Human Rights Code

If he had simply walked in, even if his eyes did look crazy to her, and said, "I love you and I wanna have sex with you," and she said, "Well, I don't love you and that's not gonna happen," and he walked away, what would that entail?

That very simply, um, the Ontario Human Rights Code recognizes unwanted sexual advances as a ground, uh, for human rights damages.

So just on that front, if you were to come in and make a sexual advance to somebody else and it was unwanted, you are in viol- y- you have breached somebody else's, um, ability to be, to, to, to be at work in a safe working environment.

So all of us as empl- uh, as employees, as workers, we all are entitled to a safe working environment.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act gives you that right.

The Human Rights Code gives you that right.

And so, uh, you don't hear that a lot at work, Gerry, because it's not allowed.

Yeah.

Now, this policy triggered public backlash when Austin Lewis, who is a 21-year-old physically disabled man in a wheelchair, was stripped from the building's rent geared to income waiting list just because he is not Muslim.

Now, city officials defended the agreement under Section 18 of the Ontario Human Rights Code, which allows for specific social housing providers to restrict their waitlist to targeted ethnic or religious groups.

Now, Lewis, who is physically disabled and requires the use of the wheelchair, was very unequivocal in his statement.

And he said that the policy announced – amounts to the building manager saying that, quote, we don't like you.

It's rare that courts will let people get out of paying severance.

So what employers need to prove in the context of disability is that the disability prevents an employee from doing not only the essential duties of their own job, but that they also can't be returned to work with accommodation, right? So the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act both mandate that employers accommodate their employees up to the point of undue hardship.

an accommodation can take multiple different forms it can be you know modified hours modified duties but accommodation also can include putting someone in an alternate position if their current position cannot be modified to meet their you know their needs give you an example if somebody has a very physical job right maybe they work for a car manufacturer on the assembly line and They get really bad lower back pain.

Maybe they have a bulged disc.

That past service is going to get recognized, and you're entitled to a full common law, uh, severance package, which, like we say every week, can be as much as 24 months.

Um, otherwise, when picking who to and who not to cut, employers are still bound to follow, uh, the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Those same human rights provisions still apply.

In fact, one of my colleagues, um, I think it was last year, won a case where after, you know, a situation like this where there was, uh, a tr- transition in ownership, the new company was interviewing people to see if they would stay, uh, who, to decide who were gonna stay on and not stay on.

They're strictly prohibited from, you know, retaliating.

Yeah.

And lastly, you're, you're still protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code.

That means you're entitled to be accommodated, and that means, uh, they can't discriminate you for seeking accommodation, right? So you're working and you hurt your foot and you need to be off your feet for a couple days, they need to give you an alternate work.

You know, we really support the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

But on the other side of that, while every individual has, you know, can hold thoughts, express their thoughts, they really shouldn't be violating the Ontario Human Rights Code or Canada's criminal code.

So that would be where, you know, a gallery like Art Windsor Essex would really draw the line, you know, on hate speech.

For sure.