Mounties get the man they don't want

Iran Times International July 30, 2010:An Iranian-Canadian who was drummed out of the Canadian national police force and has been fighting that dismissal for 11 years won everything he sought in a court case Friday. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) engaged in racial and religious discrimination when it expelled Ali Tahmourpour from its cadet academy, ordering him reinstated for training. The Mounties were also ordered to pay Tahmourpour $100,000 in back pay. The decision upholds a finding by a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in 2008 that Tahmour-pour, 37, faced verbal abuse and hostility from instructors, ridicule over his wearing of religious jewelry, and poor performance evaluations while enrolled in the RCMP’s cadet academy in Saskatchewan province. “I finally have vindication,” Tahmourpour told Canada’s National Post from his home in Mississauga, Ontario, saying he intends to return to the academy to fulfill his dream of becoming a Mountie. “My great-grandfather was a mounted police chief in the western mountains of Persia, so it runs in the family.” Tahmourpour’s training contract was terminated in October 1999, about 14 weeks into the RCMP’s 22-week cadet course for what the force said were weaknesses in communication skills, group participation, and handling stress, among other things. Because of these alleged problems, a recommendation was made that he not be permitted to re-enroll. Ruling his termination was based on “discriminatory assessments of Mr. Tahmourpour’s skills” and that the decision to prevent his return to the academy was “based in part on his race, religion and/or ethnic or national background,” the Human Rights Tribunal ordered Tahmourpour’s reinstatement in 2008. But the Mounties challenged that decision last year in Federal Court, where a judge set aside the order and sent the complaint back to the Tribunal for a rehearing. Tahmourpour appealed that judgment to the Court of Appeal, where Justice Karen Sharlow last week upheld the Tribunal’s 2008 ruling, stating the RCMP’s “discriminatory treatment of Mr. Tahmourpour denied him the opportunity … to make his living as an RCMP officer.” She referred one aspect of the Tribunal’s original ruling to be reconsidered, that related to compensation above $100,000 she awarded to Tahmourpour to make up for lost income. The judge awarded Tahmourpour two years of lost wages, while the Tribunal had said he should received nine years of back pay or about $500,000. Tahmourpour was born in Iran and came to Canada as a teenager. He says his troubles began on the first day of RCMP training when he was singled out by his instructors for asking to wear a religious pendant during physical education class. He testified that one officer, Corporal Dan Boyer, head instructor of the firearms unit, was particularly hostile and verbally abusive towards him, often screaming in his ears at the firing range that he was a “loser,” a “coward,” and “f—ing useless.” On one occasion, Cpl. Boyer (now retired) watched Tahmourpour sign his name on an evaluation form in Persian and was alleged to have said: “What kind of f—ing language is that, or is it something that you’ve made up?” The Court of Appeal noted in its ruling this week that the RCMP did not challenge these claims, nor other findings of the Tribunal that racist jokes during sensitivity training were condoned by instructors and that Tahmourpour’s performance evaluations were fabricated and influenced by “discriminatory attitudes.” The judge wrote, “A memorandum in Mr. Tahmourpour’s file stating that he was not to be considered for re-enrollment due to his alleged unstable mental condition, although he had never seen the staff psychologist, amounted to discrimination.” Tahmourpour’s lawyer, Paul Champ, told the National Post the case showed the RCMP’s effort to protect its reputation at all costs. “The test for an organization is how it responds to these kinds of incidents,” he said. “The actions of those instructors definitely does not reflect on the RCMP as a whole, but what does reflect on the RCMP as a whole is how they respond. And they definitely failed on that front.” When asked why he is so keen to return to an organization that spent the last 11 years trying to keep him out, Tahmourpour said he believes it would be unfair to judge the RCMP based on the behavior of a few individuals. “Can you paint an entire population with the same brush?” he asked. “I’m hoping to put my experience to use while serving the RCMP.” Since his dismissal, Tah-mourpour has been working as a real estate agent. Despite his age of 37, he said he has stayed fit by chasing his two-year-old around the house and is ready to go back to the Mounties immediately. Despite Tahmourpour’s optimism, his battle may not be over — the RCMP still has the option to take the Court of Appeal’s decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. The RCMP was created in 1873 as a horse-mounted police force cum military cavalry unit to bring order to the wild West. The Mounties preceded the Canadian armed forces and play a bigger role in Canada’s self-image. National parades are led by uniformed Mounties, not by he military. RCMP officers guard parliament and the prime minister, and visiting dignitaries. There is no equivalent in the United States, which has more than 10,000 police forces. The RCMP in Canada has the authority given in the United States to the FBI, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and a host of other federal law enforcement agencies. What’s more the Mounties serve as the provincial police force in eight of Canada’s 10 provinces. In the last decade, however, the RCMP has. been hit by a host of scandals that have dented its iconic status.

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