If you feel you have been discriminated against or harassed by a lawyer or paralegal, you can contact the Discrimination and Harassment Counsel. The following definitions of discrimination and harassment may help you to determine whether the DHC can assist you.

What is Discrimination?
There is no statutory definition of discrimination. However, case law defines it as treating someone unfavourably based on a prohibited ground. The human rights grounds of discrimination that are prohibited in Ontario are: race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, same-sex partnership status, age, marital status, family status, disability.

Discrimination means treating someone differently and adversely based on one or any combination of these grounds. For example, denying a female lawyer admission to a firm’s partnership because she took two maternity leaves is discrimination based on sex. It also includes unwelcome comments that relate to a person's ancestry or place of origin, such as mimicking a person who speaks with a foreign accent.

Failure to accommodate a person’s disability, when to do so would not cause an undue hardship, also constitutes discrimination. For example, discrimination would include a law or paralegal firm that does not have a wheelchair-accessible washroom for its disabled clients, or that refuses to provide an ergonomically-adjusted work space for its receptionist to accommodate her or his medical restrictions.

Whether the discrimination is intentional or not is irrelevant. It is the impact of the behavior, not the intention behind it that determines whether the behavior is discriminatory.

Rules of Professional Conduct
Discrimination is illegal. It is prohibited by the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act. It also violates the lawyers' Rules of Professional Conduct, in particular Rule 5.03, which prohibits sexual harassment and Rule 5.04 which prohibits discrimination, and Rule 2.03 of the Paralegal Rules of Conduct, which prohibits harassment and discrimination

Rule 5.03(2) of the lawyers' Rules of Professional Conduct states:

A lawyer shall not sexually harass a colleague, a staff member, a client, or any other person.

5.04(1) states:

A lawyer has a special responsibility to respect the requirements of human rights laws in force in Ontario and, specifically, to honour the obligation not to discriminate with respect to professional employment or other lawyers, articled students or any other person or in professional dealings with other members of the profession or any other person.

Paralegal Rules of Conduct

Discrimination and harassment also violate the Paralegal Rules of Conduct. In particular, Rule 2.03 (4) states:

A paralegal shall respect the requirements of human rights laws in force in Ontario and without restricting the generality of the foregoing, a paralegal shall not discriminate on the grounds of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital status, or disability with respect to the employment of others or in dealings with other licensees or any other person.

Rule 2.03 (3) states:

A paralegal shall not engage in sexual or other forms of harassment of a colleague, a staff member, a client or any other person on the ground of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital status, family status or disability.

What is Harassment?
Harassment is a form of discrimination. It is defined in the Ontario Human Rights Code as: "engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct that is known or ought reasonably be known to be unwelcome." The DHC deals only with complaints of harassment based on the prohibited grounds of discrimination listed above. Personal harassment, which is not based on any human rights grounds, is outside the mandate of the DHC program.

Usually harassment requires a series of events or a course of conduct. However, in some circumstances one incident may be sufficiently serious to constitute harassment.

Sexual Harassment
Examples of sexual harassment include:

• remarks, jokes or innuendos about sex, gender identity or sexual orientation
• leering or other offensive or sexually suggestive gestures
• derogatory or degrading remarks used to describe or directed toward members of one sex or sexual orientation
• the display or distribution of sexually explicit material
• refusing to work with someone because of his/her sex or transsexuality
• unwelcome advances, invitations or propositions of a sexual nature
• unwanted physical contact, including touching and patting
• rough and vulgar humour or language related to gender
• verbal abuse, threats or taunting
• sexual assault

Sexual harassment most commonly occurs in the form of behaviour by men towards women. However, it can also occur between men, between women, or as behaviour by women towards men. Sexual harassment is discrimination on the basis of sex.

Racial Harassment
Similarly, racial harassment is discrimination on the basis of race. In can take the form of unwelcome remarks, jokes, innuendos or taunting about a person's racial or ethnic background, colour, place of birth, citizenship or ancestry. It also includes displaying racist, derogatory, or offensive pictures or materials or refusing to speak or work with an employee because of his or her racial or ethnic background. For example:

• comments or conduct which ridicule a person's race, aboriginal ancestry, ethnic origin, place of origin or religion
• insulting gestures or jokes which relate to race, ethnic origin, citizenship, colour or religion
• mimicking a person's accent, speech, or mannerisms
• the display or distribution of derogatory materials which relate to race, ethnic origin, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship, colour, or religion
• refusing to work with someone because of that person's race, ethnic origin, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship, colour or religion

Racial harassment most commonly occurs in the form of behaviour by caucasians towards people of colour and aboriginal people. However, it can also occur between members of different racial minorities.

What is the Impact of Discrimination & Harassment?
Discrimination and harassment are demeaning practices that attack the dignity and self-respect of the victim. Discrimination and harassment poison professional client relationships. In the workplace, they can cause problems such as low morale, reduced productivity, increased absenteeism, the loss of valuable employees and, in some cases, violence.