Mother files discrimination case with rights tribunal in spoon-and-fork case
Danny Chan
The mother of the son at the center of the spoon-and-fork controversy has filed a lawsuit with the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal against the school board and school officials for alleged racial and ethnic discrimination. Maria Theresa Gallardo-Cagadoc stated in her lawsuit that her son Luc Cagadoc, a Filipino-Canadian, was inappropriately reprimanded at a Montreal-area school for eating in the customary Filipino manner with a fork and spoon while having lunch three years ago.
“This is about me, my son, and the entire Filipino community. We are proud of the way we eat and we have to stand up for ourselves and our civil rights” Mrs. Gallardo-Cagadoc said. In the lawsuit filed last December, she is seeking $24,000 in moral and punitive damages from the educator, the school principal and the school board.
The Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission partly upheld the complaint filed before it two years earlier. It delivered a mixed verdict last September after finding Luc’s school educator, Martine Bertrand, guilty of discrimination and in violation of the then seven-year-old’s rights on April 11, 2006 when she asked him if “in his country (the Philippines), Filipinos washed their hands before they eat” after observing him eat his lunch with a spoon and fork. The incident made headlines around the world after the then second-grade student tearfully complained to his mother, who later filed a formal complaint with the school board.
The commission found Luc, who was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada as an 8-month-old, was improperly rebuked by Ms. Bertrand for his “inconvenient” habit and for consuming his lunch like a clown. Last September’s ruling also recommended mediation between the parties.
But the commission found no evidence that Luc, who has since transferred to another school, was censured because of his culture’s culinary habits. The rights commission also declined to rule on Mrs. Gallardo-Cagadoc’s complaint against the principal, Normand Bergeron, at Ecole Lalande school.
The commission moreover opted against representing Mrs. Gallardo-Cagadoc before the Human Rights Tribunal, allowing her to file the lawsuit at her own expense. She is presently soliciting donations across the United States and Canada to defray legal costs.
Mrs. Gallardo-Cagadoc is currently represented by René Saint-Léger in her lawsuit. During her complaint before the human-rights commission, she was supported by the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, a Montreal-based non-governmental organization that promotes racial harmony and equality in Canada.
