BC's highest court has decided that sexual harassment IS discrimination on the basis of sex.
This is earthshaking news (didn't we always think this?) only because the court below had held that a tenant could not claim sex discrimination "merely" because her landlord had given her unwanted gifts, made inappropriate comments to her, put his hands on her buttocks, and once made a derogatory comment about a male visitor.
Happily the BC Court of Appeal says that a tenant has a right to quiet enjoyment of her home in the same way that a worker is entitled to a work environment free of harassment; and that this does not include harassment by the landlord. The landlord in the case will now have to pay the $100000 awarded by the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The Court also said that iIt was open to the Tribunal to infer that the respondent sexually harassed the appellant because she was a woman, without any evidence of how the respondent treated male tenants.
Friedmann v. MacGarvie, [2012] B.C.J. No. 2314
This is earthshaking news (didn't we always think this?) only because the court below had held that a tenant could not claim sex discrimination "merely" because her landlord had given her unwanted gifts, made inappropriate comments to her, put his hands on her buttocks, and once made a derogatory comment about a male visitor.
Happily the BC Court of Appeal says that a tenant has a right to quiet enjoyment of her home in the same way that a worker is entitled to a work environment free of harassment; and that this does not include harassment by the landlord. The landlord in the case will now have to pay the $100000 awarded by the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The Court also said that iIt was open to the Tribunal to infer that the respondent sexually harassed the appellant because she was a woman, without any evidence of how the respondent treated male tenants.
Friedmann v. MacGarvie, [2012] B.C.J. No. 2314
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