Workplace discrimination in Canada occurs when a protected personal characteristic—such as disability, race, sex, pregnancy, age or religion—is a factor in negative treatment or disadvantage at work.
Discrimination can affect hiring, pay, promotions, job duties, accommodation, discipline, layoffs and termination. Employers must also accommodate protected employee needs to the point of undue hardship under the human rights law that applies to their workplace.
Unfair treatment is not automatically discrimination. There must be a connection between the treatment and a characteristic protected by human rights law. But that characteristic does not have to be the only reason for what happened. If discrimination is affecting your job, don’t resign or sign a termination package before understanding your rights.
On This Page:
- 1. What Workplace Discrimination Means
- 2. Examples & Protected Characteristics
- 3. Duty to Accommodate
- 4. Harassment, Retaliation & Evidence
- 5. Termination, Severance & Compensation
- 6. Workplace Discrimination Laws Across Canada
- 7. What Employees Should Do
What Is Workplace Discrimination in Canada?
Workplace discrimination happens when a protected personal characteristic is connected to negative treatment, a disadvantage or the denial of an employment opportunity.
In practical terms, three questions usually matter:
- Do you have a characteristic protected by the human rights law that applies to you?
- Did you experience negative treatment or disadvantage at work?
- Was the protected characteristic a factor in that treatment?
You do not need an employer to admit, “I made this decision because of your disability, race or pregnancy.” Discrimination is often established from the sequence of events, differences in treatment, workplace comments and the employer’s response after learning about a protected need.
Does discrimination have to be intentional?
No. Workplace discrimination does not have to be intentional.
A rule can look neutral and still discriminate if it creates a disadvantage connected to a protected characteristic.
For example, a scheduling rule that applies to everyone can still create a human rights problem if it adversely affects a protected disability, religious observance or family-status need and the employer refuses to properly consider accommodation.
Is every unfair workplace decision discrimination?
No. A workplace decision is not illegal discrimination simply because it is unfair, unreasonable or unpleasant.
A manager can favour another employee, make a bad decision or treat you poorly without violating human rights law. The legal issue becomes discrimination when a protected characteristic is connected to the negative treatment.
For example, being denied a promotion because your manager prefers another qualified candidate is not automatically discrimination. Being denied the promotion because of your age, disability, pregnancy, race or another protected characteristic can be.
Examples of Workplace Discrimination
Workplace discrimination can be obvious, subtle or built into a workplace rule that disadvantages an employee because of a protected characteristic.
Examples can include:
- Refusing to hire someone because of their race, age, disability or religion
- Paying an employee less because of a protected characteristic
- Passing over a pregnant employee for a promotion because they will take maternity leave
- Disciplining an employee for disability-related behaviour without properly addressing an accommodation need
- Refusing reasonable changes required because of a disability or religious belief
- Reducing hours or opportunities because of protected family responsibilities
- Treating an employee negatively because of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression
- Using age-based assumptions to push an older worker toward retirement
- Firing an employee because of a disability, pregnancy or another protected characteristic
- Harassing an employee because of race, disability, sex, religion or another protected characteristic
What characteristics are protected from discrimination?
Protected characteristics vary by province and between provincial and federal human rights laws.
Common protected grounds across Canadian human rights legislation include:
- Race and colour
- Ancestry, ethnic or national origin
- Physical and mental disability
- Sex
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Age
- Religion or creed
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity and gender expression
- Marital status
- Family status
The complete list is not identical in every jurisdiction. The law that applies where you work determines exactly which characteristics are protected.
What is disability discrimination?
Disability discrimination occurs when a physical or mental disability is a factor in negative workplace treatment or when an employer fails to properly accommodate a disability-related need.
Common issues include medical leave, modified duties, reduced hours, performance concerns connected to a disability, return-to-work restrictions and termination during or shortly after an illness or injury.
What is pregnancy discrimination?
Pregnancy discrimination occurs when pregnancy, childbirth or a related protected need negatively affects how an employee is treated at work.
It can include losing shifts after announcing a pregnancy, being passed over for opportunities because maternity leave is approaching, refusing pregnancy-related accommodation or terminating someone because they are pregnant or taking protected leave.
What Is the Duty to Accommodate?
The duty to accommodate requires an employer to make reasonable changes needed to prevent or reduce discrimination connected to a protected characteristic, up to the point of undue hardship.
Accommodation is especially common when an employee has a disability, religious requirement or protected family-related need.
