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John Fraser: CERA does a lot of training with social service workers, with housing providers,
with tenants and housing seekers, to help them better understand both the law, the Human
Rights Code, and what they can do about realizing the law.
We find it particularly – this training particularly important because generally what
we’ve seen with housing rights issues is that where people have a reasonably good understanding,
not a great understanding but where they have a bit of an understanding is around evictions,
around rent increases, around repairs. But people don’t really understand the Human
Rights Code and how it factors into their experiences both looking for an apartment
and renting an apartment.
And particularly with housing providers, housing providers may have a pretty good understanding
of the Residential Tenancies Act which gives them rights and responsibilities around their
tenants and maintenance, evictions and privacy and things like that.
But we found that often they have no idea of the Human Rights Code and how it works.
So we find this education extremely important. And what we also find is that even where people
have a general understanding of the Code, they don’t really know how to use it. And
they don’t really know how they can – it can be useful to them, and if there are any
organizations that, like CERA, that can help them advocate and help promote their human
rights.
So we find the educational component to our work extremely important. And it’s a real
priority for us, both through in person training and through online materials, whether they’re
written materials or audiovisual materials. We think getting the word out around human
rights and housing is critically important and is a huge need in Ontario.