Making a Human Rights Complaint in BC (Recorded Webinar)

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. Current to February 2024. Show notes at www.peopleslawschool.ca/webin...
Introduction to discrimination
3:55 What discrimination is and which characteristics are protected by law.
9:10 What the BC Human Rights Tribunal is and the role it plays in protecting British Columbians from discrimination.
11:20 Where, in addition to your workplace, you’re protected from discrimination.
13:20 What a duty to accommodate is and how far it extends.
Before (or instead of) filing a formal complaint
18:35 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.
20:45 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.
Making a human rights complaint
23:20 Whether a human rights complaint must be filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal or whether it could be filed with the courts.
25:25 What a person can gain from pursuing their human rights complaint.
28:40 How to initiate a human rights complaint, whether a lawyer is required, and whether there are free or low-cost ways to get help.
33:50 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.
38:10 Factors to consider before filing a human rights complaint.
44:15 How to set yourself up so that your complaint has the greatest chance of success.
Live questions
48:00 Whether, in a dispute hearing before the Residential Tenancy Branch, an arbitrator can make a decision about whether there was discrimination.
49:30 At what point microaggressions would amount to discrimination.
52:00 Whether intent is relevant in assessing whether something amounts to discrimination.
53:40 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.
55:35 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.