said, is to what lengths building owners and managers have to go to provide access to the disabled.
Public places come under the jurisdiction of building codes and various municipal regulations, but wheelchair accessibility wasn't routinely included in building designs before the late 1970s.
The cinemas at Complexe Desjardins have since closed.
ekalbfuss@thegazette.southam.ca
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/story.asp?id={F8A97C3D-ABEF-4443-B5C0-A5BDAB31C6C2}
Place desjardins. Lack of wheelchair access at cinemasÂ*
ELISABETH KALBFUSS
The Gazette
Friday, December 20, 2002ADVERTISEMENT
Place Desjardins must pay $7,000 to each of four would-be movie-goers for not providing wheelchair access to its theatres.
Gisèle Allard, Diane Langevin, Lucie Grenache and Gérard Pomminville complained to Quebec's Human Rights Commission in 1996 about the lack of wheelchair access to the cinemas at Complexe Desjardins, charging they were being discriminated against because they were handicapped.
Pomminville and Grenache had tried to go the movies together, while Langevin and Allard, friends of theirs, had tried to go on separate occasions. All ran into problems and launched the complaint together.
After an investigation, the case went to the commission's tribunal, where it was regularly postponed as the building's management started renovations to increase disabled access.
In its judgment, the human-rights tribunal noted that since the complaint was filed, the building's owners have installed a panoramic elevator that serves the floors previously accessible mainly by escalators, and has installed automatic door openers for wheelchair users at its four main entrances on Ste. Catherine, St. Urbain and Jeanne Mance Sts. and René Lévesque Blvd.
As well, the two sides negotiated the total $28,000 in compensation.
"The charter says you can't discriminate when it comes to providing access to public spaces," said BĂ©atrice Vizkelety, the lawyer who represented the complainants.
The issue, she said, is to what lengths building owners and managers have to go to provide access to the disabled.
Public places come under the jurisdiction of building codes and various municipal regulations, but wheelchair accessibility wasn't routinely included in building designs before the late 1970s.
The cinemas at Complexe Desjardins have since closed.
ekalbfuss@thegazette.southam.ca
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/story.asp?id={F8A97C3D-ABEF-4443-B5C0-A5BDAB31C6C2}