Sudbury woman wins human rights battle, province must rewrite rules for guide dog benefits

Destiny Robinson-Cooke won a battle to receive guide dog benefits for Sasha. Robinson-Cooke began proceedings in 2016 and won a ruling late last month. Sasha passed away in 2021. (Photo courtesy of Destiny Robinson-Cooke)

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has ruled in favour of a Sudbury woman who was denied guide dog benefit funding because her pup didn’t meet the province’s training criteria.

The tribunal ruled the province’s policy was discriminatory because it created large barriers for disabled people who need service dogs for mental health support.

It also directed the province to begin changing the current law by the end of 2023.

Destiny Robinson-Cooke told CTV News that other people will be helped as a result of the decision.

“I think it’s important that I won,” Robinson-Cooke said in an online interview.

“Not for me, but for everyone out there on Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) with dogs who don't meet their standards.”

Robinson-Cooke has a disability and receives funding from ODSP. Her physician said she relies on her support dog.

“Based on the recommendations of her medical practitioner, the applicant relies upon and benefits from the support of a service animal for her disabilities,” the decision from the tribunal said.

But she was unable to find a trained dog that could help her with her “diverse and significant disabilities.”

Under provincial criteria, a dog must be accredited by a group called Assistance Dogs International (ADI), the only designated organization for training and accrediting service dogs in Ontario.

However, they only train dogs for mental health support for armed forces veterans and first responders. That meant Robinson-Cooke had no practical way of getting her dog, Sasha, accredited so she could receive the monthly funding of $84.

“Instead, she realized that she had to find a way to train her own dog, which she undertook with the assistance of certain individuals who regularly train service animals, though not at an accredited training facility,” the tribunal’s decision said.

She also conducted the training “by relying upon and utilizing published manuals for training service animals to meet her own specific disability-related needs.”

While not completed using formal ADI approved methods, Robinson-Cooke argued the training her pup received was as good as or better than the provincial standards.

“The applicant also ensured that at all times, when accompanying her in public, her dog wore an appropriate visibly identifiable service vest, and had a recognizable harness to identify her as a service animal,” the decision said.

“In addition, while a resident in … Sudbury, she had her dog formally registered for a service dog licence in accordance with the safety requirements of that town, as a recognized and accepted service animal.”

But when she applied for the guide dog benefit in 2016, it was denied on the grounds her dog had not received the ADI training.

She appealed in 2017, but the case was delayed while the tribunal dealt with a similar case. That case was dismissed in 2019 as having no prospect of success, not long before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her case finally made its way to a videoconference in April 2022 when the tribunal ruled it wanted to hear evidence before making a ruling.

In its decision, the tribunal said that Robinson-Cooke’s doctor said she needed a dog that could help with “her specific disabilities,” but she was unable to find an organization that could meet the training requirements.

She looked out-of-province and into the U.S. but that was too costly an option. She trained Sasha herself, but was frustrated that there was no way under Ontario's rules to have Sasha certified so she could qualify for the benefit.

LEFT HER WITH NO OPTIONS

In her evidence to the tribunal, she said at least three other provinces -- Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia – offer more options to qualify a dog as a service dog.

In its ruling, the tribunal said provincial rules, as written, left Robinson-Cooke with no options to find a dog that could help her with her specific needs.

“Following her significant efforts to train her own dog, as described above, she could not find a way of having that dog certified by an ADI accredited organization,” the decision said.

“This was due, at least in part to the fact that there are no ADI organizations in Ontario that she could identify, or the respondent could point to, that train and accredit service dogs to support potentially eligible applicants’ mental health disabilities.”

Because service dogs in Ontario are only trained to help with mental health issues if they are armed forces veterans or first responders, that “results in a disadvantage to the applicant, which is connected to her disability,” the decision said.

“The issue has been the fact that the ADI organizations that she had approached did not train and/or certify service dogs for her disabilities and, in particular, for mental health disabilities.”

The ADI training requirement places too big a burden on recipients, the decision said, because there is no reasonable way for people like Robinson-Cooke to find accredited service dogs for mental health.

NEW LAW NEEDED

She sought $25,000 in compensation, plus her court costs, benefit payments retroactive to 2016 and an order that the province stop enforcing the training restriction and come up with a new policy within three months.

In a decision dated July 28 of this year, the tribunal said the province should create a policy that offers a way to qualify service dogs without requiring ADI accreditation. While not putting a timeline on changes, the tribunal said a new policy that doesn’t discriminate is needed.

“I find that it is appropriate to order that the respondent begin the review process before the end of the current calendar year,” the decision said.

“The goal of the review process is to determine what alternative arrangements can be implemented as soon as possible.”

Robinson-Cooke was awarded $20,000 as compensation, plus $5,040 she would have received from the benefit for Sasha from 2016 until 2021.

She said she was elated by the decision.

“I feel like this is a huge step in the right direction especially for accessibility,” she said.

“A disabled person should not have to fight for a benefit they are entitled to.”