Sask Rights A Saskatchewan Human Rights
Commission Publication

Fall 1997

Highlights of 25 Years
 
1972 Legislation is passed that creates the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

1973 Office opens in Saskatoon. The Commission holds its first formal inquiry to hear a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of ancestry.

1974 Offices open in Regina and Prince Albert

1979 Existing human rights legislation is consolidated into The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code and significant new provisions are added. Three new prohibited grounds are added, too - age, marital status and physical disability. (Already existing prohibited grounds were race, religion, colour, sex, nationality, ancestry, and place of origin.) In addition, the Code makes legal provision for special programs such as employment equity and education equity.

1980 The Commission grants its first exemption and gives approval to the first employment equity program and the first education equity program.

The Commission adopts Accessibility Standards Guidelines, a formal guideline to assist in interpreting the Code on accessibility matters.

1983 The first case to go to the Court of Appeal is Peters v. the University Hospital Board which establishes the right of people who are blind to take seeing-eye dogs into public places, including hospitals.

1984 The Commission's first disability/employment case to go to a board of inquiry is Sandiford v. Base Communications Ltd. It is decided for the Commission.

The Commission's first sexual harassment case to go to a board of inquiry is also decided in the Commission's favour (Phillips v. Hermiz). The board affirms that sexual harassment is discrimination on the basis of sex.

1985 Huck v. Canadian Odeon Theatres is the first Canadian case at the Court of Appeal level to establish a duty to accommodate. It also establishes the principle that equality is not necessarily achieved by identical treatment. The same principles were endorsed by the Supreme Court of Canada later that year in the Ontario case of O'Malley. The Saskatchewan Commission was an intervenor when the O'Malley case went to the Supreme Court.

  1986 The Commission initiates an education equity program for K-12 designed to encourage Aboriginal children to participate fully in the school system and to complete Grade 12.

A board of inquiry orders the City of Saskatoon to repeal a bylaw that restricted postering on city property, saying it limited freedom of expression (Robert Fink v. The City of Saskatoon).

1988 In Chambers v. Saskatchewan Social Services the Court of Appeal ruled it was discriminatory for the Department of Social Services to pay less social assistance to a single person than to a person who was married. The case establishes that government services offered to the public come under the Code.

1989 Mental disability is added to the Code as a prohibited ground.

Section 14 of the Code is amended to make it broader in scope. The Code was amended after the Court of Appeal said The Red Eye - the Engineering Students Society newspaper - affronted the dignity of women but did not violate the Code because section 14 didn't include written articles. After that decision was handed down, the Code was amended to include articles and statements.

1990 The Commission applies for an injunction asking that the owner of the Chop Shop be restrained from selling or displaying racist stickers (SHRC v. Eugene Bell). Bell voluntarily agreed not to sell or display the stickers until the matter was heard by the courts. In 1994, the Court of Appeal said displaying or selling the stickers was a violation of the Code.

Heidt v. City of Saskatoon - the Court of Appeal says the City's sick-leave bank for employees shouldn't have treated Heidt differently because of age.

1991 Karlenzig v. Thessaloniki Holdings Ltd. and Papageorgiou reaffirms employers' liability for sexual harassment in the workplace.

A board of inquiry orders MacMillan Bloedel to implement an affirmative action plan, the first time such an order has been made in Saskatchewan (Canning and McConnell v. MacMillan Bloedel). The complaint was one of sex discrimination in a non-traditional workplace.

continued...

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