The board of a Toronto-area condo is reversing course on an order that forced a disabled woman with a service dog to register with the property manager every time she wanted to visit the building, where her mother and sister live.
Emily Mclennan, who drops by 1515 Lakeshore Rd. E., in Mississauga, Ont., with her service dog Honey about once a week, had told the board through a lawyer last week that the new rules violate the Ontario Human Rights Code, and gave them until Monday to expunge them or face legal action.
Despite the board’s reversal on Wednesday, Mclennan says she’s skeptical.
“I’ll believe when I see it,” removed from the condo’s rules, the Kitchener, Ont., psychotherapist told CBC Toronto.
The case is a cautionary example for condo boards says Deborah Howden, a condo law specialist at the Toronto law firm Shibley Righton LLP.
“Rules have to be reasonable, as do bylaws,” said Howden, who was not involved in this case. “If they are not reasonable, they are not enforceable.”
3 different forms
The controversy began earlier this month when the condo board circulated a letter about an updated rule that bans dogs. That bylaw was accompanied by a separate set of rules that said service dogs would be allowed — but only under certain circumstances.
For starters, any visiting service dog must be registered with the building, and its owner must fill out a second form for each visit. The rules also required a third form to be filled out if the dog and its owner were staying more than 24 hours.
Mclennan says she took the new orders personally: “This feels like a witch hunt against my service dog,” she said.
Mclennan says she developed thrombocytopenia and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome — both of which can cause her to suddenly lose consciousness — about two years ago.
Six months later she got Honey, a specially trained labradoodle mix that begins to shake when she senses Mclennan is about to black out.
But soon after, she says, building residents began making her feel uneasy during visits.
“I’ve had neighbours follow me out and take pictures of me with my dog,” she said. “I feel spied on when I’m here.”
The new rules, announced Dec. 10, made the situation worse, Mclennan says.
“I don’t feel welcome in this building. I don’t feel like I can spend Christmas with my family here. It’s heartbreaking.”
But Patricia Elia, the lawyer for the condo’s board of directors, says the rules were not meant to alienate anyone, and won’t be enforced in Mclennan’s case.
“If she’s a frequent visitor, we’ll note that on the file of the unit owner so that she’ll be allowed to visit, with her service animal,” Elia said. “There’s no need to escalate it. This is a common sense board.”
‘This is ridiculous’
A letter from Mclennan’s lawyer to the board, dated Dec. 16, states the new rules violate the Ontario Human Rights Code.
They impose “an extra burden on persons with disabilities visiting the building that is not imposed on able-bodied visitors,” the letter reads. “If Ms. Mclennan were able-bodied, there would be no restriction on when or for how long she could visit her mother and sister.”
David Lepofsky, founder and chairman of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Coalition and a visiting professor of disability rights at Western University and the University of Ottawa, believes Mclennan has a case.
He said the Ontario Human Rights Code says people with disabilities must be accommodated, provided it doesn’t pose undue hardship.
“People without disabilities aren’t told you’ve got to leave your legs at the door,” nor are people in wheelchairs required to register them, he said. “This is ridiculous.”
Though Elia says the rules won’t be enforced in Mclennan’s case — nor, likely, in any similar cases — she would not say if they will be formally revoked.
She says the rules could be changed without a vote of the condo’s unit owners, because they are not strictly speaking part of a bylaw, which requires a majority vote to alter.
