The Quebec HRC has just awarded a pilot by the name of Javed Latif $319,000 in compensation for racial discrimination by Bombardier when it refused to allow him to take pilot training at one of their facilities… [and has] ordered Bombardier to “stop applying or considering the standards or decisions of American authorities in terms of ‘national security’”.
h/t Hebbert
and nowhere is it mentioned by the QHRC, The Religion of Peace™
I think I’d take the USA’s assessment of this guy over the QHRA any day. This is insane.
You just can’t make up crazier sh!t than liberals are actually DOING on a daily basis. Now this wannabe muzzie terrorist has funding to cause more trouble ALL PROVIDED BY TAXPAYER DOLLARS!!!!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FIRE! THEM! ALL!
Why are sane people held over a barrel like this?
Well the Libs are busy trying to pass motions that call on the Cons to quit picking on the Charter!See http://www.liberal.ca.
They actually did this today.
Sammy…..the Liberals should perhaps be reminded that the Notwithstanding Clause is a fundamental part of the Charter. Perhaps it needs to be dusted off and used…..often. Because without the Notwithstanding Clause, the Charter would never have seen the light of day.
Wow. I wonder what Howdy Mc Phail would have thought.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/Bomber+pilot+great/3403104/cstory.html#ixzz0wmp8vljw
His aerial pics of our family farms are cherished heirlooms. Him flying CF-DGF off Jackfish Lake after I had put it there due to engine failure was a seminal point in my life.
That man put me back in the exact same plane the next day. I doubt he would have done the same for Javid.
Now that our national security is being decided by a provincial HRC, we should all feel much safer. What does it take for our politicians to come to their senses and dismantle these bastions of moon bats?
This is absolute garbage.
I hope that Bombardier appeals the ruling and takes it to a real court.
And, what about me? What about my safety and security? While I’m paying taxes through the nose, this SOB, who figures he’s entitled to become a pilot with the company of his choice, gets the tax-funded QHRC to tell companies who employ pilots to ignore U.S. transport safety ‘standards and decisions’ and walks away with a six-figure settlement that my tax dollars are paying for. And, I’m no safer …
HUH?
I agree, batb. How safe would you feel with this fellow in the cockpit?
” This is your pilot Javed.On behalf of myself and the crew,I’d like to wish you a good morning and express my hope that you have a comfortable flight.Please note the emergency exits, Allah Akbar.”
Yeah,where’s the drink cart?
” I hope that Bombardier appeals the ruling and takes it to a real court. ”
Exactly. Make it a political issue, until the political class maybe gets the idea to deep six all HRC’s. They are an affront to the entire concept of an impartial judiciary.
Here is a link to the decision.
http://www.cdpdj.qc.ca/en/publications/docs/alloc_racial_profiling_employment.pdf
With this decision old Javed likely ended his flying career before it got started. He’ll be preceded by his reputation if he ever does get his commercial ticket. What Airline will ever hire him after checking his CV even if he sneaks through some flying school. He won’t be able to hide his past even if he tries. Too many people are watching after 9/11. As far as the HRC is concerned their inane decision may foster enough publicity to keep this wack job grounded. Now if we could only ground the HRCs.
This is lawfare, wallyj, taken to the nth degree. ‘Trust it to happen in Quebec involving a Muslim pilot.
Frankly, my Canada does not include Quebec, not with this kind of crap going on, of which there seems to be a steady diet. This ruling shows the kind of no-thinking entitlement that seems to go along with living off other people’s money. La Belle Province seems to think there’s a bottomless well of moolah coming from the ROC.
They’re mistaken, ‘only problem is, that doesn’t seem to make any difference to them or their demands.
When is the ROC going to wake up and put an end to this blackmail?
More left wing kooks!
Rob Ford and Don Cherry for the heads of the Qwebeek HRC!
This really bothers me. From the written decision,” Before the infamous 9/11, it was common knowledge in North America that persons (or
communities) generally considered as victims of profiling were Blacks, Latin-Americans, Natives.
Obviously, since 9/11 (2001), persons of Arab origin or of Muslim faith have joined that group”.
There is so much wrong with that statement. But what really galls me is the use of the adjective “infamous”.It demeans and trivializes the murder of 3,000 people by muslim pilots trained in the U.S.A.
I hope Bombardier appeals this claptrap and our chickenshite media pick up the cause.
He won because Bombardier does not build flying carpets.
(It’s a joke people …)
All i can say to you folks is vote forget about your opinions of harper ….give him your vote give him his majority let’s see where it falls he is really the only sane option!!!
