''Ontario (Human Rights Commission) v Simpsons-Sears Ltd'',
985
Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theoph ...
2 SCR 536 is a leading decision by the
Supreme Court of Canada, which first acknowledged the existence of indirect
discrimination through conduct that creates prejudicial effect.
Background
Theresa O'Malley was a
Seventh-day Adventist
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...
who was employed by the retailer
Simpsons-Sears
Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sea ...
. As part of her religion, she was forbidden from working from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. There were no full-time shifts available that did not require work on Friday and Saturday and so the company terminated her employment.
Simpsons-Sears argued that by requiring all its employees to work Fridays and Saturdays, it was not intentionally trying to discriminate against her, but it was a neutral requirement it imposed on all employees.
The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the requirement for all employees to work on Friday and Saturday was discriminatory against her religion.
Decision
McIntyre J, writing for a unanimous Court, held Simpons-Sears had discriminated against O'Malley. Despite the reasonable basis for the requirement, the company had not tried to make any changes to the work schedule to accommodate O'Malley's religious requirements.
See also
*
Central Okanagan School District No 23 v Renaud ''Central Okanagan School District No 23 v Renaud'', 9922 SCR 970 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision where the Court found that an employer was under a duty to accommodate the religious beliefs of employees to the point of undue hardship ...
External links
*
Canadian civil rights case law
Supreme Court of Canada cases
History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Labour relations in Canada
1985 in Canadian case law
Religious discrimination
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