Articles 2021

On Friday, February 10, 2017, the Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights Law Section (“CCLHR”) hosted a program on human rights law in the provision of services. The program was chaired by Fiona Campbell, an Associate at Goldblatt Partners (Ottawa), Nicola Simmons, a Partner at Keel Cottrelle LLP, and Jessica Young, Senior Legal Counsel at eHealth Ontario. The following are some highlights of the program.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission recently released a policy position on medical documentation and disability related accommodation. While not binding on employers, housing providers, and service providers, Commission policies provide insight into the Commission’s position, which accommodation providers can consider in developing and implementing their own human rights policies and in addressing any human rights disputes, which may arise.

On February 7, 2017, the Federal Liberal government officially confirmed its commitment to reinstate the Court Challenges Program. The Program, cancelled in 2006 within weeks of the election of Stephen Harper’s first minority government, provided funding to individuals and groups seeking to enforce constitutional minority language rights and equality rights.

In 2008, awards for general damages for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect became fully uncapped in Ontario. At the time, many human rights lawyers speculated that these changes could lead to a significant increase in awards by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. Recent case law both in Ontario and elsewhere in the country has caused some to wonder whether general damages awards might be trending upwards.

Overview and Commentary of the Berge decision, in which the Ontario Divisional Court refused to accept an audiologist's argument that a statutory restriction on her use of the title "Doctor" infringed her rights under s. 2(b) of the Charter.

Over past months, the appellate courts of Ontario, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia have weighed in on their respective provincial law societies’ decisions to deny approval or accreditation to graduates of the proposed law school at Trinity Western University on the basis of its requirement that students sign a Community Covenant that forbids sexual intimacy, except between married heterosexual couples.

The intersection between Employment and Human Rights law has dynamically evolved to respond to the new challenge of gender-based discrimination arising from workplace dress codes.

In Morasse v Nadeau Dubois, the majority of a divided Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Quebec Court of Appeal’s acquittal of the respondent, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. Nadeau-Dubois, the spokesperson for the prominent Quebec student group CLASSE, had been found guilty of contempt of court under article 50 of the Code of Civil Procedure for comments he made during a live television interview at the height of Quebec’s 2012 “maple spring” protests.

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario recently issued a significant decision with respect to family status discrimination. In Misetich v Value Village Stores Inc., the Tribunal indicated its intention to depart from the test for family status discrimination outlined in Canada (Attorney General) v Johnstone and Canadian National Railway v Seeley.

Welcome back! The Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights section executive has already been hard at work on a number of initiatives for the upcoming year.