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ARTICLE · 19 MAY 2020

The Cost Of Pre-Employment Discrimination

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Employers are often unaware that human rights protections extend to not only the protection of employees, but to job applicants in the pre-employment stage as well.

CanadaEmployment and HR
Kevin Wilson K.C.
Kevin Wilson K.C.
Ashton Butler
Ashton Butler
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Employers are often unaware that human rights protections extend to not only the protection of employees, but to job applicants in the pre-employment stage as well. The risk of pre-employment discrimination is particularly overlooked when application forms or interviewers ask seemingly innocuous questions which elicit information based on a protected ground.

This risk was highlighted by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the "Tribunal") in Haseeb v Imperial Oil Limited, 2018 HRTO 957 (the "Liability Decision") and 2019 HRTO 1174 (the "Remedy Decision").

Haseeb v Imperial Oil Limited

In this case, the applicant, Muhammad Haseeb, was an international student at McGill University when he applied for a job as an engineer with the respondent, Imperial Oil Limited ("Imperial"). Imperial's hiring policy required that, to be considered for employment, all entry-level engineering candidates be eligible to work in Canada on a permanent basis. When Mr. Haseeb submitted

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