BC’s Human Rights Tribunal says a cherry company and its owner discriminated against a picker from Jamaica after she hurt her back at work.
The company is Krazy Cherry Fruit Company and the Tribunal ordered it and its owner to pay her $20,000, plus interest in August 2026 decision.
The Tribunal hears from people who say they were treated unfairly. That could be because of where they are from, or a disability.
The worker came to BC on June 27, 2022 as a temporary foreign worker.
She picked cherries and sorted them in a factory with a contract that was for four months.
Her work permit let her work only for this company.
In July 2022, her ladder slipped, and she fell, hurting her back, from which she still hasn’t recovered.
The Tribunal found the company owner got angry because she could not work and told her, “You Jamaican girls don’t want to work!”
He said Jamaicans only come to Canada for free medical care and called her stupid for falling off the ladder.
He had also told her and other workers that Jamaican women are ugly.
On one drive to the hospital, he complained about the cost of her plane ticket.
Then he left her there with no way home.
At some point, he took her passport details.
He bought her a flight back to Jamaica, though she did not want to go.
She got off the plane in Toronto and has stayed in Ontario since.
The company and the owner did not answer the complaint.
They also did not show up to the video hearing on August 5, 2026.
So nobody argued against her story.
Vice Chair Devyn Cousineau found she told the truth as best she could.
The Tribunal found the owner’s words put her down for being from Jamaica and for being hurt.
It found that he ended her job because of her injury and did not look for other work she could do.
That broke BC’s Human Rights Code, the law against unfair treatment.
The Tribunal said workers tied to one boss have very little power. They relied on the company for their job, their home and their right to stay in Canada.
She told the hearing she felt she had failed her family.
The Tribunal wrote that she “did not fail.”
“She was injured at work and discriminated against,” it said.
The decision does not say if the money has been paid.
