In the News

Investigation shows systematic failures to meet obligations under the French Language Services Act

This follows an investigation launched last year that focused on 17 health-related government ad campaigns, which found just three had French out-of-home ads

Paul Dubé's 2023-24 annual report highlighted concerns in a number of other areas including correctional facilities, which saw the highest number of complaints.

Concerns about “poor living conditions” in Ontario’s overcrowded jails — including rodents — topped complaints to the provincial ombudsman last year.

According to Ontario ombudsman Paul Dubé’s latest annual report released on Wednesday, correctional facilities are the province’s top source of complaints and inquiries.

When the teen requested foster placement from York Region CAS, staff denied her, saying she had two options: “a shelter bed or living on the street.”

York Region Children's Aid Society says many changes already in place to prevent future incidents

Ombudsman Paul Dubé issued several recommendations to the York Region Children Aid's Society in a new report released on Monday.

While York Region CAS had no fault in the death of 16-year-old 'Mia' in 2020, the Ontario Ombudsman found the agency was 'unreasonable and wrong' in its handling of her case; his 20 recommendations have been accepted

Following an investigation conducted by the Ontario Ombudsman’s Office regarding a youth served in 2019, York Region Children’s Aid Society (YRCAS) has accepted all the recommendations outlined in the report.

The commissioner released his annual report on Thursday

I have had the pleasure of working with Diana Cooke for several years. Diana is the Director of Children and Youth at Ombudsman Ontario. Previously, she worked at the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth as the Director of Advocacy and later as the Director of Investigations. Diana’s experience includes working with young people involved in the youth court, child welfare, and emergency shelter systems. She holds both a Master of Social Work and a Master of Laws degree.

Ombudsman Paul Dubé released his 2022-23 annual report on Thursday.

Ontario’s long-term care inspections branch was overwhelmed and “unprepared” during the first wave of COVID-19 says a new report from the province’s ombudsman, who has made 76 recommendations to improve the system.

The inspection system ‘collapsed’ and instead of action, concerned loved ones were given ‘key messages,’ the watchdog finds

Ontario’s Ministry of Long-Term Care needs to ensure in-person inspections of nursing homes can take place in a future pandemic and that inspectors can immediately act when residents are at risk of ongoing serious harm, the province’s ombudsman said Thursday.

Province conducted no long-term care home inspections in spring of 2020

The Ministry of Long-Term Care’s oversight mechanisms “largely collapsed” when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with on-site inspections of long-term care homes grinding to a halt for nearly two months during the first wave of the pandemic, according to an investigation by Ontario’s ombudsman.

Backlog of cases at the LTB now more than 38,000

Ombudsman Paul Dubé paints a grim picture of the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) in his latest investigation report, released May 4th. Long plagued by severe backlogs, staff shortages, and antiquated technology, LTB operations have only gotten worse thanks to the added pressures of COVID-19 lockdowns, remote work, eviction moratoriums and virtual hearings.

A backlog of cases at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board has grown to 38,000 and it is taking an average of seven or eight months — sometimes up to two years — for a hearing to be scheduled, the province’s ombudsman said Thursday.

When a 13-year-old Indigenous girl repeatedly went missing from foster care in southwestern Ontario, the company looking after her kept assuring police it had no safety concerns.

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé has released a report titled “Missing In Inaction, Misty’s Story”, which details how multiple child welfare organizations failed to ensure the safety of an Indigenous girl named Misty, who repeatedly went missing while receiving supervised services from a foster care agency.

Actions not taken when young teen went missing from foster care, report finds

Misty went missing seven times while living under the care of Johnson Children’s Services in an undisclosed city.

A 10-year-old boy was found malnourished and living in squalor in October 2018 but the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto refused to take him into their custody, prompting “horrified” police officers to step in.

Toronto children's aid 'repeatedly failed to comply with child protection standards'

Niagara Region implemented all 16 recommendations from J. Paul Dubé’s report

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé has renewed his call for standardized and mandatory training for police officers in deescalation for dealing with people in crisis.

Inmates in Ontario jails were only allowed to leave their cells for 30 minutes a day during lockdowns, according to Ontario’s annual Ombudsman report.

Paul Dubé says he’s considering second investigation if he doesn’t see progress.

