''Seneca College v Bhadauria'',
981
Year 981 ( CMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
Births
* Abu'l-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Maghribi, Arab statesman (d. 1027)
* Giovanni Orseolo, Venetian ...
2 SCR 181 is a leading decision of the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
on
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
and
tort
A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...
law. The Court ruled that there can be no
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
tort of
discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
.
Background
Bhadauria, an East Indian woman, was qualified to teach in Ontario and had seven years experience. She had applied ten times to
Seneca College
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology is a multiple-campus public college in the Greater Toronto Area, and Peterborough, Ontario, Canada regions. It offers full-time and part-time programs at the baccalaureate, diploma, certificate an ...
but was never granted an interview. Bhadauria claimed that she was not interviewed because of her ethnicity.
She argued that the college had violated the common law tort of discrimination. The Court of Appeal for Ontario accepted the existence of such a tort. Since Bhadauria could show that such a right existed and that it had been violated by the practices of the college she would be entitled to remedy.
Decision of the Supreme Court of Canada
The Court allowed the appeal. It held that there was no tort of discrimination in Canadian common law. The court reasoned that a tort of discrimination was unnecessary since Bhadauria already had access to the human rights regime.
External links
full text of decision at CanLII
Canadian civil rights case law
Canadian tort case law
Supreme Court of Canada cases
1981 in Canadian case law
Seneca College
Minority rights
Employment discrimination case law
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