Concluding observations on the combined 2nd and 3rd periodic reports of Canada - Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

28. Recalling its guidelines on the right to liberty and security of persons with disabilities,11 the Committee recommends that the State Party, in close consultation with and with the active involvement of persons with disabilities, through their representative organizations:

(a) Ensure the repeal of federal, provincial and territorial mental health and substance-use treatment laws and policies allowing for involuntary detention and treatment, including under the auspices of drug treatment courts and through community treatment orders;

(b) Invest in rights-based, culturally appropriate, voluntary community-based mental health and substance-use supports and treatment options, including peer-led options; ensure regulatory oversight and human rights monitoring; and ensure harm-reduction and safe-supply programmes that respond to the intersecting identities of persons who use drugs;

(c) Take all legislative, policy, judicial and administrative measures to address the overrepresentation of persons with disabilities in the criminal justice system and prisons, including by addressing the social determinants of incarceration, such as poverty, ableism, racial injustice and gender inequality, and by reforming policing practices and complex court processes;

(d) Implement laws and policies to ensure that prisoners with disabilities have access to culturally appropriate, gender-sensitive and age-specific individualized supports, accessible infrastructure, disability-related supports and health services, including mental health and drug treatment support options;

(e) Amend or repeal legislation that restricts the legal capacity of persons with disabilities and that allows for measures to be imposed on persons with disabilities, such as indefinite detention, that are harsher than those imposed on defendants convicted of the same crimes, and guarantee access by persons with disabilities to justice on an equal basis with others throughout judicial proceedings.