B.C. forester wins human rights case against province for job loss based on 'political beliefs'

A B.C. forester who was given a job by the province and then later had that offer rescinded due to his political beliefs, has won a discrimination case at the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. 

Bryan Fraser had been offered a job as a senior policy officer at the Ministry of Forests in February 2015 — an announcement circulated to ministry staff by email —  only to have the offer pulled a month later. 

One of the people he had previously worked with, the acting executive director for B.C. Timber Sales, responded to the emailed job announcement that Fraser has "quite a checkered past" and some in the industry were concerned about the hiring because of his past work on Haida Gwaii.  

Fraser had worked on Haida Gwaii in the 1990s and 2000s for a forest company where he came into conflict with several government officials and other forest professionals about logging on the archipelago off B.C.'s west coast. 

In particular, according to the tribunal decision, Fraser clashed with the district manager for the Haida Gwaii Forest District, Leonard Munt, over logging issues.

The company where Fraser worked in a planning capacity had logged trees on Haida Gwaii that — according to Munt — had cultural significance for the Haida Nation, although that was later disputed in a report by the B.C. Forest Practices Board.

"Mr. Munt appears to be mistaken that Mr. Fraser or the Forest Company had an impact on culturally modified trees that would thereby offend the Haida Nation," the tribunal decision found.  

Fraser testified that, despite ongoing objections to industrial logging, there were no issues between him and the Haida Nation. 

Fraser also argued that he was carrying out responsible forest practices in accordance with the B.C. government's Forest and Range Practices Act  — which, the tribunal found, constitutes a political belief protected under the Human Rights Code.

"Beliefs based on regulation of one's profession will usually be found to fall within the definition  of political belief," wrote tribunal member Catherine McCreary in the decision. 

"The belief need not be confined to a partisan political belief. It could involve public discourse on matters of public interest which involves or would require action at a governmental level."

Fraser was acting on those beliefs and, as a result, his job offer was later revoked, the tribunal concluded — which goes against Section 13 of the code which says a person's political beliefs cannot be held against them when seeking employment.

He was awarded $25,000 as damages for injury to dignity as well as reimbursement for incidental expenses. The ministry was not ordered to reinstate him.  

The province had previously said it rescinded the job offer to Fraser because he did not disclose that he was the subject of a 2014 investigation by the Forest Practices Board.