Information And Pages

Welcome to Citizens with Disabilities - Ontario (CWDO)

Citizens With Disabilities - Ontario (CWDO) actively promotes the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of persons with disabilities through community development, social action, and member support and referral. Our primary activity is public education and awareness about the social and physical barriers that prevent the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in Ontario.

Lest We Forget

CWDO expresses our deepest gratitude to all those who served our country and continue to do so.

We especially acknowledge our veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and our alliance with Courageous Companions, a registered charity which provides quality trained certified service dogs to military veterans and first responders.

Lest we forget our fallen, wounded and those living with the trauma endured in service to our country, and to us.

Learn to Access Your Disability Rights at Empower U

Empower U: Learn to Access Your Disability Rights

Training on Canadian Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol (OP)

About this Training

This training aims to increase awareness of how to address discrimination using more familiar Canadian human rights laws such as Human Rights Codes and the newer international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This is the training for persons with disabilities by persons with disabilities.

Don't miss out! This is the only in-person training opportunity in Ontario offered through this project. There will be future opportunities to access the training online. Details will be announced soon.

Date: Friday, November 1st at 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Location: ARCH Disability Law Centre, 55 University Avenue, 15th Floor, Room C, Toronto, ON

Registration: Register for the Human Rights Training on the NEADS website's accessible form

What will I learn?

The project aims to raise awareness of Canadians with disabilities, particularly youth with disabilities and people from ethno-cultural communities, about available human rights remedies to discrimination and how to access those remedies. At the end of the training you will have:

  • Knowledge of how to use the United Nations CRPD and the Optional Protocol, as well as Human Rights Codes and the Accessible Canada Act
  • Understanding the systems where Canadians with disabilities can seek redress for discrimination
  • Ability to access and navigate the system to redress for discrimination

Who should attend?

This workshop is for people with disabilities, allies, human rights activists, community change-makers, students concerned with social justice, disability support workers.

Read the CCD's News Release: Human Rights Training for People with Disabilities by People with Disabilities: Nothing about us without us!

Sponsors

The Toronto session is co-presented by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and the Canadian Association of Deaf.

The training is part of the project funded by the Employment and Social Development Canada and implemented by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) in collaboration with Canadian Multicultural Disability Centre Inc. (CMDCI), Citizens With Disabilities - Ontario (CWDO), Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities (MLPD) and National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS).

Meet Our Summer Staff

CWDO is delighted to welcome two summer staff:

  • Shiloh Bell, Public Relations Coordinator and
  • Laura Dawson, Membership Engagement Coordinator

Laura is a recent graduate of Politics and Governance at Ryerson University. She is passionate about disability justice as she has experienced a variety of chronic illnesses for many years and dreams of an inclusive Ontario.

Shiloh is taking Canadian Studies at Carleton University, studying as a distance student due to a health disability. Says Shiloh, "I am extremely excited for the opportunity to be a part of CWDO to make a more accessible Ontario."

Welcome, Shiloh and Laura! CWDO and our members will benefit from your work.