Religious Discrimination

Religious Dress: When does public safety override human rights?

• In Dhillen (1999), a tribunal determined that a Sikhmotorist wearing a turbanshould be allowed to take a test for a motorcycle license, because the potential risk incurred by not wearing a helmet affected only his own safety.
• In Pannu (2000), however, a tribunal ruled that an employer had not discriminated against a Sikh recaust worker when it dismissed him for refusing to shave his beard because the potential risk incurred by having facial wear affected the safety of his co-workers.
• In Nijjar (1999),  a tribunal ruled that a Sikh passenger wearing a kirpan should not be allowed a seat on an airplane because the potential for injury affected the safety of other passengers.      
• In Ali Tahmourpour (2008), the Canadian Human Rights Commission found a trainee had been wrongfully expelled from the training program on the basis of his religious beliefs and ethnic origin. 

Holy Days: When can an employee get time off to celebrate holy days?

• InO'Malley (1985), the Supreme Court ruled that an employer had failed to accommodate, to the point of undue hardship, a Seventh-day Adventistemployee who lost her full-time status when she refused to work on her Sabbath.
• In Roosma (1995), however, an Ontario Board of Inquiry ruled that an employer was not guilty of discrimination when it dismissed two employees adhering to the Worldwide Church of God for repeatedly missing work on certain holy days because accommodating them would have incurred undue hardship.

Special Interest Organizations: Under what circumstances may an employer fire an employee for religious non-conformity?

• In Caldwell (1984), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of a Catholic High School who fired a teacher upon discovering that she was not Catholic.
• Similarly, in Schroen (1999), a Board of Adjudication ruled in favour of a Mennonite college that dismissed an accounting clerk upon learning she was not Mennonite.

Provision of Services:  Do service providers have the right to discriminate, based on their religious beliefs, against groups protected by human rights law?

• In Fancy (1993), a Board of Inquiry ruled that a School Division had discriminated against religious minorities when it allowed schools to give Bible readings in the mornings and to recite the Lord's prayer at school assemblies. 
• In Brockie (2000), an Ontario Board of Inquiry determined that a Born-again Christian had unjustly discriminated against a gay client when the former refused, on religious grounds, to provide the latter with printing services.  
• In Sonnenberg v Centre Universitaire St. Louis Maillet (1987), a Board of Inquiry found that a university was within its right to refuse to rent an auditorium to a Pentecostal minister who wanted to promote his church on campus; university premises are not services customarily provided to members of the general public and university policy allowed the centre to refuse campus space to persons who might bother or involve students

Is the employer responsible for acts of religious discrimination committed by one employee against another?

•  In Pizza Hut (1999) a B.C. human rights tribunal ruled that Pizza Hut was liable for the threatening and derogatory remarks made by a Bosnian Serb employee to a Bosnian Muslim employee. 
• In a related case, Pillai (2003), a B.C human rights tribunal ruled that Lafarge Canada was liable for the racial and religious slurs made about a South Asian employee.        

Freedom of expression: When do constitutional/collective agreement rights override Human Rights?

• In Ross(1996), the Supreme Court supported a board of Inquiry's ruling against a teacher who professed hatred against Jews, explaining that the elimination of discrimination overruled the individual's freedom of speech.
• In Noble v York univerisity (2004), an arbitrator ruled that the University had violated the Collective Agreement when it publically denonced (as racist and anit-Semitic) the research of one of its tenure professors. It had not, however, defamed him.
• In Trinity Western University (1998), the B.C. Court of Appeal (in a split decision) ruled that the B.C.College of Teachers did not have the right to deny entry to Trinity Western University, whose religiously-based policies were explicitly homophobic. 

Is it acceptable to offer bursaries to students on the basis of their religion?

• In University of Victoria v B.C Attorney General (2000), the BC Supreme Court ruled that it was not against public policy for the University to respect the testamentary wishes of a women who had left money for the establishment of two bursaries for Catholic students only. Even if the provision was based on creed, it constituted an innocuous breach of the code. The Court distinguished this case from the Re. Leonard case, where an educational trust was deemed to be contrary to public policy because of its overly seixt, racist and religious bias

What does a complainant need to demonstrate in order to have a reasonable prospect of success in a religious discrimination case?

•  In Hamedanian v Capilano University (2009), the BCHRT ruled that a systems analyst's complaint of religious discrimination in employment had no reasonable prospect of success: although she had demonstrated that she was Muslim and that she had faced adverse treatment (dismissal), she was unable to create a nexus between her creed and the adverse tratment. Her casesd was dismissed
• In Hsieh v York University (2009), a student was unable to prove that she had been adversely treated by a professor and an administrator because of her religious-ased attidues against gay marriage and transgendered persons.
• Similarly, in Maughan v UBC (2009), a student was unable to demonstrate that she had been adversely treated by professors, fellow-students and administrators on the basis of her expression of religious beliefs in the classroom.