Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario 121 autism related complaints

Main Category: Autism
Article Date: 03 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Canada, is receiving a record 121 autism-related complaints by Ontario's Human Rights Commission.

The average number of complaints the commission refers to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario is around 90, and that includes all types of complaints, not just one type.

The complaints say the province is cutting funding for the treatment of autism for children over six years of age. People say this is discriminatory.

They are saying that this amounts to a public policy discriminating on age and disability.

Most treatment for disease is given until the patient no longer needs it. In this case, they say, the decision to give treatment is not decided by need - it seems to be decided by age.

The complainers say this is wrong. The service should be provided when it is required.

Costs for intensive behavioural intervention treatments for autistic children can cost CAN$50,000 a year (per child).

Without this funding they will either have to stop the treatment or sell everything they have, or get into debt to keep it going.

The Commission, when it refers the complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, does so when it feels there is enough evidence to show that the human rights code has been breached.

Parents say that when their autistic children reach the age of six their condition has improved a lot. They also say that at the age of six the treatment has not finished, the child needs the treatment to continue.

Ontario's government pledged one year ago that treatment for autistic children would continue beyond the age of six. At the end of last year, Ontario's Premier, Dalton McGuinty, told parents the government needed more time to turn that pledge into reality.

Experts and spokespeople say that this pressure will probably get the government to do something fairly quickly.

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