The HRC insanity continues.
batb. I have been saying dump quebec ever since the FLQ crap hit the fan. I do hope the ROC wakes up soon.
I guess if bombardier wants to stay in business it’ll have to move to the states. Good job commies!
QHRC just holed the industrial wing (pardon the pun) of the lieberal party of eastern Canada.
Friendly fire flounders fiscally festive Faisal’s friends?
Fear not, its only AB oil sands money
Wow…obviously anyone who questions this decision is against HUMAN RIGHTS!!!
Well well, the insane HRCs just attacked one of the last functioning manufacturing companies in Canada, and a Liberal party Sacred Cow to boot. It will be interesting to see what happens. Much weight is going to get thrown around by many weighty individuals.
I predict Bombardier will get a Special Deal. In other news, I predict the sun will set in the West later today.
dwright “throws up a little and swallows”
Quebec unions are #1 in Canada for corruption
I hope they get “cooked” in court.
dwright
To me it is simply the ‘chickens coming home to roost’. Bombardier has benefited by playing the Quebec angle more than almost any other company in Canada. Ottawa moved the space and air industry there to placate the constant whining. When researchers and scientist went on ‘strike’ in the 80’s to protest their having to move to Montreal they were told to look for other jobs.
Many might say their Canada does not include Quebec but for me it doesn’t include anything past Winnipeg.
Some additional facts to consider before jumping to the conclusion that Kate’s trying to steer you towards:
– Latif has over 25 years in flight experience in his native Pakistan and other parts of the Middle East. That is, he’s a working commercial pilot, with a legitimate reason for seeking additional advanced training.
– While working in Pakistan, Latif was cleared to fly former President George H. W. Bush when the latter made a visit to that country.
– Latif has also received prior training and licenses in the US before and had flown in American airspace without incident.
– Bombardier’s refusal to train and license the pilot in 2004 was found to be based solely on the US designation. Bombardier never bothered with their own assessment of Latif as a potential danger to Canada; they just took the ruling of a bureaucrat of a foreign government on faith in denying a service to a Canadian citizen.
– Latif’s threat to national security designation was later rescinded in 2008. Turns out the assessment by the US DHS bureaucrat was wrong.
Seriously, the question that needs to be asked here is whether the Quebec HRC is criminally or civilly liable for their decision. Or both.
It’s well past time these clowns learned the meaning of responsibility.
Well, of course, Québec is absolutely right here. Canada is a sovereign state and US laws and regulations have no authority here.
I don’t doubt for a moment that Québec will happily accept the logical consequences of its high-mindedness: US authorities pulling the plug on lucrative Bombardier contracts for national security reasons.
Ha ha!
Davenport at 10:16
While working in Pakistan, Latif was cleared to fly former President George H. W. Bush when the latter made a visit to that country.
Oh really, cleared by whom and was Air Force One in the shop that day?
@Banachek: First, if by Air Force One, you’re referring to the two Boeings 747s that the USAF designates as VC-25, then you should know that former presidents generally don’t fly aboard the current in-service VC-25As unless the sitting president somehow makes the plane(s) available.
Second, since the US Secret Service is responsible for the security of former US presidents, then I presume it was they who cleared Latif in the past. But good luck getting a confirmation from them.
good luck getting a confirmation from them
So where did you get your unconfirmable information from?
Banachek: “So where did you get your unconfirmable information from?”
His lawyer, by way of the Montreal Gazette. Presumably this was included in Latif’s sworn application to the QHRC. I doubt the lawyer would be willing to go to jail for perjury on behalf of his client, so I presume that information was vetted and verified (in the form of, e.g., official documentation of the flight clearance, though not necessarily directly from the US Secret Service).
Of course, they — Mr Latif, his lawyer, the Montreal Gazette — could all be lying. I can’t conclusively prove that they are not. You may thus accuse me of being a gullible pawn of Islamist terrorist masterminds and/or a left-wing MSM cabal, if you wish. But then again, you seem willing to take on faith the info you read from a blog, which itself got its info from another blog, which got its info from–wait for it–the MSM.
I’ve been working my way through…painfully…the written decision on this matter. I’ve gone through about 25 pages (in French) so far, out of about 120, and this is how I’ll summarise the case:
1) Latif was an Air Force fighter jock in Pakistan from 1964 to about 1982. He got a commercial license at that time. He then trained Qatari fighter pilots until 1991. After which, he became a commercial pilot, but not for an airline, because he thought he was too old to get hired at one.
