Puklicz v. ParaMed Home Health Care, 2016 HRTO 1532

HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL OF ONTARIO

B E T W E E N:

Kara Puklicz

Applicant

-and-

ParaMed Home Health Care and Lydia Stephenson

Respondents

DECISION

Adjudicator: Naomi Overend Date: November 29, 2016 Citation: 2016 HRTO 1532 Indexed as: Puklicz v. ParaMed Home Health Care

1This is an Application under the Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, as amended. The Application is scheduled to be heard on December 5 and 6, 2016.

2On August 26, 2016, the Tribunal sent the parties a Notice of Hearing directing them to take certain steps in advance of the hearing. In particular, and among other things, the Notice of Hearing directed the parties to comply with Rules 16 and 17 of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure by providing one another with copies of their arguably relevant documents within 21 days of the date of the Notice of Hearing; and by exchanging with one another and filing with the Tribunal the documents they intended to rely upon at the hearing, a list of their witnesses and a summary of their witnesses’ anticipated evidence by no later than October 21, 2016 (i.e. 45 days before the first scheduled day of hearing).

3The respondents provided the applicant with their list of documents on October 31, 2016. That day, the applicant responded to the respondents by email, saying she would be “not [be] attending this meeting” and asking the respondents to stop emailing her as she regarded this as “harassment.”

4The respondents forwarded this email to the Tribunal on November 1, 2016, which prompted the applicant to write two further emails asking the respondents not to contact her further. In the first of the two emails, the applicant states that she has “no interest in pursuing this.”

5The Tribunal wrote to the applicant on November 2, 2016, setting out the following:

Could you please confirm that you are withdrawing this Application by filing a (Form 9) Request to Withdraw an Application or by responding to this email. All correspondence including emails are addressed to the HRTO Registrar and copy the respondents contact Wanda Saunders on all your correspondence addressed to the HRTO. Forms are available on the HRTO’s website at www.sjto.gov.on.ca.

6The applicant did not respond to that email and so a follow-up email was sent to her on November 21, 2016, asking her to respond by November 28, 2016. She was specifically warned that failure to do that may be regarded as an abandonment of her Application, and it might be dismissed for that reason. The applicant was again reminded to copy the respondents on any correspondence.

7The applicant replied to the Tribunal’s email, but neglected to copy the respondents. In any event, the clear implication of this email is that she is not interested in participating in the upcoming hearing, although she has not filed a Request to Withdraw (Form 9) as directed.

8In the circumstances, it appears that the applicant has abandoned the Application. Accordingly, the Application is dismissed as abandoned.

ORDER

9The Application is dismissed as abandoned and the hearing dates are cancelled.