THE BRITISH Columbia Council of Human Rights has
ordered a North Vancouver company tc pay a former
employee $27,240 in loss of wages and compensation after
ruling that the employee had been discriminated against on

racial grounds.

Council hearing chairman Eric
Powell found that Tony Baichu, a
27-year-old East Indian from
Guyana, had been discriminated
against by Devron Hercules
Manufacturing Ltd. because of his
race, color, ancestry or place of
origin.

In finding Baichu’s complaint to
be justified, Powell suggested
Devron Hercules should implement

a program that ‘“‘wiil put into
practice the principles of tolerance,
cooperation and understanding of
diverse racial and ethnic groups.”

He ordered the company to pay
Baichu $25,240 as compensation
for loss of wages and expenses and
an additional $2,000 as compensa-
tion for injury to Baichu’s feelings
and self-respect.

Baichu was originally hired by

Devron Hercules in September
1984 as a shop helper.

He was iold that he would have
an opportunity to do welding
which he believed would enable
him to obtain his ‘B’ then ‘A’ level
welding tickets.

Baichu testified that during his
empioyment he was the subject of
racial slurs and jokes made by his
fellow employees.

He said he felt ‘‘shaken’’ and
“very insulted’" by the treatment
he received, but chose to continue
working at the company.

Baichu was laid off in June 1987
after being told there had been a
slowdown in company product

3 - Friday, December 1, 1989 - North Shore News

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL RULES IN FORMER EMPLOYEE’S FAVOR

NV firm to pay $27,240 for discrimination

sales. His lay-off notice included a
statement that he would be rehired
when company workloads imnrov-
ed. But he was not rehired.

Devron Hercules representative
Colin Carlsen testified that he was
unaware of any remarks made by
company employees about Baichu.

While he admitted that insulting
epithets and taunts were often
common in the workplace, he con-
sidered them only to be ‘‘in jest.””

Carlsen added that Baichu had
been laid off not only because of
the work slowdown, but because
he had become uninterested in his
work and that his work ‘‘had
deteriorated.’’

He testified that Baichu had not
been considered for re-employment
because ‘‘there’s a lot of feel-
ings...that...would be hard to
overcome.””

But Powell said evidence pres-
ented in the hearing did not sup-
port the claim that Baichu’s work
had deteriorated or that he had
lost interest in that work.

Powell also expressed concern at
the attitude that racial jokes and
slurs are merely ‘‘fun.’’

In addition to the monetary
compensation for Baichu, Powell
ordered Devron Hercules to rehire
Baichu when a position that he is
qualified for becomes available.

Group offers support for bowel disease sufferers
AT LEAST 1,000 NORTH SHORE RESIDENTS AFFECTED

NEWS photo Neil Lucente

About one in 100 Canadians are stricken by inflammatory bowel disease.
North Vancouver resident Gill Christjansen, 27, has spent the past three
years batiling colitis. The disease was diagnosed shortly after she became
pregnant with her son Jason, who is now three years old. All proceeds
from the sale of Christmas Cakes for Cures support research attempting
to find the cause and cure for inflammatory bowel disease. The cakes are

available by calling 980-2639.

NORTH VANCOUVER resident Gill Christjansen had her
life turned inside out when at age 24 and six weeks into her
pregnancy she was diagnesed as suffering from ulcerative

colitis.

Three painful years and nine
surgeries later the pieces of her life
are just now falling back into
place.

Earlier this year Christjansen
founded a North Shore affiliate of
the Vancouver support group for
sufferers of Meitis and Colitis, two
forms of inflammatory bowel
disease that affects at least 1,000
people on the North Shore.

The disease tends to strike peo-
ple age 15 to 35, is chronic, non-
contagious and has no known
cause or cure.

Colitis attacks the inner lining of
the large intestine (the coion),
causing inflammation, ulceration,
bleeding and scarring. The disease
can be controlled with drugs and
surgery. Ileitis, or Crohn’s disease,
can strike any gastrointestinal area
from mouth to anus.

A month and a half into her
pregnancy Christjansen became
very ill. At six months she still
wasn’t showing because her fetus
wasn't getting sufficient nutrition.
“My husband had to take me to
the doctor and | actually collapsed
in the office. They did a biopsy at
the hospital and immediately
found that it was ulcerative col-
itis,’’ she said.

She spent the last trimester of
her pregnancy in hospital so that
her son could be tube fed while
still in the womb. Drug therapy
was initiated and she eventually
was put on medications including
the steroid prednisone. But the
drugs didn’t bring down the in-
flammation. And the -ide effects
of prolonged prednisone use can
be bad news.

