Human Rights Each Day.com

Embracing the Changing Face of Canada

       I’ve been waiting for these results for literally two years.  Today (May 8, 2013) Statistics Canada released a lot of data from the 2011 Census.  While the media (rightfully so) is commenting on the lower completion rate of the census because the government stopped making it mandatory (stupid), the fact is, there is still lots of information that tells us how much our country is changing.

       Because I just gave a presentation here in Calgary just a couple hours ago, this afternoon, I was holed up in the lounge at the Calgary airport, going over the data, calling Stats Canada several times (they are very friendly and very helpful) and even getting work done by my PowerPoint guy in Toronto, Dave Paradi.  While not exhaustive at all (because I have a 6 a.m. flight to catch in the morning), here are some interesting findings:

•    One in five Canadians is an immigrant.  We lead the pack of the G7 countries at 20.6%, with Germany being the closest at only 13% and then the Americans at 12.9%.  Australia on the other hand has 26.8% of their population as foreign born.

•    Is it any wonder that people look so different than my grandparents when they immigrated to Canada?  85.5% of immigrants in the 10 years leading up to 2011 did not come from Europe.  That’s a big shift from years ago.

•    Muslims continue to be the fastest growing religious group.  While relatively small in numbers (just over 1 million), they make up 3.21% of our population, which is significant when they were only 1.9% of our population in 2001.  Stats Canada estimates that by 2031, half of all the non-Christians will be Muslim.

•    We can certainly focus on the religious group, but get this:  24% of Canadians said they have “no religious affiliation” in 2011.  Some people might think of Alberta as a “bible belt” (I hope that’s not insensitive) but 31.5% of their citizens said they fall into the same category.  That’s up from an already high of 23% just 10 years ago.

•    But get this…in my home province of B.C. 44% of people said they had “no religious affiliation”.  That is a hair’s breadth away from the 44.6% of B.C. residents who said they are Christian.  When we talk about religious accommodation, we are going to have to come to grips with a tonne of people who will be asking for their own accommodations…away from religion.

•    When it comes to Aboriginal Canadians, they are still far and away the only population group that is growing.  While the Canadian population grew by almost 11% between 2001 and 2011, the Aboriginal population grew by (get this) 88%.  If this isn’t a good reason to get moving on improving the lives of First Nations, Metis and Inuit Canadians, I don’t what will be.  And while the median age of Aboriginal Canadians was 28 years, the non-Aboriginal was 41 years…a 13 year age gap, meaning this continues to be a young population looking to break away from despair and tragedy (for many).

       We need lots of people to come to our country and make up for our low birth rate and our aging population.  I want someone paying for my expensive health care needs (and I’m sure they will be) when I’m old and gray(er).  The sooner we make new Canadians and Aboriginals feel welcomed (and pay them the same wages as other Canadians) the better off we’ll be.  I don’t have to be a cheerleader for multiculturalism to know that this is a reality, with very little room for debate.  But I think we’re up for the challenge.

Good night.  If I'm lucky, I'll sleep on the plane.

Stephen

Today's skill testing question:   On this day (May 8) in 1945, a big celebration took place in many parts of the world.  This event certainly lead to the creation of the United Nations & it's declaration of Human Rights.  The first person who can tell me the exact name of this day will win a copy of my book, Managing Human Rights at Work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters.

Related Resources:

    
 
This blog: http://www.humanrightseachday.com/

My website: http://www.stephenhammond.ca

My Podcast: Type in “HumanRightsaDay” to the iTunes store and listen to each day's event from my book, Steps in the Rights Direction, or just click here.

My Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rightstoday (each day has historical human rights info)

Stephen Hammond, B.A., LL.B., CSP, is a lawyer-turned professional speaker. He’s written two books, Managing Human Rights at Work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world. Managing Human Rights at Work can be purchased on his website www.StephenHammond.ca

copyright - Stephen Hammond -Embracing the Changing Face of Canada

What do these numbers mean to you? From skin colour to atheists.

       Statistics Canada starts releasing their first data from the 2011 census tomorrow (February 8th).  Since we will likely get population and age data first, a lot of attention will be given to the question of pension and/or old age security reform as it becomes obvious we continue to grow older (not just me and you, but as a national average).

