Visually-impaired man claims discrimination by Elections Ontario

By Roger Petersen

A Mississauga man who wants to help out in the upcoming election feels he is being discriminated against by Elections Ontario.

Albert Morandi-Bonner says he and his father came to a polling station in Mississauga last week to apply for polling positions he felt he was qualified for considering his background in government work.

He says it was going well until he mentioned he was visually impaired. He says the woman conducting the interview then stopped addressing him, and only addressed his father about him.

“I’m happy to educate and I’m happy to work with people,” says Morandi-Bonner. “That’s not something I have an issue with. But I need you to be willing to work with me for us to be able to have that conversation. For you to say, ‘Hey can you read this piece of paper that I’m passing to you? or just a moment, let me grab a magnifier,’ that level of conversation needs to be there.”

He says the situation was only made worse when he found out his younger sister was given a position he was more qualified for.

“Just to give you a sense, my younger sister went in the next day — and don’t get me wrong, it’s not that she is inexperienced — but she is in university right now and I have significantly more experience than she does.”

CityNews reached out to Elections Ontario and they issued a response saying they are investigating the matter.

“Accessibility is one of Elections Ontario’s core values and we are taking the issue very seriously. We are currently looking into this incident and will be following up with the applicant and his family as soon as possible,” they said.

Morandi-Bonner says this is not the first time he has experienced some form of discrimination, something he hopes won’t happen to others.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today