Tenant Human Rights Complaints

The Ontario Human Rights Code applies to all housing providers in Ontario, including TCHC. It protects tenants from discrimination and harassment in a variety of areas called protected grounds.

The protected grounds are:  

• age
• ancestry
• citizenship
• colour
• creed
• disability  
• ethnic origin
• family status
• gender expression
• gender identity  
• marital status
• place of origin
• race
• receipt of public assistance (in housing only)
• sex (including pregnancy and breastfeeding)
• sexual orientation

For more information about the ways in which the Human Rights Code applies your tenancy, visit the Ontario Human Rights Commission website (OHRC.on.ca), the Human Rights Legal Support Centre (hrlsc.on.ca), or speak to your local legal clinic (legalaid.on.ca/legal-clinics).

Your complaint is a human rights complaint if it fits into one of the four categories for a tenant human rights complaint. It is also a human rights complaint if you believe TCHC has not followed the Tenant Human Rights Policy.

Discrimination is when someone is treated unfairly based on a protected ground under the Human Rights Code. It can place unfair burdens on people or deny them benefits, reinforcing prejudice or stereotypes against certain groups.

Discrimination can be intentional or unintentional. It may be obvious like actions that are openly unfair. It can also be subtle, like rules, practices, or procedures that appear neutral but still have a discriminatory effect.

Harassment is unwanted behaviour that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe, or unwelcome. Examples of harassment include:

• Offensive remarks, jokes, teasing, or comments related to a protected ground.  
• Sharing or displaying offensive images, graffiti, or materials in print or digital formats.
• Mocking someone because of a personal characteristic tied to a ground of discrimination, such as their dress, speech, or practices related to their sex, race, gender identify, or creed.

The Tenant Human Rights Complaints Procedure outlines the steps you can take to make a complaint to TCHC when you believe you have not been treated in a way consistent with TCHC’s obligations under the Human Rights Code or the Tenant Human Rights Policy.

Follow the steps in the section ‘How to submit a tenant human rights complaint’.

In some cases, TCHC will not investigate a complaint or will stop an investigation. These include: 

• When a complaint is reported anonymously or without enough information.
• When a complaint is submitted a year or more after the event(s).
• If the complaint is considered trivial, frivolous, vexatious, or made in bad faith.
• If an existing complaint is already open with the Human Rights Tribunal or Landlord Tenant Board, or they hire a legal counsel.
• When a complaint is against an employee of TCHC or contractor and the complaint is already being addressed.
• If the tenant did not try other reasonable ways to resolve the issue before making the complaint. 

Some examples of complaints that would not be dealt with under the Tenant Human Rights Complaint Procedure include:

• A Tenant Services Coordinator does not respond to your questions on the phone or through email in timely manner.
• TCHC will not allow the tenant to transfer to a townhouse so that they can have a backyard to sit outside after work.
• TCHC fixed a tenant’s toilet, but they do not think the repair was done well because the toilet started leaking again. 

Follow the Tenant Complaint Process to learn how to express concerns if you receive services that do not meet TCHC's customer service standard.

To learn more about the complaint process, read or download the Tenant Human Rights Complaint Procedure Guide for Tenants (PDF).

As a housing provider, TCHC is required to provide tenants with an environment free from discrimination and harassment. This includes from third parties that are not TCHC staff such as contractors, or other tenants and their guests. TCHC will have breached the Human Rights Code if it does not adequately meet this obligation.

To meet this obligation, TCHC staff must adequately investigate and respond to third-party discrimination and/or harassment as soon as it learns of it. TCHC usually learns of a third-party Complaint directly from a Tenant but must also investigate and respond to any third-party discrimination or harassment that TCHC staff witnessed or learned of from another source. Staff cannot ignore the behaviour just because a Tenant has not complained about it to them.  

If a TCHC tenant is having issues with discrimination and/or harassment from a third party, they should report it to their Tenant Service Coordinator or other tenancy management staff so TCHC can investigate and attempt to resolve the issue. Adequately investigating and responding to the third-party discrimination and/or harassment requires staff to take all reasonable steps to determine if the alleged behaviour occurred and, if it did, take steps to address the behaviour with the third-party.  

If a tenant has reported the discrimination and/or harassment by third parties to staff but believes that TCHC has failed to properly investigate and/or address it, tenants can file a complaint under the procedure.  

The steps staff must take to address complaints about third parties to meet TCHC’s obligations under the Human Rights Code depend on the nature and seriousness of the discrimination and/or harassment.

Yes. All human rights complaints are confidential. Anyone involved in the complaint is expected to treat the forms, documents, and decisions as confidential. This includes the tenant making the complaint, the person who the complaint is about, support persons, witnesses, TCHC staff, and investigators.

TCHC staff will:

• Maintain the privacy of your personal information.
• Only share information about human rights with other staff members who need the information to deal with the issue.
• Never share the information with other tenants. 

The time it takes to complete a tenant human rights complaint investigation will vary. It may take longer if staff need more information from you or need to speak with witnesses. We will send you a monthly update on the status of your complaint while the investigation is ongoing. Once the investigation is complete, we will send you a decision letter within 10 business days. 

No. Making a complaint will not affect your tenancy in any way.

Complaints about service issues or staff interactions should be made through the Tenant Complaint Process.

If you have any questions about our Human Rights Policy and Procedures, please contact the Client Care Centre at help@torontohousing.ca or 416-981-5500 (TRS 7-1-1).