Drama Queen Extraordinaire

"Of course, being from the African diaspora, I found it really offensive ... the straw that broke the camel's back."
"I had to see that poster every day, constantly being reminded of how I'm being treated and how other minorities are being treated at the office. Obviously they knew it was bad because they changed it, but there was no apology for it."
Edwige Jean-Pierre

"Why anyone would take offence is BEYOND ME and if you can't see that, then you clearly have ISSUES. Why don't we all chill out, stop acting all paranoid, and stop thinking people are out to get you ... And if this email makes  you even more mad and offended, TOO BAD!!!!"

The last a communication written by a co-worker of Edwige Jean-Pierre who had previously emailed a poster to the office staff of the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman where they all worked, asking for interest in helping with a fundraising for the Run for the Cure cancer event. Participants were encouraged to auction services, inclusive of offering themselves as "slave for a day". Pictured were two white man waving money.

To Jean-Pierrre, the poster thudded on her consciousness, she said, like "a slap in the face". 'Slave' is a dirty word almost universally, but it represents a personal affront to this young woman of Haitian-Congolese descent, born and raised in Ottawa, a graduate of the University of Ottawa. And now a Toronto-based actor and playwright.

She decided to apply to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario with her complaint of human rights abuse by her co-workers. On November 13, the Tribunal dismissed two of her complaints against Ombudsman Andre Marin's office, but decided in favour of hearing a third complaint Ms. Jean-Pierre had also filed the year before.

There were two primary complaints; one when the manager of the office in which she worked as a receptionist, spoke of his intention on embarking on a cruise making "a pit stop in Haiti ... but not where all that cholera stuff is going on". An insensitively racist remark, in the opinion of Ms. Jean-Pierre. "A mere statement that one is not going to the parts of Haiti where there is cholera raises no connection to a (Human Rights) Code ground", ruled the Tribunal sensibly.

But the emailed poster soliciting participation to raise funds for the cancer event was another story altogether, evidently. The offending phrase referring to "slave for a day" had been altered to reflect "gopher for a day", (after Ms. Jean-Pierre had complained) ostensibly on the grounds that no gophers were present to become incensed at the insult to their independence.

To Ms. Jean-Pierre it was evidence of "systemic discrimination".

The first email, taken at face value "contained potentially discriminatory language, and in fact was recalled and amended to exclude the 'slave for a day' phrase", noted the extra-sensory-perceptive Tribunal in an interim decision. However, in view of the follow-up email, "the tribunal will need to hear evidence about the circumstances under which it was sent, the reasons for sending it and the impact on the persons hearing it."

Reasons for sending it? Let's take a reasonable guess and conclude that Ms. Jean-Pierre's prickliness, her complaints, her assaults on the innocent sensibilities of her co-workers resulting in nothing less than accusations of discrimination on the part of people who in all likelihood would never dream of saying anything racist, let alone thinking to insult others, felt compelled to respond and push against the accusations levelled against them.

Another complaint lodged by Ms. Jean-Pierre was that the ombudsman's office had sought reprisals, refusing to believe her short-term disability benefits were legitimate, and terminating her contract because of the human rights claim she had brought against the office. The office employing her cut her sick leave through dissatisfaction with a doctor's note claiming she was unable to return to work as a result of a medical condition.

After which she was discharged. If Ms. Edwige Jean-Pierre is all that concerned about slavery and the plight of blacks like herself, she might consider turning her accusations elsewhere than to accuse other Canadians sharing the rights and privileges of the country.  Canada has established laws and codified guarantees of equality of all its citizens. A trip to Africa, particularly west Africa, might prove instructive to her.

The Anti-Slavery Society, for example recently published this:

Recently, we have seen the revival of the once thriving slave trade routes across West Africa, after a lapse of 25 years.  Slavers have reappeared following the old slave trade routes, except that trucks, jeeps and modern four-wheel drive vehicles and, on occasions, aircraft, have replaced the camels. The slavers often carry mobile telephones.

Some things, however, have not changed.  Cunning, deceit, the use of drugs to subdue the children and the whip still remain part of the essential equipment of the professional slaver.

The trade involves most states in sub-Saharan West Africa.

The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20 - $70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350.00 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.

  These children are bought and sold as slaves. They are denied an education, the         chance to play or to use toys like other children, and the right to a future.  Their lives are at the mercy of their masters, and suicide is often the only escape.

Sudanese slaves await redemption in Madhol, Sudan, in December 1997. An Arab trader sold 132 former slaves, women and children, for $13,200 (in Sudanese money) to a member of Christian Solidarity International. (AP Photo)

It might open a world of revelations to her. And perhaps even inspire her to join humanitarian anti-slavery organizations working to free Africans from African slavery.