NDP Says Christy Clark Government Pays To Protect College Of Veterinarians Of BC Despite Findings Of Racial Discrimination
“This was systemic racism on the part of the college and by indemnifying them, the Liberal government had a hand in it,” said Horgan. “The South Asian veterinarians deserve better from their government than to have it act in consort with a professional body that was denying them their basic rights.”
By R. Paul Dhillon
VICTORIA – Indo-Canadian Veterinarians have suffered the most extreme form of racism from the College of Veterinarians of BC (CVBC), ), formerly known as British Columbia Veterinary Medical Association (BCVMA), the very body that governs their livelihood yet the BC Government has remained silent and continues to support this racist College.
“Asshole”, “Sociopath”, “Gone are the days when we could go there with a torch and burn it down, a quicker way” and “Go back to Pakistan”,, are some of the racist and abusive comments made by the upper echelon of the CVBC, the BC government appointed Association, that is supposed to be fair and balanced towards all of its members.
Yet despite a landmark ruling by the BC Human Rights Tribunal, which clearly said in a 2000 page decision, that the CVBC-BCVMA carried an orchestrated deeply rooted discrimination against the immigrant veterinary doctors, as kind of an extreme form of a racist witch hunt.
The Opposition NDP has also raised this issue of Liberal government continuing to support the College, saying the B.C. Liberal government permitted the professional association governing B.C. veterinarians to discriminate against South Asian professionals for over a decade by providing it with an emergency indemnity, a kind of an umbrella from the big boss so that the college can continue to abuse the victims.
“A 10-year-long battle against institutional racism was dragged out because the Liberal government was underwriting the veterinarians association, which allowed it to persist with a legal defense,” said New Democrat Leader John Horgan.
“The tribunal found against the college, and for the South Asian veterinarians, but because the government helped the college with a taxpayer-funded indemnity, those foreign-trained veterinarians faced extended discrimination.
“Now, with the case before the tribunal concluded, the college is considering an appeal, meaning the taxpayers of B.C. could be on the hook for even more costs – all the while, the discriminatory practices could continue.”
“It’s truly disappointing that the government would choose to side with the perpetrators of discrimination, instead of trying to help the victims,” Horgan added.
In 2004, complaints began to be lodged with the tribunal, arguing that language standards imposed on foreign-trained veterinarians were unreasonably high and that the South Asian veterinarians faced more stringent disciplinary action because of their race. The case dragged on through 356 days of hearings over 10 years before a decision was finally rendered earlier this year.
“This was systemic racism on the part of the college and by indemnifying them, the Liberal government had a hand in it,” said Horgan. “The South Asian veterinarians deserve better from their government than to have it act in consort with a professional body that was denying them their basic rights.”
Dr. Hakam Bhullar and Vets-For-Justice Group had been vindicated by the Human Rights Tribunal Ruling after more than a decade of abuse but the Liberals continue for some reason to support and fund “Racist” College of Veterinarians of BC as disclosed by the NDP’s recent finding of this emergency indemnity.
Liberals’ cosy relationship with the College stems from the days of Gordon Campbell but now Premier Christy Clark’s government has also stood by and supported the “racist” CVBC, including funding their wasteful legal and administration expenses, despite mountains of evidence against the racist culprits heading the power structure of the CVBC.
But in the face of great personal and financial hardships, including depression and hellish nightmares, Dr. Bhullar and his Indo-Canadian Vets for Justice thought that they could finally put this behind them after winning a huge vindication, a moral, spiritual and historical victory at the BC Human Rights Tribunal, which has ruled that the BCVMA-CVBC targeted the foreign trained doctors and ran a campaign to discredit them while standing by the “racist” and prejudice members of their governing board.
“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 decision, which the LINK reported on October 10, We have been leading the local press in reporting the story about the abused Indo-Canadian vets.
“I accept that the BCVMA took no steps to directly investigate the allegations after hearing these rumours by pursing its own disciplinary complaint. I find that it strains credulity to assume that such rumours had no adverse impact on its views of Dr. Bhullar and the other Complainants. Further, it was clear that the BCVMA relied on unsubstantiated rumour to create a list of those facilities that would be subject to unscheduled inspections, which were predominately those of the Complainant group, discussed below,” Parrack further ruled.
“I agree that Dr. Bhullar would have perceived the BCVMA as targeting him throughout this investigation and that it expended significant resources in doing so.”
The human rights decision came after the longest hearing in the history of BC Human Rights, lasting 380 days and costing the Indo-Vets more than $1.5 million and the CVBC more than $7 million, is on its way, taking nearly three years alone for the decision after the last submissions were made by both sides in May 2012.
The case pitted Drs. Arminder Brar, Hakam Bhullar, Bhupinder Johar, Paramjeet Sidhu, Omparkashrkash Parbhakar, Dalbir Benipal, Tejpal S. Bhatia, Jogpreet S. Jagpal, Manjinder Hans, Prvitar Bajwa, Rameez Sharma, Naresh Kumar Joshi and Sarjit S. Grewal (Complainants) against the British Columbia Veterinary Medical Association and their former administrator Valerie Osborne.
NDP said the government first provided a just-in-time indemnity to the professional association eight years ago, when it was facing a loss of insurance coverage because of the proceedings launched against it over racist practices and discrimination. The government’s own documents admit that the indemnity was renewed at least four more times, and acknowledge that backstopping the body was a controversial move.
“We called on the government to put pressure on the College of Veterinarians of B.C. to implement the decision of the tribunal without further delay and acknowledge the wrongs they have committed, so that the victims of racial discrimination can get back to earn a living in profession they love with respect they deserve” said Harry Bains, MLA for Surrey Newton. “Unfortunately, we did not get any commitment from the attorney general or from the agriculture minister.”
