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February 14, 2025
Executive Summary for Statement of Concern – Under the Ford Government: Justice Delayed and Denied at Tribunals Ontario

This is an executive summary of our Statement of Concern about Tribunals Ontario. In December 2024, Tribunals Ontario released its much-delayed Annual Report for 2023/24, and despite some self-congratulatory messaging, the data inside, and on the Tribunals Ontario website, demonstrates that there are serious deficits in the quality, accessibility and timeliness of justice at three […]

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February 13, 2025
Statement of Concern – Under the Ford Government:  Justice Delayed and Denied at the Landlord and Tenant Board, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and the Licence Appeal Tribunal

In December 2024, Tribunals Ontario released its much-delayed Annual Report for 2023/24, and despite self-congratulatory messaging, the data inside demonstrates that there are serious deficits in the quality, accessibility and timeliness of justice at three of its busiest tribunals – the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) and the […]

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November 12, 2024
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario: Access to Justice Denied

Quick Summary Ontario’s human rights system has become a nightmare for people who seek redress for alleged discrimination, a new analysis by the independent group Tribunal Watch Ontario shows. The latest statistics from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) show that the tribunal has become the place where human rights claims go to die. […]

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November 05, 2024
Tribunal Watch Ontario comments on the HRTO’s proposed Rules of Procedure changes

On October 25th, the HRTO posted notice on its website that it is “streamlining its processes to facilitate fair, just and expeditious resolutions of the matters before it and reduce delays.” It is doing so by effecting a number of changes to its Rules of Procedure and, at a later date, will be introducing a […]

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May 21, 2024
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario: A Continuing Crisis

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) continues to fail Ontarians badly. According to Tribunals Ontario’s most recent Annual Report, the HRTO backlog grew by another 500 applications over the 12-month period covered by the report, despite the fact that it received the lowest number of new applications since 2015/16. The HRTO’s unresolved caseload rose […]

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January 19, 2024
HELP WANTED: Effective leadership at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

The position of Associate Chair of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) is vacant for the fifth time in as many years. Reporting to the Executive Chair of Tribunals Ontario, a cluster of 14 adjudicative tribunals, the Associate Chair is effectively the Chair of the tribunal, with responsibility for the recruitment and training of […]

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January 15, 2023
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario: What Needs to Happen

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) has a backlog of over 9,000 cases. This number continues to rise and there is currently no clear plan for how to manage and resolve these cases, many of which were filed years ago. The extraordinary delays are denying access to justice to thousands of Ontarians, and undermining […]

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December 14, 2022
Justice Denied: The Access to Justice Crisis at Tribunals Ontario

The crisis continues in some of Ontario’s most important adjudicative tribunals. Tribunals Ontario posted its 2021/22 Annual Report on its website in September 2022, documenting the state of its 14 tribunals as of March 31, 2022, the end of its fiscal year. This latest Annual Report demonstrates that several key Ontario adjudicative tribunals are failing […]

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May 25, 2022
Statement of Concern: The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

Introduction The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) has not fared well over the last four years. The Tribunal has lost its most experienced adjudicators and the current complement of adjudicators is not sufficient to keep up with a growing number of incoming cases, let alone the 90% increase in a case backlog that now […]

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March 10, 2022
Access to Justice in Crisis: Tribunals Ontario in 2022

Imagine if you will: If you applied to Tribunals Ontario for a remedy in any of these situations, you can now expect to wait months or even years for a hearing and final decision. In many cases, you will wait months for your tribunal to take even basic preliminary steps to move your application forward. […]