BC Human Rights Tribunal Issues New Rules Of Practice And Procedure

Following on its new complaint and application forms introduced earlier this year, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal recently issued new Rules of Practice and Procedure (the "2014 Rules"), replacing its former Rules from January 2008. The 2014 Rules are directed at reducing the number of rules and streamlining and simplifying the complaint resolution process.

Some of the changes in the Tribunal's 2014 Rules that employers should take note of include the following:

• The Tribunal has done away with its previous "complaint stream" process;
• The Tribunal has better articulated resources under the new Rules to defer complaints or adopt alternate processes to resolve complaints. For example, Rule 16 permits the Tribunal to defer a complaint if 1) another proceeding is capable of appropriately dealing with the subject matter of the complaint; OR 2) it is fair and reasonable in all of the circumstances to do so (both of which require an application to the