May 9, 2003 - Barbara Turnbull - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Toronto cinemas ordered to become wheelchair accessible.When Toronto’s major cinema chain, Famous Players, decided not to make all its facilities wheelchair accessible, it excluded Barbara Turnbull and four other individuals, who decided to complain. In response, on September 10, 2001, the Ontario Human Rights Board of Inquiry ordered Famous Players to make three of their cinemas accessible within two years, pay the complainants tens of thousands of dollars in damages, and review its training program for providing services to persons with disabilities. The board also stated, “Any film being shown exclusively at those three inaccessible theatres shall be made available to a patron using a wheelchair, upon that person’s request of Famous Players, at an accessible theatre to be agreed to by that person and Famous Players.” In the end, Famous Players decided to close the cinemas in question, but the firm made the mistake of leaving one of them open four months past the deadline – which landed it back in front of the Human Rights Board. On May 9, 2003, the tribunal required Famous Players to follow specific procedures during the months before the theatre closed.

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