       This debate will go on for a long time, but in addition to this important issue, we need to look beyond it…in fact we need to look beyond our noses and immediate self-interest.

       Canada is no different than other Western countries or countries where there is increasing prosperity.  In fact, throughout the world, the number of births per woman is declining.  It’s just that in our country this decline has been going on for a number of decades and there’s no indication it will change.

       The census data takes quite a while to compile and it’s not just a matter of crunching numbers.  So we’ll be seeing data and analysis coming this year and even into next.  And deep analysis will take longer.  Over this time, I’ll be interested in finding out a number of things that are going to have a huge impact on our economy, our culture and how open we are to change.  For example:

•    Will the trend continue where recent immigrants continue to fall further behind in pay and jobs suited to their skills?  Many skilled immigrants realize it takes a while to match the level of job and relative wealth they left behind, but too many are surprised that it takes a long, long time, or that they in fact never reach it.  So far the data shows that newer immigrants to Canada are doing much worse than immigrants who came to Canada just three decades ago.

•    Will the number of people who are dark-skinned continue to fall even further behind immigrants who are light-skinned? (“visible minority” is so insulting…and condemned by U.N. bodies.)  So far, this is what is happening.  Since I am the world’s “visible minority”, and since Canada continues to attract more dark-skinned people than light-skinned people, this means we’ve got a problem if we aren’t properly integrating people for no other reason than the colour of their skin or other “different” attributes.

•    What will be the religious make-up of our country?  We haven’t had data about religion since the 2001 census and these days, a decade is a long time.  It’s not just the make-up of religious people, but also the non-religious people.  In 2001 16.5% of Canadians responded that they had “no religious affiliation”.  By province, that was a low of 2.5% in Newfoundland and Labrador and a high of 35.9% in British Columbia.  While “no religious affiliation” doesn’t automatically mean atheist, in this last decade there has been an explosion of people coming out of the atheist closet.  The books of the “Four Horsemen of New Atheism” – Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens – have all been best sellers.  Since our courts and tribunals have been very strong in accommodating religious beliefs at work, I wonder what will happen when non-religious people start asking for their own accommodations.

       Canada’s population make-up is changing rapidly.  Statistics Canada said in 2011 all our net employment growth came from immigration.  They expect that by 2025 to 2030, all our net population growth will come from immigration.  Since most of the people coming to Canada don’t look like me, have different cultures than me and have different religions than me, this means we’re either going to be battling over many things, or we’re going to learn how to accommodate differences.

       In the next few months, let’s find out how different we’ve become and without being too corny, how we can have these differences, but still love the fact that we live in Canada.  Some people like me were born here and some people looked around and thought, “That’s a damn fine country you got there.  Can’t wait to join ya.”

Stephen

Winner of last skill testing question:  Bill Wickson from Vancouver gave the correct answer that on January 25, 2007 Herouxville, Quebec set "standards" for immigrants, including don't "kill women in public beatings" and you have to leave your birth country's lifestyle at home. Congratulations Bill and eventually you'll get a copy of my book Managing Human Rights at Work (we forgot to mail it - oops)

Today's skill testing question:    On February 7, 1971 this country's men finally voted to give women the vote.  You may be surprised which country and I'll give you a clue - many men felt women's roles should be "kinder, kirche und kuche".  The first person to tell me the name of the country will win a copy of my book, Managing Human Rights at Work.

Related Resources:

    
 
This blog: http://www.humanrightseachday.com/

My website: http://www.stephenhammond.ca

My Podcast: Type in “HumanRightsaDay” to the iTunes store and listen to each day's event from my book, Steps in the Rights Direction (the easiest way is to go to the homepage of www.StephenHammond.ca )

My Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rightstoday (each day has historical human rights info)

Stephen Hammond, B.A., LL.B., CSP, is a lawyer-turned professional speaker. He’s written two books, Managing Human Rights at Work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world. Both can be purchased on his website www.StephenHammond.ca

copyright - Stephen Hammond - What do these numbers mean to you?  From skin colour to atheists.

Sex, Religion, Abuse - The Usual Media Frenzy

       Since I’m in the business of human rights and helping people “behave” for lack of another word, I sometimes think items jump out at me from the newspapers that others wouldn’t notice.  Hence I tend to see that human rights, whether workplace based or just plain life based are pretty big in our world.  But then there are times, I think, “come on, it’s not just me” as seems to be the case of ringing in the new year of 2012.

