seeking to add protection for body size to Manitoba's human rights code was defeated, with many members of the legislature citing enforcement difficulties as the reason for voting down the proposition.grounds of disability
In our view, the disparate viewpoints on the worthiness of considering body size a human rights issue could be resolved, at least partially, by wider understanding and adoption of the relatively new clinical definition of obesity.
Including body size in human rights codes may provide a mechanism to seek legal remedy from discriminatory acts, but it will do little to address rampant weight bias, in the same way that race-based legal protections don't eradicate racism. And it's not just the legal community that fails to understand that weight is, by and large, a product of our environment and our genes. Weight bias and stigma are well documented in media, workplaces, the home, and in healthcare systems.