Adult Services from Community Living BC for People with Developmental Disabilities and IQs over 70
We are pleased to report encouraging news regarding a court case called Fahlman v. CLBC. On December 15, 2006 The BC Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of this case by the BC government thereby upholding the decision of BC Supreme Court Justice Eric Chamberlist originally made in March 2006. See www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/06/09/2006bcsc0900.htm. The court has ruled that Community Living BC cannot determine eligibility for adult services on the basis of IQ.
Background Information
In March of 2006 BC Supreme Court Justice Eric Chamberlist found that Community Living BC does not have the authority to adopt IQ criteria to determine eligibility for services. Neil Fahlman, a young man with an IQ above 70 but with significant impairment in his functioning was denied adult services from Community Living BC because his intellectual abilities fell within the normal range of intellectual ability.
The court ruled that the criteria to determine eligibility for adult services from CLBC must be based on the existing legislation as it presently exists under the Community Living Authority Act. In his decision Judge Chamberlist indicated that only the Lieutenant Governor in Council can pass regulations that outline criteria that describe a developmental disability in legislation. Since the Community Living Authority Regulations is silent on the IQ as criteria and The Lieutenant Governor in Council had not set such a regulation the judge determined that CLBC had denied Neil Fahlman benefits “on the basis on a third criteria of it’s own making”.
(See ACT's Archived News from Summer 2006 Chopping Supports at 19 Makes No Sense and
Wanted: New Measuring Stick?)
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