Legal capacity is the right to make decisions that affect your own life. It’s a right that people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities are routinely denied.
Michael Bach of the Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society talks about how “supported decision making” can allow those with disabilities to take back control with the help of their families and communities.
February 04, 2026
February 04, 2026
November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025
People with disabilities experience disproportionate challenges when interacting with the justice system, both as victims of interpersonal and domestic violence and also when they are involved as potential offenders.
This literature review identifies the challenges people with mental health and cognitive disabilities experience when interacting with the justice system, in order to consolidate current information and share some reflections on possible next steps for advancing work on this issue.
Through secondary data collection, this research pursued information on: understanding what the labels of mental health, intellectual and TBI disabilities refers to; the nature of the interaction between people with these types of disabilities and the justice system; the main problems that occur during this interaction; the needs of the justice system, community services and people with disabilities during this period; and the identification of promising practices, strategies, intervention models and resources that have been developed to address these needs.
February 04, 2026
February 04, 2026
November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025
Statistics show that people with disabilities of working age are more likely to live below the poverty line than those without disabilities. The clearest factor in the income disparities between those with disabilities and those without is the component of social assistance. This report provides a statistical look at the personal income sources of people with disabilities who live in low income households in Canada. The main focus of the research is on the income sources of poor people with disabilities and how those look in comparison to the income sources of poor people without disabilities across age and gender.
February 04, 2026
February 04, 2026
November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025
Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognizes the right to recognition as a person before the law and the right to legal capacity on an equal basis with others, without discrimination on the basis of disability—not only as the capacity to have rights, but the capacity to act. This paper examines how current criteria of personhood and legal capacity systematically discriminate against people with intellectual disabilities in recognition and enjoyment of their legal capacity. It draws on more recent conceptions of personhood from moral and political philosophy to suggest directions for law reform that could be taken to address this barrier in law, policy and practice.
February 04, 2026
February 04, 2026
November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025
This paper aims to develop a better understanding of how the disability community can engage more effectively among themselves and with governments so as to move public policy issues and reform agendas forward. The paper’s focus is on the participation of disability organizations and associations, and the disability policy community as a whole, in public policy processes in Canada. The central purpose is to identify actual and potential models of engagement both among, and between, disability organizations and associations, and government members, legislators, judges and public servants in relation to policy processes.
February 04, 2026
February 04, 2026
November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025
In 2003, the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres (CAILC) received funding from the National Crime Prevention Partnership Program, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada for “Crime Prevention and Independent Living; A Pan-Canadian Initiative for People with Disabilities”. CAILC is a non-profit, national bilingual umbrella organization supporting a network of 26 member Centres across Canada to promote the full participation and integration of persons with disabilities. This report provides an overview of key themes that emerged at the National Safety Symposium: Crime Prevention and Independent Living. The Symposium was convened and hosted by the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres (CAILC) and the Ottawa Police Service in Ottawa, April 28–30, 2005.
February 04, 2026
February 04, 2026
November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025