These sections of the Canadian Human Rights Act set out the legal requirements of a complaint, and the circumstances under which the Commission can refuse to deal with a complaint. Section 41 gives the Commission discretion to refuse to deal with complaints where:

• the alleged victim ought to exhaust other reasonably available procedures;
• the complaint is beyond the jurisdiction of the Commission;
• the complaint is trivial, frivolous, vexatious or made in bad faith; or
• the acts occurred more than one year before the complaint was filed.

When a complainant has reasonable access to another redress mechanism, such as a grievance process, the Commission will usually decide not to deal with the complaint “at this time”. This allows the individual to request to return to the Commission at the conclusion of the other process if he or she feels that the human rights issues were not addressed. At that time, the Commission will consider how the other redress mechanism, including any settlement reached between the parties, dealt with the human rights issues. The Commission may decide to deal with the complaint, to deal with only part of it, or to defer to the resolution arrived at through the other redress mechanism.

The Commission may choose to deal with complaints dealt with through another process despite the fact that the parties have signed a final release if it appears that the human rights issues raised in the complaint have not been addressed in the settlement.

If a complainant wants to file a complaint more than one year after the alleged discrimination occurred, the Commission may decide not to deal with the complaint, unless the delay is minor, the complainant has compelling reasons for having delayed filing the complaint, and the other party is not prejudiced by the delay.