Cases
Employment
Melita M Chittenden, Avelina M. Villanueva, The Toronto Organization For Domestic Workers’ Rights vs. A.G. of Ontario (1986)
LEAF sponsored the Toronto Organization for Domestic Workers’ Rights’ (also known as Intercede) challenge of parts of the Ontario Employment Standards Act that excluded domestic workers from minimum wage protection. Since almost all domestic workers are immigrant women, the exclusion of wage protection for domestic workers was in violation of sex equality rights. The Court [...]
Ivy Tyson and Goodhost Foods – and other mandatory retirement cases (1987)
In 1985, Ivy Tyson challenged her mandatory retirement with no pension, at age 65, from her job at Goodhost Foods. On Mrs. Tyson’s behalf, LEAF challenged her mandatory retirement on the grounds that the provisions of the Ontario Human Rights Code which allowed mandatory retirement at the age of 65 infringed on Section 15 of [...]
Century Oils (Canada) Inc. vs. Davies (1988)
Century Oils made an offer of employment to Christine Davies and subsequently withdrew that offer when she told the employer that she was pregnant. The BC Supreme Court made the precedent-setting ruling that pregnancy discrimination was sex discrimination. A previous ruling in the Bliss case had ruled that pregnancy discrimination was not sex discrimination (the [...]
Haldimand-Norfolk Regional Board of Commissioners of Police et al. v. Ontario Nurses Association et al. (1990)
After Ontario’s pay equity legislation was enacted, the Ontario Nurses Association sought for nurses to be in the same comparator class as police in the municipality of Haldimand-Norfolk. The Tribunal ruled in favour of the nurses. LEAF sponsored the intervention of the Equal Pay Coalition which argued that the purpose of the Pay Equity Act [...]
Vinogradov v. Governors of University of Calgary et al. (1990)
In 1988, LEAF supported Aleksandra Vinogradov’s complaint against the University of Calgary after her application for a full professor position in the Department of Engineering was rejected. Even though she was highly qualified for the position she argued that women had been systematically excluded from the Department. Had she been hired, she would have been [...]
Colgate Palmolive (1991)
A woman who suffered psychological disability as a result of racist sexual harassment in the workplace won the rights to worker’s compensation. The woman, employed as an operator at Colgate Palmolive, was the only woman in her department and one of two black women in her workplace. For over six years, she was subjected to [...]
Conway v. Her Majesty the Queen (1993)
This case was brought by Phillip Conway, a prisoner at Collins Bay penitentiary, who argued that female guards should not be conducting certain routine forms of surveillance. LEAF intervened to argue that while the Supreme Court of Canada must protect the privacy and dignity of inmates, it must, at the same time, protect the equality [...]
Ferrel v. A.G (1998)
Marilyn Ferrel challenged the constitutionality of the Job Quotas Repeal Act which was enacted by the Ontario government to repeal the Employment Equity Act (EEA). The EEA had been created by a previous government to eliminate systemic discrimination in employment against women, racial minorities, people with disabilities and Aboriginal peoples. LEAF intervened in this case [...]
Vriend v. Alberta (1998)
Until recently, Alberta’s human rights legislation excluded “sexual orientation” from the prohibited grounds of discrimination. Delwin Vriend was fired from his teaching job in 1991 for being gay, in spite of his favourable work record. He attempted to file a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission but discovered that he was legally unable to [...]
BCGSEU v. PSERC (1999)
In this unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that if a workplace policy systematically excludes women or other groups it must be scrutinized to ensure whether it is truly required to determine job performance. Tawney Meiorin, a female forest fire fighter in BC, had worked in this male dominated profession for over two [...]
