What you have to understand, to appreciate the irony of this story, is that Canada's equal rights laws -- included in its "Charter of Rights", a part of the constitution -- are so progressive and righteous as to make America's seem like Jim Crow laws by comparison. Never should anything done by anyone in the Great Not-so-white North be tainted by the merest suggestion of discrimination on the basis of colour. Hiring/firing decisions, for instance, mustn't betray a hint of tint!
Poetic justice, then, that a woman of colour [person of colour, surely! Ed.] took to the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission a complaint that she had been wrongfully fired by her employer because of the colour of her skin. Her employer was the Black Educators Association. And the problem with Ms Brothers's colour was that she was not black enough!
No, gentle reader, Walt is not making this up. Unfortunately, the Canuck lamestream media seems unable to find even a tiny picture of Ms Brothers, so we can see what colour she might be. Apparently she's not white, else she wouldn't have been hired in the first place, so Walt assumes she's what was once called a "high yeller". [Are you referring to the pitch of her voice? Ed.]
In a decision released this morning, the Human Rights Commission found that Brothers was "undermined by association staff whose 'colourist thinking' and behaviour created a toxic work environment at the head office in Halifax and the Annapolis Valley regional office in Kentville, where Ms. Brothers was employed as a regional educator."
The woman named in the report for discriminating against Ms Brothers was Catherine Collier, who was vying with Ms Brothers for the same regional educator position, a job which Ms Brothers landed. The HR police chief [Human Rights Commission Chairman, surely! Ed.] said in his report, "It is clear to me that Ms Brothers was undermined in part because she was younger than, and not as black as, Ms Collier thought Ms. Brothers should be.... In Ms. Collier's eyes, Ms. Brothers was not really black enough."
The Association has been ordered to pay Brothers C$11,000 -- $10,000 in real money -- plus interest, for general damages and lost income. The Black Educators Association is, errr, taxpayer-funded, so the award, the lawyers' costs, the Commission's costs -- the whole ball of wax -- comes out of the pockets of the thrifty New Scotlanders.
But never mind. Tracy Williams, CEO of the Commission, assures taxpayers that "This decision addresses an important human rights issue. The commission needs to explore this sensitive subject to better understand its impact and identify ways we can be of assistance." If you pay taxes in Nova Scotia and you disagree, send a postcard saying "I'm a sucker and I'm tired of being licked!" to Human Rights Commission, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Footnote: It's worth reading the decision made by Donald Murray, Q.C., in its entirety, in order to appreciate the kind of thinking that has created the latest in a long line of sins against human rights. The new sin is called "colourism" (or "colorism" if you're in the USA). A bit of good news: apparently people of colour can be just as GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY or colourism as us whiteys.
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