Canadian HR Reporter - Sample Issue

CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 30, 2017 18 INSIGHT IRON MAN UNMASKED SELANGOR, MALAYSIA — Uni- versity lecturer Mohd Nazriq bin Noor Ahmad was praised recently after photos surfaced showing him wearing an Iron Man mask while teaching a class. e move was meant to spare students from getting nervous when he graded their papers, so they couldn't see his facial expressions, according to the Huffi ngton Post. Ahmad said it was "really easy" for his students to guess how they'd done based on his facial expressions. He's an "awesome lecturer for consider- ing our feelings," said one student, who shared the photo on Twitter. But Ahmad had another reason for wearing the headgear — while undergoing treatment for a heart condition in 2014, he was forced to wear a blue light-emitting heart monitor on his chest, much like that worn by the superhero. GETTING DOWN TO IT ROUYN-NORANDA, QUE. — A barber in Quebec was praised recently after he was photo- graphed providing extra care to a customer. Francis "Franz" Ja- cob was shown lying on the fl oor beside a young boy, giving him a haircut. e reason? Six-year- old Wyatt Lafrenière has autism and he doesn't usually sit still for haircuts, so Jacob bought a pair of wireless clippers to follow Wyatt around when he moved, accord- ing to the CBC. ''Usually, hair- dressers sort of panicked when they saw Wyatt arrive, so it was really exceptional to meet Mr. Ja- cob,'' said Wyatt's mother Fauve Lafrenière, whose photo gar- nered more than 850,000 views on Imgur, an image-sharing plat- form. Jacob has several regular customers with autism, and tries to accommodate each of them, so parents often show up at the end of the day. "I lock the front door. It has to stay quiet,'' said Jacob. NOT-SO-SUBTLE DISCOUNT HANGZHOU, CHINA — A res- taurant in the Zheijiang province of China came under fi re recently after off ering discounts based on women's breast sizes. e larger the size, the larger the discount, showed the ad for Shrimp Eatery, according to the BBC. General manager Lan Shenggang defended the sales strategy. "Once the pro- motion started, customer num- bers rose by about 20 per cent," he said, and "some of the girls we met were very proud — they had noth- ing to hide." But following a public backlash, the poster was removed. IT'S NOT SO FUNNY CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Appar- ently unaware that women might know a little something about football, Carolina Panthers quar- terback Cam Newton was fi red by one of his sponsors recently after making a sexist remark, accord- ing to Reuters. Jourdan Rodrigue of the Charlotte Observer had asked the star athlete about pass routes at a press conference, and he answered: "It's funny to hear a female talk about routes like — it's funny." But on Twitter, Rodrigue wrote: "I don't think it's 'funny' to be a female and talk about routes. I think it's my job." She also said she spoke to the star athlete later "and it was worse… I chose not to share because I have an actual job to do today and one he will not keep me from." Sponsor Dannon said it was "shocked and disheartened at the behaviour and comments… which we perceive as sexist and disparag- ing to all women… It is entirely in- consistent with our commitment to fostering equality and inclusion in every workplace. It's simply not OK to belittle anyone based on gender." W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 30 No. 18 – October 30, 2017 PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2017 by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. CANADIAN HR REPORTER is published 21 times a year. Publications Mail – Agreement # 40065782 Registration # 9496 – ISSN 0838-228X Director, Media Solutions, Canada: Karen Lorimer - (416) 649-9411 karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com EDITORIAL Publisher/Editor in Chief: Todd Humber - (416) 298-5196 todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com Editor/Supervisor: Sarah Dobson - (416) 649-7896 sarah.dobson@thomsonreuters.com News Editor Marcel Vander Wier - (416) 649-7837 marcel.vanderwier@thomsonreuters.com Employment Law Editor: Jeffrey R. 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Address changes and returns: Send changes and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Canadian HR Reporter One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 CUSTOMER SERVICE Call: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5082 (Toronto) (877) 750-9041 (outside Toronto) Email: customersupport. legaltaxcanada@tr.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com CHRR reserves the right to edit for length and clarity. Todd Humber EDiTOR'S NOTeS The punishment is fi tting the crime I f there is one bit of solace we can take from the Harvey Weinstein saga, it's this: e punishment is starting to fi t the crime. We still live in a time when you can be caught — on tape — bragging about grabbing women's private parts and still be elected president of the United States. But some men in powerful posi- tions are fi nally losing credibility, jobs and money for their alleged lecherous ways. (See Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly at Fox News, Jian Ghomeshi at the CBC or Roy Price at Amazon.) Weinstein, the famed movie mogul, was fi red from his own company. But he wasn't fi red for his inappropriate behaviour, he was fi red because he was publicly outed by the New York Times. His fi rm didn't oust him after he reached at least eight diff erent set- tlements with women — includ- ing sexual harassment and un- wanted touching. Instead, it gave him an employment contract that essentially gave tacit approval ot, and attached