Ontario’s online rental dispute tribunal ‘frustrating for everyone’: Hamilton legal clinic

It was a scramble for Harvey Rogers to remain in the apartment he rents for $800 a month in Hamilton.

With no computer or smartphone, the 54-year-old relied on the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic to connect him to his virtual Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) hearing.

Even lawyer Mo Bsat acknowledged that navigating the technological hurdles of the provincial tribunal's online platform made for a frantic August morning in the clinic's downtown offices.

When Bsat couldn't enter a hearing room" through his computer, he resorted to presenting Rogers' case to the adjudicator via the tiny screen of a cellphone powered by a dying battery.

Despite the glitches, he managed to persuade the landlord to withdraw the application to evict Rogers from his Concession Street apartment over a verbal dispute.

Luckily, that worked in our favour," Bsat said, acknowledging he'd broken into a sweat with his client by his side in his small office. It was a mess."

And for Rogers, the stakes were high. Finding a new place in Hamilton's tight rental market on his meagre disability pension would be tough.

I'm going to shrink down to a room. That's where I'm going to end up."

The digital-first" approach to LTB hearings is making it harder for Rogers and other low-income tenants facing technological hurdles to stay housed, legal clinic lawyers say.

The strategy, which is to carry on after the COVID-19 pandemic, is also saddling resource-strapped legal clinics with providing tech support and hardware for tenants on top of legal services.

We have the additional consideration of Well, can they really access this and navigate this kind of process?'" says clinic lawyer Katie Remington, who argues the LTB can safely return to in-person hearings.

The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) has also decried the province's move to digital hearings, concluding in a June report that the format has seriously compromised access to justice for low-income tenants," including those with mental health issues, language barriers and limited literacy.

In-person hearings must be the default, with digital hearings an option where appropriate," the report stated.

Through online hearings, Tribunals Ontario - which oversees 14 tribunals - aims to modernize the system, reducing case backlogs and delays - a problem attributed to a lack of adjudicators even before the pandemic struck in March 2020.

The digital-first but not digital-only approach" builds on the virtual services established during the pandemic, including video, telephone and written hearings where feasible," the Ministry of the Attorney General said in a recently emailed statement.

We have been encouraged by the LTB's work during COVID-19 to maintain operations while ensuring the health and safety of Ontarians," spokesperson Brian Gray wrote.

But Stephanie Cox, a lawyer with the Hamilton clinic, doesn't share that assessment, pointing out the LTB denied her request to accommodate a deaf client through an in-person hearing to ensure procedural fairness under the Ontario Human Rights Code.

The board said the tenant could follow an ASL interpreter on the video conference, noted Cox, but she worries the sign language may not be clear on the screen.

The LTB was created with the purpose of enhancing access to justice," Cox said. The digital strategy is an affront to this."

Remington said the online format has been frustrating for everyone."

She was one of four lawyers representing five clients - three of them in the clinic's downtown office for video hearings - the day of Rogers' case.

They were among many from different parts of Ontario waiting for adjudicators to sort out disputes. Some tenants struggled to unmute themselves or fumbled to turn on cameras. Others who'd dialed in by phone wouldn't have been able to view evidence if presented on the screen.

The rapport between counsels, the nuances of body language and ability to interject are also lost in the digital platform, Bsat noted.

We've had cut-outs, and that's always the fear," he added, pointing out the clinic's internet is mostly stable.

And it's not just the hearings themselves, Remington said. Obtaining and submitting documents has become more difficult for tenants with the closure of counters at LTB offices.

Gray said an end-to-end digital solution" expected this fall will include case management, document management, features to assist with mediation, online dispute resolution and a public-facing self-help tool."

Those without internet access or telephones may be accommodated" with terminals at Hamilton, London, Ottawa and Toronto LTB centres to take part in hearings.

In a public statement of concern earlier this month, Tribunal Watch Ontario called this restricted and discretionary access" to those terminals an improvement only for parties lucky enough to live close enough" to them, to have their request granted, and to have sufficient technological skills to manage the electronic interface."

Gray said Tribunals Ontario is actively working toward introducing" terminals in other locations this fall.

When faced with technological barriers, it's clear some tenants simply don't attend hearings.

In its report, ACTO noted a survey of digital hearings between March and May found tenants were present 44 per cent of the time compared with landlords or their representatives, who attended 86 per cent of hearings.

Then there are tenants who still try, albeit in less-than-ideal circumstances, Remington observed.

In one case, she recalled a tenant tapping into the public library's Wi-Fi for a hearing.

They kept getting interrupted by the librarian for talking."

Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com