Intersectionality: Nine Things Women Could Not Do in 1971 - Legal Rights of Canadian Women in 2020

In Canada, we have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects the rights of all Canadians, as well as women. In the Charter, two sections specifically apply to equality ,which are sections 15 and 28. Section 15 makes sure that the law upholds equal protection without discriminating against sex, race, or ethnicity. Section 28 guarantees that all rights are applied equally to men and women. As blanket rights for equality, these are essential to ensuring that men and women are protected equally under the Charter. In addition to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977 that allows for all Canadians to have the right to equality and to avoid discrimination based on sex. This act protects men and women from discrimination when they are employed by government run organization. However, this leaves a gap when it comes to all privately owned businesses. To accommodate for this, the Government of Canada created the Canadian Human Rights Commission to investigate situations where discrimination occurs in the workplace. The last angle that the government uses to approach equality in Canada is the Employment Equity Act and the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act. The Employment Equity Act REQUIRES federal jurisdiction employers to proactively be looking for ways to diversify their work team that include women and other minority groups (Heritage 2017). The Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act is legislation that makes sure women who are working in the federal public sector are getting equal pay for work of equal value (Secretariat 2013). These are all examples of acts that protect Canadian women in the year 2020 that were not available to Canadain women for a long time! This is a good example of the Canadian Government using its power to create legislation that fosters real change in the workplace. I believe the future of this seeing what kind of legislation could be made to prevent discrimination in private workplaces. Of course, all these acts could not apply to that, such as small businesses, but I see this as the future of legislation to continue to promote equality between men and women.

Sources

Heritage, C. (2017, October 25). Government of Canada. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/rights-women.html

Secretariat, T. (2013, February 05). Government of Canada. Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/innovation/equitable-compensation/public-sector-equitable-compensation-act-reform-pay-equity.html











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