TORONTO – A Canadian woman who had been working for the Washington D.C. police department has filed a lawsuit against her former employer for harassment inflicted by a supervisor because of her nationality.
According to court documents filed on July 21, Laurie J. Samuel alleges her manager, Diane Haines Walton, made offensive remarks about her country of birth and made it difficult for her to advance within the police department.
Samuel, who is from Toronto, attended University of Toronto and has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years, was hired in 2006 as a Project Specialist in the Human Resources Management Division.
The lawsuit claims her supervisor remarked that she “talked white” which was not typical of an “African American.”
It further alleges that in conversations with Haines, she would often begin sentences with “here in America we…” and that the defendant sabotaged Samuel’s ability to extend her work permit so that she can remain within the U.S..
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Court documents reveal the work environment became “so unbearable” that in 2010, Samuel made her first of “numerous requests” to transfer to another department but was subsequently denied.
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She was “constructively dismissed” from her job in 2013.
Samuel’s lawyer told Global News they would “prefer not to make any comments on the lawsuit.”
The court documents states she moved to the U.S. in 1998 to attend graduate school where she completed a Master’s of Science in Criminal Justice and eventually received her Ph.D in Criminology.
In the lawsuit, Samuel is seeking back pay, lost compensation, punitive damages and court costs.
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