Human Rights Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Rights Paper - Essay Example3) points out, Canada was the first country to adopt an official g all overnment policy on diversity. Its multicultural policy, which entered into legislature over thirty years ago, was Canadas official legislative response to heathenish plurality for a multicultural society (Mahatani, 2002, p. 3). This does not mean, however, that there are no racial and ethnic tensions in Canada but only that the nation is comparatively more tolerant and accommodating of diversity than are many others. If Canada is to maintain relative ethnic and racial harmony it must diffuse the poisoned environs phenomenon which pervaded in the cutting of Clive Stevens and Robert Symister versus Lynx Industries.In 2005, two black Jamaicans were dismissed from Lynx Industries, allegedly for race-based reasons. The case was brought before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. The plaintiffs alleged that they had been subjected to racist treatment by Lynx Industries and its employe es. The alleged racist treatment encompassed all of racial slurs, race motivated agony and racist graffiti on the bathroom walls. The defendants denied all allegations but admitted to the graffiti incident. Their legal representative, however, cautioned that it had been a superstar, isolated incident. The Tribunal was unconvinced and found that the plaintiffs were not credible. The kick was, therefore, dismissed.Even though the complaint... Interestingly, the Commission contends that unlike harassment which requires repeated behaviour, a poisoned environment can be created by a single incident, if serious or substantial enough (Racial Harassment and Poisoned Environment, 2008, para 5). The creation of a poisoned environment is contrary to the Commissions Code. Importantly, employers are held responsible for either the prevention of the creation of poisoned environment or for taking immediate action against those responsible for it (Racial Harassment and Poisoned Environment, 2008 , paras 5-6). An environment which has been tainted by racism, even if it has assumed the form of a single incident, is considered poisoned because racial tolerance has been undermined, even violated. Indeed, poisoned environments may very well become intolerable for racial minorities, thereby forcing them to leave.While it is important to acknowledge the Tribunals findings, the fact of the social function is that Lynx Industries did admit to the presence of racist graffiti on the bathroom wall. Certainly, it did caution that it was a single incident and there was no reoccurrence. The fact of the affaire is, however, that it did occur and the Commission considers such occurrences a breach of its policies (Racial Harassment and Poisoned Environment, 2008, paras 1-2). Within the context of the stated, the Commissions findings appear contradictory to its own guidelines. Indeed, even if one assumes that the defendants were open in claiming that the plaintiffs were not dismissed for r acial reasons but for their on-the-job performance, it could very well be that the environment had been poisoned to the extent where Stevens and Symister could not perform their jobs to the best of their