Canada Mandates Television Captioning

December 2000

Some good news for Canadian citizens with hearing loss has recently been announced. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ordered the CBC's English network and Newsworld to caption all of their television programming.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) received a complaint from a Vancouver resident who alleged that the CBC discriminated against him and other deaf persons by failing to caption its programs. The Tribunal agreed and ordered the captioning of all television shows, commercials, etc., including real-time newcasts and emergency announcements. This ruling by the Tribunal is consistent with a 1999 decision by the Canadian Supreme Court that employers and service providers must accommodate people with disabilities.

For more information, please contact Catherine Barratt at (613) 943-9119

Reader Response

Editor: We recently reported that Canada in now requiring captioning of ALL television programming and lamented that the US is SO FAR behind. Rick Sinclair (SNA@Sympatico.ca) was kind enough to respond with the following information.

"The fact of the matter is, Canadian TV has been captioned for years. The CRTC either recommends or requires, as a licensing requirement, that all TV broadcasters reinvest 1% in captioning depending on the size of the broadcaster.

"In the case of Vlug vs CBC, it was presented that the formula should result in 100% captioning. CBC has committed to 97% immediately and will work on the remaining 3%. The Canadian Association of the Deaf is working towards a legal requirement of 100% captioning by all broadcasters. "If its not captioned, it cannot be on TV." The judge indicated that the judgment "should serve as a warning to all other broadcasters" that they cannot ignore the captioning rules.

"Canada is, and has long been, in the forefront of the captioning wars."

Rick also cited a report from the Canadian Human Rights Commission website at http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca

CBC Appeals Canadian Captioning Decision

December 2000

A couple of weeks ago we reported that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) must provide 100 percent captioning of their television programming. This ruling was in a case brought by Henry Vlug that claimed failure to provide captioning discriminated against people with hearing loss.

The CBC argued that it should be excused from the captioning requirement, because it would be too expensive. Although the Human Rights Tribunal disregarded that argument, it appears that the CBC will use a similar argument in their appeal.

We will continue to follow this story and keep you informed as it develops.