2020

A woman worried about the health and safety of a young relative complained to us that the local children’s aid society (CAS) had done “nothing” in response to her concerns.

Issue: Children’s aid society; Safety concerns

Our French Language Services Unit received two complaints from people who called the general DriveTest phone line to book driving tests and were obligated to listen to a 90-second message in English only.

A small business owner reached out to us after he was unable to update the information attached to his business licence through ServiceOntario, despite several attempts.

A 16-year-old who has a developmental disability and lives in a group home contacted us to raise questions about his rights.

Issue: Group home; Rights (making a complaint)

A 13-year-old racialized youth complained to us after her children’s aid society (CAS) called the police to transport her to a new group home – which they did by handcuffing her and placing her in the back of a police vehicle.

Issue: Children’s aid society; Police involvement

A woman in Thunder Bay decided to go to a local ServiceOntario to update her home address on her driver’s licence, after first checking the website to confirm the service location offered services in French.

A 16-year-old youth living in a group home complained to our Office that staff at the home were not allowing him to contact certain members of his family because his mother – his legal guardian – did not want him speaking to them.

Issue: Rights (contacting family)

A young person in custody contacted us last year to complain that he wasn’t able to vote in the federal election, although he had expressed his interest in voting to the youth facility’s staff members.

After being injured and hospitalized, a college student was unable to complete his one-year course, so the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) converted his $15,000 grant to a loan.

We helped a parent who was refused an identification, placement and review committee (IPRC) to assess her daughter’s giftedness in kindergarten.

With the current pandemic and the necessity to work from home, using conference call lines has become the norm in many organizations.

A 15-year-old emailed us that she was being physically and verbally abused by her mother, and had started to self-harm and even attempted suicide as a result.

Issue: Children’s aid society; Safety concerns

A father whose wife died in childbirth sought our help in obtaining a birth certificate and Social Insurance Number for the new baby, which he needed in order to claim survivor benefits.

A former master’s student who began to work in her field just before she completed her degree complained to us that the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) had deemed her ineligible for an Ontario Student Opportunities Grant, due to unreported income.

A 16-year-old living in a foster home sought our help when she was invited to spend the night at a friend’s house, but her foster care agency denied her request, citing COVID-19 restrictions.

Issue: Rights (fairness)

When new signs were installed at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry's Fish Culture Station in North Bay, some Francophone residents noticed something fishy - the signs were in English only.

A trailer park owner contacted us when a dispute arose about responsibility for the municipal sewage system servicing the park.

After firefighters used foam containing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) to put out a fire at her property, a woman complained to us about how long it was taking to ensure her water was safe to drink.

A woman sought our help in getting the Registrar General to help her correct an error she made on her mother’s death certificate.

A man complained to us after trying for years to resolve a name discrepancy with ServiceOntario.

A man sought our help when he was contacted by a collections agency many years after receiving funding from Second Career – a program now operated by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development.

We have resolved several complaints over the past three years about the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), which nominates skilled immigrant workers for permanent residency.

A driver who moved to B.C. sought our help after waiting for a copy of his driving record from Ontario for 7 weeks.

When attempting to reload her Presto card, a transit rider purchased a monthly Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) pass by mistake. She contacted Metrolinx, which referred her to the TTC, which in turn referred her to Metrolinx.

A man whose vehicle was damaged by a large pothole complained to us after the Ministry of Transportation’s adjuster denied his claim and the road construction company denied responsibility.

A woman came to us in frustration after trying several times to obtain her renewed driver’s licence. Each time she visited ServiceOntario, she was given a temporary licence and told a permanent one would be mailed to her.

A patient contacted us after being told by their physician that a non-cosmetic dermatological treatment was not covered by OHIP, and could only be provided if the patient paid.

A cancer patient who had appealed OHIP’s decision to deny him coverage complained to us when he did not receive a response within the Ministry of Health’s posted deadline.

A woman sought our help after her application for an overnight accommodation allowance was denied by the Northern Health Travel Grant because she did not meet the minimum distance requirement.

A transgender student at a college of applied arts and technology complained to us that she had experienced harassment, bullying, and a lack of accommodation.

