Cheryl Khan was awarded $25,000 for discrimination and $6,750 for lost wages by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, who ordered her former employer, trucking company owner Lynn Tompkins, right, to pay her the money after using racist language and firing her.

By Moira Welsh

The words were shocking and so unfamiliar that Cheryl Khan’s friends could not believe her boss used them.

“Paki,” he called her, according to Khan’s testimony before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. “Half-nigger babies,” he said of her two little boys. “That’s what you get for sleeping with a nigger.”

In his decision, tribunal adjudicator Eric Whist accepted Khan’s testimony, slamming her former employer, Lynn Tompkins of Lynx Trucking Transportation in Rexdale with a $25,000 fine along with an order that he create an anti-harassment policy and undergo training himself.

During the hearing, Tompkins said he was a tough boss, and yelled and swore at his employees, but denied using racist words.

Reached at his office last week, Tompkins again said he did not use those terms, claiming that he was “set up.” He requested a face-to-face interview but later called back and cancelled.

The ruling, said Khan’s lawyer, Bruce Best, sends a powerful message.

“Employees don’t have to put up with this behaviour,” said Best, of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre. “You have rights and if you stand up for them, people will be forced to change.”

In an interview, Khan said that changing Tompkins’ behaviour toward future employees was her priority.

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Tags: Human Rights, Lynn Tompkins, racism

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