Workplace harassment in Canada is unwelcome workplace conduct that crosses the legal line, including repeated comments or behaviour that intimidate, humiliate, demean or target a worker. The precise legal definition and employer obligations depend on the province or federal law that applies to your workplace.
Employers have legal obligations to prevent and address workplace harassment. In Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, workplace health and safety rules require employers to have processes for dealing with harassment and to respond when concerns are raised. Harassment connected to race, sex, disability, religion or another protected characteristic can also violate human rights law.
If you are being harassed, document what happened and report the problem through the appropriate workplace process. Don’t resign simply because the situation has become unbearable. Serious or unresolved harassment can lead to constructive dismissal and full severance rights, but leaving before understanding your options can put compensation at risk.
On This Page:
- 1. What Workplace Harassment Means
- 2. Examples of Workplace Harassment
- 3. What Your Employer Must Do
- 4. Harassment, Bullying & Discrimination
- 5. Constructive Dismissal & Compensation
- 6. Workplace Harassment by Province
- 7. What Employees Should Do
What Is Workplace Harassment in Canada?
Workplace harassment is unwelcome conduct at work that goes beyond legitimate workplace management and becomes abusive, humiliating, intimidating or otherwise prohibited by the law that applies to the workplace.
Harassment can come from a manager, supervisor, coworker, customer, client or another person connected to your work. It can happen in person or through email, text messages, Teams, Slack, video calls or other workplace communications.
Harassment often involves a repeated pattern. That does not mean a serious one-time incident should be ignored. A single incident involving sexual misconduct, violence, a serious threat or severe discriminatory behaviour can trigger important legal rights and employer obligations.
Does someone have to intend to harass you?
No. A person does not automatically escape responsibility by saying they were joking or did not intend to offend you.
What was actually said or done, whether the behaviour was unwelcome and the surrounding circumstances are more important than the label the person puts on their conduct.
Is every rude or unfair manager harassing you?
No. Workplace harassment is different from legitimate management, reasonable performance feedback or an ordinary workplace disagreement.
Your employer is allowed to manage your performance, give reasonable instructions, correct legitimate mistakes and impose appropriate discipline. A manager can also be unpleasant or unfair without every interaction becoming unlawful harassment.
The issue changes when management conduct becomes personally abusive, humiliating, threatening, discriminatory or part of a repeated campaign targeting an employee.
Examples of Workplace Harassment
Workplace harassment can be obvious or subtle, and a pattern of conduct is often more important than one comment viewed in isolation.
Examples can include:
- Repeated yelling, insults or verbal abuse
- Humiliating or belittling an employee in front of coworkers or clients
- Threatening or intimidating behaviour
- Repeatedly spreading malicious rumours about an employee
- Deliberately isolating or excluding someone in order to undermine them
- Sabotaging an employee’s work or intentionally setting them up to fail
- Persistent personal attacks that have nothing to do with legitimate job performance
- Abusive or degrading emails, texts or workplace chat messages
- Unwanted sexual comments, advances, touching or pressure
- Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, age-related, religious or disability-related comments
For more situations, read our resource about workplace harassment examples.
Can workplace harassment happen online?
Yes. Harassment does not stop being a workplace problem because it happens electronically.
Abusive emails, unwanted messages, inappropriate images, targeted group chats, video-call behaviour and other online conduct can all matter when they are connected to work.
What Must Your Employer Do About Workplace Harassment?
Your employer must take workplace harassment concerns seriously and follow the prevention, reporting and investigation requirements that apply in your jurisdiction.
The exact rules differ across Canada, but employers in Ontario, Alberta and BC have specific workplace safety obligations dealing with harassment or bullying. Federally regulated workplaces have a separate harassment and violence prevention regime under the Canada Labour Code.
The employer’s response should not simply be, “Work it out between yourselves,” when a legitimate harassment complaint requires action.
Does your employer have to investigate harassment?
Employers can have a legal duty to investigate workplace harassment once the issue is reported or otherwise comes to their attention.
For example, Ontario requires an investigation appropriate in the circumstances. Alberta’s occupational health and safety rules require procedures for reporting and investigating harassment incidents, while BC employers must have procedures for responding to reports of workplace bullying and harassment.
An investigation should address the actual complaint rather than being designed simply to produce a predetermined answer.
What if your manager is the person harassing you?
You should still report the conduct, but use an alternative reporting route when complaining directly to the person involved would make no sense.
