Burnaby council votes unanimously to include caste as a protected category

Burnaby council has voted to add caste as a protected category in the city’s code of conduct.

The motion, proposed by Councillor Sav Dhaliwal on Monday, was passed unanimously.

This follows two other recent steps in Canada to specifically ban caste-based discrimination.

Last month, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal penalized two people for using slurs against a person belonging to a low caste. In March, the Toronto District School Board voted to add caste as a discriminatory category in its policies.

“I thought things are better in Canada. It was naive of me to believe so. I was made aware of people continuing to practice caste and was very disheartened to know,” said Burnaby councillor Sav Dhaliwal.