HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINTS
Scott Simser, Gary Malkowski, and Nancy Barker are all Deaf / hard of hearing. They have commenced human rights complaints against Famous Players, Cineplex Galaxy, AMC Entertainment International Inc., Alliance Atlantis Cinemas, and Rainbow Centre Cinemas Inc., Universal Studios Canada Inc. and Paramount Pictures Canada Distribution Inc. The first five own movie theatres, while the last two distribute movies. Now all these complaints are at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. At this time, it has been announced that Cineplex Galaxy has purchased the assets of Famous Players. It is likely the Tribunal will be asked to make an order to remove Famous Players as a party if it is merged under Cineplex Galaxy and ceases to be a separate legal entity.
Currently the total number of theatres in Ontario in which rear window captioning is now available is 18, with a total of 19 rear window captioned systems and 38 rear window captioned wired screens. All these theatres equipped with rear window captioning are owned by Famous Players. In total, Famous Players has 336 screens in 32 theatres across Ontario. As well, even in theatres where rear window captioning is available, such captioning is only available at certain times and dates, thus further limiting the access. There is no captioning in any IMAX theatres, which are also owned by Famous Players.
The other theatre owners have failed to offer any captioning of movies, and they are; AMC, with 6 locations with 138 screens in Canada, Rainbow Cinemas with 8 locations and 47 screens in Ontario, Cineplex Odeon with 28 theatres in Ontario and a total of 265 screens, and Alliance Atlantis.
Moving on to movie distributors, Universal Studios has vastly increased its selection of rear window captioning but still does not caption 100%. In contrast, Paramount Canada, only captions a small number (or none at all) of its movies with rear window captioning.
There are over 3.1 million deaf, deafened or hard of hearing people in Canada who have hearing loss sufficiently impaired as to miss out on the enjoyment of going to the movies. They suffer from loss of enjoyment resulting from lack of choice of movies, often leading to humiliation when being unable to see the movies they want, or from having to compromise with family or friends who have no hearing loss but are accustomed to a wide variety of choice in movies. Moreover, often movies with rear window captioning are shown with captions for only a short time, such as one or two weeks and thus have a short "shelf life" although hearing people can continue to enjoy these movies for several weeks.
Captioning of movies takes different forms; Rear Window Captioning uses Plexiglas reflectors which are inserted in a cup holder on an armrest in the movie theatre, and also uses a rear board at the back of the theatre where the captions are copied onto the plexiglass. Open captioning can be accomplished by burning the words and icons into the film, or by mounting a second projector which then superimposes the words and icons onto the movie.
On November 2, 2006 at 10AM, the movie theatre, studio and distribution industries, including Famous Players, AMC Theatres, Universal Studios Canada, Paramount Pictures Canada, Cineplex Odeon, and Alliance Atlantis Cinemas will appear before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario at 400 University Avenue, 7th Floor, Toronto for final hearings.