The detailed guidance is written for rentals — the underlying right is not.
Short answer
You must not refuse, discourage, or treat a client, prospective client, or the other side of a deal less favourably because of one of the Ontario Human Rights Code's 17 protected grounds. This duty covers a purchase and sale, not only a tenancy — a common, and understandable, scope confusion, since most of the OHRC's published guidance is written for rental housing.
The OHRC's most detailed housing document, its Policy on Human Rights and Rental Housing, is exactly what its title says: framed around “processes for choosing or evicting tenants, occupancy rules and regulations, repairs” and other tenancy-specific mechanics, right down to its detailed guidance on income screening and rent-to-income ratios. None of that rental-specific detail transfers directly to a purchase transaction — but the underlying right does. The OHRC's general housing page states it plainly: “You have the right to equal treatment when buying, selling, renting or being evicted from an apartment, house, condominium or commercial property.”
Race, colour or ethnic background; religious beliefs or practices; ancestry, including Aboriginal descent; place of origin; citizenship, including refugee status; sex (including pregnancy and gender identity); family status; marital status, including a same-sex partner; disability; sexual orientation; age (including 16- or 17-year-olds no longer living with a parent); and receipt of public assistance. A person is also protected if they face different treatment as a friend or relative of someone in a protected group. These duties run to every party you deal with in a trade — your own client, a self-represented party, and the other side's agent.
Steer clear of any screening practice, comment, or advertising choice that maps onto a protected ground, even indirectly — the rule catches proxy discrimination, not just an explicit statement. A rent-to-income style cutoff, for instance, is confirmed illegal even in the rental context the OHRC's detailed policy covers, quoted: “It is illegal for housing providers to apply a rent-to-income ratio such as a 30% cut-off rule.” See when you can legitimately decline a client for the boundary between a lawful business reason and a Code violation.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell you whether your process holds up.