       We were greeted early this new year with banner headlines about whether same-sex couples married in Canada, but living outside Canada, were in fact still married.  It caused such a stir that our Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson had to make a pronouncement that the laws would be changed.  Even though his department’s lawyers had taken the opposite stance, he was going to ensure that all gay or lesbian couples who got married in Canada would have their marriage protected.  This way, even if they couldn’t get married in their state or country, they would be considered married and if they wanted to get divorced, they would be able to do that, without the normal residency requirements.

       Don’t you find this odd?  I don’t mean the whole same-sex stuff and the legal wranglings.  I mean that the world economy is still on the brink of collapse, we have whole industries that are in big, big trouble, our unemployment rate is going up and our country is on the verge of huge cut-backs in government spending to deal with our growing deficit.  Yet gay marriage gets centre stage.

       If our Prime Minister had his way, all the headlines would have been about him flying from one end of the country to the other, praising the $33 billion we’re about to spend on military ship building.  You might have missed it even though he actually held a press conference in Halifax last Thursday, flew 4,500 kms and on that same day held another press conference in North Vancouver.

       There were a lot of people quite upset that the same-sex news item, which possibly only affects perhaps 5,000 “foreigners”, trumped the news about a big, big expenditure that will certainly have a boost in some economies.  In fact, when a reporter asked the Prime Minister at the Halifax event about the same-sex foofarah, the proud ship building workers in the photo-op booed the reporter.  There was nary a mention of what the PM was doing in Halifax in the first place.

       Whether we like it or not, our hearts will often win-out over our heads.  The issues of human rights will continue to get massive coverage in our country and they will often greatly over-shadow other more cerebral issues of the day.  Over the holidays and into the New Year, these were just a few of the items that got people’s attention:

•    Dutch Queen Beatrix spoke out after being criticised for wearing a head scarf in a mosque on a visit to the United Arab Emirates.  This queen, like others, rarely comments openly especially when it comes from a Dutch politician, but she said his criticism of her was “nonsense”.

•    A poll found that while most Canadians trust RCMP officers, they have misgivings about the leadership of the force. This on the tail of months of headlines about allegations of sexual harassment and abuse at work.

•    A federal government worker won a ground breaking court case that expands human rights protection of “family status” to ensure that when she’s on maternity leave, she doesn’t miss out on job opportunities.

•    The head of Canada’s Human Rights Commission, Shirish Chotalia, was found to have harassed some of her staff and other complaints are proceeding.  It was also revealed that in the short time Ms. Chotalia has been on the job, more than half her staff left, took sick leave or retired.

•    A judge in the States released a letter that had been sent to Hewlett Packard which led to the firing of its former CEO Mark Hurd in 2010.  The letter from a lawyer made all kinds of allegations of sexual harassment by Hurd.  The company’s stock is down $20 from where it had been before the scandal and it doesn’t seem the issue is going away.

If you want some predictions for 2012, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll see...

•    The integration, or lack thereof, of Muslims in Canada and world-wide will get lots of attention.  Muslims are the fastest growing religious group in Western countries and these countries are struggling at work and in their communities to see them as real citizens (unless you lose the scarf);

•    Despite all the education and seminars, sexual harassment will bring down or greatly affect a number of prominent men in Canada and around the world.  Many of their humiliated wives will stand next to them as they claim their innocence or explain they had a brain tumour (which miraculously has just been cured);

•    The Supreme Court of Canada will address a number of issues related to human rights.  I could do my homework and check the roster of cases likely to be heard or decided in 2012, but I’m not even going to do that.  Take my word for it – the Supremes will be doing some of the work that politicians aren’t willing to do (and then get blamed for making the tough decisions).

       So folks, it’s not just me.  As a species, we’re struggling with differences.  So in countries where the rule of law doesn’t exist or is tenuous, these struggles will be resolved with deadly conflict.  In those countries where the rule of law works a bit better, these struggles will be resolved in the courts, the media, the government and in the coffee-shops.  Watch for them.

Stephen

Winner of last skill testing question:  Penni Kiss from Lethbridge gave the correct answer that it was Linus Van Pelt who said, "That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."  Penni won a copy of both of my books.

