Human Rights
With extensive expertise acting on human rights issues, we have won several landmark cases at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and defended them in the courts.
Our experience arguing before a wide range of judicial and administrative bodies serves us particularly well in the context of human rights claims, which arise in a variety of legal contexts. This fact, coupled with our understanding of the ways in which human rights issues intersect with other areas of the law, has enabled us to have a profound influence on the scope and impact of human rights in Ontario, and beyond. On these matters, we act for individuals, trade unions, academic institutions, regulators, employers and employees, all in their capacities as applicants, respondents and intervenors.
Representative Work
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Rob Centa and Glynnis Hawe represented the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in C.M. v. York Regional Police, 2019 ONSC 7220. The court accepted Rob and Glynnis’s submissions that the over-policing of marginalized and racialized persons bolsters the importance of providing a transparent and fair process for persons seeking and challenging the content of a police Vulnerable Sector Check.
C.M. v York Regional Police, 2019 ONSC 7220 (CanLII) http://canlii.ca/t/j3z3v
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Andrew Lokan and Lorne Waldman of Waldman and Associates successfully represented Kazakh businessman Rustem Tursunbayev in securing the Federal Court’s largest-ever costs award in an immigration matter, after the Federal Court found that the Attorney General had unreasonably opposed Mr. Tursunbayev’s request for a stay of deportation proceedings against him, based on his claim that Canadian officials had committed an abuse of process in seeking his deportation to a country that uses torture.
More details can be found here: https://bit.ly/2ZW6dAy
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Nini Jones, Jodi Martin, and Glynnis Hawe successfully represented the Waterloo Regional Police Association in an appeal brought by the plaintiffs, current and former uniform women members, in a proposed class action proceeding. They were entirely successful once again in arguing that the civil courts have no jurisdiction over claims of unfair representation by the Association, which must be heard by specialized labour arbitrators appointed under the Police Services Act.
Rivers v Waterloo Regional Police Services Board, 2019 ONCA 267:
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Rabi v. University of Toronto 2019 HRTO 358 (CanLII)
Rob Centa obtained an order from the Tribunal deferring consideration of the application pending the outcome of a parallel court application. See: http://canlii.ca/t/hxt5x
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Zeng v. The Governing Council of the University of Toronto – Robert Centa – 2018 CarswellOnt 14162 (Div. Ct.) – Public Law/Judicial Review – Fact member of committee found in favour of applicant in past did not constitute reasonable apprehension of bias when viewed from perspective of reasonable person cognizant of all relevant facts, and nothing in conduct of hearing met test for reasonable apprehension of bias — Applicant did not ask member to recuse herself and was barred from raising issue of reasonable apprehension of bias — Applicant had not shown denial of procedural fairness, as he was represented at hearing and received legal advice throughout — Committee was alive to existence of applicant’s disability issues and gave consideration to whether they should impact result — There was no error of fact or law that rendered committee’s decision unreasonable.