Indo-Canadian vets suffered 'systemic discrimination' in B.C.

B.C.'s Veterinary Medical Association "engaged in systemic discrimination" against 13 Indo-Canadian vets, the province's Human Rights Tribunal has found, after more than a decade of legal wrangling.

The vets, who trained in India and offered low cost services in B.C., complained the association subjected them to more scrutiny and tougher accreditation requirements than others.

In the 500-page human rights decision,tribunal member Judy Parrack concludes race-based stereotypes played a significant role in the association's dealing with the vets.

"The BCVMA was aware, or ought reasonably to have been aware of this,and that it largely ignored, and condoned, the expression of such views," writesParrack.

"The result was a poisoned relationship between the BCVMA and the Complainants, which the BCVMAthen blamed entirely on those individuals claiming that they were 'playing the race card.'"

• Read the full human rights decision

The decision deals with the years 2002 through 2006. In 2010, the association becamethe College of Veterinarians, under the jurisdiction of the provincial Ministry of Agriculture.

The vets involved in the case may have been vindicated, but one of the men at the centre of the fight, Hakam Bhullar, says nothing else has changed.

"They're torturing us from last 12 or 13 years. and, if the minister now has the power to interfere he can ask the old boy's club... you know, they have to stop the discrimination."

TheVancouver veterinarian was banned from practising animal medicine in B.C. in 2009, after an inquiry by the associationfound he provided care "far below the skill expected of a competent practitioner" and for "moral turpitude."

• Vancouver vet has licence pulled

Bhullar disputedthe results of the inquiry in B.C. Supreme Court, and although the inquiry's findings were initially overturned, the association successfully appealed.

The matterremains before the courts, alongside anothercaserelating to alleged mistreatment of the overseas-trained vets.

The vets hope the provincial government will step in before those cases have to be heard.