A workplace harassment lawyer in Ottawa helps non-unionized employees determine whether workplace conduct crosses the legal line, protect their employment and pursue the appropriate remedy when an employer fails to respond properly.

Ontario employers have legal obligations to address workplace harassment. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), employers must have a workplace harassment policy and program and ensure that incidents and complaints are investigated in a manner appropriate in the circumstances.

If harassment is affecting your job, your first decision matters. Don’t resign, stop attending work or accept retaliation as inevitable. A workplace harassment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP can assess what happened, help you document the problem and determine whether your situation also involves human rights, constructive dismissal or termination rights.

⚠️ Don’t quit because your workplace has become unbearable before getting legal advice. Serious unresolved harassment can contribute to constructive dismissal, but resigning without a proper strategy can put your severance rights at risk.

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When Should You Call a Workplace Harassment Lawyer in Ottawa?

Speak with an employment lawyer when harassment is continuing, your employer is not responding properly, retaliation has started or you are thinking about leaving your job.

Legal advice is particularly important if:

  • A manager, supervisor or senior employee is harassing you
  • You reported harassment but the conduct continues
  • Your employer refuses to investigate your complaint
  • You believe the investigation is being mishandled
  • Your hours, duties or treatment changed after you complained
  • You are being disciplined after raising harassment concerns
  • The conduct involves sexual, racial, disability-related or other discriminatory harassment
  • The workplace has become so intolerable that you want to resign
  • You were fired after reporting harassment

You do not need to wait until your employment ends. Early advice can help you make the complaint properly, preserve useful evidence and avoid a step that weakens your position.

For the underlying legal rules, read our guide to workplace harassment in Ontario.

What Counts as Workplace Harassment in Ottawa?

Workplace harassment is typically a course of vexatious comments or conduct that a person knows, or should reasonably know, is unwelcome. Ontario’s OHSA expressly includes harassment occurring virtually through information and communications technology.

Examples can include:

  • Repeated insults, ridicule or degrading comments
  • Intimidation or threatening behaviour
  • Persistent yelling or verbal abuse
  • Targeted humiliation in meetings or group communications
  • Offensive emails, messages or online conduct
  • Repeated unwanted comments about personal characteristics
  • Sexual comments, advances or other sexual harassment
  • Harassment connected to race, disability, religion, sex or another protected human rights ground

Harassment can come from a supervisor, coworker, subordinate, customer, client or another person connected to your work.

If the behaviour is primarily bullying, see our guide to workplace bullying in Ontario.

Is a difficult boss automatically harassing you?

No. Reasonable management action is not workplace harassment simply because it is unwelcome or stressful.

An employer can assign work, monitor performance, provide legitimate criticism, enforce workplace rules and impose appropriate discipline. Ontario’s OHSA expressly excludes reasonable actions taken by an employer or supervisor relating to the management and direction of workers or the workplace.

Management authority does not excuse humiliation, threats, discriminatory conduct or a pattern of abusive behaviour. The question is not whether your manager made a decision you disliked; it is how that authority was exercised and what actually occurred.

💡 A poor performance review is not automatically harassment. Repeated personal attacks, intimidation or humiliating conduct disguised as “performance management” can be a different matter.

What Must Your Employer Do About Workplace Harassment?

Your employer must have a workplace harassment policy and program and ensure that incidents and complaints are investigated appropriately.

The workplace harassment program must include a reporting process and explain how complaints will be investigated and dealt with. The law also requires a way to report the issue to someone other than the employer or supervisor when that person is the alleged harasser.

Does your employer have to investigate?

Yes. Ontario employers must ensure that an investigation appropriate in the circumstances is conducted when they become aware of an incident or complaint of workplace harassment.

What an appropriate investigation requires depends on the situation. A serious complaint involving a senior manager, conflicting evidence or allegations of sexual or discriminatory harassment can require a more careful process than a straightforward workplace dispute.

The complainant and the alleged harasser must also be informed in writing of the investigation results and any corrective action that has been or will be taken as a result.

What if HR dismisses your complaint?

HR saying “we don’t see a problem” does not necessarily end the legal issue.

Keep the complaint, the employer’s response and any investigation documents you receive. If important evidence was ignored, the conduct continued or retaliation followed your report, those facts can become important when assessing your next legal step.

How Can an Ottawa Workplace Harassment Lawyer Help?

A workplace harassment lawyer can help you choose the right response before the problem affects your employment or compensation further.

The employment lawyers at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP can help you:

  • Assess the conduct. We determine whether what happened raises an OHSA, human rights or employment-law issue.
  • Prepare to report the harassment. We can help you understand what facts and documents are important before making a workplace complaint.
  • Respond to an investigation. We can advise you about your rights and how to participate without unnecessarily undermining your position.
  • Address retaliation. If your employer punishes you after you raise the issue, we can assess the reprisal and employment consequences.
  • Protect you before resignation. We determine whether the circumstances support constructive dismissal before you leave the workplace.
  • Review a termination. If you are fired, we assess both the harassment-related issues and the severance you are owed.
  • Determine the right legal forum. Different harassment problems can involve the Ministry of Labour, Ontario Labour Relations Board, Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario or a civil employment claim.

The goal is to identify the legal route that addresses your actual problem—not simply file every complaint that might be available.

What If the Harassment Is Sexual or Discriminatory?

