Indo-Canadian vets win decade-long battle against racial bias

Indo-Canadian vets have won a decade- long battle against discriminatory practices by a medical association in Canada with a human rights tribunal awarding monetary damages to 13 doctors and ordering the college to stop its discriminatory racial practices.
The human rights tribunal ruled that the British Columbia Veterinary Medical Association (BCVMA) targeted the foreign trained doctors and ran a campaign to discredit them while standing by the "racist" and prejudice members of their governing board.
It also found that the college governing body did so to force out immigrant doctors out of their chosen profession.
"I note that none of those who engaged in making raced-based comments or relaying such comments were sanctioned for doing so. The BCVMA's Code of Ethics is clear that members should not engage in race-based negative commentary about their colleagues.

"Despite this clear provision, the BCVMA allowed such commentary to continue, thus suggesting that it believed such commentary or could reasonably be perceived as condoning such commentary," Tribunal Judge Judy Parrack wrote in her October 9 decision.
"Race-based stereotypes played a role in BCVMA's dealings with the complainants, including negative generalised views about the credibility and ethics of Indo-Canadians in relation to their veterinary practices.

"The college played judge and jury in a conspiracy to force Indo-Canadian veterinarians out of their chosen profession and they suffered extreme abuse from the governing body for nearly two decades," the tribunal's website quoted the judge as saying.

The ruling came after a long hearing, lasting 380 days and costing the Indo-Vets more than 1.5 million Canadian dollars and the BCVMA more than 7 million dollars.
The complainants had argued that the BCVMA's policies served to discriminated against Indo-Canadian veterinarians in that the English Language Standard applied to only foreign- trained veterinarians, they were subject to unscheduled inspections more frequently than others and those disciplinary complaints referred to Inquiry, over a period of years, involved only Indo-Canadian veterinarians.
The college association was also told to end the discriminatory practices and pay the vets, born and trained in India, 2,000 Canadian dollars to 35,000 Canadian dollars apiece.

Reacting to the judgement, British Columbia agriculture minister Norm Letnick, who is also in charge of the BCVMA, has promised to put an end to the discriminatory practices.