Preference to disadvantaged groups not discrimination against others: B.C. court

November 16, 2022

“There’s nothing wrong with having some kind of a program or workshop that is just targeted at a historically and presently underrepresented or disadvantaged group in society – the groups being [negatively] affected are ones that generally do not face discrimination in their day-to-day lives.”

So says Ryan Macklon, a lawyer at Kent Employment Law in Vancouver, after the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the province’s Human Rights Tribunal dismissing a discrimination complaint related to a union’s workshop that preferred applicants from certain disadvantaged groups.

“It’s fine to have a program like that, as long as you are advancing the purposes of the [Human Rights Code], which is equality and preventing and prohibiting discrimination in the workplace,” says Macklon.

Source: HR Reporter