Gay Firefighter Says Enough Is Enough
David MacKenzie, a gay firefighter from Pemberton, B.C., has filed a human rights complaint against his fire chief, Russell Mack. The claim asserts that Mack had repeated homophobic jokes, created an intolerable work environment, and passed David over for an “acting chief” position primarily because he’s gay.
Hmm… A homophobic fireman joke, eh? It would take an awfully clever wordsmith to come up with one of those…
Incidentally, this is not Russell Mack’s first human rights complaint. A female firefighter brought him to court last year over discrimination charges.
Regardless of what becomes of this case, Canada still has its share of workplace homophobia. A survey performed last year said that 60% of Canadians think being out in the workplace is harmful to one’s career, and 28% had witnessed workplace gay bashing personally.
- Gay firefighter launches rights complaint [Ottawa Citizen]
- Human rights complaint lodged against fire chief, VOP [Pique Newsmagazine]