Outraged protesters took to the streets across the US to demonstrate against the unnecessary loss of life and the complete lack of empathy shown by police officers for a Black man pleading to hold on to his life. George Floyd’s death could have been prevented if there were stricter policies limiting police use of force in Minneapolis. In Minneapolis police are allowed to use chokeholds and that’s how George Floyd was killed. A 30-year study examining police use of force shows that a ban on chokeholds and strangleholds results in 22% fewer police killings.
Continue Reading The Deaths of George Floyd & Regis Korchinski-Paquet
Religious Accommodation in the Workplace
Merry Christmas! Wait. What? Can we still say that in public? Why yes, we can, but not at the cost of excluding all other religions in the workplace.
For those that do not celebrate Christian holidays (and/or secular commercial holidays derived from Christian traditions), focusing only on Christian traditions can feel like exclusion.
It’s hard
The Time We Waste on Sexual Harassment
Last night I attended a @GirlGeeksTO discussion about sexual harassment at work. The room held 100 diverse women in tech, largely at the earlier stages of their career and keen to continue to develop their professional relationships and skills to advance in their fields. The #metoo movement
Transgender Rights and Employer Responsibilities
Trans rights have been in the news a lot lately. During his eventful tenure, President Trump has eroded existing protections for transgender individuals in the United States. This winter he removed protections for transgender students in public schools that allowed them to use the bathroom of their gender expression, and not their physical sex. At
When Employees Fail to Engage in the Accommodation Process
Last week I wrote about the statutory framework of the family status accommodation requirements in Ontario. The case that has moved this area of law along is Misetich v Value Village Stores (2016 HRTO 1229, “Misetich”), a case the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
Family Status Discrimination: The Statutory Framework
Discrimination on the grounds of “family status” continues to be a hot topic for Canadian employers. Are employers required to accommodate an employee’s eldercare obligations? Are these sorts of obligations different than an employee’s childcare obligations? Where is the line between personal preference to help
Human Rights During the Job Interview
Most companies know which are some of the obviously dangerous questions to ask during a job interview. Are you planning to have children (i.e. many expensive parental leaves)? Do you have a happy (i.e. stable) marriage? Are you religious (i.e. a different religion than me)?
What about the less obvious questions? Focusing on any characteristic protected under the Ontario Human Rights Code (“Code”) is inviting trouble. If a job candidate can then establish that they did not get a job even in part because of discrimination, the employer may be facing a claim. The Code is crystal clear that the human rights regime applies throughout the entire employment relationship, from the interview and pre-employment stage, right through to termination.Continue Reading Human Rights During the Job Interview
When Does Racism Amount to a Poisoned Workplace?
Does racism necessarily lead to a poisoned workplace?
At the end of last month, the Ontario Court of Appeal concluded in General Motors of Canada Limited v Yohann Johnson that while the former employee, Johnson, “genuinely believed that he had been the victim of racism in his workplace” and that his “perception of events unfortunately
Can You Discriminate Against a Volunteer?
The Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with a Disability set out the rights and obligations regarding employees, but what about volunteers? A reader of this blog (thanks Angie!) has asked about the application of these laws when recruiting volunteers. Human rights codes across Canada work largely the same on this issue,
Who Enforces AODA Standards?
I have questioned the teeth of the Accessibility of Ontarians with a Disability Act (“AODA”) in my past blog post, Where’s the Teeth?.
While the fines for non-compliance are huge (up to $100,000 per day – see section 83 of AODA Reg 191/11), the regime relies on the Ministry of Community and Social