Why Sarah Huckabee Sanders would have no trouble getting a meal in D.C. or Quebec

When the owner of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va.,asked Donald Trump's press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to leave the premises last Friday, shewas perfectly within herrights to do so.

But if it hadbeen a restaurant in Washington, D.C., then it may have been a different matter. The same goes if Sanders had been trying to sit down for a meal at a restaurant in Quebec.

That's becausethe rightof a business to refusesomeone service in the U.S.or Canada often depends on rules set down by the individual states or provinces.

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When it comes to the U.S., "the short answer is almost everywhere it's not illegal for a business to deny service to someone because of their political affiliation, because of the job they have or the shirt they wear," said Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

The Virginia restaurant's co-owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, told the Washington Post that her staff had called her to report Sanders was at the restaurant. She said several of her employees are gayand knew Sanders had defended Trump's desire to bar transgender people from serving in the military.

'I can ask her to leave'

"Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave," Wilkinson says shetold her staff. "They said yes."

Historically, the refusal of service in the U.S. was usually linked to racism and the denial of service to visible minorities, particularly black Americans.

The landmarkU.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964set out to address some of those issues, laying down some basic anti-discrimination laws that are applicable across the country with respect to denying someone service.

But the lawswere actually narrow in scope, applying only to certain businesses, "a place of public accommodation," which included restaurants, movie theatres, sports arenas,hotels and motels. And the categories of discrimination only included race, national origin,colour and religion.

Almost all individual states have filled the gaps with their own so-called public accommodation laws.They havemade themapplicable toalmost any business open to the public. As well, some states have expandedthe list of "protected traits" to also include sex, sexual orientation, disability and age.

D.C.'s list, for example,is particularly extensive. Itprohibits a business from denying service to someone based on politicalaffiliation, personal appearance, gender identity or expression, familial status, source of income andplace of residence.

So would a restaurant in D.C. have been able to deny Sanders service? Maybe not, butit could dependon the definitionof political affiliation.

The restaurant might be able to argue it's not denying service to Republicansin general,but just to Sanders.

'Targeted shaming'

"Itseems that rather than being discrimination against Republicans, this is actually a targeted shaming of a public official for her individual actions," Sepper said.

North of the border, the Canadian Human Rights Act covers federally regulated operations, including banks, interprovincialtransport companies and federal institutions.

As for regular businesses and their right to deny service, it depends on the province or territory, as each has its own human rights code. Generally, nobody can be denied a serviceon the basis of personal traits such as race, age, national origin,sex, religionor sexual orientation. But provinces vary with respect to other categories, including political beliefs.

Gregory Ko, a Toronto-based civil litigator who specializes in employment law, said the human rights codes ofB.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario do not prohibit an individual fromdenyingservice to someone based on their political beliefs.

(There is, however, a debate in Ontario over whether creed, which has historically been interpreted to mean religion, also includes political convictions.)

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But inManitoba, Quebec and all provinces eastward, their codes do, insome way or another, prohibit refusal of service based onpolitical beliefs,association and activity.

The Quebec Human Rights Commission givesspecific examples of what itmeans by denying somebody a service on the basis of politicalconviction, Ko said.

"They say, for example, you cannot be denied access to a business or a restaurant because you're wearing a political symbol such as apin a badge or a sticker," he said.

"They don't want folks who are carrying some type of political party message on their lapel to be denied service in a restaurant."

The tighterrules in Quebeclikely comefrom the "very defined cleavages between federalists and sovereigntistsand the history behind that," Ko said.

Brian Smith, a senior counsel with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, told The Canadian Pressthere are differences in how theprovinces and territories define political beliefs and apply their laws.

So before an individual in Canada wants to deny someone service based on political beliefs, "it would be worth double-checking," he said.

Notable cases involving refusal of service:

• This month, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a victoryto a Christian baker from Colorado who refused to make awedding cake for a gay couple for religious reasons.
• Also this month, a Walgreenspharmacist, because of moral objections,refused to fill an Arizonawoman's prescription to induce a miscarriage. Walgreenssaid they allow for pharmacists to deny service based on moral objections, but the pharmacist shouldrefer the customer to another store.
• In 2012, a woman launched a human rights complaint against a Toronto barbershop that refused to cut her hair.The barbers wereMuslim andtold her their religion didn't allow them to cut the hair of a woman who is not a member of their family.(The issue was later resolved in a closed-door mediation session, the National Post reported.)
• Also in 2012, a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled that owners of a Grand Forks bed and breakfast illegally discriminated against a gay couple when they denied the pair a room.