What is the rationale for employment equity?
Discrimination is against the law. The B.C. Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, political belief, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, age or criminal record unrelated to employment. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Human Rights Act also prohibit discrimination on similar grounds. Furthermore, these statutes specifically provide for the implementation of special measures to correct historical inequities and to improve the situation of designated groups. The Supreme Court of Canada expressly recognized the validity and importance of employment equity programs in a 1987 case called Action Travail des Femmes v. Canadian National Railway Company where it said: An employment equity program . . . is designed to break a continuing cycle of systemic discrimination. The goal is not to compensate past victims or even to provide new opportunities f
