HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL OF ONTARIO
B E T W E E N:
Daryoush Nemati
Applicant
-and-
Ontario College of Teachers
Respondent
decision
Adjudicator: Keith Brennenstuhl
Indexed as: Nemati v. Ontario College of Teachers
APPEARANCES by
Daryoush Nemati, Applicant ) Self-represented
Ontario College of Teachers, Respondent ) Jane A. Langford and,
) Marc Toppings, Counsel )
1This is an Application filed on April 6, 2009 under section 53(5) of the Human Rights Code, R.S.O, c. H. 19 as amended (the “Code”). The underlying complaint (the “Complaint”) was filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission ( the “Commission”) on August 29, 2004. The Application alleges that the applicant was subjected to discrimination in relation to employment on the basis of place of origin.
BACKGROUND
2The Ontario College of Teachers (the “College”) is a self-regulatory body with a statutory mandate to license, govern and regulate the practice of teaching in Ontario. A teacher must have a Certificate of Qualification from the College in order to teach in Ontario’s publicly funded education system.
3The College has devised regulations covering the requirements for certification. With respect to applicants who are trained outside of Ontario, those requirements include: proof of proficiency in either English or French; evidence of academic qualifications; a teaching certificate and transcript of the teaching education program; and, a statement from the authority issuing the teaching certificate that the applicant has not been suspended or cancelled. Where the requirements set out in the regulations are met, the Registrar of the College issues the Certificate of Qualification.
4In conjunction with the regulations, the College has developed policies and procedures to establish what proof the Registrar will accept regarding an applicant’s credentials. It has been the policy of the College to require only original documents to be sent directly to the College from the granting or education institutes. The College’s practice was to return any application as incomplete if it contained any documents that did not fit its policies.
5It was and remains the College’s practice not to evaluate an application until all of the required documents are at hand. As multiple documents are required to properly assess an application, it is more efficient to only evaluate an application once all documents have been received in support of the application. Moreover, there is often overlapping and complementary information from multiple institutions making it fairer from an applicant’s perspective to have all information available before engaging in an evaluation of credentials.
6The applicant, Mr. Nemati, was born and raised in Iran and completed his teacher education in Iran. In 1989, he fled Iran to Canada where he was accepted as a Convention refugee. His refugee claim was based on persecution at the hands of the Iranian authorities arising from his political activities and beliefs in opposition to the Iranian regime.
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