For Further Information Maureen Brown Information Officer (416) 314-4528
March 20, 1998
For Immediate Release
Race Discrimination Still An Issue in Ontario:
Second Largest Ground of Complaint(Toronto): On the eve of March 21, the Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Keith Norton said today that race discrimination is still a fact of life for many in Ontario.
"The Ontario Human Rights Code was enacted 36 years ago to promote equality. We continue to receive more than 400 discrimination complaints a year on the ground of race and on similar grounds, mainly in the area of employment", the Chief Commissioner said. Race complaints form the second highest ground of complaints to the Commission. Last year the Commission received 404 complaints, comprising 21% of all its new cases on the grounds of race, colour and ancestry. Another 71 complaints (4%) were on the ground of ethnic origin.
"Employers and landlords who are reluctant to hire certain individuals or rent property to persons because of race, colour, ancestry or ethnic origin, should be reminded that they are violating the Ontario Human Rights Code and denying those persons rights that are theirs by law", Mr. Norton said.
"Our work in this area is not limited to the investigation of complaints", said Mr. Norton. "We are also very much involved in public education in this area".
Several recent Commission policies now deal specifically with the issue of race and race-related discrimination, including Policy on Racial Slurs and Harassment and Racial Jokes and the Policy on Discrimination and Language.
In the past year, the Commission has participated in several public education sessions on the issue of racial discrimination for organisations such as the North Halton Cultural Awareness Council, Nishnawbe Education Council, Kingston Police Services Board Advisory Committee on Race Relations and Grand Council Treaty #3 (Kenora).
The Commission has also negotiated successful settlements and won Board of Inquiry decisions in several significant cases associated with race in recent months:
In Quereshi v. The Board of Education for the City of Toronto (Court of Appeal; January 10, 1997), the complainant alleged that he had been discriminated against after the respondents denied him a teaching position. The complainant's objective qualifications for the position were found by the Board of Inquiry to have been superior to those of the candidate who was offered the job and the complainant was found to have been subjected to discrimination.
In1997 the Commission was also instrumental in resolving a two year-old dispute over the renaming of Negro Creek Road, near Owen Sound. The complaint was resolved after the Township of Holland agreed not to change the name of the road which reflected Black history in that rural area.
In the case of Robert Wong v. Toronto Hydro et al., Mr. Wong alleged that although he was a very senior and experienced engineer when he started with Toronto Hydro, he was not promoted beyond the position of supervisor and was unable to break into the ranks of senior management because he was Chinese. After 17 days of hearing into the complaint, the parties agreed to settle the matter. Mr. Wong received a payment of $95,000.00 for general and specific damages including mental stress, legal costs and lost wages. The settlement is not an admission of guilt on the part of Toronto Hydro et al., nor has Mr. Wong retracted his allegations.