Depending on the situation, accommodation can involve:
- Modified duties
- Changes to hours or scheduling
- Time away from work
- A gradual return to work
- Changes to workplace equipment or physical access
- Adjusting a workplace rule
- Religious scheduling or dress accommodation
The employer does not have to provide the employee’s preferred solution simply because it was requested. It does have to genuinely consider reasonable accommodation options and cannot reject the issue based on assumptions or inconvenience alone.
Learn more about an employer’s duty to accommodate.
What does the employee have to do?
Employees must participate reasonably in the accommodation process.
If a disability is involved, that normally means providing appropriate information about your functional restrictions and limitations. You do not automatically have to disclose every detail of your diagnosis simply because your employer asks.
Keep accommodation requests and important responses in writing. If your employer rejects the request, ask what alternatives were considered.
Workplace Harassment, Retaliation & Proving Discrimination
Discriminatory harassment and retaliation can create additional human rights and employment-law problems.
Is workplace harassment discrimination?
Harassment can be discrimination when it is connected to a protected personal characteristic.
Racist comments, disability-related insults, sexual harassment, homophobic or transphobic conduct and religious harassment are examples of conduct that can engage human rights protections.
Harassment that is not connected to a protected characteristic can still raise other legal issues. Read our guide to workplace harassment in Canada.
Can your employer retaliate after you complain?
Your employer can’t lawfully punish you for asserting a human right where the applicable human rights law protects you from retaliation or reprisal.
Warning signs can include:
- Sudden discipline after asking for accommodation
- Reduced hours or shifts after making a complaint
- Being removed from projects or opportunities
- A sudden negative performance record that conflicts with earlier reviews
- Demotion
- Threats about your job
- Termination shortly after raising a human rights concern
Document what changed and when. Timing alone does not prove retaliation, but a clear sequence of events can become important evidence.
How do you prove workplace discrimination?
You prove workplace discrimination with evidence connecting a protected characteristic to the negative treatment you experienced.
Useful evidence can include:
- Emails, texts and workplace messages
- Written accommodation requests
- Medical restrictions or other relevant supporting information
- Performance reviews
- Comments made by managers or coworkers
- Evidence showing how comparable employees were treated
- Changes that occurred after the employer learned about the protected characteristic
- Termination or discipline documents
Focus on specific facts rather than simply writing, “My employer discriminated against me.” Record what happened, when it happened, who was involved and why you believe the protected characteristic was connected to the decision.
Can Workplace Discrimination Lead to Severance or Compensation?
Yes. Workplace discrimination can lead to human rights compensation, lost-income remedies and, when employment is terminated or constructively dismissed, full severance pay.
The remedies depend on what happened and which legal process applies. Human rights remedies can include compensation for lost income and the harm caused by discriminatory treatment, along with orders intended to correct the violation.
Those remedies are separate from your ordinary termination rights.
Can your employer fire you if you have a disability or another protected characteristic?
Yes, but it can’t fire you because of the protected characteristic or because it refuses to satisfy a legal accommodation obligation.
Having a disability, being pregnant or belonging to another protected group does not create lifetime job security. An employer can make a legitimate termination decision for a reason unrelated to the protected characteristic.
If the protected characteristic was a factor in the termination, however, the employee can have a human rights claim in addition to their termination entitlements.
What severance are you owed after a discriminatory termination?
If your employer terminates you without cause, you are entitled to the notice or compensation legally owed to you even when a human rights issue is also involved.
For many non-unionized employees in common-law Canada, full severance pay is substantially greater than employment standards minimums.
Depending on factors such as age, position, length of service and the availability of similar employment, severance can reach 24 months’ pay.
Don’t allow a discrimination complaint to distract from the value of your severance claim. Both need to be assessed.
Can discrimination lead to constructive dismissal?
Yes. Serious discrimination, a major failure to accommodate or significant retaliation can amount to constructive dismissal when the employer fundamentally breaches the employment relationship.
If that happens, the law can treat your departure as a termination rather than an ordinary resignation, allowing you to pursue constructive dismissal compensation and full severance.
If your employer formally terminates you and provides inadequate compensation, review whether you also have a wrongful dismissal claim before signing a release.
Workplace Discrimination Laws Across Canada
Every Canadian jurisdiction prohibits workplace discrimination, but the protected grounds, complaint process, deadlines and remedies differ by province and federal jurisdiction.
