Discrimination Creating a Just Society

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees what is says – A Freedom cannot be denied accept under extreme circumstances Breaking the law b. A Right is a legal, moral, and social right that people are entitled to

Under Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms all citizens enjoy certain Equality Rights – Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origins, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. But who is this designed to protect you from as an individual. – The state? – From Society?

But what happens when other individuals violate your equality rights? – What can you do if you feel you have been discriminated upon? What is meant by discrimination? – Discrimination: Making a distinction between people and treating them differently on a basis other than individual merit. – Often discrimination is based in part on stereotypes Stereotype: Having an over simplified, standardised or fixed judgement of a group of people Stereotyping displays a bias as it allows for information to be conveyed easily (but is used a lot in humour)

So when you have been discriminated against how do you redress it? – Through the Human Rights Act It was passed in 1977 – At first it only applied to federally regulated areas Federal Departments Crown Corporations Federally legislated businesses Telecommunications Finance Airlines Postal Service

After 1977 most provinces adopted it to their provinces – But when the Human Rights Act was passed in the provinces it began to conflict with a number of local laws.

Protected areas in the Human Rights Act are: the workplace housing services and facilities such as service in a store or restaurant or through a provincially funded and delivered program purchase or sale of property volunteer public service publication, broadcast or advertisement membership in a professional, business or trade association, employer's or employee's organization

Discrimination is against the law in these protected areas because of protected characteristics in the Human Rights Act. In other words, you can't be treated unfairly in these key areas under the province's authority because of a characteristic such as your race, your gender, or if you have a physical disability, to name a few examples.

Protected characteristics in the Human Rights Act are: race/colour ethnic/national origin retaliation physical disability race/colourethnic/national origin retaliationphysical disability source of income aboriginal origin source of incomeaboriginal origin sexual harassment marital status sexual harassmentmarital status family status sex (pregnancy) family statussex (pregnancy) religion or creed association religion or creedassociation sex (gender) age sex (gender)age mental disability sexual orientation mental disabilitysexual orientation political affiliation irrational fear of illness or disease