that it would clearly specify an as yet unrecognized particular method of inflicting harm: trafficking in pornography. One well-known attempt to pursue a remedy for a quasi-social harm outside the administrative realm of the OHRC succeeded in the Ontario Court of Appeal, but failed at the Supreme Court of Canada. In Bhadauria, the plaintiff alleged that she had been discriminated against because of her race in applying for a teaching position, and brought an action on a common law tort basis of discrimination, and also cited a violation of the OHRC as giving a cause of action. Wilson J. in the Court of Appeal held that it was open to the court to allow the expansion of the common law to include the tort of discrimination, and would have allowed the action to proceed. The question of whether the OHRC gave rise to an independent civil action was not entertained given this finding. Laskin CJ. in the Supreme Court of Canada said that the OHRC was meant to supplant the attempt to seek a remedy at common law, not to supplement it, and thus barred the action from proceeding either at common law or directly from an alleged breach of the OHRC since Bhadauria had not attempted to invoke the procedures of the OHRC for redress. What is noteworthy from this case is that the question of whether this kind of harm was capable of judicial consideration was never at issue. For the Court of Appeal, the common law was fully capable of entertaining such a harm as a tort. For the Supreme Court, the OHRC was seen as the appropriate means of redressing such harm. What the examples from criminal and tort law demonstrate is that the notion of a quasi-social harm is tenable in our legal system, particularly if individuals are given a statutory right to pursue remedies for it. Thus, the modified ordinance would simply indicate to the court a category of social harm which has not previously been specifically addressed, the harm to women...
