Section 15(1) protects equality before and under the law and the equal benefit of the law, without discrimination on grounds including race, sex, age, religion, and — as read in by the courts — sexual orientation.
The current test asks whether a law creates a distinction based on an enumerated or analogous ground, and whether that distinction imposes a burden or denies a benefit in a way that reinforces, perpetuates, or exacerbates disadvantage.
The first section 15 case, it held that equality is substantive rather than formal: the guarantee targets discrimination — distinctions that burden individuals on the basis of personal characteristics — and does not reach every legislative distinction. It rejected a 'similarly situated' test.
The Court held that omitting sexual orientation from Alberta's human rights legislation violated section 15, and read the ground into the statute as the remedy.