Amber Gero, a CFRB reporter, has been the victim of hideous racial bigotry. She was called a F—— n—–! There is no disputing this as absolute fact. This isn’t a question of he said, she said. What was said was clear as a bell and is corroborated by a third party, Suzette Francis, a member of the CFRB newsroom, who happened to be on the phone with Ms Gero at the time of the verbal attack. Of course the employee is now denying it, which means that he is accusing Amber Gero and Suzette Francis both of being liars. Although it is reported that an independent investigator is looking into the alleged incident, there is nothing alleged about it.

How or why this happened really doesn’t matter. What matters is that an employee of the North Toronto Memorial Arena had the unmitigated gall, not to mention absolutely no common sense or judgment, to direct such a vile expression of racism at another human being. The question now is what will be done? And, who will do it? Although the City of Toronto owns the North Toronto Memorial Arena, they do not participate in the management. Therefore disciplinary action is not within their purview. That task will fall to the Board of Directors who manages the facility.

According to Toronto’s Human Rights and Harassment Policy, the City of Toronto will not tolerate, ignore, or condone any form of discrimination or harassment, and that discrimination and harassment are serious forms of employee misconduct which may result in disciplinary action up to and including discharge. Now is the time to see if these lofty ideals are merely words or if they actually have any meaning. The action that is taken will state clearly who we are as a society and define what behavior we will and won’t tolerate.