This week the Toronto Star published the column “Deaf-blind woman tests Canada’s equality guarantee” (link to article). The column outlines the plight of Jasmin Simpson, who is blind and deaf and who graduated with 60% more student debt due to the increased time it took her to complete her B.S.W. and M.S.W. degrees.  As such, with assistance from the former Court Challenges Program, Ms. Simpson and bakerlaw launched a Charter challenge against the Canada Student Loan Program (CSLP) for discriminating against students with disabilities. While the government agreed to cancel the entirety of Ms. Simpson’s student debt, and eventually made some amendments to the CSLP, Ms. Simpson felt that the changes were not enough to address the program’s discriminatory elements. Although her student debt would have been erased, Ms. Simpson was concerned for the future students with disabilities that would find themselves in the same position.

For more information on Ms. Simpson’s ongoing case, please see bakerlaw’s recent post “Student Loans a Major Source of Discrimination Against Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities” (link to article), and follow developments on the bakerlaw website.