Elsa Torrejon was fired after telling her employer she had cancer. (CBC)

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has ordered that a woman who was fired after telling her employer that she had breast cancer be awarded $20,000 in damages.

Elsa Torrejon was working as a leasing agent for Toronto-based Weston Property Management Corporation when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in January of 2009.

Torrejon said she told the company about her illness and that she needed to take an indefinite leave of absence to receive treatment. Weston had a different account of the matter, saying Torrejon had offered to resign in light of her diagnosis, a narrative Torrejon disputed.

Based on conflicting reports put forward by two managers at the company — a married couple, Doug and Geri McDonald — the tribunal determined that Torrejon had not voluntarily resigned.

The tribunal also found that Weston, a small firm managing a group of apartment buildings, acted in the mistaken belief that it could terminate an employee who required time off for surgery and treatment.

"To have an illness, you expect sympathy, but you don't expect to be kicked when you're down," said Michelle Mulgrave, Torrejon's lawyer.

Weston was ordered to pay Torrejon $20,000 in general damages and lost wages. The company is also required to learn about Ontario's Human Rights Code.

"In this case the employer ... acknowledged that she was ill, but I think they didn't go further. And they should have gone further," Mulgrave said.

"If they had gone further they would have found out they had a responsibility under the code and they could have turned their minds to accommodate her disability."

Weston has declined to comment on the case.