Skip to main content

3. Ontario’s Human Rights Code

Printer-friendly version

3. Ontario’s Human Rights Code

The Code is a provincial law that gives everyone the right to be free from discrimination in five parts of society, referred to as social areas, based on one or more personal attributes, called protected grounds.

The Code protects individuals from discrimination when accessing both public and private services, including the right not to be discriminated against or harassed while shopping. Indigenous people in Ontario are included in these protections.17

The five (5) social areas are:

  1. Employment
  2. Housing
  3. Goods, services and facilities (such as education, health care, police, government, shops, or restaurants)
  4. Membership in unions, trade or professional associations
  5. Contracts

The Code prohibits discrimination and harassment based on 17 protected grounds:

  1. Age
  2. Ancestry
  3. Citizenship
  4. Colour
  5. Creed
  6. Disability
  7. Ethnic origin
  8. Family status
  9. Marital status
  10. Gender identity
  11. Gender expression
  12. Place of origin
  13. Race
  14. Receipt of public assistance (in housing only)
  15. Record of offence (in employment only)
  16. Sex
  17. Sexual orientation.18

To establish discrimination under the Code, a person must show that:

  1. they have a personal attribute protected by the Code (e.g., race, ancestry, place of origin),
  2. they experienced adverse treatment/impact within a social area (e.g., they were denied a service, housing or employment), and
  3. the protected personal attribute was a factor in the adverse treatment or impact (for example, that they didn’t receive a service, housing or employment because of their race).

When Indigenous people experience discrimination while shopping, the relevant protected grounds are likely race and related grounds, including ancestry, ethnic origin, place of origin, colour, and creed (which includes Indigenous spirituality).

For greater clarity, race may refer to a combination of physical and cultural attributes, while ancestry is concerned with the geographic location or origins of a person’s ancestors. These grounds, along with colour, ethnic origin, place of origin, and creed are all interrelated.

A person’s experience may be complicated further when facing intersectional discrimination (as defined in section 2). For example, if an Indigenous youth was presumed to be more likely to shoplift and this led to targeted surveillance, age as well as race and related grounds could be involved. Additionally, Indigenous women’s experiences must be understood through the lens of intersectional racism and sexism, which they face as both Indigenous people and as women. If an Indigenous woman experiences heightened surveillance, race as well as sex, gender expression, or gender identity could be at play. 
 

Endnotes

17 Indigenous people are also protected from discrimination in areas of federal jurisdiction through the Canadian Human Rights Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-6; available online: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/h-6/). Examples of organizations covered by the federal law are chartered banks, airlines, federal government departments and agencies as well as First Nations governments and band councils. Determining what issues may be dealt with at the Human Rights Tribunal Ontario or the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal can be complex, particularly regarding potential discrimination that occurs on-reserve.

18 For more information see: OHRC, Guide to your rights and responsibilities under the Human Rights Code, (2013); available online: https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/guide-your-rights-and-responsibilities-under-human-rights-code-0