Archive for Discrimination
Public complaints over Gately article
Posted by: | CommentsA Daily Mail columnist has issued a statement rejecting claims that an article she wrote on the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately is homophobic.
Jan Moir defended her opinion piece, published in the British edition of today’s newspaper, claiming she was the victim of “a heavily orchestrated internet campaign” after several companies pulled advertising from the website page featuring the article.
“I think it is mischievous in the extreme to suggest that my article has homophobic and bigoted undertones,” she said in the statement.
The British Press Complaints Commission received more than 1,000 complaints from members of the public throughout the course of the day, leading the Commission’s website to crash for several hours.
“Some people, particularly in the gay community, have been upset by my article about the sad death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately. This was never my intention,” she said.
Defending the content of her article, she said: “it seems unlikely to me that what took place in the hours immediately preceding Gately’s death – out all evening at a nightclub, taking illegal substances, bringing a stranger back to the flat, getting intimate with that sThe article in question initially had the headline “Why there was nothing ‘natural’ about Stephen Gately’s death” but this was later changed on the paper’s online edition to: “A strange, lonely and troubling death…”
In it she questioned the nature of his death: “Even before the post-mortem and toxicology reports were released by the Spanish authorities, the Gatelys’ lawyer reiterated that they believed his sudden death was due to natural causes,” she wrote.
tranger – did not have a bearing on his death. At the very least, it could have exacerbated an underlying medical condition.”
The article in question initially had the headline “Why there was nothing ‘natural’ about Stephen Gately’s death” but this was later changed on the paper’s online edition to: “A strange, lonely and troubling death…”
In it she questioned the nature of his death: “Even before the post-mortem and toxicology reports were released by the Spanish authorities, t”Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages. Not everyone, they say, is like George Michael.”
“Of course, in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now the dubious events of Gately’s last night raise troubling questions about what happened.”
Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook provided a forum throughout the day for people to comment on Ms Moir’s opinion piece.
British actor Stephen Fry, who has almost 850,000 followers on Twitter said: “I gather a repulsive nobody writing in a paper no one of any decency would be seen dead with has written something loathesome and inhumane.”
he Gatelys’ lawyer reiterated that they believed his sudden death was due to natural causes,” she wrote.
Transgender child, job are focus of complaint against TSC
Posted by: | CommentsTippecanoe County’s Human Relations Commission is investigating a discrimination complaint involving the Tippecanoe School Corp. and a transgender student.
According to Mike Piggott, commission chairman, Trudy Paxton of Lafayette filed the complaint against the TSC on behalf on herself and her daughter last week during the commission’s quarterly meeting.
In the complaint, Paxton claims that she lost her job and her daughter was forced to change schools because of discrimination against her daughter.
“What it all boils down to is my child’s situation and the fact that she is transgender,” said Paxton, who had worked for the TSC as a bus driver. “I never thought that after nearly 10 years of driving I’d be looking for a new job.”At this point it is our intent to cooperate fully with the human relations commission,” said Susan DeLong, TSC assistant superintendent for personnel. “This is the first complaint we have received through this channel, and we are working with our legal counsel to figure out the next step.”
Paxton said her daughter was harassed on a daily basis while attending McCutcheon High School. After months of working with school officials to resolve the issue, Paxton decided to enroll her daughter in the Elston Education Center during last school year. TSC does not provide transportation to Elston.
Because Paxton had to drop her daughter off at Elston after completing her bus route, changes had to be made in TSC’s parking structure to allow her to be the first one in and out of the bus lot each morning.
Paxton said the changes offended some drivers who felt she was receiving special treatment.
She said that she had to miss five days near the end of last school year because she was having panic attacks related to a “serious issue” involving her daughter, and those absences should have been excused.
Shoppers Drug Mart Complaints – Rude, racist, poor service
Posted by: | CommentsI am a brown skin woman and I was there on a weekday in the afternoon for the first time at that store to purchase some flyer items.
A white cashier named Linda, looked at me disgustingly and said arrogantly you black people can only afford sale price items. There is a limit of 4 per customer. You were here the other day and got the same items.
She asked me to leave because the owner said only 4 items per customer. She said our owner is black and her boss was black too. What are you going to complain about your black skin?
What an experience for shopping there for the first time.
Costco pulls dolls after customer complaints about racist connotations
Posted by: | CommentsCostco Wholesale Corp. has pulled from store shelves around the country African-American dolls, packaged with stuffed monkeys and wearing hats that said “Lil’ Monkey,” after a customer complained about the toys’ racist connotations.
Costco pulled the dolls from its shelves in late July after a customer complained about the dolls. More complaints came in after the customer sent out an e-mail blast, said Art Jackson, a vice president at Costco.
He noted that there were three versions of the doll, representing different ethnicities. All three were pulled from the shelves.
Costco, based in Washington state, said it takes full responsibility for putting the dolls on the shelves. Jackson said he has “expressed our regrets that this did have the tendency to offend some folks .”
Discrimination complaints jump 500 percent in Frederick Co.
Posted by: | CommentsThe Frederick County Human Relations Department saw a 500 percent increase in discrimination complaints, strengthened its ordinance language and trained county employees on equal opportunity employment in fiscal 2009.
The department, along with the Human Relations Commission, issued its annual report to the Frederick County Commissioners last week.
The department and the commission are separate but related entities. The department, an arm of county government, provides services as defined by the county’s anti-discrimination regulation and accepts formal discrimination complaints.
The commission, with 15 volunteer members, sponsors multicultural events, advises county officials on human rights and monitors hate crimes and affirmative action in county agencies, among other functions.
According to a report written by director Henry Templeton, the department received and processed 18 complaints of discrimination, up from 3 in fiscal 2008.
