The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) had dismissed the application of Ester Galace – a 20-plus year retail employee who alleged her employer had failed to properly accommodate her disability. A unanimous Divisional Court ruling found that the HRTO had provided contradictory instructions to the applicant in the case of Galace v. Winners Merchants International L.P., 2026 ONSC 826, and has ordered the HRTO to resume processing the previously dismissed case before a different adjudicator.
In 2022, the HRTO ordered Galace to provide medical evidence to support her application, which she complied with by providing some medical documentation. In 2024, the HRTO decided that no further medical evidence was required. Her employer challenged this decision, and in 2025, rather than allowing Galace to have her hearing, the HRTO dismissed Galace’s application as an abuse of process for not complying with the first direction to provide medical records. Galace had not been given notice that the HRTO’s later ruling would be ignored and that this could result in her application being dismissed without an opportunity for her to provide submissions.
The Human Rights Legal Support Centre, who represented Galace, challenged the decision, filing an application for judicial review. In its February 2026 ruling, the Divisional Court found that it was procedurally unfair for the HRTO to dismiss Galace’s application without giving her the opportunity to address whether it could re-open its later ruling. Galace will now have her application continue through the HRTO process, and the case will be heard by a different adjudicator.