Glossary - Human Rights
In Human Rights
Transgender is a word used to describe people whose gender identity and gender expression are different from stereotypical gender norms. Transgender includes people who identify as:
- trans woman: a person whose birth-assigned sex is male and whose gender identity is female
- trans man: a person whose birth-assigned sex is female and whose gender identity is male
- cross-dresser: a person who wears clothing associated with the opposite sex
- gender non-conforming or non-binary: a person who identifies as both a male and a female, neither a male nor a female, or some other gender
An agency that makes decisions about applying a set of laws to disputes between people. It is like a court but less formal. The Landlord and Tenant Board is an example of a tribunal. Another example is the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
In Employment and Work, Housing Law, Human Rights, Tribunals and Courts
Ontario’s Human Rights Code says that employers and landlords must do what they can to remove barriers that cause people to be treated differently because of personal differences that are listed in the Human Rights Code. The legal word for this is accommodation. Examples of personal differences include a person’s ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability.
But an employer or landlord might not have to do something if they can prove that doing it will cause them undue hardship. For example, it would be undue hardship:
- if the only solution available would cost the employer or landlord too much
- if the only solution would cause a serious risk to the health or safety to other workers or tenants
In Employment and Work, Human Rights, Tribunals and Courts
A union is an organized group of workers that bargains with an employer to set conditions of employment, such as wages, hours of work, and overtime pay. Sometimes unions are called labour unions or trade unions.