a price tag to, sexual misconduct. If Weinstein "treated someone improperly in violation of the company's Code of Conduct," he was required to reimburse the costs of judgment or settlements to the fi rm, according to TMZ. But the contract went even further — outlining penalties of $250,000 for the fi rst instance, $500,000 for the second, $750,000 for the third and $1 million for each additional instance. It's like the company knew Weinstein couldn't control himself around women, so it attached escalating fees for each assault. It also means his fi ring was — unbelievably — potentially illegal. One of the most interesting — and sad — parts of this story has been the proliferation of the #metoo hashtag on social media. Actress Alyssa Milano report- edly started it by saying, "If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem." On Oct. 16, I was fl ooded with posts that contained #metoo. Close friends posted openly to not only confi rm they had been harassed or assaulted, but detailed the circumstances. A former colleague spoke of a time she was working in Hong Kong as a jazz singer. Hotel man- agement showed her the poster that promoted the band during her tenure — "It was a caricature of me in a tight, low-cut green dress with a tag line 'Voice so sexy, even the lobsters are red, or cooked!'" she wrote. She was told it was part of her job to mingle with guests, and most nights were enjoyable. But one man, an offi cial with a foreign government, visited often and went out of his way to speak with her. One night, he began asking inappropriate personal questions that she refused to answer. "(He) threw a pile of $100 American bills on the table and said, 'Answer my questions now.' I stood, said I couldn't be bought and started to walk away. e man gripped my arm, tried to yank me back down, and said loudly, 'Ev- eryone can be bought.' I stood there, in the middle of a packed restaurant, crying and trying to pull my arm away from a man twice my size who felt I owed him a conversation about sex (and lord knows what else)." at nightmare is one story in an ocean of bad behaviour. Just hours after it began, #metoo had been used more than 200,000 times, according to the BBC. Sarah Polley outlined her en- counter with Weinstein in a col- umn for the New York Times. e Canadian actor and director was pulled out of a photo shoot when she was 19 and summoned to Weinstein's offi ce, with her pub- licist, who refused to leave her alone with him. Polley wrote: "A famous star, a few years my senior, had once sat across from him in the chair I was in now. Because of his 'very close relationship' with this actress, she had gone on to play leading roles and win awards. If he and I had that kind of 'close relationship,' I could have a simi- lar career. ' at's how it works,' I remember him telling me. e implication wasn't subtle." Turned off , Polley went behind the camera. One idea she began working on was a comedy about the craziest and worst experiences a group of successful female ac- tors in Hollywood ever had on set. "We were full of zeal for this project. But the stories, when we told them, left us in tears and be- wildered at how casually we had taken these horror stories and tried to make them into comedy," said Polley. " ey were stories of assault... it was impossible to re- frame them any other way." Weinstein pointed out he "came of age in the '60s and '70s when all the rules about behaviour and workplaces were diff erent. at was the culture then." is is the culture now — wom- en are more comfortable standing up to this behaviour. We're doing a better job with the next genera- tion in teaching them that they shouldn't have to tolerate this kind of behaviour. If we can't trust men in powerful positions to have common decency, we can at least show them there are serious rami- fi cations for acting like Weinstein. Maybe they'll think twice. SQUIRREL HUNT DEBATE QUEBEC — A political commentator got into hot water recently when he sug- gested he'd rather hunt Quebec separatists than squirrels. Luc Lavoie made the remark on the TVA television network while discussing petitions for and against squirrel hunting that were tabled in the provincial legislature, according to the Canadian Press: "We could take our guns like Americans, and shoot at squirrels... actually, I would have liked to be able to hunt the separatists, but it looks like it's not possible." He later apologized but the Parti Québécois wanted the TV network to sanction Lavoie after the com- ments caused an uproar on social media. Party leader Jean-Francois Lisée told reporters that TVA would have reacted more strongly if the com- ments been directed at Muslims, Jews or women. e network said Lavoie's comments were unacceptable and suspended him for a few days. Credit: Mircea Costina (Shutterstock) A political commentator got into hot water recently when he sug- gested he'd rather hunt Quebec separatists than squirrels. Luc Lavoie made the remark on the TVA television network while discussing petitions for and against squirrel hunting that were tabled in the provincial legislature, according to the Canadian Press: "We could take our guns like Americans, and shoot at squirrels... actually, I would have liked to be able to hunt the separatists, but it looks like it's not possible." He later apologized but the Parti Québécois wanted the TV network to sanction Lavoie after the com- ments caused an uproar on social media. Party leader Jean-Francois Lisée told reporters that TVA would have reacted more strongly if the com- ments been directed at Muslims, Jews or women. e network said Lavoie's comments were unacceptable and suspended him

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