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Tribunal found nanny treated like ‘slave’
EASTER EGG HUNT
Family lived in local hotel while home being prepared Alan Campbell
not go anywhere or do anything without permission. She could not go out on her own or speak to people in her own A woman who was held like a “virtual language, even though there were people slave” in a Richmond hotel for six weeks around the hotel with whom she could has been awarded almost $56,000 by the have struck up such a friendship.” B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. According to the tribunal, PN had to The woman, a 28-year-old Filipina, work 18-hour days, with no breaks, had to was working as a nanny for a family eat standing up and was deducted wages if from Hong Kong, that was staying at she was caught sitting down. The husband, known as “FR,” claimed the Richmond hotel while setting up a “they hired PN and treated her like a permanent home in the city. member of the She had traveled family and they over from Hong She was continually didn’t discriminate Kong with the against her,” said husband, wife and humiliated by the wife and McCeary. two kids, for whom sexually assaulted by the “FR submitted she had worked for husband that what PN said more than a year. However, after a - tribunal report did not happen but he did not point to hearing in March any evidence that and in a 33-page contradicted her. decision issued He said they had no choice about the small this week by tribunal member Catherine space in which they lived and concluded McCreary, evidence was detailed that the that her real purpose in coming to Canada nanny, referred to as “PN,” was regularly was to run away.” humiliated by the wife and sexually But the evidence, according to assaulted by the husband, both in Hong Kong and in Richmond, when his wife was McCreary, did not support FR’s version of events. not around. “PN’s counsellor testified that she After six weeks of sleeping on a suffered symptoms consistent with post couch in the family’s two-bedroom hotel traumatic stress disorder,” added McCeary. suite, PN eventually fled to Downtown “She has nightmares and flashbacks still. Vancouver in August, 2013 in search She had to flee with nothing; not clothes, of help, before ending up at a women’s not money, not friends. She had to fend shelter for victims of human trafficking. for herself and was lucky enough to find The tribunal had earlier heard how PN, refuge in an institution for victims of a mother from the Philippines, was hired human trafficking. It is hard to imagine through an agency to work in the home of the couple in Hong Kong as a housekeeper. the bravery and determination that she required to overcome her treatment at the The family planned to move to Canada and PN came with them when they flew to hands of the respondents.” PN was awarded $50,000 in damages for Richmond to find a home. injury to dignity, feelings, and self-respect “PN was a virtual slave,” stated as well as $5,866.89 for lost wages. McCreary in her decision. “She could Staff Reporter acampbell@richmond-news.com
The Easter Bunny and his helpers from the Thompson Community Centre daycare are getting busy in preparation for the big day. Thompson, along with other community centres, London Heritage Farm and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery will all be having Easter egg hunts and celebrations over the weekend. See Page 11 for community centre listings. Photo by Philip Raphael/Richmond News
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