> KEY RIGHTS MOMENTS

1950: Ontario’s Conveyancing and Law of Property Act is amended to make it impossible for a property owner to require a buyer to agree to never sell, lease or rent to Jews, black people or other people of colour. A real estate provision that required land buyers to agree their property “shall never be sold, assigned, transferred, leased, rented or in any manner whatsoever alienated to, and shall never be occupied or used in any manner whatsoever by any person of the Jewish, Hebrew, Semitic, Negro or coloured race or blood.” The case that prompted the change stemmed from a sale of a resort development near Grand Bend. 1961: The Ontario Human Rights Commission replaces the Ontario Anti-Discrimination Commission, which was established in 1958. The watchdog agency falls under the Ministry of the Attorney General. 1962: Ontario’s Human Rights Code comes into effect. It is seen as Canada’s first comprehensive human rights law. 1986: Sexual orientation is brought into the mix of protected code grounds. 2003: Following a groundbreaking Star investigation into race, policing and crime in Toronto that found patterns in police arrest and charge data of black people in certain circumstances being treated more harshly than white people, the commission holds an inquiry into the impacts of racial profiling. 2006: Commission partners with Toronto police and its civilian oversight board in a unique project aimed at resolving human rights complaints and working together to address discrimination in employment and service to the public. The project has mixed results. Toronto police ignore the commission’s advice that they track and analyze interactions with the public by race. 2008: Ontario’s rights system is overhauled. Three pillars are created. People now complain to the tribunal. The commission deals with big picture human rights issues and systemic forms of discrimination and harassment. A legal support centre is created. Sources: Ontario Human Rights Commission, Star archives