Intake

If you believe you have been discriminated against contact one of our human rights officers by phone, fax, or email to hrc@gov.mb.ca and outline your concern. You can also book an appointment to meet with a human rights officer in our Winnipeg or Brandon offices. The initial intake appointment typically takes 15-20 minutes.

We will assess your situation to identify if your concern is something that falls under The Human Rights Code. We may refer you to another agency, give you general information about The Human Rights Code to assist you or ask you to complete an intake questionnaire so we can gather further information to assist us in putting together your human rights complaint.

Once we receive your completed intake questionnaire and a brief statement from you we can get started. We will open a file and begin to work through the information to frame your complaint. We may request further information from you by email or phone or may set up a time to meet with you in-person.

We will send you a draft complaint on our regulated complaint form for your review and signature. We will ensure that it contains the essential facts needed to frame the allegation of discrimination so that the other party can respond to it and so that we can properly investigate the issue you are concerned about. The formal complaint is usually a 1-2 page document. Your written statement and any other documents that are relevant to the complaint are kept on your file and will be useful at later stages in the process.

The executive director will register the complaint within approximately 10 days of you signing it. We will formally serve the complaint on the respondent and will usually request a formal response to the allegations within 30 days of the date it is served.

Early Resolution

We encourage the early resolution of complaints. Resolution or settlement is often a better outcome for the parties than going through the formal complaint process. Our mediators will always approach the mediation from a human rights lens and will offer the parties the opportunity to enter into a settlement agreement that remedies issues raised in the complaint.

Mediation is voluntary. We will usually offer the parties mediation before a formal complaint is registered. We may also offer it after the complaint is registered but before it is investigated.

Investigation

The commission must investigate every complaint "to the extent sufficient for fairly and properly disposing of it". The purpose of the investigation is to prepare a recommendation for the Board of Commissioners about whether or not the complaint should be dismissed or should be referred to a member of the Human Rights Adjudication Panel for a final decision.

At the end of the investigation, the investigator may recommend that the complaint be dismissed because:

1. it is frivolous and vexatious, including an abuse of process or there is no reasonable basis for the complaint;
2. the act or omissions in the complaint do not contravene The Human Rights Code, including the allegation in the complaint does not fall within the jurisdiction of the commission; and
3. there is insufficient evidence to support the alleged contravention of The Human Rights Code.

The investigator will give both parties the opportunity to provide evidence to support their position and may interview other people who have information relevant to the complaint. The commission has broad authority to obtain documentation or evidence related to the complaint.

It currently takes several months for an investigator to be assigned to a complaint and arrange interviews. Most investigations are completed between 4 and 12 months of the investigator contacting the parties, depending on the complexity of the complaint and legal issues raised.