The heavy hand of the law: The Canadian Supreme Court and mandatory retirement

In the past two decades the Supreme Court of Canada made apparently contrad ictory rulings on mandatory retirement. In 1982, the Court ruled that manda tory retirement for firefighters at age 60 violated provincial human rights laws; in 1990, it found that forced retirement for university faculty and others at age 65 was constitutional. An analysis of the decisions shows tha t the Court relied on the stereotype of older workers as being less compete nt than younger workers, and failed to provide older workers with protectio n against age-based discrimination. A number of the key mandatory retiremen t cases deal with university faculty and may yet have unanticipated consequ ences, such as strengthening the role of academic tenure. The unwillingness of the Supreme Court to eliminate mandatory retirement means that ad hoc a rrangements driven by changing life cycles, employer needs, demographic cha nges and legislative actions will continue to arise.