Ali Tahmourpour, a 35-year-old Iranian Muslim who lives with his wife and young son in Mississauga, yesterday won his appeal to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. It accepted his claims of discrimination and ordered him to receive $500-650,000 in back pay.
"The RCMP's discriminatory conduct denied Mr. Tahmourpour the opportunity to complete training and to make his living as an RCMP officer," the ruling stated.
The decision also ordered the RCMP to allow Tahmourpour, who later became a Mississauga real estate agent, to return to the cadet training he began in 1999.
"I am going to do the training," he said yesterday from the office of his lawyer Barry Weintraub. "It has been a very difficult journey but I've been given back what was taken away from me without just cause. It feels good and I look forward to making a contribution to the force."
Tahmourpour was a candidate for city council in the November 2006 municipal election, running for an open seat in Ward 10. He collected 145 votes or 1.52 per cent of the vote.
"What I'm hoping for is that they (RCMP) will see I have gained an insight, that I can help the RCMP again become something that we can all be proud of," he said.
In its 65-page ruling, the tribunal stated that Tahmourpour was ridiculed by a training officer in front of his peers for insisting on wearing a religious pendant and by another officer for using his Persian-style signature he had learned as a child in Iran. It accepted Tahmourpour's claims that he was verbally abused by one officer who would stand next to him and "scream in his ear" that he was a "loser," a "coward," and "f---ing useless."
The RCMP claimed Tahmourpour was dismissed because of poor performance.
But hearing officer Karen Jensen found Tahmourpour's evidence credible and awarded him back pay due to the difficulties he has encountered since his problems with the RCMP.
Over the past eight years, Tahmourpour could not hold a steady job while he tried to gain the necessary legal knowledge to fight his case in the early days without a lawyer.
He ignored the advice of a doctor that he was not stable enough to go to work or school and got his real estate licence. But he sold only one house.
He's planning to restart his RCMP training as soon as possible.
"This is a very significant decision ... for all that Mr. Tahmourpour has suffered through. It is above all, vindication for what he has maintained all along," Weintraub said.
jstewart@mississauga.net
