The Issue
I have lived in Ontario with chemical sensitives since 2007. Commonly called "MCS" Multiple Chemical Sensitivity,  it exists along side Environmental Sensitivities in a category of "Invisible disabilities". Considered invisible because unlike mobility issues or blindness which have visible signifiers, the person with MCS or Environmental Sensitivities looks no different than anyone else. It's also invisible in the fact that while recognized as a disability MCS and Environmental Sensitivities are not explicitly named as a disability in any public facing law concerning disability accommodation. This leaves sufferers of these invisible conditions to face the most common prejudices when needing accommodation from people who have never heard of their disability. This impact can be felt most in two of the most important places where the Human Rights Code is concerned. Housing, and medical care, specifically medical care for non disability or emergency related reasons. 

In 19 years since developing a chemical sensitivity I have seen very little change in the accommodation for MCS, despite its recognition a disability at both provincial and federal levels. It is still possible today to walk into a emergency room in Toronto, in your most vulnerable hour, and be met with staff who not only don't have an accommodation plan ready for dealing with people with chemical sensitivities, they've never even heard of chemical sensitivities. This lack of readiness to accommodate exists at every level. People with chemical and environmental sensitivities are alienated from care specifically for non related medical conditions. 

After so long, for this to be the situation today, I would say that the application of the recommendations made from the existing human rights cases on this issue have failed to be applied by the government of Ontario. The recommendation that accommodation be broadly applied and built into the infrastructure like a wheel chair ramp would be has not generated the free and fair access that its fulfillment would promise.

Consider housing, where landlords have often never heard of a chemical sensitivity, and are deeply prejudiced and reluctant to provide accommodation. The housing issue for the environmentally sensitive is one which reaches to the most critical degree of security of the person, with sufferers choosing MAID because of the utter lack of adequate remedy provided by our governments both provincially and federally.

 Organizations like the Canadian Center for Housing Rights have stated that they are over run with housing related requests from people suffering with MCS. This is not a small issue. It effects millions of Ontarians. 

After all of this time, through witnessing my own experience and hearing of others, I have come to the conclusion that the greatest change we can make to bring these issues into the public consciousness is to actually name these specific disabilities, as other common disabilities are named, in the human rights legislation. The definition of "disability" must be expanded to include both environmental and chemical sensitivities.

Make Environmental and Chemical Sensitivity Disabilities visible, and expand the definition found in HRC 2:10(1)(a) in the Ontario Human Rights Code to include Environmental Sensitivities and MCS.

Make the Invisible Visible.