Remedies

When a complaint is first made to the Canadian Human Rights Commission the parties have an opportunity to come to an agreement through mediation. After the complaint has been assessed to determine if it can move forward the Commission can also require the parties to try to come to an agreement whether they have previously used mediation or not.

When the parties agree to resolve the situation an employer who has allowed discrimination could agree to:

• Provide or have the harasser provide a letter of apology.
• Provide education about human rights laws and workplace sexual harassment to your workplace.
• Reinstate you if you have been let go.
• Compensate you for wages you lost because you were wrongfully let go.
• Make a payment to you for damage to your dignity, feelings or self-respect as a result of the discrimination.
• Provide you with a Letter of Reference if you are seeking employment elsewhere.

If the Canadian Human Rights Commission refers the case to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and they find there has been discrimination they can order the other party to...

• stop the discrimination and take action to prevent this type of discrimination in the future
• make available to the victim, on the first reasonable occasion, the rights, opportunities or privileges that were denied because of discrimination
• compensate the victim for any or all of the wages that the victim was deprived of and for any expenses incurred by the victim as a result of discrimination
• compensate the victim in an amount up to $20,000 for any pain and suffering that the victim experienced as a result of the discrimination
• pay up to $20,000 as compensation to the victim if they find that the person discriminated wilfully or recklessly