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BC “human rights” tribunal beclowns itself again
by Scott Gilbreath ~ December 9th, 2008
Last week, the BC “human rights” tribunal found that companies involved in building Vancouver’s Skytrain had discriminated against Latin American workers and ordered payment of compensation. After slogging through the 177-page decision, the Vancouver Sun’s Ian Mulgrew smells a rat.
The Latin American workers were paid the same wage scale as Canadian workers on the same job; both groups were paid less than European workers. In the course of negotiating an initial contract, the workers’ union appealed the pay rates to the Labour Relations Board, which tossed the case. Only then did the union spin the dispute as a racial discrimination claim and take it to the HRT.
As in the case involving Maclean’s magazine and author Mark Steyn, who were falsely accused of inciting hatred towards Muslims, the human rights tribunal just couldn’t say no.
[…]
Even though 75 per cent of the workers voted to accept the collective agreement that enshrined the differential pay rates that saw the score of Europeans earning about twice as much as everyone else; even though the workers voted to decertify the union earlier this year, astoundingly, the tribunal ordered the company to pay each Latin worker the difference between the salary paid to them and the average salary paid to the Europeans, the difference between the expenses paid to the two groups, and $10,0000 compensation for injury to dignity.
Now we have a situation in which Canadian workers are to be paid less than both the Latin Americans and Europeans. There would appear to be no basis for the Canadians to claim racial discrimination, but you never know. “Human rights” tribunals in this country are known for expansive definitions of what falls within their jurisdiction.
The companies’ lawyer maintains the tribunal was prejudiced against his clients and says they will appeal the ruling to the BC Supreme Court.
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December 10th, 2008 at 04:45 PM
[...] NSCOTT– BC “human rights” tribunal beclowns itself again …. [...]