Ontario 'deliberately avoided transparency' in planning and implementing closures: Ombudsman report

The Ontario Ombudsman released a report that includes 16 recommendations after finding the provincial government’s plan and implementation to close two Northern Ontario youth custody and detention programs lacked transparency, communication, and consultation with Indigenous groups and communities

Provincial government officials “deliberately avoided transparency” when they abruptly closed two youth jails in northern Ontario last year, leaving staff in the dark while failing to consider the best interests of the Indigenous youth who had to be suddenly transferred, Ontario’s Ombudsman concluded on Tuesday.

The government was wrong and unreasonable in how it closed custody and detention programs at youth justice facilities in Ontario's northwest region last year, the provincial ombudsman has concluded.

The Sudbury university eliminated 29 French-language programs in April 2021

Commissioner Kelly Burke found Laurentian University, Ministry of Francophone Affairs and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities failed to meet their obligations under the legislation

A new report says Laurentian University, the Ministry of Francophone Affairs and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities neglected their obligations under the law when French language programs were cut.

Fairness, logistics, services, and communication are tool standards

Ontario French Language Services Commissioner Kelly Burke said her office received 351 complaints related to accessing French language services, a 15 per cent increase from the previous year.

Local public health units, which have been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, lack independent oversight, Ontario's ombudsman said Tuesday, calling on the province address the issue as soon as possible.

Ontario’s ombudsman is calling on the provincial government to revamp the oversight system for paramedic services, saying it’s “complicated, overburdened, and wholly inadequate.”

French Language Services Commissioner Kelly Burke said most of the complaints her office has received about access to services and materials in French could have been avoided with "adequate planning."

More than four years after a scathing report cited “neglected” provincial officer training as a factor in fatal shootings, the Ontario ombudsman is blasting the “glacial” pace of police reform as the province has still not fixed central problems he identified.

North Bay, West Nipissing tied at 13

The Ontario Ombudsman’s Office received more than a dozen complaints each involving the City of North Bay and Municipality of West Nipissing last year.

Hailing the past 12 months as a “year like no other,” the Ontario ombudsman has released a fiscal 2019-20 report that highlights, among other things, his office’s handling of more than 800 COVID-19-related complaints and inquiries, about 600 Landlord and Tenant Board complaints and a record number of complaints about Ontario correctional facilities — more than 6,000.

Ontario ombudsman Paul Dubé says his investigation into the high death toll from COVID-19 at nursing homes is looking at how more inspections and higher standards could have saved lives.

Report details problems with overcrowding, poor living conditions, lack of access to medical care

The Near North District School Board “is well on the way” to meeting all the recommendations contained in an ombudsman’s report.
 

The message Ontario’s Ombudsman Paul Dubé and the head of his office’s new children and youth unit want to share with young people across the province is: if you have a question, call.

Paul Dube's office now has specialized unit to handle investigative functions of former child advocate

Imagine you are an Ontario municipal councillor, perusing the agenda for your next meeting, and you see that a new report by the municipality’s integrity commissioner is scheduled to be discussed behind closed doors. You wonder, is that appropriate?

A recent column by Deb Hutton, published by Queen’s Park Briefing on January 18, raised provocative questions about the role and usefulness of independent officers of the Legislature.

Successful legal advocates must not only bring together evidence to successfully make their case, they must also craft a clear argument around a compelling narrative, and the same goes for an ombudsman or public advocate.

The Office of the Ontario Ombudsman says it has received complaints over delays in the delivery of cannabis in the province, almost two weeks since the drug was legalized across the country.

Experts say the powerful video of Alek Minassian’s arrest reveals a textbook case of an officer defusing danger through a series of life-and-death choices based on training and a calm mind.

Ontario universities came under the provincial ombudsman’s oversight in 2016. The office has since received more than 500 university-related complaints.

It was, as they say, a teachable moment. In September 2016, at a time when parents have more than enough on their minds, Toronto’s school bus network was in chaos: some buses showed up late in the mornings, others not at all. And at the end of the day, drivers in some cases dropped kids off long distances from where they were supposed to.

The Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic District School Board are responsible for systemic failure and communication breakdown, report says.

Ontario's ombudsman is reassuring Toronto parents the school bus woes that left thousands of students scrambling to get to class last fall was caused by "communication failures" — and they won't be repeated this September.