Today's skill testing question:  On January 18, 2001 the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a second degree murder conviction and ordered the sentence of at least 10 years in prison.  This decision was controversial, with some seeing the act of killing as compassionate for the suffering of a daughter while others saw it as plain murder against a defenseless person with severe disabilities.  The first person to tell me the name of the man convicted of murder will win a copy of my book, Managing Human Rights at Work.

Related Resources:

    
 
This blog: http://www.humanrightseachday.com/

My website: http://www.stephenhammond.ca

My Podcast: Type in “HumanRightsaDay” to the iTunes store and listen to each day's event from my book, Steps in the Rights Direction (the easiest way is to go to the homepage of www.StephenHammond.ca )

My Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rightstoday (each day has historical human rights info)

Stephen Hammond, B.A., LL.B., CSP, is a lawyer-turned professional speaker. He’s written two books, Managing Human Rights at Work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world. Both can be purchased on his website www.StephenHammond.ca

copyright - Stephen Hammond - Sex, Religion, Abuse - The Usual Media Frenzy

Struggling with Differences...as we Approach 2012

Let's face it, we’re struggling with differences...even as we approach 2012

       A debate broke out at our dinner party on Sunday night and it made me think about how, at the end of this year, it has never been more obvious that Canadians, just like the rest of the world, are struggling with differences.  Without going into an exhaustive list, here are just a few…

•    Working women.  Sounds kinda funny doesn’t it.  Back in my Mom & Dad's day, those words referred to women working…outside the home.  But we’re still struggling with women in many workplaces, even though women make up the majority of students in universities and women have fared better than men during this latest financial debacle with the world economy.  The recent allegations of sexual harassment within the RCMP indicate that one of Canada’s most visible institutions is no different than other workplaces.  Or without knowing the full extent of it, it could be better or worse than many Canadian workplaces.  After all, the frank comments from our brand new RCMP Commissioner, Bob Paulson, are rather startling because he’s admitting openly that there’s a real problem.  Sexual harassment seems to be just one, but it’s still a sign that at the end of 2011, we’re not as far as my mother would have expected…after all these years of “working women”.

•    Mental awakening.  Whenever I think about the tip-toeing we do around mental health, I think about Michael Wilson.  Many years ago, I met Mr. Wilson, prior to him becoming a well-respected federal finance minister.  What a nice guy.  So when, years later, I read about the suicide of his 29 year old son Cameron, I felt awful.  The thing I remember the most is how, when Cameron was alive, Michael said he wouldn’t tell anyone about his depression.  Then after he died, he regretted doing that, because he realized it added to the stigma of there being something wrong with having a mental illness.  Just a few days ago, there was Mr. Wilson on the front page of the Business section of the Globe and Mail urging businesses to do way more to address mental illness at work.  The cases are coming on strong throughout Canada as persons with mental illnesses and disabilities are pushing back, just trying to say they want better conditions at work (including getting a job when an employer knows there's a mental illness).  Michael Wilson is also trying to get workplaces to reduce the stress that leads to mental illness.

•    What to wear, what to wear… For the conversations going on, you’d think the niqab that covers the face of a very select few Muslim women is the latest fashion trend sweeping the swearing-in ceremonies of Canadians-to-be.  “I hate those hats the Queen wears!  I’ll show her.  Instead of giving her my allegiance, I’ll be saying ‘rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb’ under my niqab.  Thank goodness for the Charter!”  Well, more to the point, thank goodness for Muslims since they take the heat off us homosexuals.*   But it seems Canadians aren’t the only ones confused about how to deal with the fastest growing religious group.  In the same week, I read that the U.S. government is recruiting more women from Muslim countries for science, technology, engineering and mathematics and yet the Lowes Company decided to yank ads from the TV show All-American Muslim.  We’ve got a long way to go…baby.

•    And finally, do we call this season, “Christmas” or “Holidays”.  It was reported just the other day that some Canadian schools tried to accommodate non-Christian students by cancelling Christmas concerts.  While they meant no harm, this is clearly the wrong approach and those schools who didn’t “dumb down” Christmas, but “smartened up” on all celebrations, took the right approach.  But folks, don’t be hi-jacked by those who are high and mighty about the “loss of Christmas”.  Have ya looked around lately?!?  I mean have ya??  Christmas now starts in, oh, mid-July and doesn’t stop till merchants have squeezed that last “post-post-post-Boxing Day, well, while we’re at it, pre-pre-pre-Christmas 2013” sale.  If you’re a Christian and truly desire the spirit of Christmas, go to church on or near Christmas, do some charitable work that Jesus would be proud of and give small, but meaningful gifts to those you care about.  “That’s what’s Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.”