A federal inmate who was taking university courses sought our help with submitting a grade appeal. He had tried to submit it to the university’s senate committee, but received no response because he sent it directly to his professor instead of the registrar.

An English-speaking mother whose child attends a French-language school was facing barriers when attempting to raise concerns with the school principal.

A woman in a remote northern community complained to our Office that her grandson, who has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), had been excluded from school for four months due to escalating violent behaviour. When the child was allowed back to school, he was only allowed to attend for two hours per day, four times a week. 

A homeowner sought our help after learning that his property type had been incorrectly recorded by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) when it was first assessed almost a decade earlier.

After a woman under the guardianship of the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (OPGT) took out two short-term, high-interest loans without the OPGT’s knowledge or consent, we asked for more information about how it prevents unauthorized loans and other dissipation of clients’ assets.

A recipient of Ontario Disability Support Program benefits contacted us when he discovered his monthly natural gas and water tank rental fees had not been paid since 2016 and he owed $2,000 in outstanding fees.

A man with significant medical issues contacted us with the help of his social worker because he was experiencing financial hardship due to the Family Responsibility Office garnishing his Canada Pension Plan benefits for past child support arrears – although his children were now in their 30s.

A woman complained to us that she had not received any family support payments in over a year, despite submitting paperwork to the Family Responsibility Office asking that she receive them via direct deposit rather than by mailed cheque.

We received three complaints about a chaotic meeting of council for the Municipality of West Nipissing in March 2019.

As noted in last year’s Annual Report, we received 77 complaints in February 2019 about a City of Hamilton committee’s decision to meet outside of the city – the highest number of complaints we have ever received in a single closed meeting case.

A dog owner who went to renew the licences for her pets complained to us when the municipality also charged her to renew the licence of a dog that had died six months earlier.

A man who moved a trailer onto a property while he waited for a permit to build a house on it complained that the municipality had removed the trailer without notice.

A man complained to us that he was charged $123.79 for the installation of a new water meter at his cottage, even though the municipality’s fees by-law listed the fee for water meter replacement as $34.38.

A group of Indigenous inmates complained to us that they were strip-searched before attending a smudging ceremony, leaving them feeling violated, discriminated against and targeted because of their Indigenous spirituality.

An inmate who uses a customized wheelchair to support his spine sought our help because he was being repeatedly transferred to a second institution without his chair.

An inmate complained to us after a sergeant at his facility penalized him by taking away 30 days of earned remission (time off his sentence) for refusing a transfer to another facility.

An 11-year-old told us she felt unsafe in her group home after another resident threatened her with a knife.

Issue: Safety concerns; Group home

A young person who was serving a youth sentence at an adult correctional facility complained to us that he was not being provided CAS access to services required by his court-ordered plan.

Issue: Rights (education)

A man complained to us after he wore a non-medical mask to prevent coronavirus spread inside his local Liquor Board of Ontario (LBCO) outlet, and staff there asked him to remove it so they could verify his identity.

Our staff helped a woman who was having trouble reaching a manager at the Family Responsibility Office (FRO), due to recent changes to its phone system.

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.

An education worker complained to our French Language Services Unit about a unilingual English survey about technology that was being conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

A man complained to us about his municipality issuing parking tickets during the COVID-19 state of emergency.

A cancer patient who is an Ontario Disability Support Program recipient told us she was about to have surgery and urgently needed funds to pay for transportation, but could not reach her caseworker.

A woman whose job was deemed an essential service during the COVID-19 pandemic sought our help when her driver’s licence was suspended due to a medical matter and she was temporarily unable to get to work.

A Black youth living in a rural group home with little access to public transit complained to us that staff would not drive him to get a haircut.

Issue: Rights (culture and identity)

A man visited a London DriveTest centre with his son, who wanted to take the theory component of the road test, and requested services in French.

The mother of a teenager with developmental disability complained to us about an incident involving her daughter at a group home.

Issue: Group home; Safety concerns

A francophone man complained to our French Language Services Unit that he waited an hour on the phone for service in French when he called the disability eligibility decision unit of the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.

A mother called our Children and Youth Unit after her local children’s aid society told her it would not review her complaint due to a lack of information.

Issue: Children’s aid society; Complaint process