Abstract
Canada is experiencing an upward surge in international migration, driving an overall population increase that is the second-largest in Canadian history [Smith, S. (2018). International migration to Canada reached record levels in second quarter of 2018. Canada Immigration Newsletter. Retrieved September 27, 2018, from https://www.cicnews.com/2018/09/international-migration-to-canada-reached-record-levels-in-second-quarter-of-2018-0911230.html#gs.w4cups]. Added to accelerating migration, Canada’s Indigenous population continues to face the legacy of Canada’s colonial history even as their population grows at a rate four times that of the non-Indigenous population. These demographic factors have a significant impact on education. In response, most Canadian colleges and universities have made explicit commitments to champion equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) on their campuses. Given the intersecting factors involved with EDI, there is a pressing need for post-secondary institutions to develop innovative approaches to address emerging demographic and social factors impacting education. Contemporary pushes for EDI are institutional variants of the broader and more profound human rights project expressed internationally since 1948 in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and other subsequent international, national, and provincial human rights instruments. We argue that EDI is best interpreted within the broader tradition of human rights and the corpus of intersectionality-based scholarship. This place and case-based research advances a unique, human rights-inspired intersectional method by joining intersectionality with the corpus of Canadian and international human rights jurisprudence to provide a coherent human rights-derived methodological framework that can serve to advance EDI on university campuses.
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Notes
Under-represented groups means women, Indigenous, racialized, persons with disabilities, as defined under s. 3 of the Employment Equity Act, SC 1995, c. 44.
Equity-seeking groups means persons with characteristics protected under the Ontario Human Rights Code, RSO 1990, c. H.19. These groups and characteristics include but is not limited to Age, Ancestry, Colour, Race, Citizenship, Ethnic origin, Place of origin, Creed, Disability, Family status, Marital status (including single status), Gender identity, Gender expression, Receipt of public assistance (in housing only), Record of offences (in employment only), Sex (including pregnancy and breastfeeding), Sexual orientation.
affirmed in University of British Columbia v. Kelly, 2016 BCCA 271.
Affirmed in Longueépée v. University of Waterloo, 2020 ONCA 830: the Ontario Court of Appeal declared that the university discriminated against Mr. Longueépée when it failed to reasonably accommodate his disability in its admissions process, and remitted the matter to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario for determination.
Provincial appellate court decisions have differed on whether or not the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to universities.
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Drazenovich, G., Mazur, D. At the Intersections: Supporting Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion on Campus—A Northern Ontario Experience. Interchange 53, 43–64 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-021-09436-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-021-09436-2