by Selwyn Pieters, B.A., LL.B.
As an anti-racism, anti-oppression, anti-exploitation activist and lawyer, my mission is: "The passionate pursuit of truth, social justice, equity and human rights through grass root community work and fearless advocacy."
¶ 210. As to management's investigation of his concerns, the complainant was met with refusals, delays, bias, incompetence, the twisting of facts, the withholding of information, and unjustified inquiries about, and findings against, him.Why fight?
Selwyn, National Film Board and CBC Documentary Special, Momentum, April 20, 2005Silence is racism's greatest facilitatorI think I fight because there are things that I feel needs changing. I fight when I see something is wrong; when I come up against an intransigent authority figure (with the prevailing mindset "might is right"). If I engage in a fight, I am going to fight until I feel some measure of vindication or until that fight is ended, whether I win or lose. As a Black person living in Toronto, I have had several profound negative experiences... I made a fundamental committment that if I see injustices I am going fight them.... Sometimes I am very annoyed at people who see issues that are worth fighting for and they walk away from it...
Black traveller calls search racial profiling: Rights body to hear Selwyn Pieters's case involving two Canada Customs agents over train incident, JOHN SAUNDERS reports
Monday, June 4, 2001
by John Saunders
Globe and Mail
"Every time I'm profiled," Mr. Pieters vows, "I'm going to file a complaint. I'm going to go through the judicial process. Whether I win or lose, there's a public record of it, and that's the way it is."Toronto's Police Association dismisses accusations of racial profiling:[GLOBAL NATIONAL Edition]
TARA NELSON. Global News Transcripts Toronto, Ont.:Sep 17, 2004. p. 1TARA NELSON: Tonight, Toronto's Police Association is dismissing accusations it practices racial profiling. It comes after a judge threw out drug charges against a man, saying officers targeted him because he was black and driving an expensive car. The police association says it never has and never will practice racial profiling. But the judge's ruling has given heart to many in Toronto who have been complaining about unfair treatment. Selwyn Pieters... who has fought several human rights complaints, both for himself and for others.
SELWYN PIETERS (Anti-Racism Activist): And I made a promise years ago that every time I'm racially profiled I'm going to challenge it through the judicial process, and I'm happy that the courts are now beginning to recognize this phenomena or this pervasive problem in the city. What those circumstances do is it diminishes your human dignity. What it does is it makes you feel like you're less of a citizen. In cases where I walk by the cops, in a lot of cases I am tense because I always wonder what is going to happen. I don't drive very much in the city for very good reason. It's my interaction with the cops. It's very difficult for the cop to approach me on the street while I'm walking without reasonable and proper grounds. But while driving, they can always find an excuse to stop me. Even if you have a lot of black police officers, it's not going to change unless you legislate and you punish the perpetrators of racial profiling, or you hit them hard in their pocket through civil suits.
"public servants are entitled to hold opinions and to express them publicly within certain limits. They have the right to express themselves publicly on issues such as, for instance, employment equity, equality before the law and the right to protection of the law without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin and colour." Chopra v. Treasury Board (Health Canada) [2001] C.P.S.S.R.B. No. 13, 2001 PSSRB 23, PSSRB File No. 166-2-29385.Where there are serious Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights violations the victim has the right and an obligation "to cry out loud and long against their transgressors in the public forum and -- in the case of children and others less capable of articulation of the issues -- to have their advocates cry out on their behalf." Campbell v. Jones 2002 NSCA 128.
The Gong sang (one of Haile Selassie's speeches that is a fundamental statement of principle on the issue racial oppression):
Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war
That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war
That until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be persued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war
Bob Marley, "War", Rastaman Vibration.
In Canada, there is a core or cadre of civil servants who are human rights defenders and some whistleblowers in the public interest. Dr. Shiv Chopra Health Canada, Dr, Margaret Haydon (Health Canada), Dr. Gerald Lambert (Health Canada), Dr. Chander Grover, National Research Council, Dr. Ranjit Perera, Calvin Lawrence Royal Canadian Mounted Police and many more who have blown the whistle in the public interest, paid a high price but continues to soldier on. They have demonstrated, over the years, an unshakable and tested commitment to racial equality, human rights, workplace diversity and social justice.
These civil servants hold various professions, lawyers, doctors, police officers, accountants, clerks, liaison officers, immigration officials, and the list can go on. These are people who has decide to take a stand and speak out. As is often the case civil servants in Canada who speak up internally or externally on matters of human rights, discrimination, racism, or other forms of unethical behaviour are subjected to harassment, intimidation, dismissal from their jobs, physical assault by managers, anonymous threats with official acquiescence. I know that based on my personal experience. What is deserving of condemnation is the persons responsible for the acts set out above are rarely, if ever, negatively sanctioned, in fact they are rewarded with promotions.
Human Rights Defenders in the federal public service of Canada include anyone who has challenged acts or omissions that constitutes violation of fundamental human rights of themselves or others. These are people who ensure that the overriding public interest take paramountcy to the culture of impunity and secrecy that perpetrators of human rights violations thrive in. The Human rights defenders documents the violations, report them to the authorities internally or externally, insist that they be investigated and those who are found to be responsible be held accountable. In doing so, these civil servants put themselves at risk to their livelihood, careers, and sometimes physical and mental well-being.
This page, as the title indicates, charts the Elusive Quest for a Harassment Free and Respectful Workplace at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. My work, as a refugee protection officer, human rights defender, and as someone fortunate to read law, is to struggle against oppression. There is, of course, a price to be paid and that includes harassment, intimidation, violence, economic deprivation, and any number of other micro and macro agression. However, if human rights are to have any meaning one has to, as Bob Marley chanted, "Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!/ Get up, stand up: don’t give up the fight!" It cannot just be about a paycheck or about looking for upward mobility. It is about the human rights and dignity. It's about the oppression and abuse that we face daily simply because of our skin color in a society that claims to provide inalienable and non-derogable rights to all its citizens! Thus, one has to use the tools in their toolbox to fight against racism and other forms of oppression whether it be at the Immigration and Refugee Board, National Research Council, Health Canada, Canada Border Services Agency Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Human Resources & Skills Development Canada, Correctional Services of Canada, or any of the myriad of places where racial and other forms of oppression rears its ugly head.
Senior executives in the federal public service would point to the Canada Labour Code, Canadian Human Rights Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Public Service Labour Relations Act and numerous Treasury Board policies and guidelines that they say are designed to provide adequate protections and indicate their committment to human rights and to the broader public interest. However, these legislation and constitutional protection is meaningless unless they really provide protections and safeguards for those who are to be the beneficiaries.
Don't give up, don't capitulate, don't accept that racial harassment and discrimination is part of your daily existance in Canada. There are too many cases of racial discrimination in employment, in the provision of services and facilities at shopping malls, ports of entry, and with respect to diversity within the government, the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the legal system, to be litigated, to be spoken to, to be profiled on websites such as this one, to be spoken about at conferences, to be catalogued in academic and other papers. It means that one has to use, as I said above, the tools in one's toolkit to be the change you want your community, your service provider, your employer, to be.
Recent Developments Pieters Fired Canadian Press, September 25, 2005
Systemic Racism Whistleblowing Hiring Decisions
This page is updated by Selwyn Pieters, B.A., LL.B.
To write to Selwyn Pieters selwyn.pieters@utoronto.ca
This page was created on December 31, 2004 and updated on November 05, 2005.
(c)2004 - 2005 All rights reserved.
Duplication of any of these pages in any form without the express permission of the owner is strictly prohibited.
