OHRC Statement: No Room for Hate in Schools
As the school year begins, we must actively and intentionally work to end the scourges of hate and violence in our education systems and communities.
Harassment is defined in subsection 10(1) of the Code as "engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome.”
As the school year begins, we must actively and intentionally work to end the scourges of hate and violence in our education systems and communities.
the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) released Building on the Legacy: Collaboration, Action and Accountability Towards an Inclusive Society, its 2022–2023 annual report.
Recently, OHRC Director of Policy, Education, Monitoring and Outreach, Juliette Nicolet, joined Radio-Canada - Jonction 11-17 for an interview calling for a province-wide anti-hate strategy, to galvanize and support public action.
As this school year ends, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) takes this opportunity to reflect on what it heard concerning the challenges faced by students, parents, educators, and administrators in Ontario’s public education system.
The OHRC is aware and concerned about the increasing violence targeted at education officials for doing human rights work, adhering to the obligations set under the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code) and implementing government policy.
The OHRC believes the Peel District School Board’s Anti-Racism Policy is the most comprehensive such policy in Ontario, and may serve as a leading practice to inspire other Ontario school boards to create or revise anti-racism policies.
As the world grapples with the ongoing “monkeypox” outbreak, several very concerning human rights issues have been exposed.
This past year, the OHRC has repeatedly denounced the escalating hate that is targeting religious and racialized communities. It is essential that we all take steps, and take them quickly, to stand in solidarity, as individuals and through our organizations, to call out Islamophobia and racism and reject the hatred and the violence it begets.
The OHRC joins community calls for governments to review hate crime laws to ensure these laws are responsive to the lived realities of hate activity across Canada, and enforcement to ensure that police are doing what is necessary to support communities in distress and keep communities safe.
The OHRC wrote to colleges and universities, asking them to identify what actions their administrations are taking to provide equitable and inclusive learning environments, including efforts to investigate discrimination and harassment in a timely and effective way.