THUNDER BAY — A human rights complainant filed by an Indigenous woman alleging discrimination by a Thunder Bay Police Service officer has been dismissed as untimely.
Adjudicator Haniya Sheikh with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario released the decision on April 13, finding that the application falls outside the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.
“In this case the applicant concedes that the last incident of discrimination took place on November 1, 2019,” Sheikh’s decision reads. “As such, given the delay of 517 days, I find that the allegations are untimely.”
The complaint was filed in September 2022 and relates to an incident that took place in November 2019.
According to the complainant, she was attending a meeting on the second floor of the Thunder Bay Police Service headquarters. After signing in, she took the elevator to the second floor and when the doors opened she encountered a male officer “in an obviously intimate conversation” with a female.
The complainant further alleges that the male officer immediately moved toward her in a “threatening manner” and demanded to know her business on the second floor of the police headquarters, and that he glared at her “in the familiar anti-Indigenous derogatory manner.”
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario’s code states it has no jurisdiction to address allegations relating to incidents that occurred more than a year prior to filing an application.
Exceptions can be made if the complainant can demonstrate that the delays were in good faith.
Sheikh ruled that the complainant did not provide a good faith explanation for the delay of 517 days before filing the application.
The complainant argued her case was distinct from others, which she said failed to consider the “life of an Indigenous woman and her family struggling with trauma related impacts” and “continued bad faith by police leadership.”
“The applicant also states that preventing an opportunity for adjudication of this complaint would affirm the bad faith action of the respondents. I appreciate and empathize with the applicant’s life experiences. However, limitation periods are a critical part of administrative and civil proceedings,” Sheikh said.
“I note that the applicant has not provided any facts or evidence that support a good faith explanation for the delay in filing the Application.”
The Thunder Bay Police Service and Board are facing numerous human rights complaints, including several filed by officers and Thunder Bay Police Services Board member Georjann Morriseau.
