Statutes and Laws

Charter of Rights and Freedoms

As part of the Constitution of Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a fundamental law in this country. All other laws, policies and practices of all levels of government and their agencies must comply with the terms of the Charter.

The Charter guarantees individuals in Canada certain freedoms (s. 2) and rights (s. 15) related to human rights issues:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
   1. freedom of conscience and religion;
   2. freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
   3. freedom of peaceful assembly; and
   4. freedom of association.

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

Human Rights Codes

The Charter’s scope is limited to interactions between individuals and agents of the state. The Human Rights Laws or Codes of the Federal government and of each of the Provinces or Territories cover interactions between private entities (individuals, corporations, etc.). Note that, while the Human Rights Codes across the country may have minor differences in terminology, coverage and application, all forbid discrimination and harassment (whether direct or indirect) in the areas of employment, accommodation and services on a fairly consistent set of protected human rights grounds.

Protected Human Rights Grounds

• Race
• National or Ethnic Origin
• Creed/Religion
• Age
• Sex (including pregnancy and childbearing)
• Sexual Orientation
• Marital Status
• Family Status
• Physical or Mental Disability
• Criminal Conviction for which a Pardon has been granted.

Human Rights Codes ban discrimination and harassment on any of the human rights grounds in the provision of employment, accommodation or services. Education is considered to be a service under the Code.

Discrimination

Discrimination on any human rights ground can be “direct” or “indirect”:

Direct discrimination involves situations where unequal and unfair treatment is clearly intended: for example, a rule that states “No Asian person may live here” or “We do not hire gays or lesbians” would be directly discriminatory. The mandatory retirement age has recently been found to be a form of unacceptable direct discrimination on the basis of age.

Indirect discrimination involves a rule, law, policy or practice that is designed to be applied equally to all people and may seem inoffensive on the surface but which, when put into effect, has a differential impact on different people based on a human rights ground. For example, a rule that all bus drivers must wear a cap when driving a bus has been found to be discriminatory against people whose religious beliefs require them to wear specific forms of head-coverings. Another example would be the enforcement of a requirement that all students must complete an exam (or a degree) within a specific period of time, without providing accommodation for students who, as a result of their family status or disability, require additional time to complete the exam (or degree).

Accomodation

Human Rights Codes and the courts require us to design our structures, processes, policies and practices to ensure that every member of our community can participate fully. In some cases, a person may require an accommodation to be able to participate. An accommodation is intended to address indirect discrimination in the way our structures, etc. are designed. For example, we may require employees to work from 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch – a person who is required by her religion to pray five times a day could be accommodated by allowing additional breaks for prayers or a redistribution of the hour lunch break to allow for prayers. A student with a learning disability that results in him requiring more time to read and understand materials might be accommodated by being granted more time to complete reading projects on tests or exams.

An organisation can refuse to grant an accommodation only where:

• Even with the accommodation, the person is incapable of meeting the bona fide occupational or academic requirements of the job or program.
• The provision of the required accommodation would cause undue hardship to the organisation — undue hardship being defined as involving such high financial costs as to severely damage or even threaten the existence of the organisation.
• Even with the accommodation, the person’s presence on the job or in the academic situation poses an unreasonable health or safety risk to herself or to others.