The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (“ACTO”) has filed human rights complaints against the Landlord and Tenant Board (“LTB”) and Tribunals Ontario (“TO”) on behalf of multiple Ontario tenants alleging that the “Digital First” strategy employed during the pandemic has led to systemic discrimination.
Since late 2020, the LTB has been holding hearings online—a practice ACTO says leaves behind vulnerable Ontarians and excludes many tenants from meaningful participation in their hearings. Specifically, ACTO alleges that the system favours landlords and homeowners over certain tenant groups including social assistance recipients, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
ACTO says it has selected the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario as the appropriate forum for these cases because, for many tenants, the LTB’s failures during this period have violated their human rights.
“Through this litigation we are demanding justice for the tenants who have suffered as a result of the ‘Digital First’ strategy,” commented Ryan Hardy, Staff Lawyer at ACTO. “Beyond ensuring immediate justice for those affected, we are also seeking systemic reform to improve the LTB experience for all tenants and protect people from unnecessary evictions.”
Although the LTB provides the option for in-person hearings, the process has been criticized by users for being obscure, confusing, and interminably drawn-out. In fact, to date ACTO says it is not aware of any in-person hearings having yet been held at the LTB since March 2020, despite hundreds of requests.
“Requiring all communication to be digital is like locating a Board office on the second floor of a building that doesn’t have an elevator,” he said. “You are excluding a whole category of people de facto. It should be about actively offering accommodation rather than making it a puzzle the accommodation-seeking individual has to solve. Design the system with vulnerable individuals in mind, not lawyers.”
Meanwhile, landlords have been equally dismayed by the Tribunals Ontario Portal, calling it “dysfunctional” and plagued with technical glitches. The Ontario government recently announced it had earmarked $19 million over three years to help contend with backlogs at both the Ontario Land Tribunal and the LTB, but so far few improvements have been noticed.
Acting on behalf of vulnerable tenants, ACTO says it has found that the LTB’s refusal to grant in-person hearings has been in violation of Ontario’s Human Rights Code: “The LTB is a service provider under s. 1 of the Code,” noted Hardy. “These applications allege that s. 1 was breached on a number of grounds, including but not limited to: age, marital status, family status and disability,”
Mairghread Knought, a Community Legal Worker with the Nipissing Community Legal Clinic, added: “It is required by law, and through these applications to the HRTO, we intend to achieve justice for those whom the LTB has callously chosen to cast aside.”
For more information or to follow these developments, visit: Home – Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario – ACTO
