Canadian immigration laws and procedures. Guide for foreign and Canadian immigration law.

2. Anti-Discrimination Laws

Start-up companies should proceed cautiously during the hiring and screening process. Canada has pro-active employment and pay equity laws aimed at effectively redressing the substantial inequalities facing women, racial minorities, persons with disabilities, and aboriginal peoples. The federal government and each province have passed statutes that restrict employers' ability to discriminate among employees based upon race, sex, religion, national origin, age, or physical disabilities. The main thrust of Canada's proactive equity laws has been to require employers and trade unions to jointly take pro-active steps to identify and redress systemic discrimination in recruitment, treatment, compensation, promotion, and retention of employees who have been historically disadvantaged in the workplace.

The federal government also requires that individuals receive equal pay for equal work regardless of their sex. In determining the meaning of "equal pay" and "equal work," courts consider such factors as seniority, merit, and quality or quantity of work as legitimate factors in compensating people of different sexes differently. Canada's pay equity laws all apply to the public sector and almost all also apply to the broader public sector and crown corporations. Legislation in Ontario, Quebec and in the federal jurisdiction applies to much of the private sector as well. Most require comparisons between male- and female-dominated occupations defined as those in which one sex holds either sixty or seventy percent of the jobs. All define value in terms of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. In several jurisdictions, the method of comparison is not prescribed, although the call for job comparisons that are free of gender bias is found in several jurisdictions.