Raveena Aulakh Published on Tue Dec 17 2013
http://www.thestar.com
Toronto, Canada
Restaurant staffers awarded nearly $ 100,000
Human rights tribunal found that workers at Le Papillon on the Park in Toronto had been forced to eat pork, mocked for speaking Bengali, and threatened with firing.

Three Muslim workers at a popular restaurant in Leslieville have been awarded almost $100,000 after a human rights tribunal found they had been forced to eat pork, mocked for speaking Bengali, frequently referred to as sh-t and threatened with replacement by “white” staff.

In an 80-page decision, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario said the owners of Le Papillon on the Park, at Eastern Ave. near Ashbridge’s Bay, “made the workplace intolerable for each of the applicants.”

Judith Keene, vice-chair of the tribunal, said in the decision that the restaurant owners retaliated against the men after they questioned how they were treated, resulting in the loss of their jobs.
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In addition to paying the award, Keene ordered the restaurant owners to take human rights training and to prominently post Human Rights Code cards at the entranceway and in the kitchen.

Bart Lackie, the lawyer for Paul and Danielle Bigue, owners of Le Papillon on the Park, said his clients are making a “reconsideration request.” It means asking the tribunal to reconsider the decision.

He declined to comment further.

At the hearing, the Bigues testified in their defence. They said they did not force anyone to taste pork, did not use offensive language and did not threaten to fire their employees.

Danielle Bigue also said she did not mock her former employees.

Abdul Malik, a former employee at the restaurant, said he was very relieved the nightmare was over. “I can move on with my life,” said Malik.

Malik and his two former co-workers, Mohammed Islam and Arif Hossain, approached the tribunal separately in early 2011 soon after they were fired or, in Islam’s case, quit. The case was eventually consolidated and heard earlier this year.

The three employees had worked with Le Papillon for years — Malik since 1995 when he started as a dishwasher — starting when the restaurant was at its Church St. location. Everything was fine but it all changed after a partnership split up and the Bigues opened Le Papillon on the Park in late 2009. Malik was appointed the head chef.

Soon after the new restaurant opened, the relationship between the three men and the owners became increasingly acrimonious, the tribunal heard.

There were several run-ins concerning the tasting of dishes made with pork, which Muslims are forbidden to eat .

Malik told the tribunal that Danielle Bigue called him into her office in July 2010 and asked him, for the second time, to try some pork schnitzel because it was offered on the menu. Malik told her that he couldn’t as it was against his religious beliefs. After she raised her voice and insisted, Malik testified he ate some pork because “he was scared of losing his job.”

He testified that after he ate the pork, he went to the office washroom and vomited. He then washed his face, left the office and went to the changing room and cried. Malik said he could not sleep that night and even months later, he still felt guilty about eating pork.

The Bigues told the tribunal they never asked Malik to taste pork schnitzel and that he did not have access to the office washroom.