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This guide is available on the Internet at tribunalsontario.ca/hrto and in various accessible formats including audio tape and large print. For an alternative format or a paper copy, please contact the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario at telephone: 416-326-1312, Toll Free: 1-866-598-0322, TTY: 416-326-2027, TTY: Toll Free: 1-866-607-1240
Read each part of this guide as you fill out your Response. This guide provides general information only. It should not be taken as legal advice or a determination of how the Tribunal will decide any particular issue.
You have been named as a Respondent in an Application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the Tribunal). The Applicant alleges that you discriminated against or harassed them in a way that is contrary to the Ontario Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, Chapter H.19 (the Code).
The Code is a provincial law that gives every person the right to equal treatment and equal opportunities. The Code prohibits discrimination and harassment in five areas (known as social areas):
The Code prohibits discrimination or harassed on any of the following grounds:
The Code also has sections that prohibit:
The Human Rights Tribunal is the body responsible for resolving applications filed by individuals who claim that they have experienced discrimination or harassment. The Tribunal also resolves applications filed by a person or organization filed on behalf of another person and applications filed by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
In most cases, the Tribunal will try to help both sides reach an agreement that settles the application.
Where an application cannot be settled, the Tribunal will hold a hearing to decide whether discrimination or harassment took place. If the Tribunal finds that the applicant experienced discrimination or harassment the Tribunal can make an order to address the discrimination or harassment. This can include ordering the Respondent to pay financial compensation to the applicant, and/or make orders to prevent further human rights violations. If the Tribunal finds that discrimination did not occur, it will dismiss the Application.
Whether through mediation or a hearing, the Tribunal works to resolve Applications on the basis of the facts and the law. The Tribunal's Rules and procedures are designed to deal with all Applications fairly and expeditiously, and in a way that ensures parties can understand and fully participate.
As a Respondent named in an Application to the Tribunal, you respond to the allegations made in the Application. If you fail to file a response, within the time specified in the Rules, the Tribunal may determine that you have violated the Code and make an order against you, without any further Notice to you. Follow the instructions in this Guide for filling out your Response Form. Make sure that your Response Form is complete and correct.
This Guide is not legal advice. If you wish to hire a private lawyer and do not know one, you can contact the Lawyer Referral Service, Law Society of Upper Canada. The telephone number is 1-800-268-8326 or 416-947-3330 (within the GTA). This number can be dialed from any private phone in Ontario. This is a phone-based service only. There is a fee for using this service, but it lets you talk to a lawyer for thirty (30) minutes. Or, you could check the Yellow Pages in your area.
For general information about discrimination and the Code, visit www.ohrc.on.ca or phone 1-800-387-9080.
The Ontario Human Rights Code is the law that defines the situations where discrimination is not allowed. Not all unfair conduct or unequal treatment is discrimination under the Code.
The Code says that every person has the right to:
When a person believes that discrimination has happened to them, they have the right to apply to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. When they do this, they are referred to as the Applicant.
On the Application Form (Form 1), the Applicant must name the people or organizations they believe are responsible for the discrimination being claimed. These people are called Respondents.
The Code includes some exceptions to the rule against unequal treatment on a discriminatory ground. For example, although the Code states that a person cannot be treated differently because of their age, it allows different insurance rates based on age.
Another example of an exemption occurs in housing. The Code allows an owner to refuse to rent to someone based on their gender or race if:
To find out if your situation falls within an exemption, you should get legal advice.
In most cases the Code does not allow an application where there is civil court action based on the same facts if a remedy is sought there for the alleged human rights violation. You may ask the Tribunal to for an early dismissal of the Application in this case.
An Application can be filed if the court action was withdrawn.
There may be another proceeding that is dealing with the same facts, such as:
In these cases, an Application can still be filed, but
The transitional provisions of the Code have special rules that deal with complaints filed directly with the Ontario Human Rights Commission prior to June 30, 2008. In most cases the Code prevents an Applicant from making a new Application which is based on the same facts as a previously filed complaint.
You will find the Tribunal File Number on the letter sent to you by the Tribunal. Please refer to this number on any correspondence or documents you send to the Tribunal.
Contact information for Respondents has three sections:
Complete section only if you were personally named as a Respondent by the Applicant. Make sure you give your complete contact information and the best way to contact you.