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

“In the long run it can shut
down your internal organs. Out-
wardly you get 2 swollen face, hair
growth and acne. Your skin thins
so you bruise easily. It also softens
the calcium deposits in your bones,
so your bones become very brit-
tle," she said. ‘tI was to a point

The disease destroyed her colon
and her young family’s original life
pian. Her husband Nils had in-
tended to become an airtine pilot,
but Christjansen said when her son
Jason was born, Nils ‘‘had to
become everything, the mom, the
dad, the breadwinner. I spent most
of the time in hospital. | was never
able to become a mom to this little
guy. I gave birth to him, sure, but
everybody else was being his mom.
This is my first year of being his
mom.”

At 30, Nils is considered too
old to become an airline pilot. He
now builds homes on the North
Shore.

(a

‘Finally I’m at a point where I’m feeling
great, but we didn’t have anybody to talk to
when we were going through this.’’
— North Vancouver
resident
Gill Christjansen

where ! was on ii for so long where
it wasn’t doing any good anymore
and ! was bleeding like crazy."

Her colon was removed and an
ileostomy was established. Said
Christjansen, ‘‘That’s an external
bag you’re going to the
washroom outside and that was
really difficult.’’

But Christjansen recently
became one of 70 people in B.C.
who have had an internal bag is-
stalled. A pouch was fashioned
from a section of her small in-
testine and then was reconnected
to her rectum.

LGH maternity ward opening delayed

THE OPENING of Lions Gate Hospital’s new $2.4 million

maternity ward has been delayed until next March.

Construction on the facility was
originally scheduled to get under
way in June with the ward to be
open in October.

But factors ranging from the
nurses’ strike to removal of
asbestos prior to construction have
combined to delay actual work on
the maternity ward.

The construction schedule has
also been lengthened from the
original four months to. six
months.

LGH_ executive vice-president
Eric O'Dell said, ‘A combination
of the strike and a special contract
to remove asbestos delayed the
start-up until the end of August.
So now we’re looking at an open-

ing date early in March.””

O’Dell added that unexpected
complications have also arisen in
renovating the electrical and
plumbing services for the ward.

“The as-built drawings, compil-
ed when the building was finished
in 1961,"’ he said, ‘‘are not as ac-
curate as they should be, which
caused some problems. And, al-
though the building was built to
196! building and safety codes,
there have been a number of code
changes since then concerning
items such as fire detection and
alarm systems and fire-rated
walls.’”

The hospital's second-floor
operating suite had to be closed for

two weeks in October because of
problems with plumbing and drain
pipes in the false ceiling between
the third and second floors.

O’Dell said the magnitude of the
problem only became apparent
when construction began, so the
operating room had to be closed
on short notice.

While waiting lists for surgery
consequently increased, O'Dell
said the operating rooms are now
back in service, ‘tand we have
dedicated resources to bring the list
back down to the pre-closure
levels.’”

LGH president Robert Smith
said both staff and mothers have
coped extremely well with the
temporary maternity ward condi-
tions.

The hospital's new maternity
ward will replace its stark and

clinical origina! facility with such
features as seven birthing rooms; a
special-care nursery upgraded to
“level two’? so that premature,
sick or at-risk babies will no longer
have to be transferred to Van-
couver; and improved  accom-
modatior.s for new mothers, along
with a lounge and teaching area
for families.

A fund-raising campaign laun-
ched during the summer to raise
$500,000 for new maternity ward
equipment has far exceeded its
original target.

Smith estimated that approxi-
mately $800,000 was pledged in the
campaign.

The extra money, he said, will
allow the hospital to re-evaluate
exactly what equipment and [acili-
ties will be included in the new
ward.

“Finally I’m at a point where
I'm feeling great, but we didn’t
have anybody to talk to when we
were going through this. We're
selling Christmas cakes right now
and all of those funds go towards
research to try and find a cause,”
she said.

Christmas Cakes for Cures are
available for the next 10 days by
calling 980-2639.

The support group for Ileitis and
Colitis sufferers meets on the last
Wednesday of every month, at |
7:30 p.m., at Lions Gate Hospital,
seminar rooms 3 and 4.

Classified Ads..........33
Home & Garden.........15
What's Going On........24

WEATHER

Friday, cloudy with suany
periods. High near 11°C.
Saturday, mastly cloudy with
a few showers. High near
39.

Second Class Registration Number 3885