I published an article last June explaining the situation of unpaid internships in Quebec. It is mainly a matter of discrimination based on social condition. It is established that students are part of this class1. Subsequently, I sent a request to the Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse to find out if this type of case could be admissible. Obviously, my personal request was rejected since I am hardly the individual who experienced the prejudice of discrimination. On the other hand, I was able to discuss with a technician from the CDPDJ and she kindly explained the process to me.
1. Bécancour Smelter Inc. vs. Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (Beaudry and others), 2021 QCCA 989
Basically, she explained to me that “every individual who has experienced the harm directly and individually” must make an individual request to the CDPDJ. Subsequently, there must be a pattern. For example, if a student or a student association made a request to their supervisor(s) to receive remuneration and this request was refused, this represents a reason that may ultimately be used as evidence. It should be remembered that under section 10 of the Quebec Charter:[…] the plaintiff (or the victim) must prove that there was a “distinction, exclusion or preference”, based on an explicitly prohibited ground – including social condition – and having the “effect of destroying or compromising the rights and freedoms.”
Human Rights and Youth Commission
Now, there have been some protests lately in relation to the demand for compensation for internships. I would like to salute their collective effort from the bottom of my heart. However, in my view, there are two ways to go about it. The first being indeed to carry out demonstrations until the government makes changes. It has been possible to see that going there through democracy can sometimes be an indefinite struggle and at the same time prove to be very frustrating. The second option is to go through the Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse, that is, through the justice system.
If the CDPDJ asks that each individual make an individual request, the solution is clear: the students and associations of each school must make a request. As the technician explained to me: “If the Commission receives many complaints with the same problem, we should perhaps start asking questions. Ultimately, the more students joining the cause, the greater the impact.
Government responsibility
Finally, it must be remembered that the main employer of students in nursing, education and social work will be the Quebec government itself. Also, the internships are carried out mainly in public institutions. So where is the excuse? Isn’t that the government’s responsibility? Is it the responsibility of the institution giving the internship, either the university or vocational training? Are there already paid internships in the public? We have to stop being naive and stick our heads in the sand. Currently, there is an alarming shortage of manpower in these three areas5. Clearly, there is a problem and we must find solutions. The succession is very thin – practically non-existent – which increasingly increases the workload for each current employee. A burden that is clearly increasingly difficult to bear. If the government wants to attract more young students (the next generation) to enroll in these programs, the first step, in my opinion, should be to breathe new life into the image of its most crucial sectors, namely health and education. So it starts with offering compensation for work done when students do a mandatory internship in those same sectors. For equal work, equal pay, as we used to say.
Jerome Desrosiers, Law student at the University of Ottawa