On August 16, 2026, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario announced changes to its Rules of Procedure and Practice Directions. On August 17 — the next day — they came into force.
There was no transition period. And the Tribunal was explicit about the part that matters most to employers: the updated Rules apply to all applications filed at the HRTO, including previously filed applications. If your organization is responding to an HRTO application right now, the rules governing your next move changed while the file was open.
This is the closing chapter of a process we have been tracking since it opened. We covered the consultation when it launched on May 13, and what employers should do once it closed on June 5. The finalized rules are now live. Here is what actually changed.
What changed
Five Rules were updated. Five Practice Directions were revised, two new ones were introduced, and three forms were replaced outright.
Rule 15 — mandatory mediation. The Rule now specifies the circumstances in which an application will not proceed to mandatory mediation, and it is backed by a brand-new Practice Direction on Mandatory Mediation. This puts on a permanent footing the mandatory mediation that has applied to applications filed on or after June 1, 2025 (older files still mediate only by consent).
Rule 13 — jurisdictional review. Applicants must now file written submissions within 28 days of receiving a Notice of Intent to Dismiss, down from 30. The Rule also confirms the Tribunal can review an application for jurisdiction at any time, not only at intake.
Rule 26 — reconsideration. Requests for reconsideration will typically be assigned to a different adjudicator than the one who made the original decision. That is a meaningful shift in how a reconsideration request is likely to be received.
Rule 10 — withdrawal. Applicants can now withdraw an application simply by emailing the HRTO and copying the respondent. A new Practice Direction on Requests to Withdraw an Application governs the process.
Rule 19A — service of materials. Administrative alignment with the revised Practice Directions.
Forms. Form 20, Form 21, and Form 26 have been replaced. Submit an old version and it will be returned to you — which, on a reconsideration or summary hearing request with a live deadline, is a self-inflicted delay you cannot afford. Hicks Morley's summary of the changes puts the same point bluntly.
What it means for Ontario employers
Strip away the procedural detail and two things matter.
First, the retroactivity. Most rule changes give you a grace period on files already in the system. This one does not. Any organization with an open HRTO file — a harassment application, a discrimination complaint, a reprisal claim — is now operating under rules that changed after the file was opened. The practical risk is not that you will be caught off-guard by a novel legal test. It is that someone on your team files a superseded form, or calendars 30 days for a jurisdictional response instead of 28, and loses ground on a technicality.
Second, mediation is now permanent architecture. A dedicated Practice Direction is not a pilot. It is the Tribunal signalling that early mediation is how human rights files in Ontario get resolved, full stop. And early mediation means your internal investigation record is on the table months before any hearing — often before the internal file has fully closed.
That is where the real exposure sits. At a hearing, the Tribunal assesses whether the employer met its obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code and whether the response to the concern was reasonable in the circumstances. A file with a documented threshold assessment, an independent investigator, and a defensible findings report walks into mediation from strength. A file reconstructed after the mediation notice arrives does not, and the settlement number reflects it.
This is the same direction of travel the OLRB set in its Gassi v. County of Lambton decision on what makes an investigation "appropriate in the circumstances". Different forum and a different legal test, but the same practical lesson: the process gets scrutinized.
What to do now
Five things, in order.
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Inventory your open HRTO files this week. Anyone with an active application needs to know the governing rules changed mid-file. Confirm every upcoming deadline against the current Rules of Procedure, not against your saved notes.
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Purge the old forms. Delete cached copies of Form 20, 21, and 26 from shared drives and templates, and pull the current versions from the HRTO's Forms and filing page. This takes ten minutes and prevents a returned filing.
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Reset the jurisdictional clock to 28 days. If your response protocol, calendar templates, or outside counsel instructions say 30 days for a Notice of Intent to Dismiss, fix them today.
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Pressure-test your investigation records against a mediation conversation. For each open or recently closed harassment and discrimination file, ask: is there a contemporaneous record of who assessed the concern, on what basis, and what was done? If the answer requires reconstruction, that file is a settlement liability, not a defence.
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Push the threshold assessment upstream. The strongest position at mediation is built long before an application is filed. Every concern that reaches HR should get a documented assessment of whether it triggers the duty to investigate — not only the ones that arrive labelled as formal complaints.
None of this is legal advice, and organizations with active HRTO files should confirm procedural strategy with their employment counsel. What we do is the operational half: making sure the investigation record your counsel has to work with is one worth defending.
Where 1205 fits
HRTO files are often lost on the record rather than the law: an investigation that was scoped too narrowly, documented too thinly, or run by someone too close to the parties to be credible under scrutiny.
1205 Consulting arranges and manages independent workplace investigations built to survive exactly this kind of external review, and provides ongoing HR support for organizations that need the threshold-assessment discipline in place before a complaint becomes an application. If you want a fast read on whether a specific matter needs a formal investigation, our investigation assessment tool is a five-minute starting point.
If you have an open HRTO file and are not confident the underlying investigation record holds up, book a 30-minute consultation. We will review the investigation record with you; procedural strategy stays with your counsel.
Beyond Advisory. Into Action.
