Movie theatres accused of discrimination

From: CBC Ottawa, Canada - Oct 28, 2004

TORONTO - Canada's first deaf parliamentarian is campaigning to make Ontario's movie theatres more accessible to people with hearing problems.

Former MPP Gary Malkowski has launched complaints with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

He alleges that the movie-theatre industry discriminates against moviegoers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

At issue is whether all films shown in Ontario should have some form of captioning.

Nine complaints have been filed with the commission, where a tribunal began pre-hearing discussions Wednesday.

There is a technology known as rear-window captioning. It projects subtitles onto a small screen the viewer places in the cup holder of a theatre seat's armrest.

Another form of captioning puts the subtitles on the film for everyone to see.

Malkowski says captions across the bottom of the screen would also help improve children's literacy, and assist new immigrants with their English.

Malkowski is a vice-president at the Canadian Hearing Society. He sat as a New Democrat in the Ontario legislature in the mid-1990s.

Copyright © CBC 2004