Manitoba Human Rights Commission: The Complaint Process

*For the purpose of illustration, the complaint process in the province of Manitoba is summarized below.

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission is an independent agency of the Government of Manitoba that administers The Human Rights Code.

The Human Rights Code is a provincial law that allows any person who believes they have been discriminated against to file a complaint with The Manitoba Human Rights Commission. It says that employers, service providers and landlords must not discriminate without reasonable justification for doing so.

The Code is the provincial law that addresses discrimination in the province. The Commission is a gate-keeper. It takes complaints of discrimination, investigates them and based on the evidence it gathers, decides whether the complaint should be decided at a public hearing before an independent adjudicator.

The Code is a provincial law that protects against unreasonable discrimination based on specific grounds or characteristics, by any individual, business, or organization that provides employment, services to the public, or is involved in renting premises. The Code also prohibits and retaliation or reprisal against someone that might file or has filed a complaint.

The Human Rights Code sets out a detailed complaint process that enables any person who believes they have been discriminated against to file a complaint with the commission.

The commission is responsible for investigating the complaint to determine if it should be dismissed or referred to the Human Rights Adjudication Panel for a final decision.

We review every complaint to determine how much investigation is required and may, in some cases, assess whether or not the complaint raises an issue covered by The Human Rights Code. The investigation report is provided to the parties and they are given the opportunity to clarify, change or add any information before a final decision is made about the complaint.

If our Board of Commissioners decides that there is sufficient evidence to find that The Human Rights Code has been contravened, we will request that an adjudicator be appointed to consider the complaint at a public adjudication hearing. The adjudicator has the authority to order remedies that compensate the complainant and order the respondent to address the discrimination and ensure that it does not happen again.