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:
On March 12, 2021, the OHRC wrote to Solicitor General Jones to make a submission to the ministry’s review of Regulations under the Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015 to determine whether any of the prescribed temporary exemptions should continue, be narrowed or removed.
The OHRC calls on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Metrolinx, as the owner and operator of PRESTO, to make sure that they adopt a human rights-centred approach to their fare system planning and implementation.
In an opinion editorial published online at National Newswatch on April 4, 2021, Chief Commissioner Ena Chadha discusses how Martin Luther King’s fight against poverty must guide our post-COVID vision.
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.
The OHRC is concerned that the most recent expansion of police discretionary power to enforce the latest “stay-at-home order” will likely result in a disproportionate impact on members of marginalized and vulnerable communities.
To keep Ontario’s people and communities safe, it is critical for Ontario’s justice sector to once again make sure the prison custody numbers come down and stay down.
The OHRC is concerned about Toronto police officers “being asked to increase their presence on TTC properties and vehicles where possible,” as noted in the Toronto Transit Commission’s July 2021 CEO Report.
Today the OHRC released its Framework for change to address systemic racism in policing, calling on Ontario to establish a legislative and regulatory framework to directly address systemic racial discrimination in policing across the province.
On November 9, 2021, the OHRC released its Policy statement on human rights in COVID-19 recovery planning. The OHRC has shared this statement with ministers across all relevant sectors, as we believe it will help guide their ministry’s pandemic recovery efforts.
