Canadian law let a university ban male job applicants. Read how it compares to Biden's proposed Title IX changes.

Why can one university advertise on a job posting that the open role is not for men?

The Ontario Human Rights Code is what allows the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada to open a tenure track position in March exclusively available to “qualified individuals who self-identify as women, transgender, non-binary, or two-spirit,” Fox News reported on Sunday. 

Ontario’s Human Rights Code is reminiscent of Title IX in the United States which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, however, the code extends protection to “gender identity” and “gender expression” among other categories.

While the University of Waterloo is a public institution that prohibits discrimination based on gender, under Ontario’s Human Rights Code, the school is allowed to implement “special programs” to help “disadvantaged groups improve their situation.”

[RELATED: 15 states push back against Biden’s attempt to strip Title IX protections]

In the United States, the Department of Education proposed expanding Title IX protections to include “sex stereotypes, sex-related characteristics (including intersex traits), pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” 

Campus Reform recently spoke with experts about what the Biden administration’s proposed changes would mean for women in America as Biden’s the end-of-April target deadline for finalizing those changes approaches. 

Waterloo applicants who filled out a self-identification form ensuring they fall into one of those categories, namely “women, transgender, non-binary, or two-spirit,” were invited to apply from Mar. 21 to Apr. 22 for the position of Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Tier 2 Canada Research Chair.

The push to hire on the basis of “equity–deserving groups” is part of Waterloo’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025, which focuses on “fostering inclusivity” for “diverse individuals of many genders and sexual identities.”

“Two-spirit” is defined as someone with “both a masculine and a feminine spirit,” according to the “Re:searching for LGBTQ2S+ Health!” website.

The term “may encompass same-sex attraction and a wide variety of gender variance, including people who might be described in Western culture as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, gender queer, cross-dressers or who have multiple gender identities,” the website states. “Two-spirit can also include relationships that could be considered poly.”

[RELATED: REGES: Defy the nonsense of indigenous land acknowledgments]

The University of Waterloo’s job vacancy advertisement notes the value of “diverse and intersectional identities,” and includes a land acknowledgment, a growing theme at universities in the United States as well.

As such, the flyer acknowledges that the school resides on “traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River.”

Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Waterloo for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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