Practice direction: recording hearings, use of court reporters and transcripts

The Tribunal normally records its hearings. Parties and members of the public may request an electronic copy of the audio recording by emailing the Registry. The Tribunal very rarely transcribes (creates a printed copy of) the audio recording. The Tribunal never records or transcribes mediations.

Where the Tribunal has made a confidentiality order, access to the recording will be subject to the order’s terms. In these circumstances, it may not be possible to provide members of the public with a complete copy of the recording.

With the Member’s permission, a party, their representative or a member of the media may record a hearing to supplement their notes or to accommodate a Canadian Human Rights Act protected ground. The recording must not be used for any purpose other than note taking and must not be shared with the public or non-parties. A self-recording does not become part of the Tribunal’s record of proceedings. It cannot be used in support of an application for judicial review without the Court’s permission. Members of the public, other than the media, are prohibited from recording Tribunal hearings.

A party may ask the Member for permission to have a court reporter attend the hearing. If the Member allows the request, the party is responsible for contracting with and paying for the services of an official court reporter. If the party intends to use the transcript prepared by their court reporter, they must provide copies to the Tribunal as well as the other parties at their own cost. A copy of this Practice Direction should be provided to the court reporting service.

The Tribunal’s digital audio recording remains the authoritative record of what was said at the hearing. Rule 47 of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Rules of Procedure, 2021 makes a transcript provided to the Tribunal part of the record of proceeding and available to the public subject to the terms of any confidentiality order.

The terms of a confidentiality order may make provision of a meaningful transcript or audio recording very difficult or impossible. The Tribunal conducts a careful review of the recording and transcript and attempts to redact (remove) the portions affected by the confidentiality order. The Tribunal will require time to produce an accurate redacted transcript and does not provide this as a same-day service. The Tribunal will consider such requests on a case-by-case basis. 

Some hearings are conducted virtually using videoconference platforms (e.g., Zoom). In these cases, voice-to-text (VTT) content is often generated by the platform. This audio-generated VTT service is not reliable, is not a transcript of the hearing and is not part of the official record. VTT may be made available to the parties strictly for the purposes of assisting them in listening to, or navigating through, the official audio recordings. However, granting or denying a party access to VTT for these purposes ultimately falls within the Member’s discretion, having regard to all the circumstances of the case. VTT is not available to members of the public.