Harassment connected to a protected characteristic can create rights under Ontario’s Human Rights Code in addition to the OHSA workplace-harassment rules.

Protected harassment can involve characteristics such as:

  • Race or colour
  • Disability
  • Sex or pregnancy
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity or expression
  • Age
  • Creed or religion
  • Family or marital status
  • Ethnic origin or place of origin

Not every workplace harassment complaint is a Human Rights Code claim. The Code becomes relevant when the harassment is connected to a protected ground.

See our guides to workplace discrimination in Ontario and sexual harassment at work in Ontario.

Can you make a Human Rights Tribunal claim?

Yes, when the harassment falls within the Human Rights Code and the HRTO has jurisdiction over the claim.

An HRTO application normally must be filed within one year of the discriminatory or harassing incident. If the conduct forms a related series of incidents, the normal deadline runs from the last incident in that series.

⚠️ Don’t assume an internal HR complaint stops an external legal deadline from running. If the harassment involves a protected Human Rights Code ground, check the HRTO deadline while the workplace process is still underway.

What If You Are Punished, Forced to Quit or Fired After Reporting Harassment?

Negative treatment after a workplace harassment complaint can create additional legal rights if it amounts to unlawful reprisal, constructive dismissal or wrongful dismissal.

Can your employer retaliate because you raised harassment concerns?

Your employer can’t punish you for exercising rights protected by the OHSA. Section 50 prohibits employers from dismissing, threatening to dismiss, disciplining, suspending, intimidating, coercing or otherwise penalizing workers because they exercised protected health and safety rights.

Watch for changes such as:

  • Sudden discipline
  • Reduced hours or shifts
  • Demotion
  • Threats about your job
  • Exclusion from opportunities
  • Pressure to resign
  • Termination

Learn more about workplace retaliation in Ontario.

Can harassment lead to constructive dismissal?

Yes. Serious harassment or an employer’s serious failure to address it can contribute to constructive dismissal when the employment relationship has been fundamentally undermined.

Constructive dismissal does not arise every time a coworker behaves badly or an investigation disappoints you. The conduct and the employer’s response must be serious enough to cross the legal threshold.

If that threshold is met, you can be entitled to termination compensation as though the employer ended your employment.

Read our guide to constructive dismissal in Ontario.

⚠️ Don’t resign and then ask whether the harassment was constructive dismissal. Have that question answered first. Your response, timing and documentation can directly affect your severance claim.

What if you are fired after complaining?

Don’t sign a termination release until both the reason for the dismissal and your full compensation have been reviewed.

A termination after a harassment complaint can involve reprisal or human rights issues. Separately, if your employer terminates you without cause, you are entitled to the notice or compensation legally owed to you.

For many non-unionized employees, that entitlement is substantially greater than Ontario employment standards minimums. If you have been terminated, our Ottawa wrongful dismissal lawyers and Ottawa severance pay lawyers can assess the package before you sign it.

Why Choose Samfiru Tumarkin LLP for Workplace Harassment in Ottawa?

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP’s Ottawa employment lawyers can assess the harassment itself and the broader employment consequences surrounding it.

That is important because a harassment complaint can quickly become more than an internal HR matter. Employees can face retaliation, medical leave, discipline, discriminatory treatment, pressure to resign or termination.

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP helps non-unionized Ottawa employees understand:

  • Whether the conduct meets the legal test for workplace harassment
  • How to document and report what happened
  • Whether the employer has met its investigation obligations
  • Whether the harassment also violates the Human Rights Code
  • Whether retaliation has occurred
  • Whether the situation has become constructive dismissal
  • What severance is owed if your employment ends
  • Which legal process is appropriate for the outcome you need

Our Ottawa employment law team serves employees throughout Ottawa and surrounding communities, including Kanata, Nepean, Orleans, Barrhaven, Gloucester and Stittsville. Samfiru Tumarkin LLP’s Ottawa office is located at 116 Albert Street in downtown Ottawa.

What should you bring to a consultation?

Bring the documents that show what happened, what you reported and how your employer responded.

Useful records include:

  • Emails, text messages and workplace chat messages
  • Your written harassment complaint
  • Notes recording dates, incidents and witnesses
  • The employer’s harassment policy
  • Investigation correspondence or findings provided to you
  • Discipline or performance documents received afterward
  • Medical documentation if the situation has affected your health
  • A termination letter or severance package if your job has ended
💡 You do not need a perfect file before speaking with a lawyer. Start by preserving the records you already have and writing down important events while they are still fresh.
⚠️ Unionized? Workplace harassment disputes must be addressed through your union and the grievance process. Samfiru Tumarkin LLP’s employment law team can’t assist with unionized workplace disputes.

Workplace harassment can affect your health, career and ability to remain in your job. The legal issue is not simply whether the behaviour was inappropriate—it is what happened, how your employer responded and what has happened to your employment as a result.

The Ottawa employment lawyers at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP help non-unionized employees address workplace harassment, retaliation, human rights concerns, constructive dismissal and termination issues before a damaging workplace problem turns into an avoidable loss of legal rights.

Before you resign, stop attending work, accept retaliation or sign a termination release, contact Samfiru Tumarkin LLP and have the situation reviewed.

Experiencing Workplace Harassment in Ottawa?

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP can help you document the problem, protect your employment and determine the right legal response before you resign or your employer retaliates.

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