AODA Alliance
March 19, 2008
SUMMARY
We earlier reported that the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario was holding a consultation on its important proposed new rules to govern the procedures for all human rights complaints in Ontario after June 30, 2008. Visit:
http://www.www.aodaalliance.org/whats-new/newsub2011/human-rights-tribunal-consults-on-important-new-rules-for-enforcing-human-rights-but-who-even-knows-this-consultation-is-going-on/
We called on the Tribunal to properly publicize this consultation, which had until now been ostensibly invitation-only. We urged the Tribunal to extend the time for the public to be able to make submissions, beyond the Tribunal’s March 14, 2008 deadline (that many didn’t know about). We also asked the Tribunal to ensure that there were accessible, barrier-free avenues for members of the public to offer their feedback.
The Tribunal has informed us that it refuses to take any of the additional steps we requested. It has offered no reasons.
It has offered to grant the AODA Alliance an extension until March 31, 2008 to make its submission to the Tribunal on the proposed rules. This is because the Tribunal sent its original announcement of its consultation to us via email to an address that we haven’t used for many months. The Tribunal has also said that it would like to meet with a representative of the AODA Alliance to discuss our submissions. It has not granted a comparable extension or invitation to the general public.
We are now preparing our submissions and will shortly be circulating them. Send us your feedback at:
We regret that the Tribunal is not acting to make this consultation a public consultation.