Canada: Two Indian-Origin People Fined Heftily for Using Casteist Slur Against Colleague

Inderjit and Avninder Dhillon were found hurling a Punjabi slur used against the Dalit community in India at a colleague, Manoj Bhangu, during an altercation in 2018.

The Wire Staff

Inderjit and Avninder Dhillon were found hurling a Punjabi slur used against the Dalit community in India at a colleague, Manoj Bhangu, during an altercation in 2018.

canada two indian origin people fined heftily for using casteist slur against colleague

The British Columbia flag at the Provincial Legislature in Victoria. Photo: Province of British Columbia/Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

ThNew Delhi: The Human Rights Tribunal of British Columbia, Canada, has fined two Indian-origin individuals nearly ten thousand Canadian dollars for caste-based discrimination against another person.

According to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news report, the two individuals – Inderjit and Avninder Dhillon – were found hurling a Punjabi slur used against the Dalit community in India at a colleague, Manoj Bhangu, during an altercation in 2018.

Tribunal adjucator Sonya Pigihn, in an order on March 15, wrote, “The discrimination was short in duration but involved violence which exacerbates the severity of it”, adding, “(Bhangu’s) history of [suffering] caste-based discrimination in India intensified the severity of the impact he experienced regarding the discrimination."

As per the news report, the duo used the caste-based slur against Bhangu, their business partner in a taxi company, in two incidents. “In the first incident, Pigihn says, a fight and verbal confrontation occurred in the office’s boardroom when Bhangu and other directors were speaking with the Dhillons about company matters.” Though a certified translator testified that the slur could be heard in an audio recording, the report said the adjucator was not convinced that it was uttered in the first incident. However, in the second altercation that took place at a Christmas party of the company in 2018, several witnesses were at the scene and the Dhillons were seen punching Bhangu and repeatedly using the slur.

Bhangu told the tribunal that after the altercation, it was especially difficult to explain what happened to his children and he “found it humiliating to interact with colleagues who witnessed the party’s events”.

The report quoted Pigihn saying “the impact of the discrimination against Bhangu merited damages and ordered Inderjit and Avninder Dhillon to pay him 6000 dollars plus 37.55.81 dollars for the costs he incurred bringing the case”. Justifying the damages, Pighin said, “A part of why Mr Bhangu moved to Canada includes that he and his family can live without caste discrimination” as he had faced caste-based discrimination in several instances while growing up in India.

Though the Dhillons during their cross-examination claimed that their family too “is not higher than the slur caste” as they belonged to the Jatt community, the argument was set aside after Anita Lal, co-founder of the Poetic Justice Foundation, who called the statement untrue highlighting that “Jatt are part of a higher caste of farmers and landowners”.

This article went live on March twenty-eighth, two thousand twenty three, at twenty-eight minutes past two in the afternoon.

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