Is Sexual Harassment Automatically Discrimination?

The HR Space is edited by Louise Béchamp, Karen M. Sargeant and Brian P. Smeenk

Sexual harassment is discrimination.  Overturning a decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court, the British Columbia Court of Appeal has recently clarified that evidence of unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature is alone sufficient to establish discrimination on the basis of sex.  This overturned a lower court decision which had held that the harassment of a female tenant by the male landlord could not be found to amount to sexual discrimination without evidence that male tenants were treated differently.  In restoring the decision of the BC Human Rights Tribunal, the Court of Appeal also confirmed that sexual harassment of a tenant by a landlord is essentially the same as sexual harassment in a workplace, under the BC Human Rights Code.