cover image: Human rights commissions and public policy : Role of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in advancing sexual orientation equality rights in Canada

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Human rights commissions and public policy : Role of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in advancing sexual orientation equality rights in Canada

7 Jan 2009

This is followed by a description of the Commission’s activities as the administrative body for the CHRA, and analysis of the role the Commission played in facilitating three specific developments: the establishment of sexual orientation as an equality right in the CHRA, the provision of employment-related benefits for same-sex couples in the federal sector and the legal recognition of same-sex ma [...] Nevertheless, because the Commission’s role was envisioned as moulding public opinion and stimulating policy change that would benefit Canadian society,30 public sentiments did not deter the Commission from recommending the necessity of amending the CHRA, which it continued to do in annual reports up to 1991.31 The Commission also called for the amendment of the Act in its 1985 submission to the P [...] The Court agreed, declaring the absence of the ground of sexual orientation to be a violation of the section 15 equality guarantee of the Charter, and ordering that sexual orientation be read into the CHRA with immediate effect. [...] This omnibus legislation was introduced in the wake of the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in M. v. H., in which the Court found that the opposite-sex definition of ‘spouse’ in Ontario’s family law legislation violated the Charter.53. [...] The movement to have same-sex marriage recognized in Canada gathered substantial momentum, however, following the M. v. H. decision and the enactment of the Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act.59 In the early 1990s, the Commission emphasized that the issue of extending employment benefits to same-sex couples was not to be conflated with the idea of recognizing same-sex couples as legally

sex discrimination discrimination sexuelle homosexuality sexual orientation orientation sexuelle homosexualité
Pages
41
Published in
Canada

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