Everyday Discrimination in Canada: Prevalence and Patterns

Using nationally representative data from the 2013 Canadian Community Health Survey, this article examines the prevalence and patterning of everyday discrimination in Canada. Almost twenty-three percent of Canadians report experiencing at least one form of everyday discrimination, with many experiencing more than one. The most common types of discrimination are gender, age, and race, followed by discrimination based on physical characteristics such as weight. Sex, age, marital status, race, place of birth, and body mass index all contribute to individuals’ experiences of discrimination, while indicators of social class have smaller effects. Gay men are particularly at risk for discrimination based on sexual orientation, Blacks, Asians and Aboriginals are particularly at risk for racial discrimination, and Arabs, South and West Asians and Aboriginals are particularly at risk for religious discrimination. There is strong evidence of the persistence of everyday discrimination in Canada, despite over thirty years of federal human rights legislation.