Case
Tribunal Year
Summary
Compensatory Damages & Lost Income and other Awards
General Comment
The reader should review the narrative section of the text dealing with compensatory damages and "mental anguish" awards prior to the amendments to the Ontario Code effective in June 30, 2008. See Chapter 6.3.
Sandford v Koop
2005
Two year period of provocative sexual harassment
$25,000. There was also an award of $10,000 for mental anguish as was then allowed by the statute. The complaint against the employer was settled independently.
Lost income $18,570, moving expenses $666, medical reports $375
This award was against...
The Statutory Process
The first remedy is to file a complaint with the relevant human rights body. This relief, of course, is available to any person in Canada.
Civil Law Suit – Ontario Only
In Ontario, presuming that the individual is governed by provincial and not federal law, there is a second manner of seeking a human rights remedy. Ontario amended its legislation on June 30, 2008 to allow civil claims for a breach of a human rights violation when included with...
General Principles of Interpretation
The well-accepted mode of interpretation is to allow for a "fair, large and liberal interpretation" of human rights statutes, given the inherent remedial intent and “the special nature and purpose" of such legislation. Human rights legislation has been described as “not quite constitutional, but certainly more than ordinary”....
In a common law civil action, the plaintiff will typically seek to make the employer responsible for the conduct of its employee. Consideration on this question should also be given to the statutory remedy which, it is submitted, shows a lower bar to pass, and indeed, in certain instances, the employer is directly liable. This is particularly so in Ontario which allows a civil action to attain the statutory remedy.
Basic Tests
There are two arguments possible. The first is the organic theory of liability in the context in...