Barrier Free Manitoba

Barrier-Free Manitoba's formal campaign to secure strong and effective provincial accessibility-rights legilsation began with a meeting with senior government officials in September 2008. It was at that meeting that Barrier-Free Manitoba tabled its call (Word / PDF) for this legislation based on the the following nine principles:  

• Cover all disabilities.
• Reflect a principled approach to equality.
• Move beyond the complaints-driven system to comprehensively address discrimination and barriers.
• Establish a definite target date to achieve a barrier-free Manitoba.
• Require the development of clear, progressive, mandatory and date-specific standards in all major areas related to accessibility that will apply to public and private sectors.
• Establish a timely and effective process for monitoring and enforcement of the standards.
• Incorporate ongoing leadership roles for the disability community.
• Supersede all other provincial legislation, regulations or policies which provide lesser protections.
• Not diminish other legal and human rights protections.

That meeting launched a sustained and spirited 5+ year campaign supported by an extensive array of coalitions and agencies from and well beyond Manitoba's diverse disability communities (click here for a list of those that endorsed the call for the legilsation), as well as by thousands of concerned citizens.

The first legislative accomplishment (it seemed like a half-measure at the time) was passage of The Accessibility Advisory Council Act in June 2011. For details of the developments leading up to this, please click here.

This legislation the Barrier-Free Manitoba had called for back in 2008 was passed and proclaimed on December 5, 2013 in the form of the Accessibility for Manitobans Act. For details of the developments leading up to this, please click here.