THE BC Human Rights Tribunal on Thursday issued a decision affirming its ability to hear cases about allegations of online hate speech. This came as part of the Tribunal’s hearing of the case British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) on behalf of Chilliwack Teachers’ Association v. Neufeld, in which B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender is an intervenor.
As part of her intervention, Govender argued that the Tribunal does have jurisdiction over hate and discriminatory speech published online. She said she was pleased to see the Tribunal agreed with her argument “that there is no principled basis” to carve internet publications out of the scope of protections offered in B.C.’s Human Rights Code.
“This is a positive decision for people across B.C. and Canada,” said Govender. “The Tribunal’s decision means that discriminatory or hateful speech will not be immune from provincial human rights laws just because it was published online. The B.C. Human Rights Code will continue to offer protection to people in this modern context.”
In particular, the Human Rights Tribunal found that Section 7 of B.C.’s Human Rights Code—which targets publications that perpetrate discrimination and hatred against protected groups—does, in fact, provide a means of redress to people whose rights have been violated in online publications, and that this falls within the province’s constitutional jurisdiction. The Tribunal clarified that while jurisdiction over telecommunication systems is held federally, this does not prevent provinces from applying provincial laws to online conduct that falls within an area of their authority.
“The Tribunal’s decision today will help to ensure that many people in B.C. who have been targeted by online hate speech are able to access justice,” said Govender. “As the Tribunal has acknowledged, the internet is a significant part of our daily lives and a medium where harmful content can spread quickly and with profound consequences. I am glad to see that complainants can rely on B.C.’s human rights law when discriminatory content is published online.”
