Being a volunteer is NOT one of the personal characteristics protected from employment discrimination under BC (or any other jurisdiction’s) human rights laws. Accordingly, there’s no obligation under that law to provide accommodations. However, a volunteer IS protected from discrimination and entitled to accommodations to the extent he/she has one or more of those protected characteristics–race, religion, sex, family status, religion. So, for example, a volunteer who’s Muslim may be entitled to religious accommodations so he/she gets equal opportunity to serve as a volunteer. In other words, the protection stems from the person’s religious status not his/her status as a volunteer.
Hope that helps and I’ll try to be a little quicker in responding next time. Glenn
