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What protection does the Ontario Human Rights Code offer? The Ontario Human Rights Code (the Code) recognizes the dignity and worth of every person in Ontario. It provides for equal rights and opportunities, and freedom from discrimination.

Before you receive an accommodation request Minimize the need for accommodation up front by inclusively designing policies, rules, procedures, practices and spaces with everyone in mind (including people of diverse creed faiths). Create an open, inclusive and safe environment free of discrimination and harassment so that people feel safe and welcome to express or observe their creed and ask for creed-related accommodations, without fear of reprisal or stigma. For example, you could:

What protection does the Ontario Human Rights Code offer? The Ontario Human Rights Code (the Code) recognizes the dignity and worth of every person in Ontario. It provides for equal rights and opportunities, and freedom from discrimination. Indigenous peoples, including status, non-status, First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, are included in these protections. The Code prohibits discrimination and harassment based on 17 personal attributes – called grounds. Creed is one of the protected grounds.

Such is the nature of our hyper-connected planet that events seemingly worlds away from our day-to-day lives can reverberate in our neighbourhood. That is the power and promise of social media — it makes the world smaller.

As part of It’s Never Okay: An Action Plan to Stop Sexual Violence and Harassment, the Government of Ontario is hosting its 2015 Summit on Sexual Violence and Harassment in Toronto from November 19 – 20.

Hatred and discrimination based on creed have no place in Ontario. They contravene our province’s most cherished ideals and commitments, including respect for the rule of law, and individual human rights and dignity. 

This policy is a complete revision and update of the OHRC’s original Policy on creed and the accommodation of religious observances first published in 1996. It sets out the OHRC’s position on creed and accommodating observances related to a person's creed. The policy offers Ontario citizens and organizations ways to address and prevent discrimination and conflict based on creed in an informed, proactive and principled way.

In May 2015, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) learned that a Canadian insurance company (RSA Canada) would not issue an emergency travel medical insurance policy to anyone who had ever been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS and obtained a copy of the exclusionary policy. The OHRC wrote to RSA Canada to express concern that the HIV/AIDS exclusion might contravene Ontario’s Human Rights Code.

September 18, 2015 - The Ontario government is consulting on the changing nature of the modern workplace and considering how the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act could be amended to best protect workers, especially historically under-represented groups. The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) makes this submission in accordance with its mandate to promote and advance human rights under Ontario’s Human Rights Code.

Today is my first day on the job as Ontario’s new chief human rights commissioner and, already, I am keenly aware of the need to convince Canadians of the continuing relevance of statutory human rights bodies like the Ontario Human Rights Commission. 

Toronto – Ruth Goba, Interim Chief Commissioner, today welcomes Renu Mandhane as the OHRC’s new Chief Commissioner effective Monday, November 2, 2015.

October 30, 2015 - Further to the attached correspondence of yesterday, please find enclosed hard-copies of the reports identified from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Inter‑American Commission.

October 29, 2015 - Dear Premier Wynne, There is a clear connection between violence against women and the disparate social and economic status women face in our society, and indeed, across the globe.  It is with respect to this disparate social and economic status, particularly that of Indigenous women in our province, that I write this letter.

Hamilton police chief Glenn De Caire's position on carding and street checks contains a fundamental and significant error. In his September 21 letter to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Chief De Caire cites the Ontario Human Rights Commission and our recognition of “the importance of officer discretion.” We agree that discretion is important – vitally so. But we have always been clear: officer discretion must be informed and guided to prevent racial profiling – and discretionary decisions that are informed by racial bias should lead to officer discipline. 

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(Whitby, ON) – Today, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Ontario Shores) and the Ontario Human Rights Commission unveiled a new partnership to further develop human rights capacity at the specialty mental health centre. Ontario Shores and the OHRC met last year to look at an opportunity to partner and support both organizations’ mission and values. The Project Charter signed today sets the framework for work that will happen over a three year term.

Toronto–The Ontario Human Rights Commission today launched By the numbers, a new report offering a statistical profile of people with mental health and addiction disabilities in Ontario. This launch was part of Taking it Local Peel, a one-day training event co-hosted by the United Way of Peel Region and the Regional Diversity Roundtable of Peel.

Census family: A married couple and the children, if any, of either or both spouses; a couple living common-law and the children, if any, of either or both partners; or, a lone parent of any marital status with at least one child living in the same dwelling and the child or children. All members of a particular census family live in the same dwelling. A couple may be of opposite or same sex.

More information on the lives of people with mental health and addiction disabilities could be collected on other variables. For example, contact with the criminal justice system is an important indicator of marginalization and social exclusion.[42] Similarly, knowing what proportion of this group live in collective dwellings (such as hospitals, group homes and lodging houses) or are homeless across Ontario would provide a better understanding of their housing needs.  

Ontarians with disabilities, especially people with mental health and addiction disabilities, continue to face disparities on several social and economic indicators compared to people without disabilities. They have a higher unemployment rate, are more likely to be in low income status, have lower educational levels and are less likely to live in adequate, affordable housing.

This section provides a snapshot of persons with mental health and addiction disabilities. It also looks at these socio-economic indicators: housing, education, labour force, discrimination in the workplace and income. 3.1. Prevalence of disability Figure 1. Prevalence of disability among adults aged 15 and older, Ontario, 2012

To prepare this report, the OHRC worked with Statistics Canada to identify the appropriate variables from different surveys. The OHRC received customized data tables, based on the methodology and analysis used by Statistics Canada. 2.1. Data sources Canadian Survey on Disability, 2012 (CSD):

September 18, 2015 - Dear Minister, The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) is pleased to make this submission to the Ministry of Labour’s Changing Workplaces Review.

August 26, 2015 - Affordable and supportive housing are important to many protected groups under the Ontario Human Rights Code (the Code), such as young persons, younger or single-parent families, persons with disabilities, racialized and Indigenous persons, and people who receive public assistance. Opposition to affordable and supportive housing is often based on negative stereotypes and attitudes about persons who will live there. Rules or policies that restrict or reduce affordable and supportive housing may be discriminatory.