More Amendments to Human Rights Legislation in Canada

by Katie Clayton and Farrah Sunderani

Over the past couple of years, human rights legislation across Canada has undergone a period of transition. This comes as a response to growing dissatisfaction with outdated statutes and the lengthy processes in place to resolve complaints.

Amendments to the British Columbia Human Rights Code were proposed in 2002 and set the stage for other provinces to follow suit. Modifications to Ontario’s Human Rights Code followed in 2008, and those changes closely mirrored those put in place in British Columbia. Now it seems that Alberta is next in line.

As the province to most recently update its legislation, one might presume that the Alberta amendments would be the most progressive, incorporating the successes and avoiding the downfalls of prior amendments to human rights statutes across the rest of the country. Unfortunately, the amendments to Alberta’s human rights regime have resulted in mixed support and even outrage from some Albertans.

Like the recent changes in British Columbia and Ontario, Alberta’s amendments to its Human Rights and Multiculturalism Act create a streamlined procedure for filing complaints. The legislation also attempts to eliminate duplicating resources. In Ontario, for example, complaints can now be filed directly with the Human Rights Tribunal, eliminating the need to proceed through the Human Rights Commission. Similarly, in British Columbia, the Human Rights Commission was eliminated in favor of a single human rights forum – the Human Rights Tribunal. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal was also given the added statutory power to dismiss groundless complaints.

Amendments to Alberta’s legislation (to be re-named the Alberta Human Rights Act) have also been geared toward creating a no-fuss human rights system. However, Alberta has rejected the recommendation to implement a direct service model such as that implemented in Ontario where complaints are dealt with through one fully independent Human Rights Tribunal. Instead, a Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Tribunal will continue to exist, with a prominent separation between the two.

One long overdue change to the Alberta human rights legislation has been the formal addition of “sexual orientation” to the list of prohibited grounds. This change will bring Alberta in line with the rest of Canada, where this addition was incorporated some time ago.

But not all change is good. A couple of Alberta’s amendments are troubling and have attracted a great deal of national media attention. Most controversial has been the addition of “parental rights,” which allows parents to remove their children from a classroom discussing sexuality or religion. Although not meant to apply to spontaneous discussions of religion, human sexuality, or sexual orientation that may arise during everyday classroom teaching, it remains to be seen how these rights will be enforced. The addition of the parental rights section is unique to Alberta human rights legislation and will force school boards in the province to inform parents about subjects of instruction well before they are raised in the classroom.

Although the amendments in Alberta received the government’s seal of approval in June 2009, it may be a matter of days before this controversial law is proclaimed in force.

Employers across Canada should be aware of this wave of recent amendments to human rights legislation across Canada. For one, with the newly streamlined procedures and improved access to justice through the development of legal support agencies, employers will continue seeing a greater number of human rights complainants. Employers in Alberta need to be aware of further changes. Not only has the name of the legislation and the human rights bodies changed, employers in the education sector should be particularly aware of the addition of the ‘parental rights’ section, which may expose educators and school board administrators to a whole host of new human rights complaints.