[GTALUG] Landline and Bell revisited.

[Evan Leibovitch]

Hi Karen,

The CRTC is a cruel joke for consumers. It's far too industry-friendly and
has allowed Robellus to get away with awful shenanigans and
anti-competitive behavior for decades. While it offers a path to complain,
<https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/plaint.htm> I would not expect such a
complaint to be answered in a timely manner or to your satisfaction.

I fully agree with Don that this is a human rights issue, and following
that path will likely achieve better results than fighting Bell on their
turf.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
<https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/rfcp-cdlp.html> is
pretty explicit about prohibiting penalizing people because of physical
disability:

*Equality rights are at the core of the Charter. They are intended to
> ensure that everyone is treated with the same respect, dignity and
> consideration (i.e. without discrimination), regardless of personal
> characteristics such as race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion,
> sex, age, or mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, residency,
> marital status or citizenship. *
>

You are receiving neither respect, dignity nor consideration from Bell (and
in this case, Teksavvy acting as Bell's reseller). As such I think you have
a strong case, but IANAL. You have two channels to go, the Canadian Human
Rights Act and the Accessible Canada Act. I think the latter offers a
better and faster process here; the Accessible Canada Act explicitly
applies to regulated telcos, of which Bell certainly is one.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission maintains (and is supposed to enforce)
a Duty to Accommodate
<https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/en/about-human-rights/what-the-duty-accommodate>
that I believe applies here completely. And it provides a PDF  called
"Tools for Individuals"
<https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/sites/default/files/publication-pdfs/discrimination_2020_eng.pdf>
that detail forms of non-compliance with the two Acts and how to proceed
with formal complaints.

Ontario also has its own human rights commission, but the federal path is
likely recommended since Bell is a federally-regulated entity. However,
Ontario offers a benefit in the Human Rights Legal Support Centre,
<https://hrlsc.on.ca/homepage/> that may assist with your complaints
process and give infinitely better advice than I have offered above.

Apologies if I have stated the obvious or indicated paths that have already
been tried unsuccessfully.

Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@el56
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