The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ordered the province to pay compensation of almost a million dollars to a former corrections officer who was targeted on the job for being Black.
In her decision on compensation on Jan. 28, the tribunal chair ordered the province to pay Levan Francis a total of $964,197, plus interest.
The amount includes a B.C. record $176,000 for injury to dignity.
Francis, 51, ended his 15-year career with B.C. Corrections in 2013 after facing repeated racial slurs and physical attacks at work at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam.
He filed a complaint in 2012 and has been fighting his case ever since, a process that cost him his family home and his mental health.
Despite the compensation ruling, Francis says he remains disappointed that the people whom he believes were responsible have not been held to account, and that he feels let down that the province fought his case for so long.
“This is just a huge, disturbing mess,” said Francis.
“I am so disappointed in Canada. I’m not a lawyer but I do have a brain. I’ve done nothing wrong. The B.C. government needs to make me whole. They’ve tried so hard to derail this,” he said.
Headline photo: Levan Francis
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