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 curb every two weeks without charge. It's part of the city's effort to cut 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 purchase up to five 80-litre overflow 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. His used diapers alone nearly double the allowable garbage limit, Beaudry said.

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

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. 0:36

Beaudry said he's spent two years trying to find some kind of special accommodation, and said having to discuss his son's incontinence publicly has been "humiliating."

Beaudry filed his complaint with the Quebec's Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse on Tuesday, claiming discrimination based on disability. The complaint names the city, Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin and Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, the councillor who heads the committee that developed the new garbage policy.

The family filed their complaint to Quebec's human rights commission on Tuesday. (Radio-Canada)

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 levy equally 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 councillor said she hasn't given up pushing for an accommodation.

Parc-de-la-Montagne-Saint-Raymond Coun. Louise Boudrias said she's working with councillors to try to accommodate the Beaudry family and others facing a similar problem. (Radio-Canada)

"I find it sad that a citizen has to go to that extent to make a point," Coun. Louise Boudrias 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 levy is 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."