[Fdu] York professor & family deemed inadmissible: Round-Table on Immigration and Disability Discrimination

[Cynthia Wright]

Please save the date and help circulate:
**

*Round-Table Discussion on Immigration and Disability Discrimination*_
_

_April 6th, 2016, 6:30pm
United Steelworkers Union Hall, 25 Cecil Street Toronto_

The Montoya family was recently deemed *_/inadmissible/_* for Permanent 
Residency because their 13 year old son Nico, who has Down syndrome, 
might pose an 'excessive demand' on Canadian social services.Does this 
decision go against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that 
guards against the discrimination of any person based on physical or 
mental disability?

Historically, ideas of genetic defectiveness and social burden have been 
attached to immigrants. Do current immigration policies reflect 
deep-running ableist, racist and eugenic assumptions?

It is time for Canada to take a new look at its immigration policies.

*Please join us April 6th and show solidarity for disability rights and 
for the Montoya family.*

Discussants include:

  * Felipe Montoya (York University)
  * Hadayt Nazami (Senior Lawyer, Jackman, Nazami & Associates)
  * John Rae (Council of Canadians with Disabilities)
  * Ameil Joseph (McMaster University)
  * Roy Hanes (Carleton University)
  * Michael Bach (Canadian Association for Community Living)

Introductory Remarks: Natalie Spagnuolo (Doctoral Student, York University)

For more information, contact _natalie.spagnuolo at gmail.com 
<mailto:natalie.spagnuolo at gmail.com>
_*_
_**_Felipe Montoya_**__*

Felipe Montoya was hired as Professor of Environmental Studies at York 
University in 2012.As the James and Joanne Love Chair of Neotropical 
Conservation, Felipe has taught the Master’s course “Ecologies and 
Sustainability in the Global South”, and has directed the Las Nubes 
project, a permanent research, education and community outreach project 
based in a biological corridor in southern Costa Rica.Three years ago he 
applied for permanent residency to Canada.Last month he and his family 
were deemed inadmissible, because the 13 year old son has Down syndrome 
with “Moderate Intellectual Disability”.Felipe will present the details 
of his case.

*_
Hadayt Nazami
_*

Hadayt is a refugee himself. He had to flee his Kurdish home town while 
still a teenager; he was recognized by the UNHCR as a Convention refugee 
and resettled in Canada.

He has long worked as a human rights advocate, inspired by his own 
personal experiences.


Hadayt attended York University, receiving an Honours BA in 1998, a 
Master’s degree (MA) in Political Science in 1999 and his Juris Doctor 
from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in 2003. He was admitted 
to the Ontario Bar in 2004. He has practised law together with Barbara 
Jackman since 2003.


Hadayt specializes in immigration, refugee, all categories of 
inadmissibility, constitutional and national security law, with a 
particular focus on advancing issues related to human rights.

  He has participated in many legal proceedings in all levels of Courts, 
involving refugee and immigration law, Charter rights and human rights. 
Hadayt has been involved in defending against the Security Certificates 
in the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, and he acted on behalf 
of Ahmad El Maati before the Iaccobucci Inquiry, which found that Mr. El 
Maati, as well as Muayyed Nurredin and Abullah Almalki, were detained 
and tortured abroad with the involvement of Canadian government 
officials. He has been active in advocacy for refugees from many 
communities including Tamil refugees who traveled to Canada by boat. He 
was co-counsel for George Galloway, in which Canada’s charter of rights 
for freedom of expression was engaged, and for the Canadian Arab 
Federation (CAF), challenging non-funding based on political opinion.


Hadayt participates in ongoing educational programs; he has taught at 
the Downtown Legal Services Clinic of the University of Toronto and 
regularly teaches as a guest lecturer at several Canadian Universities.


*_John Rae_*

During the past 40 years, John has been a board member of many human and 
disability rights organizations, including Co-chair of the Coalition on 
Human Rights for the Handicapped, which secured the first human rights 
coverage for persons with disabilities in Ontario. John is a Past 
President of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC), the 
Canadian Legal, Advocacy, Information and Research Association of the 
Disabled (CLAIR), and PAL Reading Service.


John is now 2nd Vice Chair of the Council of Canadians With Disabilities 
National Council, and Chair of its Social Policy Committee.

  John is also a member of the Boards of Directors of ARCH Disability 
Law Centre, Injured Workers Consultants, and the Executive of the 
Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario. He is also a member 
of the Canadian Museum on Human Rights' Inclusive Design & Accessibility 
Committee, and the ODSP Action Coalition.


*_Ameil Joseph
_*

Ameil Joseph is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at 
McMaster University.  He draws on perspectives of critical mental 
health, postcolonial theory, critical race theory, and critical 
disability studies in his writing and research. One of the broad areas 
he has focused on is the confluence of criminal justice, mental health 
and immigration systems.  He comes to this work with over a decade of 
experience in the mental health field in areas of assertive community 
treatment, community-based early intervention, supportive housing, 
crisis respite, and governance settings.


Dr. Joseph has been instrumental in the recent establishment of 
Hamilton’s Anti-Racism Resource Centre.  Ameil is also the author of: 
/Deportation and the confluence of violence within forensic mental 
health and immigration systems /published by Palgrave-McMillan. A 
historiographical post-colonial analysis of the practice of deportation 
in Canada for those identified as “undesirable”.


*_Roy Hanes_*

Roy Hanes, MSW, PhD. began his social work career as the senior social 
worker on the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at the Royal Ottawa Hospital in 
1980. Although his primary social work focus was providing individual, 
marital and family counselling to people with spinal cord injuries Roy 
was involved with inpatient groups, outpatient groups and family 
educational and support groups. In addition to his work at the 
rehabilitation centre Roy became involved in community organizing with 
people with disabilities and he is a founding member of the Ottawa 
Carleton Independent Living Centre.


Besides the social work and disability related work, Roy was a founding 
member of the Canadian Disability Studies Association and he has been an 
active member of disability rights organizations such as the Council of 
Canadians with Disabilities (Social Policy Committee) and he has been an 
executive member of the Canadian Centre for Disability Studies. At the 
local level he has been a board member of the Ottawa Independent Living 
Resource Centre and he is a founding member of the Committee On 
Disability and Abuse. During his 18 years at Carleton University Roy has 
been a member of most committees which deal with the needs of students 
with disabilities.  In short, Roy has 30 years of experience and 
expertise working in various capacities with people with disabilities. 
(practitioner, community organizer, teacher, researcher, volunteer, 
advocate.)


*_Michael Bach_*

Michael Bach, PhD. is Adjunct Professor of Disability Studies at Ryerson 
University (Toronto), Executive Vice-President, Canadian Association for 
Community Living and Managing Director of IRIS – Institute for Research 
and Development on Inclusion and Society.


For over 25 years he has undertaken research and development in Canada 
and internationally on ways to advance the full inclusion and human 
rights of persons with intellectual disabilities. His publications cover 
disability theory, policy and practice in a range of areas including 
legal capacity, education, employment, and funding and delivery of 
community-based services.

Michael Bach holds a Ph. D. in Sociology and Equity Studies from the 
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 
and is currently finishing an Open Society Foundations Fellowship to 
continue his international comparative research on the right to legal 
capacity for people with significant intellectual and cognitive 
disabilities.







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