OTTAWA - The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has awarded a former Health Canada scientist $4,000 for "hurt feelings" after a supervisor's comment that he liked visible minorities was deemed to be racist.
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One involved comments made by Andre Lachance after his 1998 appointment as director at Health Canada's bureau of veterinary drugs, a job that Chopra believed he deserved.
When he was introduced to staff, Lachance told his audience that he liked visible minorities. An offended Chopra complained that the comment was a "deeply insensitive racial remark toward visible minority employees of the bureau." The tribunal concurred, finding that Lachance's comment was "offensive to Dr. Chopra and, by any standard, racist, even if some people in attendance did not find it to be so."
The comment, it added, "shows a lack of sensitivity on the part of Dr. Lachance for people whose skin is not white who are seen to be different from white individuals."
I will say: it was a stupid comment.
A stupid comment is not necessarily a racist comment. He was obviously trying to ingratiate himself to Shiv Chopra, but failed at it miserably, to say the least.
At least he was trying. But trying isn't enough, I guess.
But check out this guy's history:
Chopra, who is of East Indian descent, worked at Health Canada from 1969 to 2004,when he and two other veterinary scientists known as whistleblowers were fired for "insubordination." He was often in conflict with the department, which he accused of discrimination for failing to promote visible minorities, an allegation upheld by a human rights tribunal in 1997. As well, a 2001 tribunal upheld an earlier complaint by Chopra that he was passed over for promotion because of his ethnicity.
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The tribunal also ruled that a five-day suspension imposed on Chopra by Lachance in 1999 was retaliation for complaints he'd made in a public forum about racial discrimination at Health Canada. It further found that Chopra was discriminated against when he was not invited to act as chief of the human safety division for four months in 1999.
I mean it boggles the mind to wonder why this person wasn't promoted!
What a team player! A man so offended and so disgusted by his ministry that he spent 25 years there. Obviously, he felt the need to carry on the struggle for human rights at Health Canada. What a brave little soldier!
By way of compensation, it ordered Health Canada to pay Chopra $4,000 for his "hurt feelings."
Seriously, $4000 for "hurt feelings"? How do you x-ray a person's emotions to guage how hurt the "victim" really is?
To paraphrase that famous Dr. Phil question: how much fun do you think it was to work with this guy? I guess if you didn't feel it was fun, then you're a racist!
And did you notice how long it took to process his complaints? Wasn't the Human Rights Tribunal system supposed to be a means to get timely resolution of one's complaints so that one wouldn't have to go through the onerous judicial system?
And now for the punchline:
The tribunal chastised Dr. Chopra for asserting that every manager at Health Canada practices system racial discrimination, and every appointment in the past 20 years has been discriminatory. It said such sweeping assertions, made "without a proper evidentiary basis," undermine Chopra's credibility and "have a negative impact on the promotion of human rights."
LOL.
I'm having trouble suppressing my laughter in order to type a response. The Human Rights Tribunal should be the one chastising itself.
It accepts hurt feelings as evidence. Then criticizes Chopra for his lack of credibility.
Then rewards him for his efforts!
This is too funny. The Human Rights Tribunal is a laughingstock.
H/T: Blazing Cat Fur via Covenant Zone
