https://www.peopleslawschool.ca/webinar/human-rights-complaint/
Lawyers Cayleigh Shiff from the Community Legal Assistance Society and Katherine Hardie from the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal answer common questions about making a human rights complaint in BC.
Highlights
In this webinar, you will learn:
Introduction to discrimination
- What discrimination is and which characteristics are protected by law. [3:55]
- What the BC Human Rights Tribunal is and the role it plays in protecting British Columbians from discrimination. [9:10]
- Where, in addition to your workplace, you’re protected from discrimination. [11:20]
- What a duty to accommodate is and how far it extends. [13:20]
Before (or instead of) filing a formal complaint
- What you can do if you think you have been discriminated against in a retail store, other than making a formal complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal. [18:35]
- What you can do if you think you’ve been discriminated against at work, other than filing a formal complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal. [20:45]
Making a human rights complaint
- Whether a human rights complaint must be filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal or whether it could be filed with the courts. [23:20]
- What a person can gain from pursuing their human rights complaint. [25:25]
- How to initiate a human rights complaint, whether a lawyer is required, and whether there are free or low-cost ways to get help. [28:40]
- The steps you can expect in the complaint process with the BC Human Rights Tribunal, including whether you must testify in front of the person who discriminated against you. [33:50]
- Factors to consider before filing a human rights complaint. [38:10]
- How to set yourself up so that your complaint has the greatest chance of success. [44:15]
Live questions
- Whether, in a dispute hearing before the Residential Tenancy Branch, an arbitrator can make a decision about whether there was discrimination. [48:00]
- At what point microaggressions would amount to discrimination. [49:30]
- Whether intent is relevant in assessing whether something amounts to discrimination. [52:00]
- What you can do if you live in a condo and you think the strata rules were applied differently against your family because of your special needs son. [53:40]
- What to do if you can’t file a human rights complaint within a year because it will further negatively impact your safety or human rights. [55:35]
