Ontario Human Rights Commission

Request for an inquiry under section 31 of the Code - City of Ottawa Flag Protocol Procedures exclude groups by creed - Danilo Dzyuban

Hello,

I ask the Commission to inquire under section 31 of the Ontario Human Rights Code into a policy of the City of Ottawa that excludes groups from a municipal service by reason of creed.

The Flag Protocol Procedures published by the City state that the City will not fly the flag of a group or organization whose undertakings or philosophy "are contrary to City of Ottawa policies or by-laws, espouse hatred, violence, or racism, or are politically or religiously motivated or represent other individual conviction".

Religious motivation sits in that sentence beside hatred, violence and racism.

The City Clerk wrote to me on 16 September 2026 that these Procedures are a corporate administrative policy, that she holds the delegated authority to approve, amend and rescind them under Schedule C, section 1.3 of the Delegation of Authority By-law, and that the Executive Committee which handled them was a body of city staff and not a committee of Council. No elected person in Ottawa has voted on that sentence.

She also sent me the memorandum that put the words there. It is dated 5 October 2017, signed by M. Rick O'Connor, City Clerk and Solicitor. He writes that his review considered "the City's legal obligations under existing human rights law", and then: "I have added the following additional wording... The City will not fly the flag of a group or organization whose undertakings or philosophy are contrary to City of Ottawa policies or by-laws, espouse hatred, violence, racism, or are politically or religiously motivated or represent other individual conviction."

The City states that it consulted human rights law, and then wrote creed into a list with hatred.

On the same flagpoles the City flies the flags of Canada, Ontario, the City and Franco-Ontarians permanently, and Council voted on 28 February 2018 to fly the Algonquin Anishinabe Host Nation flags permanently. Council decides for some groups. A signature excludes others.

In Borderland Pride v. Corporation of the Township of Emo, 2024 HRTO 1651, the Tribunal found discrimination in a service where a municipality refused a flag and a proclamation.

I ask the Commission to inquire whether this policy is consistent with the Code, and to say so in writing. The memorandum and the letters are available on request.

Respectfully,

Danilo Dzyuban
Ottawa, Ontario [postal code]

Re: RE: Request for an inquiry under section 31 of the Code - City of Ottawa Flag Protocol Procedures exclude groups by creed - Danilo Dzyuban

Hello,

The memorandum is attached to the message that follows this one. The City Clerk sent it to me on 16 September 2026. With it came the Flag Protocol Procedures and the Proclamation Procedures, in English and in French.

The memorandum is dated 5 October 2017 and signed by M. Rick O'Connor, City Clerk and Solicitor, and two passages decide the question.

On the review, the memorandum reads: "That overview, as well as consideration of the City's legal obligations under existing human rights law, has informed the minor revisions that have been made to the City of Ottawa's Flag Protocol Procedures".

On the wording, the memorandum first records the rule then in force: the City "will not fly the flag of any group or organization whose undertakings or philosophy are contrary to City of Ottawa policies or by-laws, or espouse hatred, violence or racism". The City Clerk and Solicitor then writes: "I have added the following". The sentence he added, in his words "derived from the City's existing Proclamations Procedures", reads: "The City will not fly the flag of a group or organization whose undertakings or philosophy are contrary to City of Ottawa policies or by-laws, espouse hatred, violence, racism, or are politically or religiously motivated or represent other individual conviction."

Until 9 October 2017 the exclusion reached hatred, violence and racism. Religious motivation entered the policy on one signature of one official, to match the wording of another procedure. The memorandum states that human rights law informed the revision.

The letters follow. My request to the Clerk of 5 September 2026 is quoted in full inside her reply. Her reply of 16 September 2026 is the message that follows this one. My letter to the Clerk of 17 September 2026 is forwarded after it. It requires her to use the same delegated authority and strike those words, and I have required her answer by 30 September 2026.

I ask the Commission to inquire under section 31 whether this exclusion is consistent with the Code, and to answer me in writing.

Respectfully,

Danilo Dzyuban
Ottawa, Ontario [postal code]