Ok, so I have opined that in Ontario, it would be unlawful for the Toronto Maple Leafs to replace a Francophone coach and replace him with an Anglophone for the reason that the public (i.e. Leaf fans) really want an Anglophone coach because Toronto (and Ontario) are Anglophone, and the Leafs are a highly important cultural icon. While I acknowledged that I don’t know Quebec human rights law, I confessed too that it would surprise me if a Quebec employer–here, the Montreal Canadiens–could dismiss an Anglophone to make room for a Francophone, unless it could first prove that the Anglophone is incapable of performing the job, including with accommodation to the point of undue hardship.
Now, Gabriel Granatstein from Norton Rose in Montreal has called me on that–I think. Here is Gabriel’s post on the Montreal Canadien’s coaching fiasco.
What do you think now? Is Gabriel saying that employers in Quebec can give preference to Francophones, without first having to show that an Anglophone is incapable of performing the job, even with accommodation to the point of undue hardship? If the Habs would have to show accommodation of an Anglophone coach is not possible without undue hardship, is my argument that accommodation in the form of a translator accompanying the coach everywhere ridiculous? Note by the way that there are Anglophone/Francophone coaches in Russia who operate that way already. But is there something about Montreal that is different, so that being forced to use a translator would amount to undue hardship?
That’s my last word in the Montreal Canadiens, promise. Go Leafs!
Take That, Doorey. Granatstein Defends Canadiens' Poo Poo of Anglophone Coach.
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