The BC Court of Appeal will hear a case today of whether a landlord’s sexual harassment of his tenant is a discrimination of her human rights.
The case involves a young woman who was sexually harassed by her landlord to the point of her having to move out of her East Vancouver home.
“For this woman, it was an incredibly serious problem. She faced a year of continual harassment – comments, gifts, sexual touching – from her landlord,” says lawyer Laura Track, with West Coast LEAF, a women’s equality group that has standing in the case.
She filed a human rights complaint, which was granted.
But the BC Supreme Court disagreed, saying harassment doesn’t necessarily constitute sex discrimination.
“We think that is incorrect in law and we want to ensure that the law develops in a way that ensures women’s equality and ensures that female tenants who are already incredibly vulnerable to discrimination by male landlords are protected by human rights legislation,” Track says.
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