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Rights tribunal orders commission to focus on accessibility, following ruling on calling out stops

Nov 23, 2007 04:30 AM
Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter

TTC commissioners have been ordered back to school to learn about their human rights obligations as part of a damning final decision by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

The ruling is the last word on a challenge by blind lawyer David Lepofsky, who argued the transit agency violated his rights by refusing to order drivers to call all stops on its streetcars and buses. Two years ago, he won a similar case against the subway system.

In July, the tribunal adjudicator issued an interim ruling giving the TTC 30 days to begin announcing all surface stops.

Now, in a written final decision, Justice Alvin Rosenberg chastized the TTC's lack of accommodation and sensitivity and ordered it to hold annual public forums on accessibility issues. It must also make dealing with those issues part of the job descriptions and performance reviews of its employees.

Rosenberg also ordered the TTC to pay Lepofsky $35,000, even though the lawyer did not request financial compensation. He says he will donate the money to charity.

"The TTC should have asked themselves many years ago, `What can we do to help? How can we accommodate these visually impaired patrons?' Instead they resisted with all the means at their disposal," writes Rosenberg in the decision issued Wednesday.

He goes on to write, however, that the TTC has acted quickly to have its operators call surface stops while it finishes installing an automated announcement system. But if that system, which is supposed to be complete by February, isn't 98 per cent reliable within a year, Rosenberg says TTC operators must make announcements themselves.

Calling the decision "a resounding victory" for transit users with disabilities, Lepofsky said the $500,000 the TTC spent fighting him on both cases should have gone into accommodating those patrons.

He also called on the Human Rights Commission to launch proceedings against any transit commission in Ontario that doesn't comply with the ruling.


"It's important for transit providers to do more. Calling stops is an easy one. There are more challenging accommodations," said Lepofsky yesterday.

Senior TTC officials said the automated announcement system will be the most reliable. "(Rosenberg) expects 100 per cent compliance, and with thousands of operators the only way to ensure perfection is an automated system," said TTC chair Adam Giambrone.

Commission chief general manager Gary Webster said the TTC will do its utmost to comply with Rosenberg's orders. "He did at least acknowledge that we took the interim order seriously and we're making very good progress, and I'm pleased with that," he said.

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Rights of blind riders violated: Tribunal
By SARAH GREEN, SUN MEDIA


The TTC is a "two-time offender" in violating the rights of blind commuters, Ontario's human rights tribunal has ruled.

In a final decision late Wednesday, the tribunal ruled in favour of David Lepofsky, a blind lawyer who lodged two complaints against the TTC in a decade-long battle to have operators call out stops.

"The TTC should have asked themselves many years ago, what can we do to help? How can we accommodate these visually impaired patrons?" Alvin Rosenberg wrote in his ruling. "Instead they resisted with all means at their disposal."

The ruling upholds an interim decision last July that ordered the TTC to start announcing stops on bus and streetcar routes within 30 days. The tribunal similarly ruled in 2005 the TTC must call out subway stops.

The TTC's most recent audit, dated Nov. 1, shows 81% of all surface stops were called by operators and automated announcements, the ruling said.

$450,000 LEGAL BILL

Lepofsky called the ruling a vindication, but noted it came at a price. The legal bills for the TTC in fighting Lepofsky's complaints to the tribunal add up to $450,000, he said.

"It's bad enough they didn't spend this money on accessibility," Lepofsky said yesterday. He filed a Freedom of Information request for the legal bills.

The ruling awarded Lepofsky $35,000 in damages, but noted the lawyer didn't "seek even one dollar" and he could donate it to charity. Lepofsky confirmed the "taxpayer money is not coming to me."

TTC chairman Adam Giambrone said the transit authority is complying with the tribunal ruling and expects to have automated announcements on all buses, subways and streetcars early in 2008.

The ruling also ordered TTC commissioners to undergo training about the transit authority's obligations to disabled commuters.