Quebec Court of Appeal (a Real Court) Overturns Nutty "Human Rights" Court Ruling

From the Montreal Gazette:

MONTREAL - A Filipino-Canadian family that was awarded $17,000 because they said their 7-year-old son was discriminated against at school for the way in which he ate spaghetti have had their decision overturned.

Quebec’s Court of Appeal this month invalidated the decision by the province’s Human Rights Tribunal rendered in 2010, arguing the tribunal went beyond its jurisdiction in punishing acts that Quebec’s Human Rights Commission had earlier ruled were not discriminatory. It also found that the tribunal’s award of $17,000 was “without basis.”

The events, which gained international attention, stem back to April 2006, when Luc Cagadoc said he was eating his spaghetti with a fork and spoon in typical Filipino fashion, when he was reprimanded by a school hall monitor at the École Lalande in Pierrefonds-Roxboro. When his mother, Maria-Thérésa Gallardo, complained, she said she was told by the monitor that her son “ate like a pig,” and by the principal that he should “eat like a Canadian,” allegations the school officials denied. They said Luc was being reprimanded for clowning around repeatedly, not for the culturally distinct way in which he ate.

Gallardo filed a complaint against the Marguerite Bourgeoys School Board, the principal and the hall monitor with the Quebec Human Rights Commission in April 2006, which investigates alleged human rights violations and decides if there are grounds to bring them to the tribunal. The commission rejected the complaint in October 2008, on the grounds there was not enough proof. But Quebec law allows certain complainants to take their cases to the Human Rights Tribunal even if rejected by the commission. Which Gallardo did, and won. Six years after the initial events, that victory was mostly taken away by the appeal court’s ruling. It maintained a fine of $2,000 against the school board and hall monitor Martine Bertrand because she asked Luc, in front of his friends: “In your country, do people wash their hands?”

In a statement, the school board said it welcomed the ruling, and noted that its 50,000 students come from 183 different countries, giving it the most diverse student population in Quebec...

And as we all know, "diversity" rocks and rolls, as does our "human rights" racket. Which is why you can expect more kooky "human rights" complaints--and more court rulings overturnng them--as long as these laws stay on the books. (Think of all the time and money that would be saved if, once and for all, these laws and "human rights" bodies were eliminated.)