Stephen Hammond,Motivational Keynote Speaker
Stephen Hammond, Motivational Keynote speaker
 
Today is:  Thu, 09 - Sep, 2010: 
This day in 1953...
"Operation Snatch" takes Doukhobor children from their families  Read More...

In 1899, Russia decided to rid itself of the Doukhobors, a pacifist religious sect that refused to serve in the Russian Army. Many Doukhobors fled to Canada, where they set up a communal life in rural areas. Even there, however, their non-conformist ways and their refusal to abide by any laws except what thy defined as God's laws, worried the Canadian government and police. Half a century later, B.C.'s new Social Credit government and Premier W.A.C. Bennett initiated "Operation Snatch" to punish Doukhobors for refusing to send their children to public schools. Starting September 9, 1953, RCMP officers went into Doukhobor communities and took hundreds of children away from their families. For almost six years, until 1959, these children were kept in former Japanese internment camps, taught "normal" Christian ways and beaten if they spoke Russian - or if they cried from loneliness. Once the children returned to their families, the government reasoned, they would moderate their parents' lifestyle. Of course, it didn't work. A 1999 B.C. Ombudsman's report urged the government to start the process of reconciliation for the children who were by then in their 50s and 60s. While the government of British Columbia issued a statement of "regret" in the legislature in October 2004, it has not apologized. Some of the adult children who were apprehended years earlier have been looking for legal compensation for their wrong, but thus far have been unsuccessful. Their children have attended public schools for years and they have established heritage-language courses within the public system. Today there are between 30,000 and 40,000 Doukhobors in Canada.

Definition of Harassment

Harassment generally refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behaviour. However, because the term harassment is used in common English, there are plenty of times people use for behaviours that are more about “bugging” someone that truly “harassment”. Where the term harassment is defined by law, the law varies by jurisdiction, but in Canada, when referring to the definition of harassment based on human rights, our courts have been quite clear.

If we look at one of the most common forms of harassment (even today), it would be sexual harassment. In 1989 the Supreme Court of Canada put a definition to sexual harassment that still applies today. Their definition of sexual harassment is “...Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that detrimentally affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for the victims of harassment.” You can put in any other forms of human rights harassment, such as race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, and disability, and you end up with a similar result. Basically you need some form of inappropriate behaviour based on sex (or age, or colour, etc.) and then there has to be some consequences to the person feeling harassed.

If you don’t define the definition of harassment narrowly, that is, just by human rights characteristics, then the definition will include all kinds of behaviours. In these cases, harassment can be defined as any improper conduct by an individual, or towards an individual, which is unwelcome, offensive, demeaning, derogatory, is otherwise inappropriate or fails to respect the dignity of an individual. Harassment comprises any objectionable act, comment or display that demeans, belittles, or causes personal humiliation or embarrassment. Harassment is also defined as any act of intimidation or threat.

Criminal harassment gets into a whole other area defined in the Criminal Code.

Stephen Hammond’s book Managing human rights at work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters has one chapter dedicated to Harassment Headaches. For example, Tip #26 Sexual harassment isn’t just about sex, Tip #28 Harassment can take place without a complaint, Tip #30 No loopholes for third party harassment, Tip# 34 Harassment prevention is cheaper, Tip #41 Unaddressed harassment costs money and Tip #45 Harassment-free is not fun-free. Over 10,000 copies of this book have been purchased by managers and supervisors.

Stephen Hammond has developed web-based learning around the topic of harassment as part of his continuing education packages. These e-learning modules are in a PowerPoint, audio enabled format. While he has more than 20 modules available, the ones he has developed specifically on harassment include:

1. What is harassment?
2. What an employee can do to deal with harassment
3. No Harassment No Fun.
4. Is Gossip Harassment?
5. Canadian Case - Sexual Harassment in an Industrial Environment
6. Canadian Case - Harassment & Customers
7. Canadian Case - Sexual Harassment

Stephen Hammond gives examples of harassment (such as inappropriate jokes and bad behaviour) in Managing Human Rights Tip #28 - Some Pain, Lots of Gain where he says that speaking up at work will make a difference towards changing people’s behaviours around harassment. In his keynote speech: If You Want Respect, you'll have to ask for it: Encouraging people to stick out their necks to make real change, Stephen points out that it’s each of us who has to take control of what is being said and done in the workplace, even when it comes to harassment. 

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