An Ontario human rights tribunal has thrown out a worker's claim that she was punished for filing a discrimination complaint, even though her employer placed her on an indefinite paid leave weeks after she came forward.
In a decision released Aug. 14, 2026, Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario vice-chair Anthony Michael Tamburro dismissed the application, ruling that the employee, a former research and development co-ordinator at PepsiCo Foods Canada, had not shown that the company's handling of her case, including a lengthy paid medical leave and her eventual firing, amounted to reprisal for exercising her rights under the Human Rights Code.
The application, filed in 2016, alleged discrimination in employment based on race. But the employee's evidence at the three-day hearing centred almost entirely on reprisal and a failure to accommodate, not race, and Tamburro found nothing in the record to back the original allegation, dismissing it outright.
Her closing submissions also raised a failure to accommodate her medical needs, but the application had only ever named race as a ground of discrimination. Tamburro turned down a late request to add disability as a ground, pointing to how far the case had already progressed, how much the change would have altered its scope, and the disadvantage it would create for an employer that had shown up unprepared to defend against a disability claim.
He did note the company might not have...
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