The Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Human Rights Commission

What is discrimination?

INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS

INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYERS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS

The Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Human Rights Commission

The Canadian Human Rights Act protects everyone within federal jurisdiction from discrimination and harassment both at work and when requesting a service. The Canadian Human Rights Commission looks into allegations of discrimination and helps to resolve them, redressing the rights of those who have been discriminated against. It helps educate people about the harm caused by discrimination, and works to stop discrimination before it occurs.

Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is against the law for any federally regulated employer or service provider to discriminate on the basis of:

• Race
• Colour
• National or ethnic origin
• Religion
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Sex (including pregnancy and childbearing)
• Marital status
• Family status
• Physical or mental disability (including alcohol or drug dependence)
• Pardoned criminal conviction

The Act also requires that women and men receive equal pay for work of equal value.

The Canadian Human Rights Act protects employees and customers of federally regulated organizations, namely:

• Federal government departments, agencies, and Crown corporations
• Canada Post and other courier companies
• Chartered banks
• Airlines
• Television and radio stations
• Interprovincial communications and telephone companies
• Interprovincial buses, railways, and trucking companies
• Other federally regulated industries, such as certain mining operations

The Canadian Human Rights Commission can receive complaints based on the eleven grounds of discrimination as well as initiate complaints itself. For information on the Commission’s complaint process, see Appendix A.

The Canadian Human Rights Act gives the Commission the power to address discrimination by other means such as conducting public inquiries or studies; creating “standards of accessibility to services, facilities or premises”; approving special programs, plans or arrangements; reviewing federal regulations, rules, orders and by-laws; conducting special studies to be tabled in Parliament; and issuing guidelines interpreting the Act. As well, the Commission is mandated to promote awareness and understanding of human rights and to conduct research into human rights issues.

The Commission is also responsible for enforcing the Employment Equity Act. This Act requires federal employers to undertake steps to ensure that women, Aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities and persons with disabilities are fully represented in their workforces.

The provinces and territories have separate human rights laws, which cover most situations involving housing, business, health care, and employers and service providers in other areas not governed by the federal law. Situations not covered in this booklet may be under provincial or territorial jurisdiction; the addresses for these human rights commissions can be found in the blue pages of local telephone directories.

What is discrimination?

Discrimination means to treat someone differently or unfairly because of a personal characteristic. The Supreme Court of Canada describes discrimination as a “distinction which, whether intentional or not but based on grounds relating to personal characteristics of the individual or group, has an effect which imposes disadvantages not imposed upon others or which withholds or limits access to other members of society.” (Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia [1989] 1 S.C.R. p. 144)

Discrimination includes not being hired, losing a job, being paid less, or not getting a promotion or some other work benefit. It also includes different or unfair treatment when requesting a service that is generally available to the public: getting a passport, for example, or travelling by train.

Discrimination encompasses harassment, which includes behaviour that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person if a reasonable person should have known it was unwelcome. Harassment involves actions (e.g. touching, pushing), comments (e.g. jokes, insults, name-calling) or displays (e.g. posters, cartoons). When this behaviour is directed at a person because of any ground covered by the Canadian Human Rights Act, including race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, then it is discrimination. Racial slurs or jokes can poison an environment, even if they are not directed towards a particular person. This is also a form of harassment.

INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS

If you feel that you are being harassed or discriminated against, you can take your complaint to:

Your Employer. The organization should have a policy and procedures set up for dealing with harassment complaints, and these should include the name of a contact person.

Your Union. There may well be union grievance procedures for dealing with harassment complaints.

Service Provider. You can complain to the management of the organization that is responsible for the harasser(s).

The Police. Physical and sexual assault are offences under the Criminal Code and, in such cases, you can contact the police.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission. You have a legal right to file a human rights complaint if the harassment is based on your race, colour, national or ethnic origin, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, family status or conviction of which a pardon has been granted. You can get more information about how to do this by contacting the Commission using the phone numbers or addresses provided at the end of this section.

INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYERS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS

As an employer or provider of goods and services, you have a responsibility to provide an environment that is free of harassment and discrimination. You are also responsible for any act committed by any of your officers, directors, employees or agents in the course of their employment. If you have done everything possible to provide an environment free of harassment and discrimination and react quickly and appropriately to complaints, you will not be held responsible.

Prevention. You can act diligently to prevent harassment and discrimination by ensuring all staff are educated about what harassment and discrimination include. You should have a clear and well-publicized policy against harassment and discrimination which includes the names of the individuals in your organization who have been trained to handle complaints. As well, you need a procedure for dealing with complaints. All these actions will help convey the message that you will not tolerate discriminatory behaviour.

Action. Your organization must investigate any allegation of harassment or discrimination to try to find out what happened. To establish that you did all you could to mitigate or avoid the effects or harassment or discrimination, you must ensure that corrective measures are taken.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission. If you have a question about anything in this booklet or about how to prevent harassment and discrimination in your workplace, the Canadian Human Rights Commission is there to help. Information on how to reach the Commission is provided below.

HOW TO CONTACT THE CANADIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (Click this hyperlink in order to obtain the contact information of our national and regional offices).

Employees and customers may wish to refer to the leaflets about the Commission (which are available in forty languages) and the pamphlets about harassment entitled Harassment and the Canadian Human Rights Act and Harassment: What it is and what to do about it. Employers may find Anti-Harassment Policies for the Workplace: An Employer’s Guide helpful in ensuring that they are providing a harassment-free environment.