Each year, thousands of people contact the Commission looking for help. Whether by phone or by mail, or by email, we provide members of the public with help and relevant information on a variety of human rights related issues, quickly and informally. We are able to help most of the people who contact us without them having to file a formal discrimination complaint.
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Screening complaints
As a federal human rights screening body, the Commission helps people figure out if they have the basis for a human rights complaint, and if so, where to go — whether through our federal system, or through another mechanism like a union grievance or a provincial or territorial human rights commission or tribunal.
The Commission can only accept discrimination complaints that meet the requirements outlined in the Canadian Human Rights Act.
A discrimination complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act requires:
- One or more grounds of discrimination, listed in the CHRA
- One or more discriminatory actions, listed in the CHRA
- The name of the federally regulated organization where this happened
- Describing how this has had a negative impact on your life
For many of the people who file complaints with the Commission, this is their first time interacting with the legal system. Most of them are doing this without legal representation. Our screening process helps complainants articulate their experiences in a way that shows the necessary criteria under the CHRA.
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Mediating and resolving disputes
Access to justice is more than just a day in court. In fact, most complaints the Commission screens are handled without a hearing, through early resolution either in mediation (participation is voluntary) or conciliation (participation is required). The Supreme Court of Canada has made it clear that this is an essential part of the Commission’s role: to help parties find meaningful resolutions efficiently.
Spending years in a court proceeding, like a Tribunal hearing, can be expensive, long, and emotionally taxing. Even in the most seemingly impossible situations, we have seen meaningful results from mediation and conciliation. By coming together and simply talking about what happened and the impact it has had — with no costs and with short timeframes — people are often able to find resolutions that address the harm they experienced and put in place measures to ensure others don’t experience that same harm.
Commission mediators and lawyers work to bring resolution in a wide range of discrimination cases, at various stages of the process — in mediation and conciliation at the Commission and in mediations before the Tribunal. Some of them are high profile, with the potential for systemic remedies that will impact the lives of many. Others are more individual, touching only the lives of only the parties involved. Every case matters. Every case is important.
Recent highlights:
In 2023, our mediation and legal services helped resolve over 200 cases. Most the cases involve stories that never get told or reported publicly, but bear great significance to the lives of the people involved.
In 2023, this included a case involving a Black man who was subjected to racial slurs in his workplace, and another case involving a customer who was required to remove their religious head covering to get service. We helped settle cases where employers failed to properly accommodate employees with disabilities. And we mediated a case involving a trans employee, in the federally regulate private sector, who was misgendered and outed at work. These are just some examples of the average kinds of cases we are helping bring to resolution.
The majority these settlements are confidential. However, in some cases, as part of the settlements, the parties agree to go public. Read more under our Settlement statements.
Referring complaints to Tribunal
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (Tribunal) is entirely separate and independent from the Commission. It works like a court — with full hearings where testimony and evidence are presented. Only the Tribunal can decide whether or not discrimination has taken place.
The Commissioners can decide to send a complaint to the Tribunal for a more in-depth inquiry and a hearing.
This decision, like all decisions on all human rights complaints, is made by the executive committee that includes the Chief Commissioner, and the Commission’s full-time and part-time Commissioners. Together, they are often referred to as “the Commission.” They are each appointed by The Governor in Council to make informed, impartial and independent decisions on human rights complaints.
Recent highlights:
In 2023, the Commission referred 122* cases to Tribunal.
- 70% were related to service*
- 39% were related to employment
- 12% involved allegations of harassment
* The 122 cases referred to Tribunal include 56 individual complaints dealing with similar allegations related to the provision of service* that had been referred to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) subsequent to a previous referral to the Tribunal.
Note: these figures are not meant to add up to 100%, but to show the various issues involved in the cases, often with overlapping, intersecting issues at play
Race-based complaints
Since 2021, the Commission has been dedicated to improving the way we handle race-based complaints under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Changes to our complaints process, including training and expert recommendations on understanding the way in which systemic racism manifests in society and how we used evidence to assess referrals is making a meaningful difference.
We have fully operationalized the changes we made, are expanding on them, and are allowing them to change our organizational culture.
Decreasing the number of complaints we dismiss
The percentage of race-based complaints being dismissed has decreased significantly.
It has also been consistently lower than the overall dismissal rate since 2021.
In 2018, when we first began taking a concerted look at this issue, the dismissal rate was 26% versus the dismissal rate for all complaints which was 22%.
As the changes we had made became embedded in our processes and governance structures in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the dismissal rates were 7%, 9% and 12%, respectively. In addition to being significantly lower than the dismissal rate when our anti-racism work began, the dismissal rates for race-based complaints are lower than those for all complaints (which were 10%, 13% and 16%, respectively).
Increasing the number of complaints we refer to Tribunal
The proportion of race-based complaints being referred to the Tribunal has increased and has been consistently higher than the overall rate since 2020.
Prior to 2020, the Commission referred between 6% and 10% of complaints (including race-based complaints) to the Tribunal.
Since 2020, the referral rate was 38% in 2020; 18% in 2021; 21% in 2022, and 27% in 2023.
The referral rate can vary from year to year depending on a variety of factors. For example, it was much higher in both 2020 and 2023 when large groupings of similar complaints – almost 100 such complaints in 2020 and more than 50 in 2023.
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Our complaints data
In 2023, the Commission accepted 663 new complaints.
At the start of 2023, the Commission had:
- over 2,500 inquiries and potential complaints in our system
- over 1,800 accepted complaints in our inventory
Over the course of 2023, the Commission:
- Received over 3,900 new inquiries and potential complaints.
- Resolved over 4,200 inquiries and potential complaints.
- Accepted over 660 new complaints that met the requirements under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Rendered 807 final decisions in complaints in our inventory
- 209 complaints were settled.
- 129 complaints were dismissed.
- 347 final decisions were rendered at the preliminary issues stage.
- 122 complaints were referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for adjudication.
At the end of 2023, the Commission had:
- over 2,200 inquiries and potential complaints in our system
- over 1,400* accepted complaints in our inventory
*In some cases, complaints are closed without the need for a formal Commission decision. For example, the person chooses to withdraw from the process, or resolves their issue on their own.
Proportion of accepted complaints by grounds of discrimination cited:
Disability
- Accepted in 2023: 49%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 52%
Race-Colour-National or Ethnic Origin*
- Accepted in 2023: 36%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 33%
Sex
- Accepted in 2023: 19%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 20%
Age
- Accepted in 2023: 13%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 11%
Religion
- Accepted in 2023: 13%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 12%
Family Status
- Accepted in 2023: 11%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 11%
Gender Identity
- Accepted in 2023: 5%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 3%
Marital Status
- Accepted in 2023: 3%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 3%
Sexual Orientation
- Accepted in 2023: 3%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 3%
Pardoned Conviction
- Accepted in 2023: 0%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 0%
Genetic Characteristics
- Accepted in 2023: 0%
- Accepted from 2019 to 2023: 0%
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