Overview
Students have the right to study and participate in campus life free from discrimination and harassment. Canadian human rights legislation protects individuals from discrimination based on protected personal characteristics. Understanding these protections and available remedies is essential for students experiencing discrimination or harassment.
Discrimination can take many forms: exclusion from activities, unequal treatment, harassment based on personal characteristics, or failure to provide required accommodations. Students who experience discrimination have multiple avenues for seeking resolution and remedy.
Human Rights Protections
Canadian human rights law provides comprehensive protections against discrimination. These protections apply in educational settings, prohibiting discrimination by institutions and individuals.
Protected Grounds: Human rights legislation prohibits discrimination based on protected grounds: race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, family status, marital status, or record of criminal conviction unrelated to employment. Discrimination on any of these grounds is prohibited.
Scope of Protection: Protections apply to all aspects of educational experience: admissions, program access, classroom treatment, services and facilities, residence and housing, employment, discipline, and any other institutional services. Students cannot be denied equal access to education or services based on protected grounds.
Direct and Indirect Discrimination: Discrimination includes both direct discrimination (explicitly treating someone differently based on a protected ground) and indirect discrimination (applying a rule or practice that appears neutral but has discriminatory effect on protected groups). Both forms are prohibited.
Harassment: Harassment based on a protected ground (creating a hostile, intimidating, or offensive environment through unwanted conduct, comments, or jokes related to a protected ground) is a form of discrimination. Harassment can be serious and pervasive or consist of isolated incidents depending on circumstances. Single incidents of serious harassment may constitute discrimination.
Reasonable Accommodation Obligation: Institutions have an obligation to provide reasonable accommodations to meet the needs of protected group members, particularly individuals with disabilities. Accommodation is required unless it imposes undue hardship on the institution.
Campus-Based Complaint Procedures
Most educational institutions have established internal procedures for addressing student complaints regarding discrimination and harassment. These procedures should be used initially to seek resolution.
Identifying Responsible Offices: Students should identify which institutional office handles discrimination complaints. This might be called: equity office, diversity office, human rights office, student ombudsperson, dean of students, or another title depending on the institution. Institutional websites typically identify the appropriate office.
Filing a Complaint: To file a complaint, students typically submit written information describing the discrimination or harassment: who was involved, when it occurred, what happened, how it affected the student, and what outcome the student seeks. Complaints should be detailed and include specific dates and incidents where possible.
Investigation Process: Upon receiving a complaint, the institution investigates by gathering information from the complainant, respondent, witnesses, and relevant documents. Investigations should be fair, impartial, and timely (typically completed within 6-8 weeks unless complex circumstances require more time).
Resolution and Remedies: Complaint outcomes may include: finding of discrimination and orders to remedy the situation (apology, changes to behavior, training for respondent), no finding of discrimination with explanation, or dismissal for insufficient evidence. Institutions should explain complaint outcomes in writing.
Appeal of Institutional Decisions: If dissatisfied with institutional outcomes, students may appeal internally to a higher level administrator or appeal panel. Appeals may reconsider complaint decisions based on additional evidence or procedural concerns.
Ontario Human Rights Tribunal
If institutional complaint procedures do not resolve discrimination concerns, or if students wish to pursue external resolution, they may file a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (OHRT). The OHRT is an independent tribunal that investigates and resolves human rights complaints.
Tribunal Jurisdiction: The OHRT has jurisdiction to hear discrimination complaints arising in Ontario in institutions, workplaces, services, housing, and other settings covered by the Human Rights Code. Complaints must involve a protected ground and a service, good, or facility covered by the legislation.
Filing Deadlines: Complaints must be filed within one year of the alleged discrimination (or within one year of the most recent incident if discrimination is ongoing). Complainants must demonstrate they made a timely complaint; missed deadlines may preclude complaints.
Application Process: Complainants file a written application with the OHRT describing the discrimination, the respondent (institution or individual), the protected ground involved, and requested remedies. The OHRT assesses whether the complaint falls within tribunal jurisdiction and raises a potential human rights violation.
Tribunal Hearing: If the OHRT determines the complaint has merit, a hearing is scheduled. Hearings are conducted by tribunal members (adjudicators). Both parties present evidence and arguments. Tribunal members question both sides and consider the evidence before issuing a decision. Hearings are more formal than institutional complaint procedures.