Complete this section if the Applicant named your organization as a Respondent. Type an x in the box that best describes your organization's legal status. Give complete contact information for the person in the organization who will have the authority to negotiate on behalf of the organization and make binding agreements to settle this matter.
If you have a representative, all communication from the Tribunal and the Respondent will go to your representative. You must give us their complete contact information. You must first check the box that authorizes this person to act as your representative.
Note: You may file the Response on behalf of another respondent but only if the other respondent has received a copy of the Application and authorized you to file on their behalf
Note: You must tell the Tribunal the best way to send information to you - you can choose mail, email or fax. If you check off email as the best way to contact you, you will have consented to the Tribunal, the Respondent(s) and any other party delivering documents and other information to you by email.
Complete this section if you know of a person or organization who:
They are entitled to notice of this proceeding. Please give complete information for each Respondent. Add more pages if needed.
Complete this section if you know of any other person or organization, (such as a union or occupational association), which might be affected by this Application to the Tribunal. They are entitled to notice of the proceeding. Please give complete contact information for each person or group you name. Add more pages if needed.
You may ask the Tribunal for an early dismissal of the Application without fully completing this Response Form only in the situations listed in Question 6.
In all other cases, you may ask the Tribunal to dismiss the Application, but you must complete the entire Response Form.
If this section does not apply to you, go to Question 7.
If this section does apply to you, follow these steps:
When the Tribunal receives your Response Form, the Tribunal may ask the Applicant for comments about your request to dismiss the Application. After it hears from all parties, the Tribunal will decide whether or not to dismiss the Application at this stage of the proceedings. The Tribunal will provide the parties the opportunity to make submissions prior to dismissing any Application.
If the Tribunal decides it is not appropriate to dismiss the Application at this stage, based on the situation you identified, you will be required to submit a complete Response Form.
Note: You must attach a copy of the document referred to in your Response Form. You may also attach a fuller explanation of why the situation you identified should result in an early dismissal of the Application.
You may ask the Tribunal for an early dismissal of the Application if there has been another proceeding that has appropriately dealt with the substance of the application.
If you believe this section applies to you, follow these steps:
When the Tribunal receives your Response Form, the Tribunal may ask the Applicant for comments about your request to dismiss the Application. After it hears from all parties, the Tribunal will decide whether or not to dismiss the application. The Tribunal will always provide the parties an opportunity to make submissions prior to dismissing an application.
Note: You must attach a copy of the other decision to your Response Form.
The substance of this Application may be part of another type of proceeding, such as:
If the proceeding is still going on, you can ask the Tribunal to defer (postpone) the Application until there is a decision.
If the issues in dispute are the subject of an ongoing grievance or arbitration brought under a collective agreement, you can ask for deferral without fully completing the Response Form. However, you still must provide the contact information in sections 1- 5, indicate that you are attaching a copy of the document that started the grievance in section 20, and click the box in section 21 to represent your legal signature. You should also include any argument you want to make to support your position that the Application should be deferred until the grievance or arbitration has concluded.
The Tribunal may also direct you to file a complete Response if it considers it appropriate.
If the issues in dispute are not the subject of an ongoing grievance or arbitration brought under a collective agreement, you may still ask the Tribunal to defer the Application, but you must complete the entire Response.
When the Tribunal receives your Response, the Tribunal may request comments from both the Applicant and any other parties to decide whether or not to defer (postpone) the Application.
Note: You must attach a copy of the document that commenced the other proceeding to your Response.
This question is your chance to tell the Tribunal your side of the story. Respond to each allegation of discrimination found:
Tell the Tribunal:
The Code includes some exemptions to the rule against unequal treatment on a discriminatory ground.
To find out if your situation falls within an exemption, you should get legal advice.
If you are relying on one of the exemptions in the Code, you should indicate that here and explain why.
Tell the Tribunal when you first became aware of the events described in the Application and how you responded.
Complete this question only if:
If this is the case, Form 1-A, Questions about Employment, will be attached to the Application. Read over all of the information about the allegations. You must answer all of the questions in this section.
This question is for companies or organizations rather than individuals. Complete this section if the Respondent is company, such as a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, association, or other group.
If your organization has a policy on human rights, discrimination, or harassment that is related to the allegations in this application, put an x in the "Yes" box and go to B.
Note: You must attach a copy of your policy to your Response Form.
