Reference no: EM133160372

Human Rights Trial

Fact Scenario

Andrea is a flight attendant who has worked at Skyway Travel for 8 years. She is responsible for serving refreshments, general cleaning duties, and flight responsibilities such as the before-flight "training" session for travellers and has successfully passed all her performance appraisals.

Andrea is "trans", meaning that she was born male but is now living completely as a female, and has done so for many years.  Her sexual orientation has never been discussed or revealed at work.

Her new manager, Steven, has been drafting new job descriptions for all employees at Skyway Travel. Effective immediately, all new and current Flight Attendants must be able to lift 65 pounds from waist to shoulder.

Andrea is not able to meet this standard due to a back injury suffered in her teens. She has never had to lift anything more than 20 or 30 pounds and there seems to be nothing in her duties which requires someone to have to be able to lift that much and has never needed to disclose this injury. 

Steven told her that it is impossible to accommodate her.  However, the company eventually found alternative work for her. She was removed from flight duties and sent to work in the call center where her primary duties would be to answer the phone, talk to clients regarding missing luggage and other complaints, and file documents.

After the move, things seemed to be going well. Andrea quickly learned her new job and it looked like she was meeting company expectations.

About a month into her new position, she noticed that her co-worker Wayne was visiting strange websites. One day, Andrea's computer froze so she quickly jumped on Wayne's computer (he had just gone to get a coffee and did not lock the computer) and she noticed that he had left open a page from "ProtectOurRacialHeritage.org". Andrea was shocked to see this page calling for the expulsion of immigrants and racial minorities from Canada.

Wayne came back from the bathroom and asked her what she was doing. Andrea quickly said that her computer froze and that she had used his computer to help a client. She did not confront him about the website.  Wayne seemed okay with her answer and asked nothing further.

About a month later, Esperanza was hired in their reception department. Esperanza is a lesbian, and her appearance is male. Wayne immediately took a dislike to her. He refused to help her "learn the ropes" of the job and told her to get help from Andrea. Esperanza just assumed that Wayne was not particularly nice; she did not make any assumptions that he did not like her because she is a Lesbian. But Andrea suspected that Wayne was treating Esperanza differently because of this.

Andrea wanted to report Wayne but she knew that Wayne and their manager Rick are very good friends as they went to high school together.

One day, Andrea overheard Wayne telling someone of the phone that "I can't stand Esperanza. I wish I could get that 'dyke' fired!"

Andrea was fed up. She strongly believes that this type of language is wrong and these types of attitudes have no place in society.

She went to her manager's office and told him that she wanted to tell him something in private. Rick immediately shut the door. Andrea sat down and was nervously trembling. Rick decided to massage her shoulders to "make her feel comfortable". Andrea immediately told Rick to stop "I don't like this", to which he said, "Don't be such a prude, Andrea, I am only trying to make you feel better. You will like this, I'm sure." Andrea slipped away from Rick and went to her workstation.

The next day, Andrea saw Rick in the hallway. She confronted him saying "I was not comfortable with what you did last night, and even more so given that I am a transsexual and not at all interested in you "romantically".  Rick replied, "What I did? Andrea, you encouraged it and now you tell me you're "trans"?! You know nothing happened - you better not be making up stories! You can be terminated for lying."

Andrea was surprised and shocked. She was anxiously looking forward to the end of her shift so she could go home and regroup as she had a 3 week vacation scheduled.

Now, Andrea has approached you about filing a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal on her behalf. Your job is to present her case of discrimination against Skyway Travel.

Assignment

1. You are to prepare a written report using the following format:

Introduction:

intro to the case

Issues:

Here you provide details of each ground of discrimination. You should make reference to the applicable section(s) of the Human Rights Code and provide examples of relevant case law. Outline any tests, if applicable. The text has examples of cases with similar fact scenarios. Use online resources such as canlii.org to find more examples. Separate into subsections for each pertinent issue.

Conclusion:

This is where you draft your conclusion and state the remedy sought. In this case, you are asking the tribunal to award Andrea $25,000 damages for loss of dignity.

This is not meant to be an extensive report. Three to four pages maximum should be sufficient to outline your position and present your case.  APA report format and citations are required!!

1. You will present Andrea's case to me. I will listen to your arguments and ask questions. You can use your report to help you during your presentation at trial but be careful not to merely read the report verbatim. I am interested in your advocacy skills. Only I will be present at your trial, no other students will be present.  Each student will have approximately 7 to 8 minutes maximum to present their case.  I will send out the appearance schedule via email. At the end of your trial, you are required to submit your written report