Indo-Canadian vets receive an apology
Regulatory agency drops judicial review
The regulatory agency for veterinarians in B.C. has dropped a legal challenge to a finding that an investigation of Indo-Canadian vets associated with discount clinics was racially motivated and has issued an apology to all of the complainants involved in the rancorous dispute.
On Monday, the College of Veterinarians of B.C. announced that it would not pursue a judicial review of an October 2015 decision of the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal that found that the then-B.C. Veterinary Medical Association had engaged in discrimination against 13 Indo-Canadian vets, including Dr. Hakam Bhullar of Vancouver.
The college, which was formed after the association was phased out in 2010 and represents about 1,200 members, said that in “the spirit of moving forward and acknowledging the findings of discrimination,” it wished to apologize to all of the complainants for the “loss of dignity, pain and suffering” it had caused.
In particular, it cited Bhullar and his family, who the college said had suffered professional and personal distress since Bhullar’s licence to practice was removed in December 2009. Bhullar has since been reinstated.
“The college acknowledges its past mistakes in the standards, inspection and discipline arenas,” says a statement on the college’s website. “The college is now working to improve its processes and foster positive, constructive and forward-looking relationships with the complainants and all registrants.”
Bhullar, who estimates the vets spent $1.7 million fighting the case, said he’d suffered “a lot” over the years but was happy that justice had finally been served.
“Publicly they are apologizing, which is a big healing for me, for my family and other Indo-Canadian vets also.”
The tribunal found that the association had tolerated and facilitated the discussion of wide-ranging and race-based allegations about Indo-Canadian vets in a case that had stretched out over more than a decade.
The initial dispute surrounded allegations that rates being charged by some Indo-Canadian vets were undercutting their competitors, but the economic issue quickly became racialized and swirled around the place of origin of the vets.
Shortly after the tribunal’s decision, the college said it would proceed with a judicial review because a number of its members were “wrongly described” as being involved in racial discrimination.
The college insisted that it had been motivated in its investigation of Bhullar and the other vets by the desire to “carry out its statutory duty to provide the necessary and appropriate protection to animals.”
But in Monday’s announcement, released by CVBC president Brendan Matthews and the college’s CEO Luisa Hlus, the college said that resolution had been achieved after “careful” consideration and a confidential mediation between the college and Bhullar, and Dr. Pavitar Bajwa, two of the complainants.
The tribunal ordered that the 13 vets, who were born and raised in India, be paid between $2,000 and $35,000 a piece, but due to the confidentiality of the mediation, the parties are not saying how much the college will being paying out.
“We are not needing to increase current registration fees in order to meet the terms of the mediated settlement,” said Hlus.
The settlement only addresses the tribunal’s orders in relation to Bhullar and Bajwa, she added. The tribunal awarded Bhullar $30,000 and Bajwa $35,000.
As part of the agreement, Bhullar and Bajwa withdrew two further complaints filed with the tribunal. Other litigation between the college and Bhullar and some former employees of the college was also resolved, said the college.