Review of ruling on Filipino boy eating with fork, spoon in Canada urged

CHICAGO, Illinois – The Centre for Research-Action On Race Relations (CRARR) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, asked last week the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to review, and even rescind, its ruling on a complaint of racial discrimination filed by a Filipina-Canadian Maria Theresa Gallardo-Cagadoc, whose son, Luc Cagadoc, was exposed to discriminatory remarks and treatments for eating with a spoon and a fork in a school in Montreal. The Commission delivered last September a mixed ruling on the case by finding Luc’s school educator, Martine Bertrand, guilty of discrimination and violated the boy’s rights when she asked him, whether “in his (country, the Philippines), Filipinos washed their hands before they eat," while failing to make a ruling on the complaint of Gallardo-Cagadoc that the Commission ignored a newspaper article in which the respondent, the school principal, Normand Bergeron, was reported to have made discriminatory comments to Cagadoc that, “you are here in Canada … you should eat the way Canadians eat." CRARR repeatedly raised this evidence and urged the Commission to examine it but the Commission did not even address this issue. “I can't understand how the human rights commission expects to provide a fair investigation when it chose to interview representatives of the School Board but not even me, my son or my husband, at all," said Gallardo-Cagadoc, who sought the help of CRARR to represent her before the commission. Robert Sylvestre, spokesman of the Quebec Human Rights Commission, did not return an email message seeking comments of Gallardo-Cagadoc’s demand for review of the ruling. Luc, the then seven-year old Grade 2 pupil, was reprimanded because of his cultural habit of eating with a fork and a spoon. Luc was born in the Philippines but came to Canada at the age of 8 months. Furthermore, the Commission ruled that Luc was actually reprimanded by his educator, for his “inconvenient" eating manner at lunch and his acting like a clown, rather than for his culture-based practice of eating with a fork and a spoon. Upon receipt of the decision, CRARR made an access to information request for the file. After reviewing the file, it found several procedural anomalies, which may have affected the decision rendered by the Commission. For instance: - The Commission's investigator met with and took written statements from two individual respondents (Bertrand and Bergeron), as well as two employees of the School Board. However, no meetings were held nor interviews conducted with Gallardo-Cagadoc, her husband, their son, or any of their witnesses on the complainant's side. The Commission never contacted the family to obtain additional information; - During the investigation, the Commission failed to reveal to CRARR that it had received from the respondents certain documents about Luc's evaluation by his educator, which undoubtedly influenced the decision. By not disclosing the documents, the Commission prevented Gallardo-Cagadoc and CRARR from responding to the documents and addressing them; - The investigation did not take into account key evidence presented to the Commission. Particularly, it ignored a newspaper article in which Bergeron was reported to have made discriminatory comments similar to those complained about by Gallardo-Cagadoc, which she considered to be offensive to the Filipino community as a whole (such as “you are here in Canada... you should eat the way Canadians eat"). “The commission's decision to completely ignore our claim (that the school principal's statements to her and in the newspaper are discriminatory) certainly raises the specter of bias and unfairness," she added. CRARR's Civil Rights Advocate Leila Jawando said: “Procedural fairness is the cornerstone of the human rights commission's investigative process. If these rules are not obeyed during the Commission's investigation, then the Commission ought to address the administrative unfairness by rescinding its decision and correcting its errors." The Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission is a public human rights agency that has the mandate to protect and promote civil rights in the province of Quebec that are guaranteed by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Reporting to the Quebec National Assembly (the provincial legislature), the Commission is independent of government although its Commissioners are appointed by the legislature and its budget, approved by the government. Unlike the Ontario Human Rights Commission and despite CRARR’s urging in recent years, the Quebec Commission still does not have policies regarding systemic racism in education and discrimination in school disciplinary measures against disabled and racialized students. - GMANews.TV