13.6 Before the Interview: Illegal Interview Questions
Interview Questions That Should Not Be Asked
Canadian Human Rights law prohibits interviewers from asking questions concerning:
- County/place of origin and citizenship status – What country are you from?
- Religion, faith, or creed
- Age – How old are you?
- Gender or sexual orientation
- Race or ethnicity
- Family structure, children, or marital status – Are you married? Do you have children? Do you plan to have children in the future?
- Mental or physical health and disability – Do you have any physical impairment or disability?
- Appearance, height, and weight
- Pardoned offences
Although the interviewer may be making casual conversation and the inquiry is innocent, the above listed questions are deemed discriminatory and are inappropriate in an interview.
Interview questions should solely be based on the candidate’s skills and ability to perform the duties of the job and the bona fide occupational requirements deemed essential in performing those duties.
“Before the Interview: Illegal Interview Questions” from Interview Toolkit by Fanshawe College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
