It is clear the sum awarded for injury to dignity has been on an upward trajectory. Ontario awards have now peaked at $200,000, which is a remarkable increase over recent years. British Columbia has seen an award of $75,000 ordered by the Tribunal, set aside on first review as excessive and then restored by the Court of Appeal. A 2021 decision (par 217) by the same Tribunal awarded $176,000, even after a 20% discount was applied.

Manitoba has recently awarded the sum of $75,000, although attracting controversy, yet nonetheless, remains an award well in excess of its historical precedents. The response in Manitoba to this award was legislation to cap the maximum award for compensatory damages at $25,000.

The Alberta Tribunal had this comment to make in 2020 as to the same trend:¹

Above, I noted that many recent Tribunal decisions have fallen in the $20,000 or $25,000 range. That is a marked departure from the days preceding Walsh when Tribunal decisions were capped around $10,000. However, this new benchmark should not become a new arbitrary cap, which practice the Alberta Court of Appeal expressly rejected.[45] Since there is no limit in the statute, one would expect to see damage awards increasing over time, at least with inflation, but also with increasing awareness of the serious consequences that can flow from having experienced discrimination. 

[75]      Further, labour arbitrators regularly interpret and apply this Act under the same analysis as this Tribunal in addressing discrimination in unionized workplaces. Awards from labour arbitrators acknowledge that there is no cap on damage awards and that such awards must be crafted after considering the entirety of the circumstances. For example, in City of Calgary, the arbitration board awarded $75,000 in general damages for discrimination.[46] The facts of that case were very different than those here, but the case is of assistance in demonstrating the contextual compensatory nature of human rights damages, which should not be limited by arbitrary constraints.

[76]      Similarly, decisions from other human rights tribunals where there is no statutory cap have far exceeded the upper limit of what we have awarded in Alberta. In Ontario, damages for discrimination have ranged from $10,000 to $200,000, including recent awards of $75,000.[47] The Manitoba Human Rights Adjudication Panel also recently awarded $75,000 in damages for discrimination.[48] Likewise, in University of British Columbia v Kelly, the British Columbia Court of Appeal restored the award of $75,000 of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.[49] Many of these cases were serious sexual harassment cases and are not directly parallel to the facts of this case. I cite them as support for the principle that damage awards for human rights violations are increasing and that without a legislative cap there is no limit to the damages so long as they remain compensatory in nature.

Recent Alberta decisions have followed this view and have now revealed the same upward trajectory.

See the summary of such awards here.