Goods, services and facilities

While the OHRC is committed to supporting your office’s efforts to decrease poverty in Ontario, we are concerned that the government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy does not take an explicit human rights-based approach to poverty reduction and does not recognize the right to an adequate standard of living.

Letter to Aboriginal Legal Services to support their call to add the fight against racism to the Canada Health Act. Although the Act is federal legislation, the OHRC recognizes the significant impact it has on the delivery of health services in provinces and territories and believes principles respecting human rights should be reflected in the Act, as well as all other federal and provincial legislation.

I am writing to all public colleges and universities in Ontario after recent events have exposed that Indigenous, Black and racialized students are experiencing significant concerns of discrimination, xenophobia and targeting on campuses and in academic environments across Ontario. As service providers, all academic institutions have legally mandated human rights obligations to their students under the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code).

While the coronavirus does not discriminate, data tells us that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore profound systemic inequalities, and has exacted a devastating social, economic and health toll on Ontario’s most vulnerable people and communities. I am writing today to stress the important role that human rights principles, considerations and obligations should play in vaccine distribution planning.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) welcome the news that Facebook has now implemented and is enforcing several safeguards to prevent discriminatory targeting of advertisements for housing, employment and credit opportunities in Canada.

I am writing further to my letters of October 16, 2020, and November 6, 2020, requesting an opportunity to meet with you to discuss next steps for a consultation with human rights stakeholders on the latest draft of the COVID-19 critical care triage protocol.

In recognition of the importance of lacrosse to Indigenous cultures and in the face of troubling reports of racial slurs and mistreatment in games involving Six Nations lacrosse players, the Ontario Human Rights Commission will meet with Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, the Ontario Lacrosse Association and the Canadian Lacrosse Association to engage in discussions about how to address concerns of systemic racism against Indigenous lacrosse players. [News release also available in Mohawk]

I am writing to follow up on my letter to you dated October 16, 2020, about the COVID-19 Bioethics Table’s recommendations and proposed framework for a triage protocol to allocate limited critical care services in a potential major surge in COVID-19 cases.

This opinion editorial by Chief Commissioner Ena Chadha on Indigenous and disability rights in healthcare appeared on nationalnewswatch.com on Sunday, November 1, 2020.

On October 16, 2020, the OHRC wrote to the Minister of Health raising concerns about the proposed framework for a COVID-19 triage protocol to allocate limited critical care services in a potential major surge in COVID-19 cases. Read the letter.