Mary Cornish, Fay Faraday, and Jo-Anne Pickel, Enforcing Human Rights in Ontario
1. What does it mean that human rights are quasi-constitutional? Remedial?
2. What is systemic discrimination and how does it differ from overt discrimination?
3. What are the changes to the Ontario system of human rights made by Bill 107? What was the system before Bill 107 and what were the criticisms of that pre-Bill 107 system? What was done through Bill 107 to respond to those criticisms? How would you go about assessing whether or not the revisions to the system have been effective in addressing the problems?
4. What was the issue in the Meiorin case? What did the Supreme Court of Canada decide? Why is this case so important?
5. Familiarize yourself with the following:
the areas in which the Code protects human rights
the grounds of discrimination
the definition of discrimination
the differences between direct and constructive discrimination
the onuses and burdens of proof
Think critically about these issues - what is the rationale for what the Government/Courts have done ? What are the underlying assumptions? What is missing? Do they go too far? Not far enough?
6. What is the duty to accommodate? When does it arise? Why is it so important?