Workplace discrimination in Ontario
Ontario employees are protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code. The Code applies throughout the employment relationship, including hiring, pay, promotion, discipline, accommodation and termination.
See our complete guide to workplace discrimination in Ontario.
Workplace discrimination in Alberta
The Alberta Human Rights Act protects employees from workplace discrimination based on protected grounds and requires accommodation to the point of undue hardship.
See our complete guide to workplace discrimination in Alberta.
Employees dealing with a more specific issue can also learn about racial discrimination in Alberta, disability discrimination in Alberta, age discrimination in Alberta, or pregnancy and family-status discrimination in Alberta.
Workplace discrimination in British Columbia
BC’s Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination in employment based on protected personal characteristics and requires employers to take reasonable steps to avoid discriminatory effects.
The BC legal test focuses on whether you have a protected characteristic, experienced a negative employment effect and can connect the protected characteristic to that effect.
Read our full resource on workplace discrimination in BC.
What if you work in a federally regulated workplace?
Federally regulated employees are protected by the Canadian Human Rights Act rather than provincial human rights legislation for matters within federal jurisdiction.
This includes employees of the federal government and many workers in industries such as banking, telecommunications, broadcasting and interprovincial transportation.
The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on protected grounds and includes a duty to accommodate up to undue hardship.
Learn more about federally regulated employers in Canada.
What Should You Do If You Experience Workplace Discrimination?
If you believe you are experiencing workplace discrimination, document the connection to the protected characteristic and protect your employment position before taking an irreversible step.
- Document what happened. Create a timeline of decisions, comments, accommodation requests, discipline and other important events.
- Preserve relevant evidence. Keep emails, messages, performance reviews and other documents you are legally entitled to retain.
- Identify the protected characteristic. Be clear about why you believe disability, pregnancy, race, religion, age or another protected ground is connected to the treatment.
- Put important concerns in writing. Make the employer aware of the discrimination or accommodation issue where appropriate.
- Participate in accommodation. Provide reasonable information about protected needs or functional restrictions when required.
- Document retaliation. Record negative treatment that begins after you complain or request accommodation.
- Don’t resign. Determine whether discrimination has created constructive dismissal and full severance rights first.
- Don’t sign a severance release. If you are terminated, calculate your full severance and discrimination-related compensation before giving up your claims.
- Act before the applicable deadline expires. Human rights and employment claims can have different limitation periods.
Workplace Discrimination Canada FAQs
Is workplace discrimination illegal in Canada?
Yes. Human rights laws across Canada prohibit discrimination in employment based on characteristics protected by the law that applies to the workplace.
Does my employer have to admit it discriminated against me?
No. You do not need an admission from your employer to establish discrimination.
The connection can be proven through the timeline, workplace comments, inconsistent explanations, differences in treatment and other evidence showing that the protected characteristic was a factor.
Can one decision be discriminatory?
Yes. Workplace discrimination does not have to be a long-running pattern.
A single hiring, promotion, discipline, accommodation or termination decision can violate human rights law if a protected characteristic is a factor in the negative treatment.
Can you be fired after making a discrimination complaint?
An employer can make a legitimate termination decision for reasons unrelated to your human rights complaint, but it can’t lawfully terminate you as punishment for asserting a protected right.
If you are fired soon after complaining, requesting accommodation or disclosing a protected need, have the circumstances and your full severance package reviewed before signing anything.
Can you get severance if you quit because of discrimination?
Yes, if the discrimination or related employer conduct is serious enough to amount to constructive dismissal.
Don’t resign first and investigate later. Determine whether the legal threshold has been met and how much severance you are owed before ending the employment relationship.
Get Help With Workplace Discrimination
Discrimination can affect your job long before an employer formally terminates you. It can show up through denied accommodation, reduced opportunities, discipline, demotion, retaliation or pressure to leave.
Samfiru Tumarkin LLP helps non-unionized employees challenge workplace discrimination, failed accommodation and retaliation, protect their employment rights, and secure the full severance pay and compensation they are legally entitled to receive when discrimination has damaged or ended their employment.
If you have been fired, pressured to resign or offered a severance package after a human rights problem, our employment lawyers can assess both the discrimination claim and the full value of your termination compensation. Don’t settle one part of the case while leaving significant compensation unclaimed.
For local discrimination-specific help, speak with our workplace discrimination lawyers in Toronto, human rights lawyers in Calgary or human rights lawyers in Edmonton.