3 Muslim restaurant workers awarded $100,000 in discrimination case

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 Ashbridges 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.

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 Islams case, quit. The case was eventually consolidated and heard earlier this year.

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3 Muslim restaurant workers awarded $100,000 in discrimination case