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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. Letter to the Toronto Police Services Board regarding the practice of carding

    January 13, 2014

    Thank you for receiving the Commission’s deputation on racial profiling and carding on November 18, 2013. We understand that the Toronto Police Services Board (the TPSB”) has retained Frank Addario to provide an independent legal opinion on carding, and that he has a broad mandate to look at “the entire process of interactions between police officers and members of the public”.

  2. OHRC releases statement on IBAs and human rights

    March 4, 2014

    The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) is releasing a public statement (attached) clarifying the legitimate status of preferential employment and contracting provisions within Impact and Benefit Agreements (IBAs) under Ontario’s Human Rights Code (the Code). Our position is that the preferential employment and contracting provisions in IBAs are consistent with “special programs” under section 14 of the Code.

  3. Message from Barbara Hall – Statement on Black History Month

    February 4, 2015

    In 1948, before Ontario’s Human Rights Code came to life, Hugh Burnett launched the National Unity Association in Dresden – the home of Uncle Tom’s cabin. Racial discrimination was commonplace during that era, with restaurants refusing to serve Black clients. Activists – people like Burnett, Donna Hill, Ruth Lor Malloy and Bromley Armstrong – led efforts to create anti-discrimination laws and advance human rights in our province.

  4. Lack of progress in addressing racial profiling in policing: An Ontario Human Rights Commission statement

    March 5, 2015

    Racial profiling is a longstanding and deeply troubling concern of the African Canadian community, other affected racialized communities, and of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (the “OHRC”).  In the past few years, many racialized people have experienced carding as yet another form of racial profiling. 

    The OHRC has frequently identified two key issues in the Toronto Police Service Procedure on Community Engagements that are critical to prevent racial profiling. To be consistent with the Human Rights Code and Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Procedure:

  5. Message from Interim Chief Commissioner Ruth Goba – International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

    March 20, 2015

    Not just today – let’s challenge racism every day

    It’s easy to identify discrimination when we hear hateful slurs or overt forms of bigotry. However, there are also many examples of more subtle – but equally pernicious – racism and racial discrimination.

    There’s the judge who asks a Black woman in court where her lawyer is. In fact, the woman is the lawyer waiting for her client.

    A Middle Eastern woman takes a seat at an empty restaurant. A White customer who enters after her is served first.

  6. Opinion Editorial: Political will needed to end carding

    May 23, 2015

    Editor, The Toronto Star

    This week Mark Saunders was sworn in as Chief of the Toronto Police Service. He arrived amid a controversy that marred his predecessor’s final days and one that refuses to go away – the police procedure commonly known as “carding.” As Chief Saunders starts down this new road he has a choice – to hear the voices of the community and work to end racial profiling or to allow a deeply troubling practice to continue.

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