2) He continually tried to keep current on his certifications, except for a period during which he did not work as a pilot.
3) After some time in North America, he became a Canadian citizen. He and his family moved here in 1997.
4) He applied for and and was approved for post-9/11 training in 2003; he was then subsequently rejected on a similar application six months later. According to references in the decision, DOJ deemed something materially to have changed to make him a security threat. They say this specifically, but do not cite the change. My suspicion is that he was working in Pakistan when the first application was sent, but that didn’t percolate through the bureaucracy.
5) He tried every legal means at his disposal to get his training and certifications updated and held current. This included attempting to work as a pilot instructor, but clearance for that was also denied, as it related to FAA students.
6) The DOJ refusal to approve Latif effectively tied BATC’s hands. It’s a facility-related approval, regardless of the course of instruction. Also, the administrator in charge at the time (Gignac) cited a friend who was linked to the training of one of the 9/11 terrorists and the guild she bore thereafter. He wasn’t going to take the risk, despite being friendly with Latif. The BATC also trained other middle-eastern men during this time.
6) The DHS denied and then approved his training request in a very short time in 2008, but much of the damage had already been done.
These are more or less the facts of the case as I’ve found out so far (I’m at work now, and I can’t really focus on the rest of the decision until later). My assessment is this:
It is very unfortunate that Latif was handled in this way, but in the conditions in place at the time, there was really no other outcome, once the training approval was withheld. The fact that the denial was revoked in 2008 should have absolutely no bearing on the events in question in 2004. The lag between the Commission’s ruling in 2007 and this one is also puzzling, but it’s probably just a slow system.
I contend that this could not possibly have been racial profiling on the part of Bombardier. It was also unlikely to have been so on the part of the DOJ/DHS, despite the lawyers’ and judge’s claims to the contrary. The simple reason is this: he doesn’t fit the profile. He’s a man about 60 years old with a wife and four children that pursued education. He also followed the book (no resorting to violence or rudeness) on getting his certs. How many of the jihadists fit that description? As well, BATC trained other men of middle-eastern origin; were they not also going through the same procedures?
The lawyers and the judge are nuts, saying that the process was racial. Without evidence (they say it looks like it is, so it therefore must be) to back it up is kooky at best, and malicious at worst. It’s really true that a sympathetic judge makes a difference. A rational one would’ve not looked twice at this. As some have stated, if he wants to go after anyone, he should go after the US Gov’t, but that would really put him on the black-list.
My theory is that he had contact with someone in Pakistan while there in ’03 that the US had under surveillance. The results were probably unfair to him, but sh1t happens, and it shows how a lifetime of “good” work can be undone in an instant. Bombardier shouldn’t have to pay for this, and the HRT shouldn’t be ruling on it. I don’t particulary think he was a security risk, but I also admit that having any declared Muslim flying a plane I’m on would make me nervous.
Sorry. tl;dr, I know. Flame away.
Who knew Canadians had such a sense of humor?
Oh, they’re serious?…
Well… That’s different, isn’t it?
Okay…kept reading through that decision. I kind of gave up after they stopped citing the facts of the case and switched to the “expert” witnesses and justifications, and I only glanced over the awards and decision. He actually wasn’t awarded everything he asked for, which is surprising to me.
I’m not sure I can add much to what I wrote above. The guy who made the call on this side of the border was put between a rock and a hard place, but the judge just couldn’t get her head around that. My reading is that she was going to find for the plaintiff, no matter what. She kept harping on why he didn’t talk to Canadian authorities…guess what? It didn’t matter. They have nothing to do with American agencies issuing security clearances. The only people to talk to were in the US, and they weren’t budging. And she kept focusing in on the tiniest things that are, really, meaningless in this context.
There is nothing written in this decision that even hints that there was any discriminatory action taken on the part of BATC. They acted only based on the security clearance being denied, and the likely outcome of training Latif anyway. The US may have (as I doubted previously), but the BATC seems to have acted in good faith in accordance with its procedures. There is absolutely no evidence presented that I could find that indicates any motivation other than the denial of the security clearance and the rules under which they hold FAA certification.
Any rational court would overturn this quite quickly (I think), but we are talking about Quebec.
Also, prima facie “proof” should be disallowed in any court. There is no way that that standard should ever be what decides a case in any rational court, simply because it puts someone in the position of having to prove a negative. But that’s just my opinion.
That’s it. Done.
HRC = Hardly Real Court