A former employee with the City of Laval is taking a language discrimination case to the Quebec Human Rights Commission.
Walter Romeo Rivera Tamacas, whose mother tongue is Spanish, began working in the city's housing department in 2014, and met several other workers with whom he could converse in Spanish — on a non-official basis.
But then, he began running into problems because of it.
“At some point (in 2015), an incident came up. I was approached by employees telling me I shouldn’t speak in Spanish and at that time, my (boss) intervened immediately and basically defended my right, saying you are allowed to speak in Spanish if you wish to do so,” he said.
But in 2016, Tamacas' new boss told him to stop speaking Spanish when on the job, and to curtail his use of English.
“Someone is telling you, and this person is your superior, ‘Romeo, from now on, you’re not going to be allowed to basically express part of your identity. We’re just going to pretend that you’re not Hispanic. We just want to hear French, how about that?,’” he said.
He stressed that all of his official dealings with his superiors was in French.
The Centre for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR) will be assisting Tamacas with his human rights case.