The federal agency that deals with refugee claimants from around the
world is facing fresh allegations of racism from several current and
former employees.
In human-rights complaints and labour grievances, at least four black
and other non-white employees in the refugee protection division of the
Immigration and Refugee Board say they have been subject to harassment,
ghettoized in lower-level positions or denied permanent status.
In the latest complaint filed recently with the Canadian Human Rights
Commission, a 15-year board employee said colleagues used racist terms
such as "spook" to refer to a fellow black employee.
Initial complaints to a supervisor resulted only in a warning that he
"be careful" because he could be targeted with a counter-harassment
complaint by the co-workers, said Norm Murray, a black refugee
protection officer based in Toronto.
"Management at the IRB . . . has created and supported a poisoned work
environment," Murray said in his unproven complaint, a copy of which was
obtained by The Canadian Press.
In another case, a Hispanic employee was issued a redundancy notice in
April that was to have taken effect in late May. However, she was told
to leave her Toronto office almost immediately.
"I find this procedure irregular and strange," she wrote in a farewell e-mail to colleagues.
"Perhaps, it is a coincidence that these drastic measures have been
taken within days of my having filed a formal complaint decrying racism
and harassment in the workplace."
Raoul Boulakia of the Refugee Lawyers Association said it's imperative
the board deal openly and honestly with the allegations, a position he
said he made clear to its chairman, Jean-Guy Fleury.
"Obviously you can't have any racism in an institution that's dealing with people from around the world," Boulakia said.
Several board employees, supervisors and even one senior union official
refused to discuss the allegations publicly, saying managers had warned
them against talking to the media on the threat of discipline or
dismissal.
Jeannette Meunier-McKay, president of the Canadian Employment and
Immigration Union, said while discrimination and harassment complaints
come from across the public service, "it seems to be more predominant
within the IRB for some reason."
She refused to say how many such grievances the union was dealing with.
Fleury and executive-director Marilyn Stuart-Major refused to comment
but a spokeswoman said the board was "looking into the matter" and takes
allegations of racism seriously.
The board is already under scrutiny for other reasons. Results of an
external investigation leaked last week found evidence of ``improper
conduct" on behalf of two politically appointed decision-makers who
allegedly didn't write rulings themselves.
Immigration Minister Judy Sgro, who earlier this year announced changes
to the way board members are appointed, would not comment on the racism
allegations.
The Immigration and Refugee Board is Canada's largest quasi-judicial
tribunal. In its refugee protection division, about 200 political
appointees currently make decisions on more than 40,000 asylum
applications each year.
Another 1,390 civil servants provide bureaucratic support.
An extensive public-service survey in 2002 found a slightly higher ratio
of respondents at the board believed they had been discriminated
against. However, in Toronto, 27 per cent said they had — a rate far
higher than the 17 per cent civil service average.
While most of the problems appear to have been in Toronto, the board's
only black employee in Vancouver has also complained to the human rights
commission about what he called "corruption and systemic
discrimination."
In a letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin earlier this year, Francois
Moussa said three managers had asked him for bottles of liquor to secure
a permanent job, and one "racially profiled" him by asking him for
narcotics.
When he complained, he was given a job stamping thousands of envelopes.
Moussa, who has been on stress leave, accused senior board members of a cover-up.
Toronto lawyer Pamela Bhardwaj, who is familiar with the racism allegations, said she believes there's a real problem.
"There may be a few bad apples that you want to weed out but when
management is attacking the victims and promoting the bad apples, that
is unacceptable," said Bhardwaj. "It's really disturbing."
Selwyn Pieters, a black lawyer and refugee protection officer in Toronto, said he was harassed after he complained.
An anonymous note at work warned him his manager would give him a ``hard
time because American blacks are big time trouble-makers."
Pieters also has a human-rights complaint alleging he was subjected "to
adverse differential treatment, individual, institutional/systemic, and
cultural/ideological, racism."
Don Oliver, a black senator from Nova Scotia, said he didn't know
whether the refugee board was any worse than other federal agency.
But in a hard-hitting speech recently, Oliver portrayed the entire civil
service as rife with racism and urged the government to appoint an
anti-racism commissioner.
In an interview, Oliver said his speech had prompted dozens of e-mails
from civil servants across the country saying they were "so happy that
someone finally has the courage to stand up and say it."
Source : Canadian PRESS / COLIN PERKEL
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