Company ordered to pay $45,000 in lost wages, $40,000 for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect
A British Columbia human rights tribunal has found that a company's chief executive subjected an employee to years of derogatory remarks about his ethnicity and religion, then stripped him of his job duties, amounting to a discriminatory constructive dismissal.
In a decision issued Aug. 12, 2026, tribunal member Shannon Beckett found that Freshslice Holdings Ltd. and its CEO discriminated against a marketing manager based on his race, colour and religion, ordering the company to pay $45,000 in lost wages and $40,000 for injury to his dignity, feelings and self-respect.
The worker, an Iranian-Canadian marketing manager who practices Islam, testified that over eight years with the company, its chief executive regularly disparaged Iranian and Muslim people in the workplace lunchroom, at one point describing Iranians as "third world people" with a "third world mindset."
A former colleague also testified that he witnessed the CEO mock Persian and Muslim colleagues on multiple occasions, including comments about the Prophet Muhammad. The company's human resources manager said he never personally heard such remarks, but the tribunal member found his testimony inconsistent and gave it little weight on the issue.
The CEO initially denied making any negative comments, then acknowledged during cross-examination that he had made some remarks about Iranian people, before eventually...
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