Ontario Human Rights Tribunal dismisses retired teacher's allegation of discrimination
July 14, 2026
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a retired teacher’s allegation of discrimination against the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan Board (“OTPPB”), finding a lack of jurisdiction.
The applicant, a retired teacher, alleged discrimination with respect to employment based on disability, family status, and marital status in the context of OTPPB’s decision-making concerning his pension. Prior to his retirement, the applicant selected a 70% survivorship benefit, which would have enabled his wife to receive 70% of the value of his pension if he were to die but which also resulted in the applicant’s pension income being lower than it would have been if he had selected a lower-value survivor benefit. The applicant’s wife passed away shortly after his retirement, and he requested that OTPPB allow him to change his survivor benefit in light of the death of his wife. OTPPB advised that the 70% survivor benefit option could not be changed because he had received his first pension payment.
The applicant filed a human rights complaint against the OTPPB alleging that OTPPB’s actions constituted discrimination. Although the Tribunal noted that it was difficult to discern exactly why the applicant believed OTPPB’s actions to be discriminatory, the Tribunal noted that his position seemed to be that OTPPB’s alleged failure to explain the irrevocability of the choice of survivor benefit constituted discrimination on the ground of disability (being his PTSD and depression), and that OTPPB’s subsequent refusal to change the survivor benefit constituted discrimination on the grounds of his marital status and family status.
For an application to fall within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, the applicant must explain how the respondents’ conduct may have violated a provision of the Human Rights Code. It is not enough for the applicant to state that they have Code-protected characteristics – they need to explain why they believe their Code-related characteristics may have been a factor in alleged adverse treatment. Since the applicant in this case did not offer any explanation of why he believed that his Code-protected characteristics could have been a factor in OTPPB’s conduct or how that conduct could have conceivably engaged the protections of the Code, the Tribunal dismissed the application due to lack of jurisdiction.
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