Ombudsman cites “weak links” at transportation ministry in cases when drivers not notified their licences have been suspended.

Ontario ombudsman Paul Dubé’s latest report includes the usual litany of problems at the agency that’s supposed to enforce child support payments. Still, Dubé says things are getting better.

Paul Dubé on Tuesday released his annual report into the 21,328 complaints his office received in 2016-17.

Working with school boards to resolve complaints

ANALYSIS: Ombudsman Paul Dubé says the province's segregation practices need serious revision — and that the government has long been aware of systemic problems

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé’s report last week on solitary confinement found a ministry that literally doesn’t know how many prisoners are being held in it for how long.

TORONTO — Vulnerable inmates are being put at risk due to Ontario's highly flawed system of segregation, the province's ombudsman said Thursday.

An Ottawa jail inmate with apparent mental health issues and a diminished cognitive ability that made it difficult for him to carry on a conversation spent more than a year in segregation, an investigation by the province’s ombudsman found.

Following a six-month investigation, Ontario’s Ombudsman has found that the province routinely flouts its own rules around solitary confinement in prisons, regularly losing track of how long prisoners have spent in the restrictive cells as well as why they were placed there.

After a shocking case of solitary confinement in one Ontario prison was exposed last fall, the province’s ombudsman has revealed a system that fails to track how long inmates remain in segregation and largely ignores policies meant to ensure segregation placements are both reviewed and justified.

Paul Dubé calls on provincial government to better track and monitor use of solitary confinement.

'As a family we felt that ... positive things have happened related to Andrew's death,' Loku's uncle says.

Paul Dubé, Ontario’s ombudsman, addressed a crowd including Ottawa police at the police service’s second annual Human Rights Learning Forum on Dec. 8 at the St. Elias Centre.

Review follows in the wake of the Adam Capay case and a rising number of complaints.

Ontario’s Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the way the province tracks and reviews the placement of prisoners in solitary confinement.

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube is adding his voice to the growing questions about segregation in the province’s jails, launching a probe into the controversial practice.

A Toronto mother says she's been in bureaucratic limbo for more than six months after filing an application with the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) in order to retrieve missing child support payments.

 

The Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre remained among the three most complained about jails in Ontario, a dubious distinction it earned despite being the only jail in the top five that housed fewer than 1,000 inmates.

TORONTO -- Ontario's Family Responsibility Office, which enforces court-ordered child and spousal support payments, tops the list of provincial government organizations generating complaints to the ombudsman's office.

Ontario ombudsman Paul Dubé will probe the recent school busing problems at the city’s two primary boards, his office announced Monday.

Paul Dubé announced on Monday that the TDSB and TCDSB will be investigated as the shortage of drivers continues to frustrate Toronto parents.

Ombudsman’s university oversight began in January.

Paul Dubé could make recommendations to solve the problem and improve future services.

TORONTO - The office of Ontario's ombudsman received more than 700 complaints in the first year it had oversight of school boards, but says 85 per cent were resolved without a formal investigation.

I would like to congratulate the Ontario Ombudsman, Paul Dubé, on the thoroughness of his report on developmental services in Ontario (Sarnia Observer, Aug 26). The report highlights situations of crisis and challenges of access into services for adults with developmental disabilities. The crisis circumstances described within the report are unacceptable.

The stories are horrific.

Patrick, 24, had cerebral palsy and couldn’t speak. He was placed in a local nursing home because his mother could no longer cope with his aggressive outbursts.

The way Ontario cares for developmentally delayed adults and their families is “deeply flawed”, says Ontario’s ombudsman, whose four-year investigation revealed “shocking systemic problems” in the province’s treatment of the disabled.

TORONTO - Widespread inconsistencies and gaps in Ontario's support network have left many adults with developmental disabilities scrambling for care, at times exposing them to abuse or landing them behind bars, a new report said Wednesday.

Ombudsman's report says 'desperate' families often struggle to negotiate maze of social service agencies.

The province should move quickly to implement Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé's recommendations on how to end Ontario's shameful treatment of people with developmental disabilities.

Paul Dubé said in his report that he found “a fragmented, overly complicated system of service agencies and funding programs, and a baffling lack of flexibility from officials at the top.”

