Rights of foreign-trained workers just got stronger

By Mata Press Service

The old joke about the best place to get a heart attack in Vancouver is in a cab has been given a new meaning with a Human Rights Tribunal decision, that has made the rights of foreign-trained professionals in Canada stronger.

The utility of the decision by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal is enormous and could change a seemingly inequitable landscape for foreign-trained professionals, reported Canadian Lawyers Magazine.

In the decision, Pakistani immigrant Muhammad Haseeb applied for the $86,700-a-year position as a project engineer, which would have commenced following his graduation from McGill University.

Although ineligible to work in Canada, Haseeb decided to check “permanent resident” on his job application, because he knew that failing to do so would be fatal to his application.

At the time of his application, Imperial Oil had a policy dating back to 2004 that offered entry-level positions to only candidates eligible to work in Canada on a permanent basis. At the hearing, Imperial Oil defended its policy on the premise that the requirement guaranteed the longevity of the employment relationship with its employees, as well as helped to realize the aim of developing lifelong corporate employees within the company.

“The phrase ‘legally able to work in Canada on a permanent basis’ appears daily in job postings across the country,” argued Chantal Tie, Haseeb’s lawyer from the Human Rights Legal Support Centre.

“At a time when the Canadian government is begging for skilled professionals, this bar to employment is absurd. It also constitutes discrimination, because the concept of ‘permanence’ is linked with citizenship and country of origin,” she told the Toronto Star.

The tribunal found that the permanence requirement imposed by the employer throughout the hiring process constituted a violation of the code, which did not fall into any statutory exceptions or exemptions; nor did it amount to a bona fide occupational requirement. The employer had engaged in “direct” discrimination.

 The HRTO also criticized Imperial Oil for intentionally discriminating against applicants by having the requirement blatantly placed in job postings and on its written application forms.

“The utility of the Imperial Oil decision to foreign-trained professionals is explosive,” stated Tara Vasdani, a civil litigator at Mills & Mills LLP in an article entitled The rights of foreign-trained workers just got stronger, published by Canadian Lawyers Magazine this month.

There are more than 7,000 foreign-trained doctors residing just in Ontario.

The total number in Canada exceeds 10,000 each year. Annually, according to CIC, more than 2,000 general practitioners and specialists are predicted to arrive in Canada as federal immigrants.

A 2012 report by the federal immigration department revealed that of 50,000 cab drivers across Canada, 200 were doctors or had PhDs, while a shocking 20 percent had an undergraduate or master’s degree.

At the same time, according to the Fraser Institute, Canada is in the midst of a physician shortage.

Jeffrey Reitz, professor, and director of the ethnic, immigration and pluralism studies program at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, in his essay titled “Taxi Driver Syndrome: Behind-the-scenes immigration changes are creating new problems on top of old ones,” wrote:

“Are immigrant professionals still driving taxis? The answer is yes. They are also mopping floors, bagging groceries, guarding office buildings, delivering pizzas, waiting tables and working at call centres. . . . The problem is known as ‘brain waste’ and some economists estimate its cost to Canada as totaling at least $3 billion a year, not to mention the ruined dreams suffered by the immigrants themselves.”

Vasdani said the decision provides the first fulsome interpretation of the application of the ground of “citizenship status” in the context of job applications and hiring, and it has far-reaching implications.

Barriers to employment and career realizations for foreign-trained professionals in Canada are not new, nor are they stagnant. According to a report released in January 2016, nearly 850,000 Canadians — more than 60 percent of whom are immigrants — end up under-employed or unemployed because their credentials aren’t recognized in Canada.

“What’s the bottom line, then? Canada’s foreign policy combined with the corporate upper hand is no joke — but in 2018, foreign-trained workers have some options,” she concluded.