{"id":8534,"date":"2012-01-27T10:04:05","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T18:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/?p=8534"},"modified":"2012-03-01T23:27:29","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T07:27:29","slug":"chan-v-ubc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/2012\/01\/chan-v-ubc\/","title":{"rendered":"Chan v UBC (BC Human Rights Tribunal)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chan v. University of British Columbia and Haverkamp and Farrar and Shapiro and Tierney (No. 2), 2012 BCHRT 12<\/a><\/p>\n

INTRODUCTION
\n[1] Jennifer Chan filed a complaint alleging that Beth Haverkamp, David Farrar, Jon\u00a0Shapiro, Robert Tierney and the University of British Columbia (collectively the\u00a0\u201cRespondents\u201d) discriminated against her with respect to the appointment of the David\u00a0Lam Chair in Multicultural Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of\u00a0British Columbia (the \u201cLam Chair\u201d) on the basis of race, colour, ancestry, and place of\u00a0origin, contrary to s. 13 of the Human Rights Code. The Respondents deny there has been\u00a0any such discrimination and apply to dismiss the complaint pursuant to ss. 27(1)(b), (c),(d)(ii) and (f), which provide:
\n(1) A member or panel may, at any time after a complaint is filed and\u00a0with or without a hearing, dismiss all or part of the complaint if that\u00a0member or panel determines that any of the \u00a0following apply:
\n(b) the acts or omissions alleged in the complaint…do not contravene\u00a0this Code;
\n(c) there is no reasonable prospect that the complaint will succeed;
\n(d) proceeding with the complaint or that part of the complaint would\u00a0not:
\n…
\n(ii) further the purposes of this Code.
\n(f) the substance of the complaint … has been appropriately dealt\u00a0with in another proceeding.
\n[2] The Respondents, in the alternative, apply to dismiss the complaint against the\u00a0individual respondents.<\/p>\n

Excerpts of the decision:<\/p>\n

[50] Further, it strikes me that it would be fundamentally unfair to allow UBC\u2019s\u00a0application on this ground. A faculty member may rely on the Policy in determining the\u00a0preferred route for redress. To allow UBC to set out an appeal process in its Policy and\u00a0then deny it through an application to dismiss, on this basis, essentially pulls the rug out\u00a0from under that faculty member.<\/p>\n

[51] I decline to dismiss Dr. Chan\u2019s complaint as appropriately dealt with under the\u00a0Policy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[72] The issues raised in this complaint are of significance to the UBC community as a\u00a0whole. I am alive to the difficulties expressed in Lee in identifying racism and related\u00a0offensive behaviour. I am also alive to the low hurdle which the complainant needs to\u00a0overcome on a s. 27(1)(c) application. In the circumstances of this case, I am of the view\u00a0that, only after a full hearing, is it possible to determine whether the Committee\u2019s process\u00a0was tainted by prohibited motivations. Ultimately all Tribunal decisions under s. 27(1)(c)\u00a0of the Code are discretionary decisions. I am not persuaded that there is no reasonable\u00a0prospect that the individual complaint will succeed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[77] Rather, the complaint appears to cast the Committee\u2019s process and resultant\u00a0decision as being the product of subtle racial bias and stereotyping, including the failure\u00a0to apply employment equity principles. Whether or not UBC was bound by its\u00a0Employment Equity Plan to apply such principles as contended by Dr. Chan will not be\u00a0dispositive of the issues in this complaint \u2013 they are cast far broader than that. While I\u00a0recognise that s. 27 of the Code contemplates that a part of a complaint may be dismissed\u00a0on application, I also recognise that a failure to apply employment equity may be rooted\u00a0in racial bias.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[79] If the evidence supports that the Committee was influenced by improper\u00a0considerations as alleged (but which the Respondents clearly deny) the selection would\u00a0constitute a violation of the Code. On the material before me, a hearing will be required\u00a0to ascertain whether discrimination has occurred. I am not prepared to dismiss the\u00a0complaint on the basis that the acts alleged do not contravene the Code.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

IX CONCLUSION<\/p>\n

[90] As stated above, I decline to dismiss Dr. Chan\u2019s personal complaint against UBC.\u00a0The systemic complaint is dismissed. I also dismiss the complaints against Dr.\u00a0Haverkamp, Dr. Farrar, Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Tierney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chan v. University of British Columbia and Haverkamp and Farrar and Shapiro and Tierney (No. 2), 2012 BCHRT 12 INTRODUCTION [1] Jennifer Chan filed a complaint alleging that Beth Haverkamp, David Farrar, Jon\u00a0Shapiro, Robert Tierney and the University of British … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[406504,406503,2264],"tags":[406485,406486,37],"class_list":["post-8534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chan-case","category-human-rights-2","category-legal-issues","tag-bc-human-rights-tribunal","tag-chan-v-ubc","tag-ubc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8534"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8651,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions\/8651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}