SikhSpectrum.com Quarterly
Issue No.34, January 2009
Filipino-Canadian senior receives damages following neighbor’s racial harassment
Danny Chan
A 71-year-old Filipino-Canadian senior has received $8,000 in damages following a Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission decision in November 2007 upholding his complaint of racial harassment filed against his white neighbor.
“I feel finally vindicated because it has been all along a battle for principles of equality and dignity,” Mr. Rous said earlier this month. “This is an important victory for Filipino Canadian civil rights. My wife would have been pleased, and I wish we had won the case earlier so that she could celebrate this victory with me.” Mr. Rous donated a portion of the damages to the Centre for Research Action on Race Relations to support its legal assistance to victims of racism.
In a verdict reached on Nov. 26, 2007, the commission ordered the neighbors to pay $5,000 in moral damages and $3,000 in punitive damages to Mr. Rous. The commission also concluded his late wife was never a victim of discrimination and no damages were awarded in her favor. The defendants were ordered to pay Mr. Rous by Dec. 21, 2007 or the case would be brought before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal.
After the neighbors failed to comply, the case was brought before the tribunal. CRARR filed an additional $13,000 in damages due to the nature and length of the harassment and the fact that the Rouses also suffered from ill health at the time.
“Senior citizens from racialized minorities should never hesitate to stand up for their civil rights, no matter how old, weak or isolated they are. Mr. Rous’s perseverance is an example for all,” Fo Niemi, CRARR’s executive director, said.
Mr. Rous, a retired electrical engineer, and his wife Rustica Punzalan Rous immigrated to Canada in 1977 and have lived in St-Hubert, Que., since 1986. In June 2003, they sought CRARR’s assistance after their neighbors threw garbage on their property, provoked Mr. Rous into attacking them and told him to return to his own country.
CRARR filed a complaint on behalf of the couple in August 2003, seeking $40,000 in damages from Jean Blais, his wife Line Vachon and their sons Mathieu and Jonathan. The commission took almost two years to hear the case. Mrs. Rous died of cancer in June 2007 at age 71 and was unable to meet the human-rights investigator prior to her death.
Mr. Rous said tensions first surfaced in 1988 when he discovered his neighbors were illegally stealing electricity from his power connection following renovation work after a house fire at the neighbors’ house. Mr. Rous added when he went to mow his lawn, Mr. Blais would make obscene gestures and on one occasion even showed his middle finger to his wife. He contacted police on numerous occasions only to be instructed to refrain from speaking to his neighbors.
In June 2003, the neighbors’ two teenage sons and a friend discarded their garbage onto his deck following a party. When Mr. Rous confronted the neighbors, they threatened to fight him and told him to return to his country, prompting him to contact the Quebec Human Rights Commission.
