Empowerment

Human Rights & Accessibility Laws

Gary Malkowski is a former Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament with extensive involvement in the areas of human rights, anti-discrimination, and Deaf & disability advocacy work. He served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Ontario Minister of Citizenship responsible for Human Rights, Disability Issues, Employment Equity and Race Relations portfolios.

Gary has advised human rights and ombudsman organizations. He was Chair of ARCH Disability Law Centre and served on the Law Commission of Ontario Accessibility Advisory Committee. With this extensive track record and involvement, Gary can cover the following areas:

  • Ontario Human Rights Code
  • Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
  • AODA regulations governing customer services, employment, transportation, information & communications, design for public space, and education
  • Employment Standards and accessibility and the legal responsibility for an organization, business or facility to be accessible
  • Deaf and hard of hearing workers and workers with disabilities in Canada have the same rights as employees who are hearing
  • The Canadian Human Rights Act
  • The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Accessible Canada Act
  • Supreme Court of Canada rulings such as Eldridge decision (1997), Federal Court of Canada’s Canadian Association of the Deaf decision (2005)
Empowerment - Gary Malkowski

Barrier-Free Life

Gary can speak or consult on barrier-free environments, ensure that policies and services are barrier-free. He served on AODA Standards Development Committees for Transportation and Information & Communications, the Elections Ontario Accessibility Advisory Committee and City of Toronto Committee for Disability Issues. He is currently on the Ontario Accessibility Selection Committee for the David C. Onley Award for Leadership. Gary served on other committees including the Canadian Transport Agency Accessibility Advisory Committee, and providing guidance on policies and legislation related to employment equity for the Federal and Provincial Ministries of Citizenship; Education; and Colleges, Universities and Training.

Anti-Discrimination: Audism, Ableism + Racism

Gary was born profoundly Deaf and his primary language is American Sign Language. As a Deaf person, Gary has first-hand experiences of encountering and dealing with attitudinal barriers. With his past and current contributions and involvement to policy making, enforcement and public awareness, he gives presentations and workshops on understanding attitudinal barriers, types of micro-aggressions, handling and dealing with obstacles.

Deaf Culture & DEAF-GAIN

Shift away from a medical view that describes Deaf and hard of hearing people as having “hearing loss”, towards a positive perspective that recognizes a collective minority. Explore ways to create positive attitudes, respect the variety of cultures and expression within a culture. Encourage environments that promote the minority culture as a rich resource in our society. This rich resource is known as “Deaf-Gain” and the collective identity is known as “Deafhood”.