The Canadian Human Rights Act is designed to safeguard Canadians from discriminatory practices based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, marital status, family status, disability, sexual orientation, or conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted. Section 2 of the Act stipulates that every individual should have equal opportunity to make the life he or she is able to have, without being prevented from doing so by discriminatory practices.

The Human Rights Act applies to all federally regulated industries, such as airlines, banks, and telephone companies, and includes Canadian TV and radio stations.

While the Human Rights Act is wide-ranging, it only deals with approximately ten specific types of discrimination. These include:

• communicating any message that is likely to expose a person to hatred or contempt (section 13)
• displaying or publishing in public any notice, sign, symbol or emblem that expresses or implies discrimination or an intention to discriminate (section 12)
• refusing to employ, or to continue employing, any individual, based on a discriminatory viewpoint (section 7)
• devising employment policies, including recruitment, referral, hiring, promotion, training or apprenticeship policies, that deprive individuals of employment opportunities (section 10)
• denying goods, services, facilities or accommodations on discriminatory grounds (section 5)

As an example, a person denied a job at a radio station on the basis of their ethnic background would be protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act. That person could lodge a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission; an investigation would take place; and the Commission would rule on whether the complaint was valid. If it was found that discrimination had taken place, the Commission would assess the harm done and order compensation — or whatever measures it thought necessary to prevent a similar situation from occurring again.

Section 13 of the Act refers specifically to discriminatory messages communicated over the telephone or the Internet. However, it does not apply to matter communicated by broadcasting. Race-related complaints in the broadcast media — such as a TV program that stereotypes visible minorities, or an all-white news team — are not covered under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

To report discrimination of any kind in broadcast programming, a better starting point would be the broadcasting regulations of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Full Text: Canadian Human Rights Act