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The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal did an excellent job of succinctly explaining the duty to accommodate in Black v. Etobicoke Ironworks: The duty to accommodate has procedural and substantive components. Procedurally, the employer has an obligation to take the necessary steps to determine what kinds of modifications or accommodations might be required in order to allow [...]

The Ontario Human Rights Code was amended effective June 30, 2008. One of the more controversial amendments provided that all new human rights applications had to be filed with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, and not the Ontario Human Rights Commission.  With this amendment, applicants now had a direct right of access to the Tribunal and applications did not wind [...]

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal released a decision this week in which it found that the employer had discriminated against the employee when it terminated her employment.  Specifically, the Tribunal found that it was “more likely than not that the applicant …. was dismissed because of her sex”. The Tribunal, in discussing the appropriate remedy, considered [...]

Applicants will typically name the franchisee and franchisor in an Application alleging discrimination under the Human Rights Tribunal even where the alleged incident giving rise to the discrimination took place at the franchised operation that was owned and operated by an independent company.  This often falls into the shotgun approach to litigation and is sometimes [...]

It has now been over three years since the Human Rights Code was amended to allow discrimination complaints to be filed directly with the Human Rights Tribunal (the “Tribunal”), rather than being screened first by the Human Rights Commission (the “Commission”).  Other changes to the system include legal assistance for applicants (the Human Rights Legal [...]

The Human Rights Tribunal will defer an Application under the Human Rights Code to avoid the possibility of proceedings running concurrently reaching conflicting results.  The most recent case is Daykin v. Ford Motor Company of Canada where the Tribunal applied a consistent line of principles to the effect that: The Tribunal has held that some of the factors that [...]