First, a little background info:
I'm an American citizen, natural born, for many generations (in fact, one time, my sister found a photo taken of my great great great grandparents during the American civil war; that's how "home-grown" I am). However, I've been considering migrating to Canada, because I have learned that you have almost all the good things that we have here in "the land of the free and the home of the brave," but hardly any of the bad.
Freedom of speech? You have that!
Right to jury trial? You have that!
And wealth? Well, let's just say, if the US was Bill Gates, you'd be Donald Trump.
What does the US have that you don't?
An internationally-tarnished reputation.
A corrupt government
A discriminatory law against gay people
expensive health care out the yin-yang
A hypocritical immigration system that limits the number of people that can come to the US each year, despite the fact that every single person in the US, even the so-called "Native" Americans, are either immigrants themselves, or are descendants of immigrants. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
I'm currently in college (I'm only 21) studying to be a math teacher, so if math teachers are anywhere close to as high demand in Canada as they are in the States, I should have no problem finding work (in fact, my state alone has about 35 unfilled positions this year, with only a population of three million people total; imagine how many unfilled math teacher positions are in a state like California). I can teach for a couple of years and migrate to Canada using the point system (I don't think there's a quota cap, is there?)
However, there's something I need to know:
I understand that, unlike the US, Canada's discrimination laws only apply to public companies, like government agencies. As a math teacher, this isn't that bad for me, since I'll be working for a public school. However, as I look at the civil rights laws in Canada, I find that it is only illegal to fire someone because of a protected class, such as mental or physical disability.
Well, I do have a mental disability; it's called Aspergers, and if you don't know what that means, Wikipedia has a good article on it (Wikipedia isn't supposed to be reliable, but take it from me, from first-hand experience, this article is). Here in the US, those who are bound by discrimination laws not only have to give me equal footing, but they also have to accommodate my disability. Just the same as how you can't force a Jew to work on Saturdays, due to a religious accommodation, if one of your employees has a type of Autism like I do, you have to put up with a good deal of tactlessness on his part. If he's tactless to a few customers, tough, because customer satisfaction, or lack thereof, is not a good reason to break discrimination laws. For example, if a person has Tourrett syndrome, they cannot be fired because they randomly shouted a profanity at a customer, because they have tourrett's! They can't help it!
That lack of exception was established around 1965, when the American Civil Rights Act was a year old, when a man was denied a job as a flight attendant because the plane companies said that their customers wanted a female stewardess. Therefore, if someone's protected class is offending the customers, the managers need to take time out to explain to the customers why he can't be fired. That's just the way it is.
I know that Canadian civil rights don't extend to the private sector like the United States' discrimination laws do, but I'll be working in a public school, so that's of no real concern to me. My question is: Would a public entity be just as legally required, not just to give me equal footing, but also to accommodate my Aspergers, the way they are in the US?