       So as we make our way…gradually…to 2012, let’s hope we at least keep moving in the right direction when it comes to differences.  If huge changes are too much to handle, then how about more gradual change...in the right direction that is.

       To those who celebrate, Merry Christmas and to everyone, Happy New Year.

Stephen

*In case you didn't notice, that comment was my attempt at dry biting humour about the sad state of Muslims being the punching bags for anyone with hateful things to say.

Winner of last skill testing question:  Helen Sukovieff gave the correct answer that the actual meaning of Daschund is "badger dog".  Helen won a copy of Managing Human Rights at Work.  Others guessed correctly....but were just minutes later than Helen.  Good finger on the pulse Helen!

Today's skill testing question:  Who said, "That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown"? I need a first and last name and spelled correctly.  The first person to give me the correct answer will win a copy of my book, Steps in the Rights Direction.  If you name the year it was first said, I'll throw in a bonus of Managing Human Rights at Work.

Related Resources:

    
 
This blog: http://www.humanrightseachday.com/

My website: http://www.stephenhammond.ca

My Podcast: Type in “HumanRightsaDay” to the iTunes store and listen to each day's event from my book, Steps in the Rights Direction (the easiest way is to go to the homepage of www.StephenHammond.ca )

My Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rightstoday (each day has historical human rights info)

Stephen Hammond, B.A., LL.B., CSP, is a lawyer-turned professional speaker. He’s written two books, Managing Human Rights at Work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world. Both can be purchased on his website www.StephenHammond.ca

copyright - Stephen Hammond - Struggling with Differences...as we Approach 2012

Canada’s Fear of Muslim Values: What to know in 2011 to prevent harassment and discrimination

Here is my 3rd observation in 2011 for Workplace Leaders to address in order to avoid a complaint, legal action or turn off people in the changing face of Canada:

Religious discrimination against Muslims

Last summer my partner and I got to do a house-swap and found ourselves in Paris for all of July.  With all the sights to see and French to learn, I wasn’t expecting to find work following me.  But in a sense, it did.  While I was there, France’s lower house of parliament voted to ban the wearing of veils that cover the face in public places.  France already outlawed religious symbols in public schools, but that applied to any religious symbols (even though it was a way of getting at Muslim veils and head scarves). By mid-September France’s senate overwhelmingly voted in favour of the law and the only step left was a review by the country’s highest legal body, the constitutional council.

One of the greatest fears in Europe right now is the growing Muslim population.  While most Muslims are good citizens – like most people – Europeans notice that most terrorists in recent years are Muslim.  And then there’s the concern about the way Muslim women are treated.  In that sense the burqa is seen as a symbol of oppression against women.  European women, and men who care about women, are very concerned that this growing population will impose some very strict adherence to their values if they gain population, and therefore political clout.

Back at home, while Muslims are Canada’s fastest growing religious group, their numbers are relatively small.  It’s not as easy for Muslims from European, Asian and Middle-Eastern countries to get to Canada as it is for them to get to Western European countries.  Yet a recent forecast by Statistics Canada expects that by the year 2031, of all non-Christians living in Canada, half of them will be Muslim.  So this begs the question: 

How comfortable do Canadians feel about Muslims?

Not very comfortable it seems.

In early September, 2010, Leger Marketing asked Canadians to respond to this statement: “Muslims share our values.”  55% of Canadians said they do not (the same poll question in the States had 50% saying “no” as well).  Here are some differences:

• 19% of Quebecers said Muslims shared their values compared to 41% of people from B.C.
• 70% of people 65 years and older felt similar values, but only 43.5% of 18 to 24 year olds felt that way (surprising to me)
• 38% of English-speaking Canadians felt shared values vs. 17% of French-speaking Canadians

Since our relatively small Muslim population is growing fast, this disconnect – if it continues – will become a bigger problem.  In France the divide, and therefore the lack of integration, was quite obvious as you could tell whether a community was prosperous by the colour of skin of the people living in it.  We were staying in a very accessible part of Paris, with most of the people being white, and I’m guessing non-Muslim.  France had horrible riots five years ago that lead to wide-spread damage and had the country’s leaders scratching their heads wondering what they had to do to integrate Muslims into French society.

