Search

A woman sought our help after she was provided with a temporary accessible parking permit with a duration of only six months, when she had previously had one that lasted five years.

A transgender man seeking a name change complained to us when his application was rejected because the sex on his birth certificate differed from the gender on his name change application.

An international student who had completed post-secondary studies in Ontario and was now employed sought our help in communicating with ServiceOntario about getting an Ontario Health card.

A woman complained to us that the Registrar General’s website froze when she was in the midst of applying for death certificates for two family members.

An inmate sought our help in reaching the appropriate correctional officials after her father passed away and she could not get a response to her request to attend his funeral.

An inmate complained to us that staff at his correctional facility had taken his eyeglasses and refused to return them.

A woman who had been pursuing her case at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario for several years sought our help after she learned that the adjudicator assigned to her case was no longer able to continue.

In addressing the changes proposed by Bill 57, I will devote most of my comments to those amendments that affect the Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario, and the Ombudsman Act. Most notable among these are amendments that will expand the mandate of this office into areas that are presently within the mandate of my fellow Officers of the Legislature, the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth (Child Advocate) and the French Language Services Commissioner.

An elderly woman needed our help with obtaining new identification after she lost her OHIP card, her primary photo ID.

We helped a father renew his daughter’s OHIP card after she had gone three years without a valid one and her application had been rejected.

A woman who moved to Ontario from Alberta for work sought our help after her application for OHIP coverage was rejected due to inadequate proof that she resided in Ontario.

A mother of two boys complained to our Office when she had trouble changing her children’s names on their birth certificates, documents they needed soon to make a trip to Disneyland in the U.S.

An almost-retired man who wanted to get a passport to travel sought our help after three frustrating years of trying to obtain a birth certificate from the Office of the Registrar General.

We referred a man to the right internal complaint mechanism at the Office of the Children’s Lawyer so he could voice concerns about delays in receiving documents and in setting his court date, all of which resulted in added legal costs for him.

A man serving weekend time in jail who required anxiety medication three times a day sought our help because the correctional facility would not give him his medication on Saturday mornings when he arrived, or on Sunday evenings before he left.

We helped a woman from Manitoba who had struggled for six months to get Legal Aid Ontario to recognize her approval for legal aid in a custody case in Ontario.

A woman who broke her collarbone before she was sent to jail complained to us that she had been waiting for eight days for a sling for her arm.

The Ontario Ombudsman has a long history of independently and impartially resolving and investigating concerns about Ontario’s provincial correctional facilities. Of the more than 21,000 complaints we receive each year, close to 4,000 are about correctional facilities. In addition to resolving countless individual matters, my Office has actively monitored and, when necessary, investigated serious systemic issues within the correctional system.

Since 1974, there have been dozens of cases in which the use of force by police in Ontario – especially the use of lethal force on people in crisis – has raised profound questions about policing standards, training and accountability. As a result, there have been more than a dozen reviews and numerous recommendations for reform. Despite incremental improvements through the years, Ontario’s police oversight system has continued to attract criticism and undermine public confidence in policing. 

The Special Ombudsman Response Team's probe of complaints of delays in processing of registrations of births, deaths marriages and name changes found an improvements since the previous Ombudsman’s investigation in 2004.