Tribunal Remedies: If discrimination is found, the tribunal may order: cessation of the discriminatory conduct, apology or corrective statement, compensation for lost wages or fees, compensation for non-pecuniary losses (emotional distress), institutional policy changes, training for respondents, or other remedies to address discrimination effects.
Accessibility Accommodations
Students with disabilities have the right to reasonable accommodations to enable equal access to education. Accommodations address barriers created by disability and enable full participation in academic programs and campus life.
Types of Accommodations: Accommodations may include: modified testing arrangements (extended time, quiet testing room, use of assistive technology), note-taking support or transcribed lectures, accessibility features in educational materials, reduced course load, modified attendance requirements, accessible facilities, mobility assistance, service animal access, or other accommodations addressing disability-related barriers.
Requesting Accommodations: Students should request accommodations through the institutional accessibility office or student services. Requests should be made early (ideally before term start). Documentation supporting the disability may be required. Medical or psychological documentation from healthcare providers supports accommodation requests.
Accommodation Assessment: The institution evaluates accommodation requests by considering the student's needs, the barriers created by disability, and whether accommodations are reasonable and achieve the goal of equal access. The institution must consider interactive process with the student to determine appropriate accommodations.
Undue Hardship Defense: Institutions are not required to provide accommodations if they impose undue hardship. Undue hardship considers cost, health and safety risks, and operational impacts. However, inconvenience or expense alone does not justify denying accommodations. Substantial hardship is required.
Appeal of Accommodation Decisions: If students disagree with accommodation decisions or believe inadequate accommodations were provided, they may challenge the decision through institutional appeal procedures or human rights complaint procedures.
Language Discrimination
Language discrimination occurs when students are treated unfairly based on their ability to speak English or French, their accent, or the language they use. Language discrimination is a form of discrimination based on national or ethnic origin.
Examples of Language Discrimination: Treating students unfairly because their English skills are limited, using a student's accent as the basis for exclusion or negative treatment, preventing a student from using a language they are fluent in, assuming competence or intelligence based on language ability, mocking or ridiculing a student's accent or language use, or refusing to provide language support or interpretation services that are otherwise available.
Language Supports: Institutions must provide reasonable language supports to enable students with limited English proficiency to access education: English language instruction (ESL programs), interpretation services in institutional proceedings, translated documents, extended time for language-dependent assessments, and other supports addressing language barriers.
Language Requirements: Institutions may establish legitimate language requirements for specific purposes (English language proficiency required for program completion if communication is essential, language testing for admission to language programs). However, language requirements must be necessary and proportionate; blanket language requirements used to exclude international students may constitute indirect discrimination.
Remedying Language Discrimination: Students experiencing language discrimination should report it to the institutional equity office and seek investigation. If unresolved, students may file human rights complaints.
Racial Profiling
Racial profiling—making assumptions about individuals based on race and treating them differently based on those assumptions—is a serious form of discrimination. Students have the right to be treated as individuals, not stereotyped based on race.
Manifestations of Racial Profiling: Racial profiling in educational settings may include: security personnel disproportionately searching students of certain races, disciplinary measures applied more harshly to students of certain races, assumptions about student capability based on race, exclusion from student groups based on racial stereotypes, or surveillance targeting students of certain races.
Campus Safety and Policing: Campus security and police services must not engage in racial profiling. Security personnel and police officers cannot target students for stop, search, or questioning based on race. Enforcement must be based on reasonable suspicion of specific conduct, not on race-based assumptions.
Overrepresentation in Discipline: If students of particular races are disciplined at higher rates than other students, this may indicate discriminatory practices or racial bias in discipline decisions. Students should track whether discipline is applied disproportionately based on race.
Responding to Racial Profiling: Students experiencing racial profiling should document incidents (dates, times, people involved, what happened) and report to campus security, institutional administration, and human rights offices. If institutional response is inadequate, external complaints may be filed with human rights tribunals or police complaint offices.
External Oversight: Police services are subject to civilian oversight bodies that investigate complaints of misconduct including racial profiling. Students may file complaints with the police oversight body in their province if they believe police have engaged in racial profiling.