Harassment is a course of comments or actions that are known, or ought reasonably to be known, to be unwelcome. It can involve words or actions that are known, or should be known to be, offensive, embarrassing, humiliating, demeaning or unwelcome.
Sexual harassment is harassment based on someone’s sex. This could include remarks about someone’s physical characteristics, unwelcome physical contact, suggestive or offensive remarks about either sex, sexual advances or propositions, discussions or questions about sexual activities, telling sexual jokes, treating someone differently or denying them a benefit because they are pregnant or otherwise on the basis of their sex, demanding dates, displaying sexually explicit or offensive pictures or other materials and so on.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act.
There are several posts on sexual harassment on our blog.
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