BC Human Rights Tribunal fines Spruce Hill resort owner $173K for racial discrimination

BY MARCELLA BERNARDO

Posted Oct 30, 2018\

(Source: Spruce Hill Resort and Spa/Facebook)

100 MILE HOUSE (NEWS1130) — The owner of a resort in the Cariboo has been heavily fined for discriminating against six former employees because they’re not Chinese.

The BC Human Rights Tribunal has ordered Kin Wa Chan to collectively pay them more than $173,000.

They all quit or were dismissed from the Spruce Hill Resort and Spa within days of each other in August of 2016 and they all identify as Caucasian.

Witnesses testified he repeatedly said “too many white people” worked at the resort, “Chinese workers do not have to be paid holiday pay or overtime” and “Chinese workers are better and cheaper than white workers.”

Chan, who assumed full ownership of the resort near 100 Mile House in 2015, doesn’t dispute he often replaced workers with people of Chinese descent.

One of the three main complainants, Melonie Eva, says she was sexually harassed by Chan during a business trip to China in April of 2016 when he booked a single hotel room for both of them to share.

The former manager of the resort acknowledges he never touched her and agreed to book a second room after she told him she’s married and threatened to immediately return to Canada.

Eva’s been awarded more than $42,000 for lost wages and compensation for “injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect.”

The full decision can be found on the BCHRT website.