Former federal public servant Paul Richard just wants some justice, but it would appear that justice is only for those who file swiftly and Richard is 20-some-odd years late to the game.

In 2005, he filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against the Treasury Board of Canada for discrimination based on sexual orientation. Since then, his request to have his complaint heard has been refused twice and appealed twice. Richard is desperately hoping that the third time before the Commission’s a charm.

Richard worked as an economist for the federal government in several departments and ministries from the early 1970s until 1985, when the near-constant organizational restructuring finally pushed him out. In his original complaint, he chronicled his experience of being shuffled from department to department to department and finally, out the door.

Richard, now 58, feels he was left out in the cold for being an openly gay man.

He claims his supervisors used negative performance evaluation reports, reorganization and even intimidation as tools for discrimination. He maintains that at the time, the concept of gay rights was “virtually unknown,” and he did not realize these events were motivated by systemic homophobia. When he sought the help of his union and of lawyers, he found that no one would advocate on his behalf because he was gay, and as he said in some of his documentation, “gay rights were not a cause to be defended [then].” (Discrimination against sexual orientation was only written into the Canadian Human Rights Act in 1996.)

Read the full article at http://www.xtra.ca

Former federal public servant Paul Richard just wants some justice, but it would appear that justice is only for those who file swiftly and Richard is 20-some-odd years late to the game. In 2005, he filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against the Treasury Board of Canada for discrimination based on sexual [...]