Sixteen of those fiscal 2009 complaints were related to employment, one was in public accommodations and one in housing, the department report stated.
In April, county commissioners approved a change in the commission’s ordinance language to include the term “unlawful,” as it relates to discrimination in certain areas.
The department and the commission also rewrote and updated the commission’s regulations, which county commissioners approved in October 2008.
Also in October, the department conducted the first equal opportunity employment training for 541 county government directors, managers and supervisors, its report stated.
“Formal feedback indicates the training was well received and should greatly help ensure an ‘affirmative defense’ for the county against any future claims of unlawful discrimination,” the report stated.
Discrimination complaints in county rose in 2008
Posted by: | CommentsThe number of complaints filed with the county’s Office of Human Rights increased by about 10 percent in 2008 even as incidents of “hate bias” dropped, according to a year-end report.
The county Office of Human Rights investigates complaints of discrimination and tries to resolve them. It also investigates employment-related complaints made to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Anyone can file a complaint alleging violation of the Howard County code based on discrimination on a variety of factors, including race, national origin, age, and sex.
There were 100 such complaints filed in 2008, up from 89 the previous year, according to the April 7 report. Out of those, 84 were employment-related, 15 dealt with housing or public accommodation claims and one was law enforcement-related.
Of the employment claims, more than half — 46 — alleged racial discrimination. The next most common was gender discrimination, the report states. In 2007, race was also the most common employment-related complaint.
The office closed 87 cases last year, finding no reasonable cause behind the complaint in 54 of the incidents. The remaining cases either found evidence of discrimination, were resolved through mediation or were closed for other reasons.
The housing and employment complaints resulted in roughly $229,000 worth of settlements, down from $350,000 in 2006 and $247,000 in 2007, the report states. These figures do not include private confidential settlements that were reached outside of the county’s Human Rights office process.
Report finds racial profiling complaints highest since 2002
Posted by: | CommentsA new state report on traffic stops showed the highest number of complaints about targeting of minorities since record-keeping began in 2002.
Twenty-two complaints of racial profiling were received last year by the Nebraska Crime Commission, which issued its latest “Traffic Stops in Nebraska” report Tuesday.
That is twice as many as in 2007, and the most since the Legislature ordered the annual racial profiling studies to begin in 2002.
The Crime Commission indicated that of the 22 complaints, officers were exonerated in 19. The outcome of the three other cases was unknown, the commission report stated.
Overall, there were 502,127 traffic stops reported to the commission last year, of which half were by the Nebraska State Patrol
U.S. to probe parents’ complaints of bias in L. Merion schools
Posted by: | CommentsThe U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will investigate complaints from South Ardmore parents that a redistricting plan for Lower Merion’s schools discriminates on the basis of race.
The parents alleged in their complaints “that the plan’s separation of the South Ardmore community into two different high schools is based on race.”
Lower Merion High School in Ardmore and Harriton High in Rosemont are being redistricted as part of an expensive project to build two new high schools with equal enrollments.
Redistricting was needed because more of the township’s families live near Lower Merion High School than near Harriton.
On Jan. 21, the Office for Civil Rights said it had received four complaints from South Ardmore alleging the redistricting plan was racist. It deliberated two months before deciding to investigate.
One of the South Ardmore residents said a letter she received dated Monday described the Office for Civil Rights as “a neutral factfinder collecting and analyzing relevant evidence from complainants and the district and other sources.”
“Opening this allegation for investigation in no way implies that we have made a determination
Lesbians denied medical care
Posted by: | Commentslesbian couple is taking a Winnipeg doctor to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Manitoba alleging they were denied care because of their sexual orientation.
The case, it seems, is another example of conflicting religious and cultural rights. We can probably expect more in the future, especially as we import doctors (and other professionals) to make up for shortages here, the head of the college says.
How we handle such issues may well determine the kind of society we will have.
‘Brain waste’
Posted by: | CommentsWhen Arlyn Chow moved to Canada from the Philippines seven years ago, her dream was to work as a nurse, as she had for four years back home.
No one told her she would need an 18-month program at Mohawk College, which required her to take out a loan and work part time.
“It would have been helpful if I’d known ahead of time,” said Chow.
Still, she is one of the lucky ones. She is working in her chosen field as a surgical nurse at St. Joseph’s Healthcare and using her skills.
Many foreign-trained nurses have been unable to upgrade their credentials and are working at lower paid jobs, such as personal support workers.
A study by McMaster University’s Nursing Health Services Research Unit shows there is a “brain waste” of immigrant nurses in Canada.
The study, co-authored by Dr. Andrea Baumann, associate vice-president, faculty of health sciences, international health, and Jennifer Blythe, associate professor, school of nursing, has shown that although Canada faces a serious nursing shortage, not enough is being done to recruit and retrain internationally educated nurses or IENs.
While there are good programs in Ontario, including Hamilton’s Care For Nurses, there aren’t enough to help all the internationally educated nurses who need it, Baumann said.
“If we don’t do more, we’re going to be in big trouble,” added Baumann.
She said more information could be provided to international nurses during the immigration process so people like Chow wouldn’t be taken by surprise.
There is also a need for supports around cultural diversity and mentoring programs for new foreign trained nurses, said Baumann.
Some provinces, including Saskatchewan, have been aggressively recruiting nurses from abroad for years, said Baumann.
Hamilton was chosen as a demonstration site for the development of recruitment strategies for internationally trained nurses.
Those strategies may serve as provincial and national role models for communities across Canada.
Iveta Dianovska wished she’d received more information before coming to Canada.
A trained nurse, Dianovska moved to Canada from Europe six years ago and is working as a registered practical nurse, but at a much lower salary because she can’t afford to upgrade her education.
“It’s frustrating,” she said.