Gatineau's 'polluter-pay' garbage law discriminates against incontinent son, family says

A Gatineau, Que., family has filed a human rights complaint claiming the city's new garbage limit amounts to an unfair tax on them for discarding their son's adult diapers.

As of Sept. 15, Gatineau residents can leave just one 120-litre garbage bin at the curbevery two weeks without charge. It's part of the city's effort tocut back on the amount of waste goings to landfill.

I think it's discrimination because we don't have any choice.- Pierre Beaudry

Residents who want to leave more trash for pickup can purchaseup to five 80-litreoverflow bags per garbage cycle, at a cost of 50 cents each. Garbage collectors will refuse to pick up anything that's not in the authorized bins or overflow bags.

Pierre Beaudry's 29-year old son has a moderate to severe intellectual disability and is incontinent. Hisused diapers alone nearly doublethe allowable garbage limit, Beaudry said.

"It's like another tax," he said. "I think it's discrimination because we don't have any choice."

'We don't have any choice, we have to use extra bags'

5 years ago

Duration 0:36

Pierre Beaudry has launched a Quebec human rights complaint over Gatineau's new garbage rules, saying his son's disability means the family produces more than their limit every two weeks.

Beaudrysaid he'sspent two years trying to find some kind of special accommodation, and said having to discusshis son's incontinence publicly has been"humiliating."

Beaudryfiled his complaint with the Quebec's Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesseonTuesday, claiming discrimination based on disability. The complaint namesthe city, Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin andMaude Marquis-Bissonnette, the councillor who heads the committee that developed the new garbage policy.

No exceptions

The city said it will not comment on the case now that a formal complaint has been filed.

But city lawyers advised council as the policy was being formed that Quebec's tax law forces Gatineau to apply the levyequally to all households.

A Gatineau daycare has also complained that the limit is insufficient for its biweekly load of diapers,and has said it was also told it won't get an exception.

Beaudry's city councillorsaid she hasn't given up pushing for an accommodation.

"I find it sad that a citizen has to go to that extent to make a point," Coun. LouiseBoudrias told Radio-Canada in French.

The city is allowing residents a grace period before applying the levy,but Boudrias said she'd like to see a solution before the family has to begin paying for extra bags.

'We are not polluters'

The Beaudry family's discrimination case must be approved as valid before being investigated formally by the commission.

Their case makes two points: that the levyis a discriminatory extra tax against the family, and that the use of terms such as"polluter-pay" as written in the policy is negative terminology that misrepresents the family's situation.

"We are not polluters," Beaudry said."We are not using an extra service, we need that service."