San Grewal (Toronto Star) – A federal court has ruled racism was the motive behind the 1999 termination of a Muslim trainee, opening the door for the former cadet to rejoin the RCMP.
“I can’t wait to get back into the RCMP,” Ali Tahmourpour said. “I can’t let the acts of one or two instructors become indicative of the behaviour of the organization altogether.”
His lawyer, Paul Champ detailed some of the racist acts his client was subjected to while training in Regina. “Ali signs his name from right to left in the traditional Persian way. One instructor said, ‘What kind of f—-g language is that?’ The instructor claimed during the tribunal that he was just curious about languages.”
Champ said his client, a Mississauga resident, was also the subject of racist jokes and taunts routinely made by his instructors in the late 1990s.
Shortly after Tahmourpour wrote a nine-page letter of complaint to a senior officer he was dismissed, 14 weeks into the 22-week training period, and told he could not enrol again.
Tahmourpour took his case to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and a tribunal decided in his favour in 2008. The RCMP challenged the ruling.
The Federal Court of Appeal stated in the decision released Monday: “[A]n instructor named Corporal Boyer discriminated against Mr. Tahmourpour by swearing at him and ridiculing him for signing his name in the Persian style, and by being especially verbally abusive and hostile toward him . . . the fact that racist jokes made during the sensitivity training at the Depot were condoned by the instructors made Mr. Tahmourpour feel vulnerable to racism . . . many of Mr. Tahmourpour’s performance reviews were fabricated and influenced by discriminatory attitudes . . . a memorandum in Mr. Tahmourpour’s file stating that he was not to be considered for re-enrolment due to his alleged unstable mental condition, although he had never seen the staff psychologist, amounted to discrimination.”
The decision included two years compensation for lost wages, but the appeals court is referring the matter back to the tribunal which had ruled Tahmourpour should receive nine years of lost wages. The RCMP has paid him the $33,000 in damages for pain and suffering and expenses that the Tribunal ordered.
An RCMP spokesperson said the force isn’t in a position to comment at this point as it’s still reviewing the case.
Since his dismissal from the RCMP, Tahmourpour has worked as a real estate agent in Mississauga. Chasing after his two-year-old has helped him stay fit, and he said he’s ready to go back to the force immediately. “I come from a multi-generational police family in Iran. This is what I want to be doing. My great-grandfather did it.”
When asked how he could reconcile working for an organization that, despite overwhelming evidence of systemic racism, fought to keep Tahmourpour out, he said: “It’s obviously worrisome. But maybe I can be a part of the solution. I hope the RCMP sees me as an asset to correct some of its mistakes.”
Champ, who has represented other RCMP staff who have accused the force of racism, said the case is an example of the RCMP’s notorious “Blue Wall.”
“The RCMP leadership is very wedded to its reputation. They would rather bury problems than deal with them. I hope the RCMP learned from this case.”
But when asked if he expects another appeal Champ said, “They could take it to the Supreme Court.”
Tahmourpour said it wouldn’t matter. “I can be a part of the future of the RCMP, to be an institution we can all be proud of.”
Discrimination finding against RCMP upheld
Kenyon Wallace, National Post
July 22, 2010
The RCMP engaged in racial and religious discrimination when it expelled a Muslim man from its cadet academy, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled, paving the way for the man’s return to training 11 years after his dismissal.
The decision upholds a finding by a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in 2008 that Ali Tahmourpour, 37, faced verbal abuse and hostility from instructors, ridicule over his wearing of religious jewellery, and poor performance evaluations while enrolled in the RCMP’s Regina cadet academy (known as the Depot).
“I finally have vindication,” Mr. Tahmourpour told the National Post from his Mississauga home, saying he intends to return to the academy to fulfill his dream of becoming a member of the RCMP. “My great-grandfather was a mounted police chief in the western mountains of Persia, so it runs in the family.”
Mr. Tahmourpour’s training contract was terminated in October 1999, about 14 weeks into the RCMP’s 22-week cadet course for what the force said were weaknesses in communication skills, group participation, and ability to handle stress, among other things. Because of these alleged problems, a recommendation was made that he not be permitted to re-enroll.
Ruling his termination was based “discriminatory assessments of Mr. Tahmourpour’s skills” and that the decision to prevent his return to the academy was “based in part on his race, religion and/or ethnic or national background,” the tribunal ordered Mr. Tahmourpour’s reinstatement. But the Mounties challenged that decision last year in Federal Court, where a judge set aside the order and sent the complaint back to the Tribunal for a rehearing.
Mr. Tahmourpour appealed that judgment to the Court of Appeal, where Justice Karen Sharlow this week upheld the Tribunal’s 2008 ruling, stating the RCMP’s “discriminatory treatment of
Mr. Tahmourpour denied him the opportunity to complete his training at the Depot and to make his living as an RCMP officer.”
She referred only one aspect of the Tribunal’s original ruling to be reconsidered, that of a part of the compensation awarded to Mr. Tahmourpour to make up for lost income.
A spokeswoman for the RCMP said she could not comment on the ruling as it is under review by the force.
The Iranian-born Mr. Tahmourpour says his troubles began on the first day of training when he was singled out by his instructors for asking to wear a religious pendant during physical education class. He testified that one officer, Corporal Dan Boyer, head instructor of the firearms unit, was particularly hostile and verbally abusive towards him, often screaming in his ears at the firing range that he was a “loser,” a “coward,” and “f—ing useless.”
On one occasion, Cpl. Boyer (now retired) watched Mr. Tahmourpour sign his name on an evaluation form in the “Persian” style of right to left and is alleged to have stated: “What kind of f—ing language is that, or is it something that you’ve made up?”
The Court of Appeal noted in its ruling this week that the RCMP did not challenge these claims, nor other findings of the Tribunal that racist jokes during sensitivity training were condoned by instructors and that Mr. Tahmourpour’s performance evaluations were fabricated and influenced by “discriminatory attitudes.”
Mr. Tahmourpour’s lawyer, Paul Champ, said the case shows the RCMP’s tendancy to try to protect its reputation at all costs.
“The most troubling aspect of the case is the way the RCMP fought it for so many years,” he said. “The test for an organization is how it responds to these kinds of incidents. The actions of those instructors definitely does not reflect the RCMP as a whole, but what does reflect the RCMP as a whole is how they respond. And they definitely failed on that front.”
When asked why he is so keen to return to an organization that spent the last 10 years trying to keep him out, Mr. Tahmourpour said he believes it would be unfair to judge the RCMP based on the behaviour of a few individuals.
“Can you paint an entire population with the same brush?” he said. “I’m hoping to put my experience to use while serving the RCMP.”
Despite Mr. Tahmourpour’s optimism, his battle with the organization to which he wishes to belong may not be over — the RCMP still has the option to take the Court of Appeal’s decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.