Now, aside from Meryl Streep and Madonna (who continue to shock and WOW me!!!) speaking up on the issue, there are laws in place to ‘assure’ that age discrimination will not happen. I mean sure. There’s also laws against punching people but that happens too so…
So there’s policies put in place to ‘assure’ that nobody is discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation, language, and more.
Yet why is it that even with these laws in place, people are continually discriminated against?
Well let me help you out on this one. The Human Rights Code states in Section 5(1) that,
“Every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to employment without discrimination because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, record of offences, marital status, family status or disability.”
So if we then travel down to look up the definition of ‘age’ in the Code (Section 10), you will find this: ““age” means an age that is 18 years or more;”
WHAT?!?!
So if a person is under the age of 18, it’s completely legal for them to be discriminated against???????
AMAZING!
And as if that possibly wasn’t great enough for you, another wee tid-bit of information: in Section 15 of the Code, it states that, “A right under Part I to non-discrimination because of age is not infringed where an age of sixty-five years or over is a requirement, qualification or consideration for preferential treatment.”
WHAT IS THAT?!?
You can be legally discriminated against if you are younger than 18, or older than 65.
And here I was, hoping that these policies set in place would be there to help the situation. Meanwhile, I think they are only fueling the fire.
This is sick.
Bibliography:
Ageism. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/time-action-advancing-human-rights-older-ontarians/ageism
Law Document English View. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h19#BK6
Madonna: Ageism is wrong. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.agediscrimination.info/News/Pages/ItemPage.aspx?Item=811&utm_content=buffer034f7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Ageism 