have been accommodated, short of undue hardship. The Act outlines the three factors
to be considered when assessing undue hardship: “health, safety and cost.”
While the language in the Human Rights Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act is
different, the protections afforded by the two statutes with respect to accommodation
are very similar.
Anyone who works for or receives services from a business or organization that is
regulated by the federal government, and believes that they have been discriminated
against can make a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The
Commission maintains a gatekeeping function with respect to complaints that are dealt
with by the Commission or heard by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
The Commission may decide not to deal with a complaint if it appears to the
Commission that^27 :
- the complainant ought to exhaust grievance or review procedures that are
otherwise reasonably available; - the complaint is one that could more appropriately be dealt with according to a
procedure provided for under another Act; - the complaint is beyond the jurisdiction of the Commission;
- the complaint is trivial, frivolous, vexations or made in bad faith;
- the complaint is based on acts the last of which occurred more than one year
before the receipt of the complaint. The Commission has discretion to extend this
time if it considers it appropriate in the circumstances.
At ARCH, we receive many calls from persons with disabilities who wish to make
complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Many callers are current or
past employees of federally regulated agencies or of the federal government. In
practice, the exercise of the Commission’s discretion contained in section 41 serves to
(^27) Ibid at s 41(1).