Can a service provider, such as the City of Toronto, be found in
breach of the Human Rights Code R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19 where one
customer makes racial slurs to another customer and an employee of
that service provider fails to properly address the situation? This
is an important question recently considered by a three member
panel of the Ontario Divisional Court in City of Toronto
v. Josephs, 2018 ONSC 67. The answer, as is so often the case,
is: it depends.
The Incident
Kevin Josephs was a paralegal trainee on January 7, 2013, and he
attended the Court Services Office of the Toronto East Provincial
Court to conduct business. Mr. Josephs identifies as a visible
person of Afro Caribbean descent. After being served by an intake
clerk, he discovered an error and was advised that he would have to
speak to a supervisor in order to rectify the problem. He was given
a number for his place in the queue and although the number had not
been called, he approached one of the
