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We transform complex legal documents, tribunal decisions and government records into clear explanations anyone can understand — and publish the data underneath.

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Research

Deep analysis of public records and decisions.

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Featured investigation

HRTO · 2011–2026
Ontario · Human Rights Tribunal · one police service

What happens to human rights complaints against the police

Thirty-seven people brought human rights complaints against one Ontario police service over fifteen years. Four reached a hearing about whether discrimination happened. One received a remedy — and the police board spent seven and a half years trying to take it back.

  1. /01

    89% of complaints never reached a hearing. Most ended on a deadline, a form, or an unanswered letter — not on the facts.

  2. /02

    Representation decides who survives. No represented applicant was dismissed for missing a deadline. Nearly half of unrepresented ones were.

  3. /03

    The public record only shows failures. Cases that settle produce no public document. One settlement is visible in fifteen years — because it was litigated to the Supreme Court of Canada.

52 published decisions · 37 matters · joined to subsequent court records
Counted by matter, not by decision.

Matters reaching each stagen = 37
Application filed37
28
9
Survived screening13
5
8
Reached a merits hearing4
2
2
Remedy awarded1
Survived judicial review1
Unrepresented Represented
18%
of unrepresented applicants survived screening
89%
of represented applicants survived it

FOI Tracker

Every request · every response
Ministry of the Solicitor General
Unredacted oversight-investigation report into a regional police service and its board — including three recommendations withheld in full.
FIPPAAppeal filed
Regional police services board
External legal fees by year; aggregate settlement counts and values; whether settlements contained non-disparagement or future-complaint terms.
MFIPPAAwaiting decision
Tribunals Ontario
Applications filed per respondent organisation per year; disposition category; median time to disposition; representation status.
FIPPAAwaiting decision
Regional police service
Records retention schedules for body-worn camera, in-car camera, dispatch, radio, AVL and system audit logs.
MFIPPAPartial release

Method

How the numbers are built

What we count, and what we can't

Every figure is extracted from the four corners of a published decision and carries a confidence score. Nothing is imputed — a silent field is recorded as silent, never as a zero.

Rates are calculated by matter — one person's case — not by decision. One matter can produce four decisions, and counting decisions would overweight the most litigated files.

Published decisions are a survivorship sample. Matters that settle or are withdrawn produce no public document, so every rate here is a rate among adjudicated matters. Closing that gap is what the FOI Tracker is for.

Corrections · permanent record

We got one backwards. Here's why.

A tribunal does not annotate its own published decisions when a court sets them aside. Our first analysis reported that a finding of discrimination had been cancelled. It had been restored on judicial review, upheld at the Court of Appeal, and leave to appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada.

We added a required join to court records, a validation rule that blocks publishing any outcome without it, and this log. Every correction is published in full, dated, with what changed downstream.