Community Partnerships that Work
Thanks to our partnerships with legal service providers and community agencies, we can reach more people and share information about taking legal action under the Human Rights Code with communities across Ontario. Some of our community partners are listed below.
The Law Foundation of Ontario has a unique mandate to improve access to justice for the people of Ontario and has funded human rights training initiatives to assist community service providers in identifying discrimination claims.
Recently, the HRLSC successfully secured LFO funding to help fund a new Mediation Services Pilot Project, a Guided Pathway online tool and the hiring of staff supporting mediation and early resolutions.
In partnership with Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO), the HRLSC is launching a new self-administered online “Guided Pathway” tool, which will help guide and support Ontarians in directly completing and filing applications at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
The HRLSC has provided training and legal support to legal clinics across the province to provide representation before the Tribunal and in litigating equality rights cases before other tribunals. Through partnership with clinics, the HRLSC has placed its own staff in clinics in Brampton, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Guelph, and Windsor.
For human rights services in any of these municipalities or surrounding areas, please contact the HRLSC directly. If you have experienced discrimination, you will be referred to the local HRLSC lawyer. The lawyers in these legal clinics and lawyers based at the HRLSC’s Toronto office travel to communities where mediations or hearings are held.
The Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC) is a provincial Aboriginal organization representing the collective interests of member Friendship Centres located in towns and cities across the province. Friendship Centres provide the country’s most significant off-reserve Aboriginal service delivery. They are not-for-profit and charity corporations that are mandated to serve the needs of urban Aboriginal people by providing culturally appropriate services in urban communities. The HRLSC has been working with OFIFC to promote the use of Ontario’s human rights system to advance claims of discrimination and unequal treatment.
Osgoode Law School Program
Each year, the Anti-Discrimination Intensive Program (ADIP) of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre and Osgoode Law School provides up to 12 Osgoode second and third-year students with intensive training in anti-discrimination law as well as administrative law enforcement and resolution.
Anti-Discrimination Intensive Program
The Anti-Discrimination Intensive Program is an exciting collaboration between Osgoode Hall Law School and the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, which offers human rights legal services to individuals throughout Ontario who have experienced discrimination contrary to the Ontario Human Rights Code. The program offers students the opportunity to develop specialized knowledge of anti-discrimination law and to see an administrative law process from beginning to end.
New Mediation Services Pilot Project
In 2025, a new Mediation Services Pilot Project will support mediations and early resolutions at Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, as well as valuable experiential learning in this area of law and practice for up to 12 Osgoode Hall Law School students over the next two years.