HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL OF ONTARIO
B E T W E E N:
Ellen Orzy
Applicant
-and-
Financial Debt Recovery Ltd.
Respondent
INTERIM DECISION
Adjudicator: Keith Brennenstuhl
Indexed as: Orzy v. Financial Debt Recovery Ltd.
WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS
Ellen Orzy, Applicant
Self-represented
1This Application alleges discrimination with respect to employment because of age contrary to the Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, as amended (the “Code”).
2This Interim Decision addresses the applicant’s April 15, 2015 Request that Jean Abrahams be added as a party to the Application. In her Request, the applicant states: “please add Jean Abrahams as harassment from the day I started till my last day.”
3In order to provide for the fair, just and expeditious resolution of any matter before the Tribunal, the Tribunal has the power to add or remove a party to the proceeding (Rule 1.7(b). In exercising its discretion with respect to whether it ought to add a respondent to an ongoing proceeding, the Tribunal has stated that it will consider among other things whether there are allegations made that could support a finding that the proposed respondent violated the Code, whether there is a compelling reason to include an individual respondent when an organization is also named and whether it would be fair, in all the circumstances, to add the proposed respondent.
4Neither the corporate respondent nor the proposed respondent have responded to the Request because it appears that they have not been served with a copy of the Request, notwithstanding that the Request form itself and Rule 19.2 of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure state that Requests for an Order during Proceedings must be delivered “to any person or organization who may have an interest in the request”. In the circumstances, however, and insofar as, I find that it is appropriate to deny the Request to add Jean Abrahams as a party to the Application, I am prepared to determine the Request in the absence of submissions from the corporate respondent and the proposed respondent.
5I am not prepared to add the proposed respondent as a party to the Application because in my view the facts alleged in the Request, “please add Jean Abrahams as harassment from the day I started till my last day”, could not possibly lead to a finding that the proposed respondent discriminated against the applicant because of age.
6For that reason, the applicant’s Request to add Jean Abrahams as a respondent to the Application is denied.
7Dated at Toronto, this 16th day of September, 2015.
“Signed By”
Keith Brennenstuhl
Vice-chair