After sitting through the October 7 Divisional Court hearing regarding Matthew Green’s appeal of an unprecedented Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (HRTO) decision to dismiss his human rights complaint against Hamilton Police, I was slightly surprised by the remedy portion of the decision.
As a matter of law, the Divisional Court decision was obvious. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled, and the HRTO adopted, that the substantial differences between the human rights and police disciplinary processes are such that the HRTO cannot rely upon police proceeding outcomes.
More details regarding the decision and its legal implications are available in my news story here:
Decision to Order HRTO To ‘Reconsider’ Surprised Me
During final arguments, following two hours of oral arguments, lawyers for the Hamilton Police Service and Matthew Green both stated that considering the matter is nearly a decade old, it “may be appropriate” for the Divisional Court to exercise its discretion to make a determination but not refer the matter back to the Human Rights Tribunal.
As I noted in a livepost at the time, Green’s lawyer Nick Papageorge argued in reply that, considering the age of this matter, the Divisional Court could decide to rule in favour of the appeal without remitting it back for reconsideration.
Sitting in the courtroom gallery, I felt the three judge panel was receptive to these arguments. After all, as noted in my news story, the Police Services Act has been replaced by the Community Safety and Policing Act; and a decade after events of April 2016, memories have faded, which will impede the fact-finding roles of a new human rights tribunal hearing.
Clearly, my subjective observation was incorrect. Even with a decade of time and fading memories, the Divisional Court decided to order the HRTO to assign a different adjudicator and rehear Green’s discrimination complaint.
As noted in the decision, there is no precedent to rely upon.
Now we wait to see how the new HRTO adjudicator decides to proceed with the matter.
Production Details
v. 1.0.1
Published: November 17, 2025
Last updated: November 17, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
v. 1.0.1 fix of a one letter typographical error.