If your organization has a process for dealing with complaints about discrimination and harassment, put an x in the "Yes" box and go to C.
Note: You must attach a copy of your complaints process to your Response Form.
If the Applicant made a complaint under your internal human rights policy, about substantially the same facts as those in this Application, put an x in the "Yes" box and go to D.
Note: You must attach a copy of any document used to start the internal complaint.
Please describe what happened as a result of the internal complaint.
Note: You must attach a copy of the policy, complaint process, the document that started the complaint and the decision.
Mediation is one of the ways the Tribunal tries to resolve disputes. It is a less formal process and can achieve a resolution more quickly than a hearing. The Tribunal's mediation process can be very successful in helping both sides reach an agreement, and still give the parties an opportunity to be heard.
Mediation is voluntary. Mediation can only happen if both parties agree to it. A Tribunal Member will be assigned to mediate the Application. The Member will meet with all the parties to talk about the Application and to try and work out a solution that all parties can accept. If mediation does not settle all the issues, a hearing will still take place and a different Member will be assigned to hear the case. Mediation is confidential.
If you want to try mediation, put an x in the "Yes" box on the form. The Tribunal encourages you to try mediation.
We ask you to list the most important documents that you believe will support your response to the application.
The Response asks you to list separately:
Please list the important documents that you have. Be sure to indicate any documents in which you claim privilege.
Please list the important documents that the Applicant has that you do not have.
Please list the important documents that someone else has that you do not have.
You do not have to send us copies of the documents at this time. The Tribunal will send you and the Applicant a notice telling you when it will hear the case. The notice will explain that you and the Applicant have twenty-one (21) days to exchange copies of all arguably relevant documents.
If you do not receive documents that you need, read the Tribunal Rules, guides or practice directions to find out how to get the documents.
You can get the Tribunal's Rules, guides or practice directions from our website. Or, call us to get a copy.
List here the names of witnesses who have important information that will support your response to the Application. Explain why their information is important.
Note: This part of your Response will be kept confidential by the Tribunal. When we send a copy of your Response to the Applicant, we will not send this page of your Response.
This is your opportunity to tell the Tribunal any other information that you believe is important but did not fit into any other question on the form. For example, it may be important to tell the Tribunal if there are other applications filed by the same Applicant and if you think this Application should be joined with another Application.
Use this checklist to make sure that you have attached all of the additional documents you need to make your Response complete. You can send the documents attached to your Response, or separately by mail, fax or email. If sent separately, you must clearly write on each document who is sending the document, the Tribunal file no. and the names of the Applicant and the Respondent(s). You must send the documents to the Tribunal within 5 business days.
Before you sign your Response Form, carefully read the declaration that goes above your signature.
The Tribunal will use the information you have sent us to deal with this application and to fulfill our responsibilities under the Human Rights Code.
The information in your Response, as well as other information about this case, may become public in the course of the Tribunal processes. For example, your information will become public at the hearing and in the Tribunal's decision.
The law requires the Tribunal to share both the application and any filed response with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, if requested.
Your information could also become public in response to a request.
The Tribunal has policies for responding to requests for information, as well as requests to keep information private. Our responses are based on balancing privacy interests with the public's interest in having a transparent legal process.
When you sign your Response, you declare that your response is as complete and accurate as you can make it. Do not sign until you are sure that you can declare this.
If you are filing your response electronically, clicking the box in the Declaration section represents your legal signature.
If you require accommodation to participate in the Tribunal processes contact the Registrar.
The Tribunal will accommodate your Code related needs in accordance with our Accessibility and Accommodation Policy found at tribunalsontario.ca/hrto or you can contact the Tribunal to send you a copy.
Registrar
Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
15 Grosvenor Street, Ground Floor
Toronto, ON M7A 2G6
email: HRTO.Registrar@ontario.ca
Note: Submit your response only once. If the Tribunal receives this response more than once, it will only accept the first Response received.
Here are the stages in the process after the Tribunal has received your response:
Contact us at:
| Registrar
Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario 15 Grosvenor Street, Ground Floor Toronto, ON M7A 2G6 |
Tel: 416-326-1312
Toll-free: 1-866-598-0322 TTY: 416-326-2027 TTY (toll-free): 1-866-607-1240 Fax: 416-326-2199 Fax (toll-free): 1-866-355-6099 email: HRTO.Registrar@ontario.ca |