See also our employment and dismissal page
Human Rights Claims are often related to employment, but not necessarily so. Human Rights Claims may be based on deprivation of employment or opportunity for employment, or harassment in the workplace, but may also be completely un-connected to employment. For example, discrimination on certain grounds is restricted in relation to denying any accommodation service or facility customarily available to the public, or denying to a person the opportunity to purchase a commercial or dwelling unit, or to acquire land, or opportunities for tenancy, or in relation to the amount of wages. However there are interesting exemptions and exclusions in the law. For example, residential premises may require that new occupants be over 55 or at least one of every two occupants be over 55 in a rental unit which reserves every rental unit to persons who have reached 55 years of age. Also, the Provincial Government has by regulation granted exemptions to some organisations, including those which have religious connections, which grant permission to discriminate. There are cases where such discrimination, although apparently permitted by provincial government regulation, has been challenged in the courts.
The Human Rights code has undergone significant aggressive revisions and interpretations from the courts enhancing the rights of individuals to be treated equally or even better than equally where accommodations ought to be made to create equality. Although Trinity Western University, due to its religious nature, and an exemption, was allowed to discriminate to some extent by requiring that students sign a covenant as a condition of admission that imposed a religiously based code of conduct, there were consequences. The Law Society of British Columbia was held to be acting within their scope of powers when they refused to accredit the Trinity Western University Law School on the basis that the Law Society of British Columbia had a broad duty which included the power to oppose inequitable barriers to entry into the profession. With the goal and objective of ensuring equal access to the legal profession and supporting diversity within The Bar and preventing harm to LGBTQ law students the refusal to accredit was upheld. Proper advice on human rights claims requires nuance and creative listening and analysis. It also requires an up-to-date knowledge of the law and constant review of the law. Human Rights are evolving and limitations to such rights that were once considered acceptable are acceptable no longer.
We advise and assist claimants and potential claimants with care and sensitivity. We also advise employers on the risks of such claims and how to minimise those risks. Often on human rights claims there are creative solutions available and the benefits to inclusiveness, cooperation and communication are often underestimated by parties on both sides of the dispute due to the natural emotional reactions to the very personal nature of the conflicts.
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