HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL OF ONTARIO
B E T W E E N:
Randy Roberts
Applicant
-and-
St. Leonard’s Community Services
Respondent
INTERIM DECISION
Adjudicator: Douglas Sanderson
Indexed as: Roberts v. St. Leonard’s Community Services
WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS
Randy Roberts, Applicant
No one appearing
St. Leonard’s Community Services, Respondent
Elisha Jamieson-Davies, Counsel
Brant Community Healthcare System, Former Respondent
Brent Foreman, Counsel
1This is an Application filed under s. 34 of the Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, as amended (the “Code”), alleging discrimination with respect to goods, services and facilities because of disability.
Background
2The applicant identifies himself as a person with mental health and addiction diagnoses. The applicant states that he was involved in the creation of a detoxification/withdrawal management facility in the Brantford, Ontario area known as the WMS Centre. The applicant alleges that the respondent St. Leonard’s Community Services (“St. Leonard’s”) denied him the opportunity to volunteer on the steering committee for the WMS Centre because of his addiction and mental health diagnoses and because he was a patient of St. Leonard’s. The applicant also named Brant Community Healthcare System (“BCHS”) as a respondent, apparently on the understanding that St. Leonard’s and BCHS operated the WMS Centre jointly.
3On August 1, 2014, BCHS filed a Response to the Application in which it submitted that it had no role in the operation of the WMS Centre and therefore took no part in the decision not to allow the applicant to volunteer. On September 10, 2014, BCHS filed a Request for an Order During Proceedings in which it requested that the Application be dismissed as against it. BCHS pointed to an e-mail message dated August 8, 2014 from the applicant to counsel for the respondent. In that message, the applicant stated that he agreed that the Application should be dismissed as against BCHS and also stated that he had made public statements on his Facebook and Twitter accounts to the effect that BCHS does not violate the Code. The applicant also explained why he had believed that BCHS and St. Leonard’s were working together and offered his apologies. BCHS submitted that the applicant has clearly communicated that he does not dispute the position BHCS took in its Response. BCHS submitted that there was no reason for it to remain a respondent to this Application.
4St. Leonard’s filed a Response to a Request for an Order on September 18, 2014 in which is simply stated that it agrees with BCHS’ Request. The applicant did not file a Response to the Request and the time for doing so has passed.
5The Request is granted. The applicant did not oppose BCHS’s Request and, his correspondence with BCHS indicates that he agrees that BCHS is not a proper respondent to this Application. St. Leonard’s supports the Request.
Order
6The Tribunal orders that Brant Community Healthcare System shall be removed as respondent to this Application and the style of cause amended accordingly.
7I am not seized.
Dated at Toronto, this 8th day of October, 2014.
“Signed by”
Douglas Sanderson
Vice-chair