In Leitch v. Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, 2024 ONSC 7128, the Ontario Divisional Court upheld a decision of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the “HRTO”) declaring the applicant to be a vexatious litigant. In reaching this conclusion, the Divisional Court commented on the impact of unauthorized recordings of tribunal proceedings, while also re-affirming a tribunal’s right to control its process by limiting the amount of time given to parties to present their cases.
Background
Between January 2019 and June 2022, the applicant filed 160 HRTO applications on her own behalf and on behalf of others. The HRTO Vice-Chair ordered a preliminary hearing on whether the applicant’s applications should be dismissed as an abuse of process, and whether the applicant should be declared a vexatious litigant.
The Vice-Chair found the applicant to be a vexatious litigant and required her to file written submissions explaining why her 155 outstanding applications were legitimate assertions of her rights and not an abuse of process. The applicant sought reconsideration of the Vice-Chair’s decision, which the HRTO dismissed. The applicant then brought an application to the Ontario Divisional Court for judicial review of the decision declaring her a vexatious litigant, arguing that the decision was procedurally unfair and unreasonable.