Ontario Human Rights Commission releases its 2009-2010 Annual Report

TORONTO, July 20 /CNW/ - Chief Commissioner Barbara Hall today released the Ontario Human Rights Commission's 2009-2010 Annual Report.

In issuing this year's report, Ms. Hall stated, "Our work can be summed up in three words: educate, empower and act - actions that can transform written rights into lived rights."

Highlights of the report include:

    
    -   Raising human rights concerns for people with mental health
        disabilities and addictions
    -   Releasing a Policy on Human Rights and Rental Housing and launching a
        "Housing is a human right" poster campaign
    -   Identifying zoning by-laws that can create barriers for many of
        Ontario's vulnerable communities and creating a 'best-practice'
        manual for municipalities to confront racism and discrimination
    -   Proposing improvements to Accessibility for Ontarians with
        Disabilities Act standards to make Ontario accessible to all
    -   Helping Toronto Police bring a human rights focus to all facets of
        policing in Toronto
    -   Providing online human rights education so Ontarians can learn about
        human rights and share what they have learned.
    

In other areas, the Commission advocated changes in Ontario laws covering topics ranging from workplace safety to helping Ontarians to vote, began a project on how to resolve competing human rights claims and updated all its human rights policies for compliance with the Code.

This year's Annual Report is available at: www.ohrc.on.ca.

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For further information: Afroze Edwards, Sr. Communications Officer, Communications and Issues Management, 416-314-4528