Veganism refers to a way that people live, that tried in all means to eliminate and exclude, as far as possible all the forms of exploitation of animals, cruelty to animals for food, clothing or any other function. People practice many ways so that they can embrace a vegan living and this includes avoiding all the animal food such as meat dairy, eggs, and honey and only take plant-based diet. A creed can be considered to be a system of religion that many people tend to believe in and act according to it.

According to section 5 of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, each person has equal rights to being treated equally with respect to employment, without any discrimination because of creed.  Additionally, every employee in the workplace has a right to freedom from any form of harassment from fellow employees, employer or their agent because of creed. Therefore it can be said that Veganism can be considered as a creed according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

During the consultation that took place to force new policy, the representative of the animal justice, which is a federally incorporated nonprofit organizations that is dedicated to the process of advocating for the humane treatment of the animals without injuring them, discussed how the secular beliefs and traditions such as ethical Veganism also deserve to be protected legally as a form of a creed and through this, the OHRC listened and agreed to their suggestion (Berger, 2016). According to the OHRC, a creed should be sincerely and freely held by the people, should be linked to the person’s identity and his fulfillment and should be a system of belief that dictates how a person should conduct his practices.

When this belief is linked to religious beliefs and practices, the policy had widened and broadened the scope of the creed to include the non-religious beliefs that influence the identification of a person and the way of life. The topic of ethical Veganism has been a topic of discussion over a long time as more people refuse to eat animal products and use items that have been made from animals as they consider it as exploitation. The refusals of the people to the use the products are based on the belief that the animals should not be exploited and damaged, to keep the humans happy and healthy.

Since Veganism has been taken to be a creed, it is a role of the employers to ensure that those people in their organization who practice ethical Veganism are not made fun of, and they are not the subject for unwanted jokes. Due to this, employees are not supposed to create rules that affect other employee’s belief and traditions (Berger, 2016). This includes the wearing of fur or leather clothes by all the employees or the lack of vegan options during an event where the employees are required to attend. In cases where an employer has a standard rule that has a possibility of affecting the beliefs and practices of other people, the employer is supposed to adjust the rule so that he can accommodate the beliefs of the other people.

In cases where the creed is to be accommodated and means different things to different people, organizations and the employers should accept the creed in good faith, they should limit the request of information to only the information that is required so that the organization can accommodate the creed and the organization should ensure that the information remains confidential.

References

Berger, B. (2016). Is Being a Vegan a Human Right? Advocates Claim Protection Under New Ontario Policy, but That Wasn’t the Point.