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 https://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.