In Canada, the employment trend is almost as disturbing.  Study after Canadian study shows that unemployment, under-employment and lower wages are the norm for immigrants and especially immigrants with dark skin.  Since most of the immigrants coming to Canada have dark skin, social scientists are concerned that it’s our prejudices that are getting in the way.  One of the reasons they come to this conclusion is that in years past, after one generation, newer Canadians caught up to Canadians with a longer history in the country.  Today that’s not happening.  New immigrants and their children have not caught up.

So how does this affect workplace leaders?  After all, can’t we just sit back and let the government take care of all this?  Well, the simple answer is, no.

There are a number of things workplace leaders can do to help new Canadians and Muslims (since we’re talking about Muslims):

Get out there.  Waiting for people to come to you is nice, but it’s not always happening that way.  In 2010 two studies showed a huge disconnect between new Canadians and employers. The Toronto Board of Trade’s study found that our most diverse city is doing a worse job today integrating new Canadians than it did decades ago.  Immigrants in Toronto are earning only 63 cents for every dollar a non-immigrant earns.  Yet in 1980 it was 85 cents. Economists in the study say the Toronto region is losing as much as $2.25 billion each year because of this. Then there was the 2010 report done by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business which found that between 2003 and 2006, 78% of small business owners reported they had not hired an immigrant employee.  This, while small businesses reported vacancies for skilled workers with many businesses having to pass up new projects.

This means being pro-active in advertising employment opportunities and doing outreach with immigrant service organizations is a must.

Work with others.  The city of Prince George, B.C. was having trouble recruiting residents and employees of Muslim faith, in part due to the lack of a mosque.  So several years ago when a proposal came forward from the Muslim community, the city jumped at the chance to help them out and gave them a lease-to-own deal to help the process.  They don’t want the lack of a place to worship to be a hindrance for welcoming new people to the city.  Most immigrants come to the three big Canadian metropolitan areas – Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.  If other parts of Canada want to attract skilled immigrants, it will mean working with government, businesses, unions and support agencies to find out what is needed.

Make your workplace welcoming.  Shahram Dastghib worked for Richmond Auto Body Ltd. in North Vancouver.  His supervisors addressed him over the loud speakers as 'Bin Laden' and at various times called him "Shahram Hussein", "Baboo", and "Shazzam".  They also doctored a terrorist wanted poster from the internet to put his name in place of an actual wanted terrorist suspect.  The defense of the body shop was that other nicknames regarding people’s race and ethnicity were common-place. After filing a complaint, a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal adjudicator had a different take on the name-calling. He found the body shop to be a “poisoned workplace” and that the discrimination against him was a factor, although not the only factor for Mr. Dastghib’s termination of employment years earlier.  For years, the defense of “humour” has been used in many different ways. What’s somewhat new is that a certain number of people aren’t grasping the effects that certain jokes have on a group of people who are already behind the 8-ball when it comes to stereotypes.  I think we hear “terrorist” so many times, it just slides off our backs.  But to Muslims, who are painted with the same brush as ludicrous extremists who want mass-killings, it wears thin – to say the least.

It’s not just about jokes.  A welcoming workplace is one where people aren’t berated for their religion, or culture or beliefs.  Canadian workplace leaders who don’t tolerate abuse or harassment, will have a grateful and loyal workforce.

Stephen Hammond

Related Resources:

 
 
 

 
This blog: http://www.humanrightseachday.com/

My website: http://www.stephenhammond.ca

My Podcast: Type in “HumanRightsaDay” to the iTunes store and listen to each day's event from my book, Steps in the Rights Direction (the easiest way is to go to the homepage of www.StephenHammond.ca )

My Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rightstoday (each day has historical human rights info)

Stephen Hammond, B.A., LL.B., CSP, is a lawyer-turned professional speaker. He’s written two books, Managing Human Rights at Work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world. Both can be purchased on his website www.StephenHammond.ca 

copyright - Stephen Hammond - Muslim Values - Religious Accommodation