Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal in case of blacklisted Muslim pilot

OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal in a discrimination case involving aerospace giant Bombardier, a Muslim Canadian pilot of Pakistani extraction and the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal.

Javed Latif claims that Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) discriminated against him because the aeronautics company refused to provide him with flight training after U.S. authorities put him on a blacklist.

The tribunal ruled that Latif was denied U.S. flight training by the U.S. Department of Justice because of his ethnicity, and that Bombardier was complicit in discrimination because it used the ruling to deny Latif training in Canada.

Latif was awarded $300,000 and the tribunal ordered Bombardier to stop referring to American national security rulings in future decisions regarding flight training applicants.

The Quebec Court of Appeal threw out the tribunal ruling, calling it unreasonable.

As usual, the Supreme Court gave no reasons for its decision to hear the case.