That can mean HR, another manager, a senior executive, an owner or the person identified in the employer’s harassment policy.
Put the complaint in writing whenever practical. A written complaint creates a clear record of what the employer was told and when it learned about the problem.
What if the employer does nothing?
If your employer ignores serious harassment, conducts an inadequate response or allows the behaviour to continue, additional employment-law rights can arise.
What you should do next depends on the conduct, your jurisdiction, whether discrimination is involved and whether remaining at work has become unreasonable.
Do not assume that your only choices are to tolerate the behaviour or quit.
Workplace Harassment, Bullying & Discrimination
Workplace harassment can overlap with bullying and discrimination, but the terms do not mean exactly the same thing.
Is workplace bullying harassment?
Workplace bullying can amount to harassment when the behaviour meets the legal test that applies in your jurisdiction.
Bullying commonly describes repeated intimidation, humiliation, verbal abuse, isolation or attempts to undermine someone at work. Whether the conduct creates a legal claim depends on what happened and which workplace law applies.
Employees in Ontario can read our detailed guide to workplace bullying in Ontario. Employees in Alberta can review workplace bullying in Alberta.
Is all workplace harassment discrimination?
No. Workplace harassment does not always have to involve discrimination.
Human rights law applies when harassment is connected to a protected characteristic such as race, disability, sex, pregnancy, age, religion, family status, sexual orientation or gender identity, depending on the applicable legislation.
Examples include racist harassment, disability-related insults, religious harassment, homophobic or transphobic conduct and sexual harassment.
Harassment that is not connected to a protected characteristic can still violate workplace health and safety obligations.
Is sexual harassment workplace harassment?
Yes. Sexual harassment is a serious form of workplace harassment and can also violate human rights law.
It can include unwanted sexual comments, jokes, advances, touching, sexual messages or images, repeated romantic pressure and conduct connected to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Employees in Ontario can read our guide to sexual harassment at work in Ontario.
Can your employer retaliate after you complain?
Your employer can’t lawfully punish you for properly exercising workplace rights that are protected from reprisal.
Retaliation can include firing you, demoting you, reducing hours, taking away responsibilities, issuing questionable discipline, threatening you or excluding you from opportunities after a protected complaint.
If your treatment changes after you report harassment, document the timing and what changed.
Can Workplace Harassment Lead to Constructive Dismissal or Compensation?
Yes. Serious or unresolved workplace harassment can lead to constructive dismissal, human rights compensation or other remedies when the relevant legal requirements are met.
Constructive dismissal occurs when the employer fundamentally breaches the employment relationship even though it never formally says that you are fired.
A workplace poisoned by serious harassment, particularly where the employer knows what is happening and fails to address it, can become serious enough that continuing the employment relationship is no longer reasonable.
If that threshold is met, the law can treat your departure as a termination rather than an ordinary resignation.
Can you get severance if you quit because of harassment?
Yes, if the circumstances amount to constructive dismissal.
You can then pursue the termination compensation you would have been entitled to receive if your employer had terminated your employment.
For many non-unionized employees, full severance pay is substantially greater than the minimum amounts in employment standards legislation. Depending on factors such as age, position, length of service and the availability of similar employment, severance can reach 24 months’ pay.
Can you get compensation for discriminatory harassment?
Yes. Harassment connected to a protected human rights ground can create financial and other remedies separate from ordinary severance.
The available compensation depends on the applicable human rights law, what happened and the losses caused by the violation.
If harassment also leads to the loss of your job, the human rights issue does not replace your termination rights. Your full severance entitlement should be assessed separately.
Workplace Harassment Laws by Province
Workplace harassment laws differ across Canada, so employees should review the rules that apply where they work.
Workplace harassment in Ontario
Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act requires employers to have a workplace harassment policy and program and to ensure that an investigation appropriate in the circumstances is conducted when workplace harassment arises.
Ontario’s Human Rights Code separately protects employees from harassment connected to protected characteristics.
See our complete guide to workplace harassment in Ontario.
Workplace harassment in Alberta
Alberta treats workplace violence and harassment as occupational health and safety hazards. Employers must develop and implement a violence and harassment prevention plan, train workers and have procedures for reporting and investigating incidents.
The Alberta Human Rights Act also applies where harassment is connected to a protected ground.
See our complete guide to workplace harassment in Alberta.
Workplace harassment in British Columbia
BC workplace safety rules require employers to take reasonable steps to prevent and address workplace bullying and harassment, including having reporting and investigation procedures.
