AIDS and Disability Employment Discrimination in and Beyond the Classroom
12 Dalhousie L. J. 103, 1989
28 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2013
Date Written: 1989
Abstract
Roughly a year ago, in Chalk v. U.S. District Court Central California, a United States appellate court authorized a teacher to return to his teaching duties, after a California school department had barred him from his classroom upon learning he had Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The case parallels the widely reported events of the Eric Smith story of Autumn 1987. Teacher Smith was initially removed from his Shelburne County, Nova Scotia classroom, and reassigned to non-teaching duties after a medical secretary disclosed that Smith had tested positive for the AIDS virus. While Smith immediately refused the reassignment, he eventually accepted an educative position on the Nova Scotia Task Force on AIDS, which has recently completed its report. More recent events suggest that Smith's employment tribulations are not unique. A labour arbitration board in British Columbia has found the suspension of an AIDS-afflicted employee to be without cause.
Moreover, over half of the AIDS cases to be filed with human rights commissions across Canada have involved employment discrimination issues. The statistics, the issue of legal discrimination against HIV infected teachers or other workers, and the factual parallels between Chalk and the Eric Smith story, combine to suggest that Chalk may be of interest to those formulating Canadian AIDS discrimination law and policy. Accordingly, after summarizing the major medical facts and discussing the details of Chalk, we explore its relevance to Canada. We conclude with some observations on the emerging North American consensus on AIDS employment discrimination.
Keywords: AIDS, disability, employment discrimination
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation