Alberta Human Rights Tribunal Rejects Religious Mask Exemption

The Human Rights Tribunal of Alberta (the "Tribunal") recently dismissed a complaint from an individual who claimed that wearing a mask was against his religious beliefs, offering employers insight into how the Tribunal determines whether religious beliefs require accommodation.

The complainant alleged that a store's policy that required him to wear a mask discriminated against him because of his religious beliefs, stating that "God created me in his own image and if he cannot see that image because it is covered with a face mask then I have committed sacrilege."

To receive the protections of the Alberta Human Rights Act (the "Act"), a complainant must first establish that they have a characteristic that falls within a protected ground set out in the Act. In this case, the complainant claimed his religious beliefs should be protected, yet did not identify what religion or faith tradition he followed. While he did refer to passages from scripture, those passages