Is differential treatment sufficient to establish discrimination?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Boyle v. Future Focus, 2009 BCHRT 414 (CanLII):

It has long been established in Canadian law that differential treatment alone is not sufficient to establish discrimination. In Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia, 1989 CanLII 2 (SCC), [1989] 1 S.C.R. 143, McIntyre J. stated the following about the concept of equality: It is a comparative concept, the condition of which may only be attained or discerned by comparison with the condition of others in the social and political setting in which the question arises. It must be recognized at once, however, that every difference in treatment between individuals under the law will not necessarily result in inequality and, as well, that identical treatment may frequently produce serious inequality.

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