Equal Opportunity Tribunal: Social media rants can inspire racial hatred

SOCIAL media rants can inspire animosity and racial hatred, said chairman and sole judge of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal Justice Donna Prowell-Raphael.

She was speaking in a prepared video message for a virtual panel Understanding and Reconciling Race Relations in TT organised by the University of the West Indies Faculty of Law and the Catholic Commission for Social Justice.

She said the tribunal has seen rants and tirades with racial overtures on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.

She explained the court’s jurisdiction extends to offensive behaviour, sounds and images, and if people make an offensive statement an injunction can be granted to prevent them from saying those things again.

She said the jurisdiction of the tribunal includes discrimination based on ethnicity, race, marital status, sex and religion. She pointed out a lot of the cases of racial discrimination originated from the workplace but the tribunal wanted people to know there jurisdiction covers education, accommodation and goods and services.

She said, for example, students have complained they were marked down or treated unfairly because of their race or because they were female. Prowell-Raphael said there were also some cases of offensive language coming before the tribunal.

“We want to let people know the court and the tribunal exists. You don’t have to be frustrated and throw up your hands.”

She said complaints can be made to the Equal Opportunity Commission for free and there is no need for a lawyer, though if the matter proceeds to the tribunal a lawyer may be necessary.

During the prayers at the start of the panel president of the TT Council of Evangelical Churches Reverend Desmond Austin said the spirit of racism pervades this land and asked for forgiveness.

“The hear of racism is in the hearts of men.”

Canon Richard Jacob representing the Anglican Church said as the country celebrated the 58th anniversary of Independence the symposium should be a means to chart a better way forward and for the country to live in the unity which God desires.

“We are one human race. The places we come from are important but this does not determine who we become.”