Human rights complaint filed against Danforth Avenue tavern
By Joanna Lavoie, East York Mirror
Haily Butler-Henderson just wanted to use the restroom at a local bar and grill. Instead, she said, she encountered discrimination against a person with a disability.
The 24-year-old east Toronto resident has spina bifida and uses metal crutches to get around.
Back on Aug. 19, 2016, around 9:30 p.m., she stopped by Pentagram Bar and Grill at 2620 Danforth Ave. just east of Main Street, to use the washroom because one at a nearby Tim Hortons was out of order.
Butler-Henderson said a person working at Pentagram told her she couldn’t use the washroom because she could hold the restaurant liable if she fell down the stairs.
In a March 7 news release, Butler-Henderson said the staff member relented only after she told her that she did not have the legal right to bar her from going to the toilet.
“It’s insulting to be barred from using services because of my disability. I manage my spina bifida by using forearm crutches. End of story,” she said in the release.
“Don’t patronize me by arbitrarily deciding what’s in my best interests.”
The situation was so upsetting to Butler-Henderson, who is able to use the stairs, she has now filed an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO).
“The fact that yet another incident is taking place around access to washrooms points to a fundamental misunderstanding of human rights,” Butler-Henderson’s lawyer, Lorin MacDonald, said in the release.
The next step is mediation, if both parties agree. This typically happens within six months of filing an application, MacDonald said in an email to The Mirror. If mediation is unsuccessful, the matter goes to a hearing, which is open to the public, and would also likely occur within six months.
At this point, Butler-Henderson has not filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which can conduct inquiries, make a complaint directly to the HRTO to allege discrimination and seek a tribunal order, or intervene in applications before the tribunal.