Patently Unreasonable Held to Have Same Meaning as Reasonableness

BACKGROUND

Intercounty Tennis Association (“Intercounty”), a non-profit organization that runs interclub tennis leagues, provided double the playing opportunities for men in comparison to women. In response, three individual women, who either played in the league or unsuccessfully competed for a spot, filed applications with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) alleging that Intercounty had discriminated against them on the basis of sex by providing them with unequal playing times. The HRTO found that Intercounty had discriminated against the individual women, ordering them to implement a staggered remedy to equalize playing time between men and women.

Intercounty Tennis then sought judicial review of the HRTO’s decision but did not challenge the finding that the individual respondents were discriminated against, instead challenging the decision on standing, timeliness of the applications, its analysis of undue hardship and that the Tribunal had breached its duty of procedural fairness.