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75 Can. B. Rev. 433 (1996)
The Duty to Accommodate: Who Will Benefit

handle is hein.journals/canbarev75 and id is 439 raw text is: THE DUTY TO ACCOMMODATE: WHO WILL BENEFIT? Shelagh Day* and Gwen Brodsky** Vancouver This article describes the development of the duty to accommodate in Canadian jurisprudence, attempts to untangle to doctrinal knots associated with it, and considers the conceptual weaknesses inherent in the idea. Although much has happened in human rights jurisprudence in the last twenty years, the concept of accommodation is not yet fully developed. So far, the Supreme Court of Canada has dealt with accommodation in religious and age discrimination cases only. It is not clear whether the duty to accommodate will apply to other grounds, such as disability, race, and sex similarly. Nor is it clear that it should. The authors argue that the reasonable accommodation framework lacks the capacity to address inequality and foster inclusive institutions. It is flawed by implicit acceptance that social norms should be determined by more powerful groups with manageable concessions being made to those who are different. The authors posit that accommodation jurisprudence can be rescued but only ifadjudicators and courts reject a sameness/difference paradigm as inadequate to address issues that in fact concern group-based inequalities in power. Cet article ddcrit le diveloppement du devoir d'accommodement dans la jurisprudence canadienne et essaie de risoudre les problmes doctrinaux qui s 'y rattachent. Enfin, il examine lesfaiblesses conceptuelles de cette idje. Meme s'il s 'est produit beaucoup de choses dans la jurisprudence sur les droits de la personne depuis vingt ans, le concept d'accommodement n'est pas encore pleinement diveloppi. Jusqu 'b maintenant, la Cour supreme du Canada a traits du devoir d'accommodement seulement dans des affaires de discrimination enfonction de l'age et de la religion. II n 'est pas sir que ce devoir s'appliquera et d'autres types de discrimination, tels que le handicap, la race et le sexe. 11 n 'estpas sfir non plus qu 'il doive lefaire. Les auteurs sontd'avis que le concept <<d'accommodement raisonnable)' estinaptea traiterdesproblmesd'ingalit et favoriserledveloppementd'institutions ouvertes 6 tous. Il est viciJ par I'acceptation implicite que les normes sociales devraient etre diterminjes par les groupes plus puissants, avec des concessions pouvant etre amrnag6es concrtement enfaveur de ceux qui sont <<diffrents>>. La those des auteurs est que la jurisprudence sur l' accommodementpeut etre sauvge mais seulement si les tribunaux et les autres dicideurs rejettent le paradigme <',pareil/difftrent>>, car il est inadjquat pour rgsoudre des problmes qui enfait concernent des inegalit6s de pouvoir entre des groupes de personnes. Introduction ................................................................................................ 4 34 I. Supreme Court of Canada Doctrine on Accommodation: O'Malley, Bhinder, and Central Alberta Dairy Pool ..................... 435 * Shelagh Day, of the Canadian Human Rights Reporter, Vancouver, British Columbia. ** Gwen Brodsky, Barrister & Solicitor, Vancouver, British Columbia.

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