In a surprising and troubling decision, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has ruled against Adam Knauff, a firefighter who made global headlines for filing a legal case after he faced discrimination for being vegan. The case raised a novel issue—whether a vegan belief system counts as a “creed”, a protected ground under the Ontario Human Rights Code. Mr. Knauff plans to appeal the decision by seeking judicial review in the Divisional Court of Ontario.
How hard would it have been to get the man some beans while he was fighting wildfires? Seriously?
At every school, university or company cafeteria I’ve been to, I’ve seen vegan options. I’ve heard second-hand stories from acquaintances in small companies where they were the only vegan, and there was still some accommodation.
How ass-backwards do they have to be to deny even that?
For the record… probably pretty hard. Depending on the camp, they might have had to be flown in.
If it wasn’t an issue brought up before deployment, they might not have anything on hand that isn’t planned for future meals.
I don’t know if it was, and logistically speaking, if it was it probably would have been prudent to leave him behind as a “reasonable accommodation”, though I do know there’s plenty of freeze dried rations that are vegan/vegetarian, if that’s what the rest of the crew were eating, then it wouldn’t be too hard (if they knew before hand.)