Human rights protections can also apply when harassment is connected to a protected characteristic.
See our complete guide to workplace harassment in British Columbia.
What if you work in a federally regulated workplace?
Federally regulated workplaces have separate harassment and violence prevention obligations under the Canada Labour Code and the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations.
Those rules require federally regulated employers to take steps to prevent harassment and violence, maintain a prevention policy, provide training and follow a resolution process when an occurrence is reported.
This can apply in industries such as banking, airlines, telecommunications, railways and certain interprovincial transportation businesses.
What Should You Do If You Are Being Harassed at Work?
If you are experiencing workplace harassment, create a clear record, report the conduct appropriately and protect your employment position before making an irreversible decision.
- Write down what happened. Record dates, times, locations, specific comments or conduct, who was present and how you responded.
- Preserve relevant evidence. Keep emails, texts, Teams or Slack messages, performance records and other documents you are legally entitled to retain.
- Review your harassment policy. Identify the employer’s reporting procedure and the appropriate person to receive a complaint.
- Report the problem in writing. Be factual and specific about what happened rather than relying only on labels such as “bullying” or “toxic.”
- Keep records of the employer’s response. Document meetings, investigation steps and anything you are told about corrective action.
- Document retaliation. Record any discipline, reduction in duties, exclusion, threats, pay changes or termination that follows your complaint.
- Don’t resign or stop attending work without advice. If harassment has made continued employment impossible, determine whether you have constructive dismissal and severance rights first.
What evidence helps prove workplace harassment?
The strongest evidence shows specifically what happened, when it happened, who witnessed it and what the employer did after learning about it.
Useful evidence can include:
- Emails, texts and workplace messages
- Contemporaneous notes of incidents
- Written complaints to HR or management
- Witness names
- Performance reviews showing a change in treatment
- Investigation correspondence
- Records of discipline or retaliation after a complaint
You do not need an email saying, “I am harassing you,” to have a legitimate case. Workplace disputes are often proven through the complete sequence of events.
Workplace Harassment Canada FAQs
Is workplace harassment illegal in Canada?
Workplace harassment can violate occupational health and safety, human rights and other employment laws in Canada. The precise legal test and employer obligations depend on the jurisdiction and type of conduct involved.
Can your boss yell at you?
One raised-voice disagreement is not automatically workplace harassment, but repeated yelling, verbal abuse, threats or humiliation can cross the legal line.
Look at the pattern, seriousness, context and whether the behaviour is legitimate workplace management or a personal campaign of abuse.
Can one incident be workplace harassment?
A single serious incident can trigger legal rights even where a particular general harassment definition normally focuses on repeated conduct.
Sexual misconduct, violence, threats and serious discriminatory behaviour should never be ignored simply because they happened once.
Can you refuse to work because of harassment?
Do not automatically stop working simply because you have made a harassment complaint.
Work-refusal rights are governed by specific health and safety laws and do not apply identically to every harassment situation. If you believe remaining at work creates an immediate safety risk, get advice about the rules in your jurisdiction and follow the required process.
Can you be fired after making a harassment complaint?
Your employer can’t lawfully fire you because you properly exercised a workplace right protected from retaliation.
An employer can still make legitimate employment decisions for reasons unrelated to the complaint. A termination that follows closely after a harassment report should be reviewed carefully, particularly if the employer’s explanation is inconsistent or your treatment changed after you complained.
If you are terminated without cause, you are also entitled to the full notice or compensation legally owed to you. Don’t sign a termination release until your severance entitlement has been properly calculated.
Get Help With Workplace Harassment
Workplace harassment can quickly develop into a much larger employment problem. A complaint can be ignored. Retaliation can begin. Your health can deteriorate. You can be pressured to resign, or your employer can terminate your employment and offer far less compensation than you are owed.
Samfiru Tumarkin LLP helps non-unionized employees address workplace harassment, retaliation and human rights concerns, determine whether the situation amounts to constructive dismissal, and secure the full severance pay and compensation they are legally entitled to receive when their employment has been damaged or ended.
For local harassment-specific help, speak with our workplace harassment lawyers in Toronto or workplace harassment lawyers in Ottawa. Employees in Alberta and British Columbia can begin with the provincial harassment guides above so the correct local legal framework is applied.
If you are considering resigning, have been punished after complaining or have received a termination or severance package, get advice before making your next move.