Human Rights Complaint in Ontario

[VO #23]

Originally Posted by Ark2

We both know that discrimination is not discrimination. Some discrimination seems to be perfectly acceptable. Someone looking for a roommate or a tenant might post something in a personal ad saying "women only" or "women preferred". How well do you think that might go over if it said "no homosexuals" instead? Clearly there is one group of people that society has no issue with being discriminated against.

People in this thread are really hung up on formal equality at the expense of substantive equality.

[Hemi-Cuda]

why does religion even need to come into this? she went to a friggin barbershop, not a muslim salon. all their defense needs to be is that they're not trained to cut women's hair, the only mistake they made was saying anything about their religious beliefs

i'm all for calling out fundy muslims for discrimination against women and stone age beliefs, but this is ridiculous

[VO #23]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

why does religion even need to come into this? she went to a friggin barbershop, not a muslim salon. all their defense needs to be is that they're not trained to cut women's hair, the only mistake they made was saying anything about their religious beliefs

i'm all for calling out fundy muslims for discrimination against women and stone age beliefs, but this is ridiculous

That's the thing - if the barbers weren't qualified to cut a woman's hair, and thus refused her service, there isn't a human rights issue. But because they denied her on the basis of her gender, her human rights were engaged.

To me, the claim itself is less ridiculous than the fact that these guys thought they could get away with denying her a legitimate service solely on the basis of gender in the year 2012.

[Clarkey]

She wanted a dude haircut.

[fatso]

This is definitely an odd one.

In refusing to serve her because of her sex, the barbers clearly discriminated against her. On the other hand, requiring them to serve her as she would like requires violating the barbers' religious freedom.

Given that I have little tolerance for religious fundamentalists or busybodies, it's tough for me to sympathize with anyone other than the taxpayers who are required to fund this kind of garbage litigation. Perhaps a fair solution would be to require them to live together for a week-end, where she is required to wear a skirt, cook and serve their meals to them, and they are required to cut her hair and wash her feet.

In all seriousness, though, she should lose. Unless they were dinks to her in refusing to cut her hair, she's clearly just someone with an axe to grind actively looking to be discriminated against.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Ark2

Is it though? According to the barber's lawyer, they offered to have one of their non-Muslim employees cut her hair and she refused, saying that it had to be the owner. This women chose this barbershop hoping that this would happen so she could stir up a controversy. Plain and simple.

Where? The original article claims that all the barbers were Muslim.

[Ark2]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Where? The original article claims that all the barbers were Muslim.

I was listening to this on talk radio on Thursday (I work in Toronto and listen to Toronto talk radio AM 640). They were interviewing the barber's lawyer and this is what he said. The next day, they interviewed the woman filing the complaint and she confirmed this. Take it for what it's worth though...

[driveway]

A reasonable solution would be to expect the barbershop to hire a female stylist.

In this way both female clients could be served and the male employees would not be required to violate a sincerely held (if obviously stupid) religious conviction.

If the barber shop insists that working with women is in violation of their religion, they should be sued into oblivion.