Case: Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd., Legal Challenges
The Ontario Human Rights Code states that sexual harassment occurs in situations when one individual is bothering the other by saying or doing unwanted or unwelcome things of a sexual or gender-related nature. This could be characterize in terms of inappropriate touching, offensive remarks about individual, sexual suggestions, unsuitable comments about body parts, exposure to sexually offensive pictures, verbal abuse due to the gender, etc. It is also considered to be a form of illegal discrimination and is a form of sexual and psychological abuse.
In terms of the case, this is a clear case of sexual harassment because Rosetta is one of the two women in the department that every morning got called by her male co-workers as risotto, meaning Italian rice with gravy, and teased with Italian greetings. In addition, occasionally they asked her what she was doing with her Italian boyfriend and whether she had a good time with him the night before.
English: Cropped and resized photo by User:Maveric...
Anti-Sexual Harassment Graffiti reading: No Touchi...
English: Photo taken at Arnold Schwarzenegger's in...Moreover, one of the co-workers asked her whether she prefer Italian over Canadian men and occasionally they loudly bragged to each other about their experience with their girlfriends so that Rosetta can hear it, just to embarrass her. Furthermore, her male co-workers told a dirty jock and asked Rosetta if she understood or if she could tell one as well.
Usually, sexual harassment is a pattern of behaviour that happens frequently over a period of time. In this case, there is a pattern of different incidents that occurred over the period of Rosetta's employment, which created a poisoned effect on the places where she worked. This type of sexual comments made her feel uncomfortable, in some situations even cry, which indicated that the work environment is poisoned.
Although, Rosetta tried to make the harassment stop, it is...