{"id":128,"date":"2007-01-23T00:02:01","date_gmt":"2007-01-23T08:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/?p=128"},"modified":"2008-04-11T12:07:42","modified_gmt":"2008-04-11T20:07:42","slug":"west-vancouver-golf-club-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Marine Drive Golf Club Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BC Court of Appeal recently rendered a decision dealing with private club discrimination in, Marine Drive Golf Club v. Buntain et al and B.C. Human Rights Tribunal<\/em><\/a>, 2007 BCCA 17.<\/p>\n

The case concerns restrictions on female club members’ access to a lounge facility. In a nutshell, the BC Human Rights Act did not apply because the golf club was a private club.<\/p>\n

Mr. Justice Thakray had this to say on the relevant section of the Human Rights Act:<\/p>\n

[50] While the Code does not specifically exempt \u00e2\u20ac\u0153private\u00e2\u20ac\u009d enterprises, it provides that there shall not be discrimination with respect to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153service or facility customarily available to the public.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This forms the basis for the concentration in the case at bar on the definitions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153private.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In my opinion, as I have attempted to illustrate, the Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lounge facility and services therein that are not available to female members are not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153customarily available to the public\u00e2\u20ac\u009d within the meaning of that phrase as found in section 8 of the Code.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And states further on:<\/p>\n

[53] In the case at bar the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153particular situation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d pertains to the Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lounge facility and the services carried out therein at Marine Drive Golf Club. In my opinion the Code does not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153attempt to proscribe\u00e2\u20ac\u009d legal sanctions on discrimination that denies access to, and service within, the Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lounge to a class of persons within the membership of the private Golf Club.<\/p>\n

[54] The appellants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 case strains to interpret the Code in a manner that would make it applicable to private places and matters over which there is no basis to suggest legislative intention. The appellants would have this Court adopt La Forest J.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reasoning in Gould as an extension of Berg, but the majority in Gould did not adopt La Forest J.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reasoning and held that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153some relationships will not be subject to scrutiny\u00e2\u20ac\u009d under human rights legislation. The relationship in the case at bar is, in my opinion, such a relationship.<\/p>\n

[55] I adopt the findings of Boyd J. at paragraph 54 of her reasons:<\/p>\n

The Golf Club is a private club. There is a formalized selection process in place under which its members are selected. While the Golf Club lacks direct or indirect control (at least initially) over the choice of the members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 guests or their UDGs or their guests, the relationship between the Golf Club and those persons remains a private one.<\/p>\n

[56] I would dismiss the appeal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The decision is a reminder that human rights legislation and protections extends only so far as a matter can be considered to be of a public nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BC Court of Appeal recently rendered a decision dealing with private club discrimination in, Marine Drive Golf Club v. Buntain et al and B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, 2007 BCCA 17. The case concerns restrictions on female club members’ access to a lounge facility. In a nutshell, the BC Human Rights Act did not apply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schenklaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}