Legal
The OHRC uses targeted legal action, including Public Interest Inquiries, to advance an expansive interpretation of the Code, establish important precedents that adopt OHRC policies, promote broader public change, and pursue public interest remedies. Some of our most recent case work can be found below. Each Annual Report also reviews the past year’s legal work.
The OHRC's Litigation and inquiry strategy sets out when and how the OHRC decides to conduct an inquiry or take an application to the Human Rights Tribunal or when to intervene in a legal proceeding.
To request a Commission initiated-application, inquiry or intervention, contact legal@ohrc.on.ca.
See our Litigation and Inquiry Strategy for more information about OHRC legal action.
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The OHRC intervened at the Tribunal in a complaint by Ron Phipps – a case which raised some tough issues. The Tribunal ruled Phipps had been subjected to racial profiling in 2005 by a Toronto police officer. The officer stopped Phipps when he was delivering mail in an affluent Toronto neighbourhood, checked with a homeowner Phipps spoke to, trailed him and checked his identity with a White letter carrier.
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Commission asks to intervene in court case involving a Muslim woman's right to testify wearing her niqab (face covering)
Factum of the proposed intervenor Ontario Human Rights Commission -
Frederick Moore on behalf of Jeffrey P. Moore v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of British Columbia as represented by the Ministry of Education, et al.
Factum of the interveners the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission and the Alberta Human Rights Commission. -
Commission intervenes in court case involving a Muslim woman's right to testify wearing her niqab (face covering)
The central issue in this appeal is the apparent conflict between the intersecting religious and equality rights of a witness and the fair trial rights of the accused in the context of a criminal proceeding. The OHRC’s submissions set out a process, based in existing case law, to analyze and reconcile potentially competing rights. The proposed process can apply, with appropriate modifications, to any competing rights claims whether they arise under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter), human rights legislation, the common law or otherwise.
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de Lottinville and the application of Section 45.1 of Ontario's Human Rights Code
February 25, 2015 - In the past, people who experienced discrimination or harassment by police had to decide whether to file an officer misconduct complaint under the Police Services Act (“PSA”) or an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”). The PSA provides a public complaints process, revised through amendments in 2009 which also established the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (“OIPRD”). If they filed both, there was a real risk that their HRTO application would be dismissed.
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Summary of the HRTO’s Reconsideration Decision in Tang v. McMaster University
Mr. Tang alleged that the respondents, McMaster University, the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Centre for Student Development and the Medical Sciences Graduate Program, breached the Human Rights Code by failing to meet their substantive and procedural obligations to accommodate him.
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Summary: HRTO Decision in Swain v. MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP
August 10, 2015 - Summary: HRTO Decision in Swain v. MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP
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Access to locker rooms for trans amateur hockey players: J.T. v. Hockey Canada et. al.
Background
This case involved a transgender boy, Jesse Thompson, who was denied access to the boys’ locker room the rest of his amateur hockey team used during the 2012-2013 hockey season. Jesse alleged that this resulted in him being ‘outed’ as trans, excluded from important team interaction and bonding, and exposed to harassment and bullying.
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Cole v Ontario (Health and Long-Term Care) : Challenging the funding limits to live in community settings
Background
The applicant, Ian Cole, is a middle-aged man with a severe intellectual disability who lives in the community. To live in the community, Mr. Cole depends on the receipt of nursing services. The primary source of funding for the nursing services is his local Community Care Access Centre (CCAC). The maximum funding for nursing services is set out in a regulation made under the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994. At the time the application was filed, funding was available for nursing services to a maximum of four visits per day.
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Summary: Waterman v. Toronto Police
In July 2015, the OHRC intervened in a Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario Application concerning the treatment of trans persons in custody.
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OHRC granted leave to intervene in the appeal of CCLA v Canada
October 23, 2018 - The Court of Appeal for Ontario granted the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) leave to intervene in the appeal of Corporation of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) v Canada, a constitutional challenge to the administrative segregation provisions of the federal Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
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Summary: Ontario (Community Safety and Correctional Services) v. de Lottinville, 2015 ONSC 3085
In a decision released May 27, 2015, the Divisional Court has dismissed the applications for judicial review in de Lottinville and Kodama, matters in which the OHRC intervened.