Toronto woman denied haircut files human rights complaint

[crazy canuck]

it simply doesn't appear to be as huge human rights issue that some Muslim dudes did not want to cut this chick's hair.

I think you are slicing it a bit thin there.  Discrimination is prohibited in relation to any service provided to the public.

Meh, sure it's a violation. My point is that, given that the industry is in practice widely segregated by sex for purely functional reasons, it doesn't appear to be much of a violation.

Your "functional" reason does not apply in this case.  She has short hair.  Why shouldnt she have access to a cheap haircut?  Especially since the reason for denying her is in no way functional but simply that they dont want to serve any females.

You are missing my point. I'm not saying that these guys are refusing her service for a functional reason. I'm also not saying refusal of service isn't a violation. I'm saying that, other than a purely symbolic matter, it isn't a big deal, as it is widely accepted that, practically speaking, haircutting is commonly sex-segregated in some establishments (and others not) . While I fully agree that in theory a woman has the right to demand service from a men-only barber shop and a man to demand service from a hairdressing salon, in practice it isn't a particularly significant right. 

There are real issues in which people are deprived of meaningful rights to get excited about. I'm simply pointing out that, in my opinion and given the context, this isn't one of them.

Mind you, it will no doubt have the benefit of keeping some lawyers in gainful employment, so it has that going for it. 

I am not missing it, I am saying it makes no sense.  Once you start arguing that protection of rights should be context based in the way you suggest then you are simply reinforcing stereotypes.  You know the thing that the Human Rights Code is expressly attempting to stop.

[Martinus]

I completely disagree with the "you can't invent religious practice" crowd and that religious should get exemptions from general legislation only because their crazy, discriminatory shit was invented a thousand years ago. This is bullshit that flies in the face of equality under law.

That being said, a hair salon can advertise as serving only male or female clientele and this is acceptable under law. Of course if they advertised as serving both genders and then refused to cut hair of a female client, they would be in breach of law.

[Martinus]

Haircutting is slightly different from just buying stuff. 

What about running a hostel out of your home? It has been found illegal for a Christian couple to refuse to give a one-marital-bed room to a gay couple in the UK recently.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Viper - the JHs and Mormons faced decades of serious discrimination before they were somewhat recognized.  Taliban-style Islam is not recognized as legitimate in Canada.

You need to perhaps change it to "you can invent new religious practices, but it'll take decades or centuries before they're respected".

doesn't really change the fact that you can make up religious practices on the fly. Scientology for example.

[The Brain]

That being said, a hair salon can advertise as serving only male or female clientele and this is acceptable under law.

Source?

[Neil]

That the Human Rights Code was trying to stop?  I thought that the Human Rights Code only existed to keep lawyer-priests employed?

[Malthus]

I am not missing it, I am saying it makes no sense.  Once you start arguing that protection of rights should be context based in the way you suggest then you are simply reinforcing stereotypes.  You know the thing that the Human Rights Code is expressly attempting to stop.

Except that having "barbers" serving mostly only men and "hair salons" serving mostly only women was not originally based on "stereotypes", but on function. 

Take the opposite case - some hairy Muslim dude wants some women's waxing salon to do his bikini line. Certainly under the Code bikini-waxing is a "service" and certainly one cannot discriminate based on sex - but it hardly seems like the occasion for bringing the full weight of the majesty of the law down on some hapless bikini-waxer.

It doesn't even matter whether the person agrees to wax the dude's bikini line or not - under the Code, simply having a sign reading "women's waxing salon" is, in theory, discriminatory and thus illegal:

13.  (1)  A right under Part I is infringed by a person who publishes or displays before the public or causes the publication or display before the public of any notice, sign, symbol, emblem, or other similar representation that indicates the intention of the person to infringe a right under Part I or that is intended by the person to incite the infringement of a right under Part I.

However, usually one can rely on the good sense of those tasked with enforcing the law not to go around enforcing penny-ante stuff like that.

[Malthus]

That being said, a hair salon can advertise as serving only male or female clientele and this is acceptable under law. Of course if they advertised as serving both genders and then refused to cut hair of a female client, they would be in breach of law.

They often do of course, but in Ontario at least it is in theory illegal. See my post above.

[alfred russel]

Maybe a year ago, there was a walkup to the salon I go to who had an ethnic hairstyle. The lady was told that they don't do ethnic hairstyles because that isn't their specialty, and she got rather upset (she was told they would sit her if she really wanted, but they couldn't vouch for the results).

[Camerus]

Sometimes the barbers here suck at cutting my "ethnic" hair, but they never turn me away, even though sometimes they really should. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Maybe a year ago, there was a walkup to the salon I go to who had an ethnic hairstyle. The lady was told that they don't do ethnic hairstyles because that isn't their specialty, and she got rather upset (she was told they would sit her if she really wanted, but they couldn't vouch for the results).

I had the reverse problem once, in a fit of absent-mindedness I walked into a Nigerian hairdresser's (in London), settled myself down and asked for a short-back-and-sides. It seemed to be taking a rather long time so I started to pay attention to my surroundings. All the clients were black as were all the hairdressers, the walls had pics of various fantastic coiffures, again, all black 

The woman cutting my hair was erring on the side of caution, after what seemed an age she fiddled about with a mirror as they do and I paid my £20 and left, with my hair a good millimetre shorter. Needless to say, I went to a barber later on that week and got a proper cut for a fiver.