Jhajj v. Ontario (Attorney General), 2009 HRTO 1448

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

B E T W E E N:

Inderjit Jhajj

Applicant

-and-

Her Majesty the Queen in right of Ontario as represented by the Ministry of the Attorney General, Toronto Police Services Board and William Blair

Respondents

INTERIM DECISION

Adjudicator: Naomi Overend

Date: September 10, 2009

Citation: 2009 HRTO 1448

Indexed as: Jhajj v. Ontario (Attorney General)

1The applicant filed an Application under section 34 of the Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19 as amended, (the “Code”) on March 9, 2009, naming only the Ministry of the Attorney General as respondent. Subsequently, the applicant filed a Request for Order During Proceedings (Form 10) asking to amend his Application to add respondents. On July 22, 2009, the Tribunal issued an Interim Decision, 2009 HRTO 1097, amending the Application to add William Blair (“Blair”) and the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB”) as respondents.

2The TPSB and Blair were advised in the earlier Interim Decision that their respective Responses must be filed with the Tribunal not later than 35 days after the date of the Interim Decision. As of today’s date neither Blair nor the TPSB has filed a Response, nor has the Tribunal’s correspondence been returned.

3An application to the Tribunal starts a legal proceeding. A finding that a violation of the Code has occurred may lead to various orders, including monetary compensation, other forms of restitution to the applicant, and orders to take action to promote compliance with the Code. Failure to file a response or participate in a Tribunal proceeding may lead to orders against individual and corporate respondents without their participation. The TPSB’s and Blair’s attention is drawn to Rule 5.5 of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure which reads as follows:

5.5 Where an Application is delivered to a respondent who does not respond to the Application, the Tribunal may:

a) deem the Respondent to have accepted all of the allegations in the Application;

b) proceed to deal with the Application without further notice to the Respondent;

c) deem the Respondent to have waived all rights with respect to further notice or participation in the proceeding;

d) decide the matter based only on the material before the Tribunal.

4The Tribunal shall send a copy of this Interim Decision to the TPSB by regular mail, courier and fax to the attention of Deirdre Williams, Board Secretary at the address provided in the Application, as well as to Blair, Chief of Police of the Toronto Police Services, and to the Legal Services Department, Office of the Chief of Police.

5If either Blair or the TPSB wish to participate in this proceeding, they shall file a Response by 14 days from date of receipt of this Interim Decision, together with an explanation of why the Response was not filed in accordance with the earlier Interim Decision. If a Response is not received, the Tribunal may proceed without further notice to the non-responding respondent and may take any or all of the steps set out in Rule 5.5.

6I am not seized of this matter.