Vegans hail victory in new Ontario ‘creed’ policy

[TV personality Courtney Stodden dons a revealing lettuce leaf bikini to help promote vegan hotdogs on Hollywood Boulevard in L.A. PHOTO: ITN]

A new Ontario policy may pave the way for all kinds of moral and ethical beliefs to be protected as a human right — even veganism.

In its report released Dec. 10, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) updated its definition of “creed,” which until now was generally considered a synonym for religion.

“Creed may also include non-religious belief systems that, like religion, substantially influence a person’s identity, worldview and way of life,” the commission said.

Advocacy group Animal Justice counts the new policy as a win for those whose belief system revolves around doing no harm to animals.

Ethical veganism is “now one step closer to being protected under Ontario human rights law as a form of ‘creed,’” the group said in a statement last month.

Indeed, ethical veganism — the practice of avoiding all consumption of animal flesh and products like leather or honey — ticks all the boxes of the OHRC’s definition.

“Their belief is really fundamental to everything they do. It really does comprise their world view, so they shouldn’t be put into situations where they’re forced to harm animals,” Animal Justice executive director Camille Labchuk told Yahoo Canada News.

“As a society we’re becoming increasingly secular, and for many people ethical beliefs are replacing religious ones,” she said.

The policy is meant to guide employers, unions and providers of services like housing on how to accommodate people who have specific needs arising from their creed.

Labchuk said there are plenty of real-life situations where such protection would apply: a hospital patient who requires an animal-free meal, a worker who can’t wear leather or fur as part of their uniform or a student who does not wish to dissect an animal.

In one case she’s familiar with, a veterinary student in Guelph, Ont., objected to putting down a healthy dog after she’d performed a routine spay/neuter procedure on the animal as part of her training. Animal Justice intervened, and the school let her adopt the canine instead.

More recently, Labchuk heard from a woman who took issue with having to prepare meals that included meat at the group home where she worked. In that case, the employer allowed her to prepare only vegan meals.

“Oftentimes when employers are made aware they do want to accommodate,” Labchuk said.

Labchuk anticipates criticism from those who would say being offered only hot dogs or hamburgers at the company picnic doesn’t constitute real discrimination.

“Every time we’ve thought of expanding human rights protections there have been people who say it diminishes other people’s rights,” she said. “Discrimination against anybody harms everybody.”

Carleton University law professor Melanie Adrian agrees.

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as diluting human rights,” she told Yahoo Canada News. “I think human rights are expansive not limiting or restricting.”

“What we have to do is differentiate between veganism as a belief system and animal rights. This is not about protection for animals but for people who believe very deeply and sincerely,” she said.

And approaching the issue broadly, as belief systems should be, Adrian said, ethical veganism might be likened to conscientious objection to war.

“Inasmuch as that is about people who believe very strongly in abstaining from a certain type of social violence, I would say vegans have a really good case to make,” she said.

Adherents of other belief systems may also have a good case.

Gail McCabe of the Ontario Humanist Society has argued for a more expanded definition of “creed.”

In 2012, when the OHRC began consultations on revising its policy, McCabe and her colleagues submitted a paper arguing that the Ontario Human Rights Code, by excluding moral, ethical and political beliefs of a secular nature, failed to fully protect the rights of humanists and other such “ethical communities of choice.”

Yahoo Canada News has reached out to McCabe for comment.

The updated policy, if adopted in other provinces, may finally bring an end to a B.C. man’s fight for the right to wear a colander on his head.

Obi Canuel, of Surrey, is a Pastafarian minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose disciples wear the kitchen implement as religious headgear.

Canuel has been battling the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia for nearly two years over whether or not he can wear the pasta strainer in his driver’s licence photo.

“One person’s belief or faith may be absurd to someone else but we live in a democratic society with respect for other people and their belief systems,” Adrian said.

Ultimately, the decision as to whether ethical veganism, or any other belief, is a creed under the Code lies with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. It would have to address the question if someone brought a formal complaint of discrimination.

Labchuk said she isn’t aware of any complaints in the works.

“But I think it’s only a matter of time.”