Hundreds of Barbadians living in Canada are part of a class-action lawsuit against that country’s government, claiming CAN$2.5 billion (BDS$3.8 million) in damages for decades of injustices toward Black public servants.
In a virtual interview with Barbados TODAY on Tuesday, Executive Director of Black Class Action Secretariat (BCAS) in Canada, Nicholas Marcus Thompson urged Barbados to help pressure the Canadian government into addressing a “damning” situation in which thousands of Black public servants, including Bajans, were being subjected to systemic discrimination in their workplaces.
He said the thousands of claimants will be represented by 12 plaintiffs including Barbadians Monica Agard and Jennifer Phillips when the certification aspect of the case goes before the Federal Court on May 8, 2023. That process will determine if the suit meets the threshold of a class action suit and, therefore, if it goes to trial.
Attorneys from four different law firms, including a Jamaican solicitor who also experienced injustice in the public service, will provide legal representation.
“In this case, we would have hundreds of Barbadians…and there are two [Barbadian] representative plaintiffs. Their names are what’s before the court. They are the people who are making the decision on the case, instructing counsel because counsel can’t take instructions from thousands of people,” the human rights advocate explained.
Thompson, who worked seven years in the public service, said the people covered by the suit include 8 000 current employees, thousands of retired or resigned employees, as well as those who applied for jobs in the public service but were never hired on account of their race.
“The latter category was recently added to the proposed class. Of those hired between 1970 and to present, we anticipate this number to be approximately 30 000 to 40 000. The external class that was never hired, we anticipate to be in the 50,000 to 100,000 range as per rough estimates from the government,” he disclosed.
In addition to asking for damages, the class action suit is seeking legislative changes, an apology from the government, the establishment of a compensation fund, a Black Equity Commission, and an Employment Equity Act which treats separately to Black people.
According to the motion filed in the Federal Court on December 1, 2020, the primary class members are all Black individuals who at any time during the period from 1970 to the present were employed as part of the Federal Public Service and who were denied hiring or promotional opportunities by virtue of their race. The motion also refers to secondary class members, who are people who have a claim arising from a family relationship with a primary class member, and the heirs, assigns, and estates of all class members.
Phillips, who was employed by the Canadian Revenue Agency for over three decades and has since retired, recounted her “belittling” experiences on the job. She claimed she was made to feel worthless relative to her non-Black colleagues and complained that despite her desire to move beyond her position of Collections Officer, she was only promoted once in 30 years.
Jennifer Phillips
“I know that seems daunting and it was. It’s not for not trying. When the opportunity came, those that did not look like me were the ones that garnered the position. [It was] disappointment to the point that you just didn’t have confidence in the process and you just stopped trying…and that is the case for a lot of the Black employees currently at my workplace,” the Barbadian national lamented.
“It seems like it doesn’t matter what you do, there is always a justification and an excuse as to why you are not the successful candidate in this respect,” the retired Canadian public servant added in a YouTube video as part of the Black Class Action campaign.
She continued: “It’s even disheartening to see that these individuals that I have trained have gone on to leadership positions.”
Meantime, Brathwaite claimed that her efforts to have her grievances addressed were “completely” fruitless and that those issues and concerns caused her to suffer stress, anxiety, depression, difficulty maintaining relationships, and social phobia.
Agard, who worked for 30 years with the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), recalled that when she and a colleague were complaining about their workload, a senior management official commented that “we should go back to the good old days when we had slaves”.
“And you pause for a second because it hits you. When I talk about this I get so distressed…not only the stigma but inaction,” Agard told CBC News in Canada.
Monica Agard
“Sometimes when you suffer you think you suffer alone; and [when] you hear someone else’s story, then you know that you are not suffering alone,” the distraught Canadian public officer declared as she expressed her interest in seeing change.
The class action motion is anchored on 12 grounds, which include an allegation that the defendant breached its contractual and extra-contractual obligations, including its duty of honesty and duty not to conceal its duty of care, and its fiduciary duty to the plaintiffs and to class members. The lawyers contend that the defendant is liable for its failure to act in accordance with its legislative, regulatory, and administrative mandate in regard to hiring and promotions based upon merit, and instead, adopted malleable, arbitrary, and capricious subjective criteria.
The claim further seeks a declaration that the defendant infringed the plaintiffs’ and class members’ rights and freedoms contrary to sections 15, 27, and 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as sections 10, 10.1, and 16 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
Thompson, one of the thousands claiming racial discrimination and exclusion in the public service, said if the court does not approve the class-action certification, an appeal would be lodged in a higher court.
“If a higher court agrees with us, then it goes back down to a hearing. If the Supreme Court rejects it, all we have is the court of public opinion and international leaders applying pressure on Canada to address it.
“The case has attracted national attention here in Canada, but it would probably incite a bigger movement if the court rejects it and there isn’t that justice, especially in the George Floyd era,” said the BCAS official, referring to the case in which Floyd, an African-American man, was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest on May 25, 2020, triggering a wave of protests in the United States and in other parts of the world.
Amnesty International and a series of other organisations and public service employees in North America and the United Kingdom are supporting the cause of the Black Canadians.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
