| Data collection | The OHRC interprets the term data collection broadly to include gathering information using both quantitative research methods such as surveys, and qualitative research methods such as focus groups. |
| Data sources | Forms of evidence used to measure indicators (e.g., school board administrative data, surveys of Black students and families, community consultations, disaggregated data reports, external audits). |
| Direct discrimination | A person discriminates directly when the action itself is discriminatory and when the person acts on his or her own behalf. For example, a building manager who refuses to rent an apartment because he prefers to rent to someone of his own ethnic background is discriminating directly. |
| Disaggregated data | Disaggregated data is data that provides subcategories of information, for example by ethnic group, gender, occupation, or educational status. Sometimes this is called demographic data. Unlike aggregated data, which groups information together, disaggregated data can reveal inequalities and relationships between categories. |
| Education duty-holders | Education duty-holders are duty-holders employed or elected within the education system that have the obligation to respect, protect, promote and fulfill the human rights of rights-holders. |
| Equality/Substantive equality | Equality under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Ontario Human Rights Code means substantive equality. Substantive equality is concerned with ensuring that people have the freedom and equal opportunity to fully participate in society. Substantive equality takes into account the full social context of the individual in assessing the effects that laws, policies, programs or conduct may have on them. That social context may include a variety of factors, including the individual’s experiences as a member of a historically marginalized group. |
| Human rights-based outcome | Intended change that aligns with duty-holders’ legal obligations under the Code. |
| Harassment | Engaging in a course of vexatious comments or conduct that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome. |
| Indicator | A clear, observable, and measurable sign of change or progress. |
| Indirect discrimination | Indirect discrimination is discrimination carried out through another person or organization. For example, a building manager tells her superintendent not to rent to people of a certain ethnic group because their food smells too much. The manager can be named in the human rights claim because she used the superintendent indirectly to discriminate against people because of their ethnic origin. |
| Intersecting Intersectional Intersectionality | A framework or approach that considers how someone’s identification with more than one Code-protected ground or characteristic can result in unique or compounded barriers or discrimination (for example, how a student’s First Nations, Métis or Inuit identity, race, gender, socioeconomic status, being a newcomer, refugee, English-language learner or being in the child welfare system, can combine with a reading disability to create unique and overlapping experiences of disadvantage and discrimination). |
| Non-Code data | A category of data that is not listed as a Code ground (e.g., education/qualification level, role/position title, years of service, perceptions of well-being and belonging, graduation rates, suspension, expulsion or exclusion rates, academic achievement, Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results). |
| Non-discrimination | Non-discrimination refers to the principle of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for all individuals without discrimination based on seventeen Code grounds in five social areas. This principle aims to ensure that all individuals feel included, valued, able to fully participate in and contribute to the well-being and development of their communities and Ontario. |
| Outcomes data | Outcome data are qualitative and quantitative information that measure the extent to which initiatives have resulted in meaningful changes in the experiences, opportunities, and outcomes of affected communities.
Outcomes data can be used to assess whether initiatives are reducing systemic discrimination and advancing substantive equality. |
| Outcomes indicators | Outcome indicators measure real-world outcomes and lived experiences of affected communities regarding their enjoyment of rights. |
| Poisoned work environment | A negative, hostile or unpleasant workplace due to comments or conduct that tend to demean a group identified by one or more prohibited grounds under the Code, even if not directed at a specific individual. A poisoned work environment may result from a serious single event, remark or action.
While the notion of a poisoned environment has predominantly arisen in an employment context, it can specifically arise in the context of education services. |
| Potential risk | The harm or setbacks that can occur when duty-holders do not take action or fail to measure progress properly. |
| Process indicators | Process indicators measure the efforts and actions taken (e.g., programs, enforcement mechanisms, reforms). |
| Prohibited/protected grounds | The Ontario Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination or harassment based on these personal characteristics. The specific protected grounds include age, ancestry, citizenship, colour, creed, disability, ethnic origin, family status, gender identity and gender expression (recently added to the Code), marital status, place of origin, race, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, receipt of public assistance (in housing) and record of offences (in employment). |
| Protected social grounds | The Code guarantees equal treatment and opportunities without discrimination in five social areas: employment, housing, services, contracts, and membership in vocational associations. |
| Proposed mitigation strategy | Specific, practical steps duty-holders can take to reduce or prevent the potential risks |
| Reprisal | An action or threat that is intended as retaliation for claiming, enforcing or refusing to infringe a right under the Code. |
| Rights-holders | All people are rights-holders. These include members of groups that are protected under Ontario’s Human Rights Code: people who may face discrimination based on age, ancestry, citizenship, colour, creed, disability, ethnic origin, family status, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, place of origin, race, receipt of public assistance (in housing only), record of offences (in employment only), sex and sexual orientation. |
| Subtle discrimination | Discrimination is often subtle. Discriminatory remarks are not often made directly, and people do not usually voice stereotypical views as a reason for their behaviour. Subtle forms of discrimination can usually only be detected after looking at all the circumstances to determine if a pattern of behaviour exists. Individual acts themselves may be ambiguous or explained away, but when viewed as part of a larger picture, may lead to an inference that discrimination based on a Code ground was a factor in the treatment a person received. An inexplicable departure from usual practices may establish a claim of discrimination. |
| Structural indicators | Structural indicators measure the commitment of a government or institution to human rights standards through the adoption of international treaties, constitutional provisions, or legislative and policy frameworks. |
| Systemic or institutional discrimination | Systemic or institutional discrimination consists of attitudes, patterns of behaviour, policies or practices that are part of the social or administrative structures of an organization, and that create or perpetuate a position of relative disadvantage for individuals protected on the basis of Code grounds. The attitudes, behaviour, policies or practices may appear neutral on the surface but nevertheless have an adverse effect or exclusionary impact. While it often occurs without deliberate intent, systemic discrimination can also overlap with or involve more overt types of discriminatory behaviour. |
| Vicarious liability | Under section 46.3 of the Code, a corporation, trade union or occupational association, unincorporated association or employers’ organization will be held responsible for discrimination, including acts or omissions, committed by employees or agents in the course of their employment. This is known as vicarious liability. It applies not only to human rights violations in the workplace, but also in housing accommodation, goods, services and facilities, contracting, and membership in unions and vocational associations. Simply put, it is the Commission’s position that vicarious liability automatically attributes responsibility for discrimination to an organization for the acts of its employees or agents, done in the normal course, whether it had any knowledge of, participation in, or control over these actions. |
