In the Fall, I blogged about the McGuinty government appointing Toronto lawyer Andrew Pinto to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the June 2008 changes to Ontario’s human rights system. Those changes included creating a direct access complaint model, creating the Human Rights Legal Support Centre to assist complainants and significantly changing the role of the Human Rights Commission.

Pinto’s review is moving forward. There are three ways that employers (amongst others) can become involved:

#1: Write a submission and email it to Pinto at chair@ontariohumanrightsreview.org before March 1, 2012

#2: Participate in a public consultation meeting, which are planned for Windsor (February 13), London (February 14), Toronto (February 15 and 24), Ottawa (February 16), Sudbury (February 21) and Thunder Bay (February 23). Times and venues to be announced. To be given a speaking slot, you need to submit a request by January 23, 2012.

#3: Submit a proposal to attend a stakeholder meeting that will be held from January 30-February 3, 2012. Proposals are due January 23, 2012.

Details of the information you need to include in an application to participate in the public consultation or stakeholder meetings are posted on the Review’s website.

You might be thinking – what is the focus of the review and what types of issues should I cover in my submission? Pinto has posted a Consultation Paper setting out the key questions he is interested in addressing during the consultation process. Some of Pinto’s questions that employers may be interested in addressing, in particular, include:

• How would you describe your overall experience with the Tribunal? What were positive and negative elements of that experience? What areas could be improved?
• Do you feel you were treated fairly by the Tribunal and its processes?
• Did you find the Tribunal dealt with your matter in a timely manner?
• The Tribunal currently does not award legal costs to the successful party. In future, if the Tribunal made an unsuccessful party pay (or partially pay) the successful party’s legal costs, would you consider that fair?

We know from past public consultations that individual citizens and public advocacy groups will be very vocal in the consultation process. We should ensure that the concerns of respondents (the vast majority of which are employers) are heard as well. Does your organization have a position regarding these issues? If so, consider participating in the Review directly, through your industry association or through legal counsel.