Canada

Patricia Sayers was always thinking about the women she left behind.

She quit her job after being sexually assaulted and harassed by a co-worker at a retail store in Uxbridge, Ont.

She filed a police report and submitted an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) in hopes of creating change at her former workplace.

Sayers filed her application in 2018 against the particular store location, the man who assaulted her and managers who she says mishandled her complaint.

There's no set timeframe for how long the entire process should take. But it was six years before the tribunal set a date for the final step.

A watchdog group says her case illustrates the problems plaguing the HRTO: a backlog and delays that are resulting in fewer cases making it to a final hearing, which has wider implications on human rights law.