Calls for changes to police training are getting louder after Abdirahman Abdi, a mentally-ill Ottawa man, died in the wake of a confrontation with police this week.

Paul Dubé released a report on use-of-force nearly four weeks before Abdirahman Abdi's death.

Provincial Ombudsman Paul Dubé has ruled Hamilton’s election compliance audit committee wrongly deliberated behind closed doors last year.

Session with OPUC should have been held in public.

Paul Dubé is walking in the hallway of his 10th floor Bay Street office when an older man wearing a plaid shirt suddenly approaches him. “Excuse me, sir, are you the ombudsman?” the man eagerly asks. “I have a case here.”

Eight seconds.
 
That’s all the time it took for cops to slam the door of their cruiser and proceed to shoot Michael MacIsaac, says his sister Joanne.

TORONTO - Families of people killed by police are "hopeful" the Ontario government will act on an ombudsman's report calling for improved training in de-escalation techniques for officers who encounter people in crisis.

Citing an “urgent need” for improvements to police training, Ontario’s Ombudsman is calling for the province to create a regulation requiring police to deescalate and use communications techniques in all possible conflict situations before resorting to force.

Council was prepared to discuss the findings of Ontario ombudsman Paul Dube at its regular meeting Tuesday. However, two key players in the episode – CAO Keith Robicheau and clerk Andrew Grozelle – were not in attendance.

Ontario’s Ombudsman has launched an inquiry into Brampton’s procurement practices but won't touch a controversial downtown development deal that has mired city hall in controversy since 2011.

Procurement probe will be the first “systemic” municipal investigation under Paul Dubé’s new powers.

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé is right to call for a ban on the long-term solitary confinement of prison inmates.

Ontario's ombudsman has urged the provincial government to stop putting inmates in segregation for longer than 15 days.

Ontario’s ombudsman is calling on the province to permanently abolish the practice of locking up inmates in solitary confinement for indefinite periods of time.

A call by Ontario’s citizen watchdog to stop segregating inmates for longer than 15 days is a step in the right direction, says a London lawyer outspoken about the treatment of people in jails.

In a scathing appraisal of Ontario prison practices, the provincial Ombudsman is pushing for a ban on long-term solitary confinement, a move that would make the province the first jurisdiction in Canada to apply United Nations guidelines to the draconian form of incarceration. Ombudsman Paul Dubé made the recommendations on Tuesday, part of an exhaustive submission to the province’s continuing review of solitary confinement – formally termed “segregation” – in its 27 correctional facilities.

Paul Dubé took the oath of office Friday to become the new Ontario Ombudsman.

Dubé emphasizes his collaborative style and focus on building trust and credibility with public agencies - and also confirms he won't be quite the presence on Twitter that his predecessor was.

Ontario’s newest watchdog wants to soften his office’s bark.

On February 5, 2016, the Ontario Bar Association presented a breakfast program titled “What you need to know about the Ontario Ombudsman’s expanded oversight of municipalities, universities and school boards”. Laura Pettigrew, General Counsel at the Ontario Ombudsman, and Barbara Finlay, Acting Ombudsman, each spoke about the Ontario Ombudsman’s expanded jurisdiction.  Acting Deputy Ombudsman Wendy Ray moderated the program.

Federal tax watchdog will succeed André Marin as the new full-time Ombudsman of Ontario, it was announced in the legislature on Tuesday.

Ten first responders and two members of the military took their lives in the first six weeks of the year.

The office of the Ontario ombudsman received new powers on Jan. 1 allowing it to launch investigations into complaints about universities and municipalities in Ontario.

If you’ve got a beef with Western University or city hall, you’ve got a new go-to place to turn.

This year, the New Year will not only ring in resolutions, it will also welcome a bigger watchdog.

Late one night in the summer of 2014, Bill Rusk, a police sergeant in Owen Sound, Ont., was crouched on the roof of a downtown store, watching the window of a second-floor apartment in the building next door. His squad had come to bust up a drug deal, and had been told that a violent man was hiding inside with a sawed-off shotgun.

Jill Anzarut - a thorn to government, a champion to breast-cancer activists - is to start Herceptin on Friday for a half-centimetre tumour that was once deemed too small to treat.

Ontario is moving to join other provinces in funding the cancer drug Herceptin for small tumours following a public outcry sparked by a breast cancer patient.