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Race and related grounds

Under the Code, every person has the right to be free from racial discrimination and harassment in the social areas of employment, services, goods, facilities, housing accommodation, contracts and membership in trade and vocational associations. You should not be treated differently because of your race or other related grounds, such as your ancestry, ethnicity, religion or place of origin. 

Canada, its provinces and territories have strong human rights laws and systems in place to address discrimination. At the same time, we also have a legacy of racism – particularly towards Indigenous persons, but to other groups as well including African, Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Jewish and Muslim Canadians – a legacy that profoundly permeates our systems and structures to this day, affecting the lives of not only racialized persons, but also all people in Canada.

Relevant policies: 

  1. Accountability and timely action key to addressing systemic discrimination in policing

    February 15, 2023

    On February 1, 2023, five Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers in British Columbia were charged with manslaughter and obstruction of justice in the 2017 death of Dale Culver, a member of Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan First Nations, and father of three children who was killed in custody. 

  2. OHRC letter to Town of Kingsville on migrant worker housing

    June 24, 2022

    The OHRC understands that the Town of Kingsville’s study, Kingsville Temporary Foreign Worker – Final Report, has now been completed and will be discussed by Council on Monday June 27, 2022. Upon reviewing the study and the proposed recommendations, the OHRC is very concerned that the recommendations would, if implemented, continue to create discriminatory barriers to migrant workers living as full members of the Kingsville community.

  3. OHRC submission to the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights regarding the role of human rights commissions in addressing anti-Black racism and other forms of systemic discrimination

    June 9, 2023

    The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights (the Committee) invited the Ontario Human Rights Commission (the OHRC) to make a brief submission to the Committee on best practices or policies for combatting anti-Black racism and to share the OHRC’s perspective on a direct tribunal access model compared to a commission screening model for dealing with human rights complaints.

  4. Ontario Human Rights Commission’s (OHRC) submission to the legislated review of the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (CYFSA)

    The OHRC made previous submissions in 2014 , and in 2017  regarding Bill 89 Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act. The OHRC is pleased that many of its recommendations were incorporated into the current legislation.

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