Gregory Kogan v. Richard Hennessy, 2011 HRTO 690

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

B E T W E E N:

Gregory Kogan

Applicant

-and-

Richard Hennessy

Respondent

DECISION

Adjudicator: David A. Wright

Date: April 11, 2011

Citation: 2011 HRTO 690

Indexed as: Kogan v. Hennessy

APPEARANCES

Gregory Kogan, Applicant ) No one appearing

Richard Hennessy, Respondent ) Anita Lyon, Counsel

) and Jasmine Jadubir,

) Student-at-Law

1This is an Application under s. 34 of the Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19. By letter dated November 29, 2010, the Application was scheduled for hearing on April 11, 2011. By Case Assessment Direction dated February 16, 2011, the respondent’s Request for Summary Hearing was granted and the matter was converted to a half-day Summary Hearing by teleconference. A Notice of Summary Hearing with a conference call number scheduling the Summary Hearing for April 11, 2011 was sent to the parties on February 23, 2011. On March 21, 2011, the applicant, who lives in Russia, sent an e-mail to the Tribunal requesting a collect call for the Summary Hearing. On March 23, 2011, the Tribunal sent the applicant a letter advising him to provide the Tribunal with a phone number where he could be reached, and advised that the Tribunal would call him at that number for the conference call hearing. The applicant did not respond to this correspondence and did not call in to the conference call, although the Tribunal waited for half an hour after the scheduled start time.

2In the circumstances, I find that the applicant had notice of the Summary Hearing and did not attend. The Application is, therefore, dismissed as abandoned.

3After preparing the above Decision, which was read orally during the conference call, it came to my attention that the applicant had sent the following e-mail to the Tribunal at 1:58 AM this morning (April 11, 2011):

According to this letter from March 21, 2011, I demand the HRTO to call the skype number gregory.kogan.against.the.hrto for the appointed teleconference summary hearing.

Gregory Kogan, Jewish, Israeli citizen.

4This did not comply with the Tribunal’s direction to send the Tribunal a telephone number where he could be called. The Tribunal does not conduct hearings on Skype. Had I been aware the e-mail before the call, the Application would still have been dismissed during the call. The applicant failed to attend the conference call either by dialling in or providing a telephone number where the Tribunal could call him.

5The Application is dismissed.